Can an F-1 student out of status apply for asylum in the US?

If you came to the U.S. as a student, and fear returning to your home country, you may be able to apply for asylum -- despite now being out of status. There are two factors to consider:

• whether you have already missed the one-year deadline for filing an affirmative application for asylum, and 
• whether your circumstances do, in fact, make you eligible for a grant of asylum in the United States. 

In order to apply for asylum, you are expected to apply within one year of arriving in the United States. The policy of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (to which you will be expected to submit your asylum application) is to not count any of the time during which you were in lawful status (such as under a student visa) toward that one-year deadline. So if you have been out of status for less than a year, you should be able to apply.

If you have been out of status for more than a year, you may still qualify for an exception if you can demonstrate good reasons for not applying, such as a change in your home country's situation since you left, or

For more information, see "U.S. Asylum or Refugee Status."