Participate | Health Professionals: Join the Asylum Network

Volunteer your skills to help asylum seekers

More than 2,000 health professionals across the United States are members of the PHR Asylum Network. Join their ranks today.

  • Apply! Fill out the application form. You will receive a welcome email once your application has been processed.
  • Attend an Asylum Training. PHR requires asylum volunteers to receive training before taking cases. View upcoming training opportunities.
  • You’re officially an Asylum Network member! PHR will email you with potential cases; once you accept a case, the case attorney will contact you to schedule an evaluation.

PHR Process for Matching Clinicians with Asylum Cases

  • Joining the Network: Medical professionals sign up to be volunteer evaluators through PHR (or an affiliated PHR clinic).
  • Volunteer Outreach: PHR emails local case options to volunteer evaluators regularly. Evaluators reply with their interest in a case.
  • Case Placement: PHR confirms evaluator case placement, and provides attorney with evaluator contact information.
  • Scheduling: The asylum client’s attorney contacts the volunteer evaluator to schedule an evaluation for the asylum client.
  • Evaluation: The evaluation occurs at a location convenient for the volunteer evaluator: the volunteer’s office or – if the client is detained – at the detention center.
  • Affidavit (testimony possible): The volunteer evaluator writes up the evidence gathered in the form of an affidavit for use during the asylum trial. Oral testimony is sometimes requested.
  • Asylum Case Outcome: The attorney submits an outcome report to PHR, and the outcome is then shared with the volunteer evaluator.

Get Updates from PHR