4 Ways To Avoid A Draft - WikiHow

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1 Judge the chances of your case. It is hard to obtain refugee status to evade a draft. International law is not clear on the matter – refugees from military service are not included in the Geneva conventions nor necessarily excluded. Rather, your case depends in part on your civil and legal status at home. Talk with a lawyer over the merits of your case, if you can, before taking the uncertain step of applying for refugee status.
- The UN considers there to be five situations when refugee status is appropriate: if the punishment for objecting from conscience amounts to “persecution”; if you have objected to military acts that are atrocities or violate standards of international law; if you object to military service in conditions that amount to torture or inhumane treatment; if you are fleeing recruitment by a non-state group and the state is unable to protect you; or if you are a child resisting illegal recruitment.[4]
2 Choose a refuge country carefully. If you decide to pursue a refugee claim, be very careful with your choice of host country. You should file as a refugee in a country that will not send you back to your home country. For instance, the days of safely crossing the border to Canada as a US military objector are long over. While the legal landscape is not entirely clear, deserters and others can be arrested and deported to face trial under the terms of the current extradition treaty.[5] Countries that don’t often deport US citizens include Ecuador, Russia, and Venezuela.[6]
3 Make an application. The next step is to file a formal application seeking protection as a refugee. If you are outside of your target country, you will probably file as a refugee to the closest at the nearest embassy or consulate; if you are already inside the country or at a port of entry, you will apply as an asylum seeker. As part of your application you will also have to present proof of your claims of persecution.[7] X Research source
- Make sure to consult an attorney at this stage, if possible. She can guide you through the sometimes complicated legal forms.
- Keep in mind that the approval process will be lengthy. In Canada, for example, wait times can be as long as 36 months.[8]
- You may not be able to work for part of this time, if you are allowed entry. In the United States, asylum applicants must wait 150 days before they can apply for work-status.[9]