The one-year asylum filing deadline and its exceptions

Yes, there is a deadline. An asylum application generally has to be filed within 1 year after you arrive in the United States, and you have to prove by clear and convincing evidence that you filed on time.⁠^[1] The law makes exceptions for changed circumstances and extraordinary circumstances, and the rule does not apply to unaccompanied children.⁠^[3][6] If you are close to the one-year mark or past it, get advice now rather than later.

How the year is counted

The regulation sets out the details. The one-year period is calculated from the date of your last arrival in the United States, or April 1, 1997, whichever is later. If the last day of the period falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, the period runs until the end of the next day that is not a weekend or holiday.⁠^[2]

Two points follow from that wording:

• It is your last arrival that counts. If you have entered the United States more than once, the clock runs from the most recent entry.⁠^[2]
• You carry the burden. You have to prove timely filing by clear and convincing evidence, or prove that an exception applies.⁠^[2] Keep your I-94 record, passport stamps, tickets, and anything else that shows when you arrived.

USCIS states the same rule for affirmative applicants: apply within 1 year of the date of your last arrival, unless an exception applies and you filed within a reasonable time given those circumstances.⁠^[10]

Exception 1: changed circumstances

A late application may be considered if circumstances have changed in a way that materially affects your eligibility for asylum.⁠^[3] The regulation gives examples:

• Changes in conditions in your country of nationality (or, if you are stateless, your country of last habitual residence).⁠^[11]
• Changes in your own circumstances that materially affect your eligibility, including changes in U.S. law and activities you became involved in outside your home country that put you at risk.⁠^[11]
• If you were a dependent on someone else's pending asylum application, losing that relationship through marriage, divorce, death or turning 21.⁠^[11]

Even then, you have to file within a reasonable period after the change. If you did not learn about the change until after it happened, that delay in learning is taken into account.⁠^[4]

Exception 2: extraordinary circumstances

Extraordinary circumstances are events or factors directly related to missing the deadline. They can excuse a late filing if you filed within a reasonable period given those circumstances. You have to show that you did not create the circumstances on purpose, that they were directly related to the late filing, and that the delay was reasonable.⁠^[5] The regulation's examples include:

• Serious illness or mental or physical disability during the first year, including effects of persecution or violent harm suffered in the past.⁠^[12]
• Legal disability during the first year, for example being an unaccompanied minor or having a mental impairment.⁠^[12]
• Ineffective assistance of a prior lawyer, with specific steps required, including an affidavit and notice to that lawyer.⁠^[12]
• Holding Temporary Protected Status, lawful immigrant or nonimmigrant status, or parole until a reasonable period before filing.⁠^[12]
• A timely application that was rejected as not properly filed, returned for corrections, and refiled within a reasonable period.⁠^[12]
• The death, serious illness or incapacity of your legal representative or an immediate family member.⁠^[12]

The list is not complete, but every exception is decided on its facts, and the "reasonable period" is not a fixed number of days.⁠^[5]

Who the rule does not cover

Unaccompanied children. The one-year rule does not apply to an unaccompanied alien child as defined in federal law.⁠^[6]

Withholding of removal. The regulation says the filing prohibitions apply only to asylum applications and not to applications for withholding of removal.⁠^[7] Withholding is a different protection with its own standard: you must show it is more likely than not that you would be persecuted on a protected ground.⁠^[13] Asylum, withholding of removal and Convention Against Torture protection compared explains how the three differ.

Other limits to know about

The one-year rule is not the only filing limit. A person who previously applied for asylum and was denied generally cannot apply again, subject to the same changed or extraordinary circumstances exception.⁠^[14] Even a timely application can be barred, for example for persecuting others, for a conviction of a particularly serious crime, or for firm resettlement in another country before arriving.⁠^[15]

Fees have changed too. USCIS says Public Law 119-21 requires the principal applicant with a pending Form I-589 to pay an Annual Asylum Fee for each year the application is pending, that this fee cannot be waived, and that USCIS sends a notice with the amount.⁠^[8] Check the Form I-589 page and the fee schedule before you file.

Asylum rules change often and are frequently the subject of court orders. As of November 11, 2026, USCIS's asylum page carried an alert that a federal court judgment of June 3, 2026, made final the vacatur of the Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule, that USCIS stopped applying the rule, and that the government appealed on July 31, 2026.⁠^[9] Read the official pages on the day you file.

What to do now

1. Work out your date. Find the date of your last arrival and count one year forward.⁠^[2]
2. Gather proof of arrival and of anything that could support an exception: medical records, proof of status or parole, records of changed country conditions.
3. Know which process you are in. If you are not in removal proceedings, you file with USCIS; if you are, the immigration judge decides your application.⁠^[16][17] Affirmative or defensive asylum explains the difference.
4. Get advice before the year ends, or as soon as possible if it already has. Joya Law Firm's asylum and deportation defense page describes its asylum work, and free and low-cost immigration legal help lists non-profit options.

If you already have a court date, the defensive asylum page covers asylum in immigration court.