When was Rahmanullah Lakanwal granted asylum on us?

1. What the reporting says, plainly and with dates

News organizations including Reuters, CNN, The Guardian and others cite government files and law enforcement sources saying Lakanwal applied for asylum in December 2024 and was approved on April 23, 2025 (or more generally “April 2025”) ^{[1] [2] [3] [5]}. Multiple outlet summaries repeat those same dates: applied December 2024, granted in April 2025 ^{[6] [7] [8]}.

2. How outlets source that timeline

Reuters says the April 23 approval appears in a U.S. government file it reviewed and explicitly states the application was made in December 2024 and approved April 23, 2025 ^[1]. Other outlets — CNN, Newsweek, ABC, BBC and Forbes among them — attribute the same timeline to law enforcement or government officials and to earlier reporting by Reuters or by unnamed officials ^{[3] [6] [7] [8] [4]}.

3. Consistent facts beyond the asylum dates

Reporting also consistently places Lakanwal’s initial arrival in September 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome (the Biden-era resettlement/parole program for Afghan partners), and notes he later applied for asylum while living in the U.S. ^{[2] [4] [8]}. Several outlets add that U.S. intelligence and law enforcement reviewed him because of past work with U.S.-backed Afghan units and that vetting records “found no potentially disqualifying information” according to a government file ^{[1] [8]}.

4. Where accounts diverge or leave gaps

Most sources repeat the December 2024 application and April 2025 approval, but they rely on a mix of a government file, anonymous officials and secondary reporting; specifics about the legal pathway (e.g., whether approval was through affirmative asylum, an immigration court grant, or an administrative decision) are not uniformly described in available coverage ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Available sources do not mention detailed court records or a definitive public statement from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services explicitly detailing the procedural mechanism and exact date beyond the cited April 23 reference in the government file ^{[1] [2]}.

5. How political actors have used the dates

Political actors have seized on the timeline. The Trump administration publicly blamed earlier vetting and immigration policies and ordered reviews of asylum cases, while some critics note that the approval happened during the Trump administration — a point used by outlets and officials to challenge political framing that blamed only prior administrations ^{[1] [5] [9]}. Reporting shows both narratives being advanced: that Lakanwal came under a Biden-era evacuation program and that his asylum decision was approved in April 2025 under Trump ^{[2] [5]}.

6. Corroboration across outlets — strengths and limits

The strength of the reporting is the close agreement on the December 2024 application and April 2025 approval across Reuters, CNN, BBC, The Guardian and other mainstream outlets — many of which cite government files or law enforcement sources ^{[1] [3] [8] [5]}. The limitation is that much of the account rests on an internal government file and anonymous officials; publicly available immigration adjudication documents or a formal USCIS announcement are not cited in these pieces, and specifics of the adjudicative process are not reported in detail ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

7. What reporters are careful to say (and not say)

Reporters repeatedly note Lakanwal’s 2021 arrival under Operation Allies Welcome and that his asylum application was filed in late 2024 and approved in April 2025, but they also report that agencies said vetting had been done and “no potentially disqualifying information had been found” in the government file — an explicit government claim about vetting status in the same documents that list the asylum approval ^{[1] [8]}. Available sources do not, however, provide full public disclosure of the adjudicatory record or all supporting documents underlying that vetting claim ^[1].

8. Bottom line for your original question

Based on multiple news organizations citing a government file and law enforcement sources, Rahmanullah Lakanwal applied for asylum in December 2024 and his asylum was approved in April 2025 (with several outlets citing April 23, 2025) ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Available sources do not provide full immigration-file copies or a detailed USCIS procedural record beyond those reports ^{[1] [2]}.