If your affirmative asylum interview notice says Newark, this page is for you. So is the case if you live in Manhattan or the Bronx — despite the name, those two boroughs are served by Newark, not by the New York Asylum Office in Bethpage, and your interview may be held at Newark’s Manhattan branch on Varick Street.
The one thing that catches people out more than any other: USCIS will not give you an interpreter. You have to bring your own.
We are interpreters, not attorneys. Nothing here is legal advice. What follows is procedure, drawn from USCIS’s published guidance.
The two addresses
Newark Asylum Office
Gateway 3, 100 Mulberry Street, Suite 199
Newark, NJ 07102
Phone: 973-848-3100 · Fax: 973-848-3101
Newark Asylum Office — Manhattan Branch
201 Varick Street, Sixth Floor, Suite 629
New York, NY 10014
Same phone and email as Newark.
Your interview notice tells you which one. Do not assume. People who live in Manhattan sometimes get sent to Newark, and people who live in New Jersey are occasionally scheduled in Manhattan.
You may see a Lyndhurst, New Jersey address for Newark interviews on some law firm websites. USCIS publishes Mulberry Street. Go by your notice, not by a blog — including this one.
Finding the door at Newark
This trips people up, so it is worth spelling out. USCIS’s own guidance: enter the asylum office at the first-floor entrance, Suite 199, underneath the escalator. Once through security, you will be directed to an elevator up to the 16th or 17th floor for your interview.
By train: NJ Transit and Amtrak run to Newark Penn Station, and PATH runs from Manhattan. From Newark Penn Station on foot — head southwest on Raymond Plaza West toward Market Street, right onto Market Street, right onto Mulberry Street. The building is on your right. It is a short walk.
By car from NYC: I-78 West / Holland Tunnel to NJ-139 West in Jersey City, then US-1/9 South to NJ-21 North in Newark. Left onto Lafayette Street, right onto Mulberry Street.
From the New Jersey Turnpike: Exit 15 West, I-280 West to Exit 15, Route 21 South, right onto Center Street, left onto Mulberry Street.
Parking: paid lots nearby and some street parking, but it is limited and USCIS actively encourages public transport. Take the train if you can.
Finding the door at Varick Street
Subway: Houston Street (1), Spring Street (A, C, E), West 4th Street (A, B, C, D, E, F, M), or Christopher Street on the PATH.
Bus: M20 at Hudson/West Houston, M21 at West Houston/Varick.
Parking: metered on Varick and Hudson, plus garages on Hudson Street — expect roughly $16 to $22 per hour, with day rates around $25 to $31. The train is cheaper and faster.
Who Newark actually serves
The Newark Asylum Office covers Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and much of New York State.
For New York, that includes the Bronx and New York County (Manhattan) — along with Albany, Broome, Erie, Monroe, Onondaga and dozens more counties upstate. It does not include Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Nassau or Suffolk, which belong to Bethpage.
→ Guide to the New York Asylum Office in Bethpage
There is also a third location USCIS does not list as an asylum office at all — the Queens Field Office in Long Island City, where affirmative asylum interviews are in fact conducted. → Long Island City asylum interviews
Two important operational notes:
Since 20 April 2026, the Newark office no longer provides in-person information services and does not accept walk-ins. You cannot turn up to ask a question.
Since 18 May 2026, USCIS no longer permits attorneys and accredited representatives to participate remotely in affirmative asylum interviews, except in limited circumstances. Your lawyer has to be physically in the room. If your representative was planning to appear by phone or video, that arrangement no longer works — check with them well before your date.
USCIS will not provide your interpreter
Since 13 September 2023, USCIS has not supplied interpreters for affirmative asylum interviews. If you cannot proceed in English, you must bring a competent interpreter, at no expense to USCIS.
The only exception is sign language, which USCIS still provides as a disability accommodation. Follow the instructions on your interview notice to request it.
Your interpreter must
- be fluent in English and a language you speak fluently, and
- be at least 18 years old.
Your interpreter cannot be
- your attorney or accredited representative;
- a witness testifying on your behalf;
- a representative or employee of the government of your country of nationality (or of last habitual residence, if you are stateless); or
- someone with a pending asylum application who has not yet been interviewed.
That last rule quietly disqualifies the person most applicants think of first — the friend who filed last year, speaks the language, and knows the process. They are barred, regardless of how well they would do the job.
What it costs to get this wrong
USCIS states it plainly. If you need an interpreter and do not bring one, or your interpreter is not fluent in English and your language, and you cannot establish good cause, USCIS may treat it as a failure to appear. They may then dismiss your asylum application or refer it to an immigration judge.
And there is a second cost. A cancelled interview counts as a delay you caused. USCIS states that where there are outstanding applicant-caused delays, they will deny your Form I-765 — your employment authorisation.
So this is not really a question about interpreting. It is a question about whether you keep your interview date, your application, and your right to work.
Someone is listening to your interpreter
USCIS does not provide your interpreter, but it does put contract interpreters on the line to monitor asylum interviews by telephone. Their job is to listen to yours. USCIS says they may be expected to occasionally interject if your interpreter fails to provide adequate, accurate, and neutral interpretation.
Adequate, accurate, and neutral. A relative who wants you to be safe is not neutral, and a trained monitor hears it in the first ten minutes — the softening, the summarising, the small helpful additions that were never in your answer.
The officer can also deny permission for your interpreter to participate, and both you and your interpreter will be placed under oath at the start.
On the day — plan for all of it
USCIS says the interview generally lasts at least an hour, often longer. That is the interview alone.
What it leaves out is the wait. You arrive, clear security, and then sit until you are called — and in our experience at these interviews that alone can run to an hour and a half. Add the interview, add travel at both ends, and three to four hours is a normal day. At Newark, factor in the walk from Penn Station and the elevators up to the 16th or 17th floor as well.
Do not schedule anything afterwards. No work, no pickup, no second appointment. People who book something for the afternoon spend the most important conversation of their case watching the clock.
It is also the honest answer to why an interpreter costs what it costs. You are not buying an hour of talking — you are holding a professional for most of a day, waiting included, during which they cannot take other work.
You swear to tell the truth; your interpreter swears to interpret faithfully. The officer verifies your identity, asks background questions, then works through your claim and any bars to it. No decision is issued at the interview.
Your information is confidential, subject to the limited exceptions at 8 CFR 208.6.
Bring: passports and identity or travel documents, Form I-94 if you have one, originals of the certificates you filed with your Form I-589, a copy of the I-589 and everything submitted with it, any new evidence, certified English translations of anything not in English, your interpreter, and any spouse or children under 21 included as derivatives.
Note on evidence: the Newark office asks that additional evidence be submitted in duplicate, with certified English translations, and two-hole punched along the top, centred, 2¾ inches apart. Binder clips are fine; side binding and commercial binding are not. It sounds fussy — it is genuinely how they want it.
Booking an interpreter for a Newark or Varick Street interview
We are Verbatim Interpreting LLC, run by Ozzie Cruz, a NAJIT member interpreting in New York since 1998. We dispatch in more than 40 languages and cover the five boroughs, Nassau and Suffolk, New Jersey and Connecticut — which means both Newark and the Manhattan branch are inside our regular coverage, and so is the Connecticut half of Newark’s jurisdiction.
We interpret to the standard the monitor is listening for: complete, literal, neutral. Everything you say, and only what you say.
- Call (718) 496-9129 or email inquiries@interpret.agency — seven days a week, 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM.
- Give us the language, the date and time on your notice, and which office.
- Payment in full holds the date. The final fee depends on location, time and case type.
- We confirm in writing and arrive early.
Book as soon as your notice arrives.
Book an interpreter for your asylum interview →
Most of this work is in Spanish, but we cover more than 40 languages including Mandarin, Cantonese, Russian, Haitian Creole, Arabic, Wolof, Punjabi and Uzbek. See our full asylum interpreting services.
¿Su entrevista de asilo es en Newark o en Varick Street? Llámenos al (718) 496-9129. Hablamos español.
Common questions
I live in Manhattan. Why is my interview in New Jersey?
Manhattan and the Bronx fall under the Newark Asylum Office. Newark runs a Manhattan branch on Varick Street, so you may be scheduled there instead — your notice decides.
Can my lawyer attend by video?
Not any more. Since 18 May 2026 attorneys and accredited representatives must attend affirmative asylum interviews in person, except in limited circumstances.
Can my lawyer interpret for me?
No. Your attorney or accredited representative is expressly barred from interpreting. They attend as your representative once Form G-28 is filed.
Can a friend or family member interpret?
If they are 18 or over, fluent in both languages, and not in one of the four barred categories, they are permitted. Whether it is a good idea is another matter — a USCIS monitor is listening, the officer can remove them, and inadequate interpretation can be treated as a failure to appear.
Does USCIS provide a phone interpreter?
Not for spoken languages. That was a temporary COVID-era rule that ended 12 September 2023. The contract interpreters USCIS uses today only monitor yours.
Can I visit the office beforehand with a question?
No. Since 20 April 2026 Newark takes no walk-ins and provides no in-person information services. Use the USCIS Contact Center on 800-375-5283.
Sources: USCIS — Asylum Office, Newark · USCIS — Newark, Manhattan Branch · USCIS — Preparing for Your Affirmative Asylum Interview · USCIS — Affirmative Asylum Applicants Must Provide Interpreters · 8 CFR 208.9(g), 8 CFR 208.6. Last checked 18 August 2026.