First, please take a look at the instructions for filling out your asylum application. Go to www.uscis.gov, look for ‘Forms’ on the menu, and then scroll down to I-589. There are separate PDF files for the application and the instructions.
The first half of the application is biographical information. Be complete. If there aren’t enough lines for all your schools or all your addresses, attach a separate sheet. Or go to the supplemental sheet provided at the very end of the application.
The second half provides the real meat of your case. WHY are you afraid of returning to your home country? First of all you must choose the basis of your claim, and the choices are: race; religion; nationality; political opinion; membership in a particular social group; Torture Convention. You need to figure out which box or boxes pertain to your case. You are not limited to one.
Some attorneys recommend always checking Torture Convention. Know that it is a difficult standard to meet and is usually checked by those who are not eligible for asylum, either because they are applying past the one year deadline or because they have a criminal background. The U.S. is a signatory to a treaty in which the promise is not to send foreign nationals back to a country where it is more likely than not that they will be tortured. (We will avoid a discussion of Guantanamo!) Torture rising from lawful sanctions does not count. Compare this standard to that for asylum: a credible and well-founded fear that a reasonable person in the same circumstances would fear persecution.
Not marking the appropriate box can doom your case, so think carefully.