I used false information to obtain B-2 tourist visa and applied for asylum after I entered the US. What are my chances?

Prior to every asylum interview, the USCIS asylum office obtains from the consulate copies of all your visa applications. The asylum officer will review the forms and information you provided during the consular process and compare it to the information you provided in the asylum application. If there are any inconsistencies or contradictions, the asylum officer during your asylum interview, must ask you questions about your visa application and give you a chance to explain.

If the asylum officer is satisfied that you had provided false information in your visa application because you had no other ways to escape the risk of harm or to avoid persecution in your home country, then USCIS will not likely deny your asylum case for this reason. According to the USCIS Asylum Officer’s Manual, the officers are instructed to not deny asylum applications solely based on the false information provided by the applicant during the consulate visa application or for gaining entry into the US.  The officer is instructed to ask questions and to determine if the applicant lacks credibility. The key is to make sure to tell the truth when asked about the visa application. If you lied during your visa application, not everything is lost, and you may have an explanation. But if you continue lying at the interview, your asylum application will certainly be denied.  In other words, when the officer asks you questions at the interview, you must come clean, give truthful information and honestly answer all questions at the asylum interview.

If you truthfully answer all questions at the asylum interview, your previous misrepresentations to the consulate, may be forgiven and become irrelevant.  But your misrepresentations at the asylum interview or at the individual hearing will not be forgiven.  The logic behind this is that, providing false information to flee the country due a risk of immediate harm, may be understandable. But providing false information to obtain asylum is not justifiable.