The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), located in Falls Church, VA, reviews decisions of the U.S. Immigration Courts across the country. These decisions serve as precedent for Immigration Judges and serve as the basis for the policies of USCIS in adjudicating applications for immigration benefits and making decisions on whether to place a non-citizen in removal (deportation) proceedings. For these reasons, the BIA decisions are essential to Immigration practitioners (and non-citizens, as well as people who care about them!), as they provide not only interpretations of the immigration law in real cases, but also insights into how particular issues may be resolved in the future.

In our BIA Blog, we seek to highlight and review precent cases of the BIA which are relevant to the different kinds of cases that we handle - and thus the status or the benefits which we generally seek for our clients.

INA = the Immigration and Nationality Act

CFR = Code of Federal Regulations

Matter of T-M-H- and S-W-C-, 25 I&N Dec. 193 (BIA 2010):

An alien does not automatically receive a 1-year extension in which to file an asylum application following “changed circumstances” under section 208(a)(2)(D) of the INA.

(2) Under 8 C.F.R. § 1208.4(a)(4)(ii) (2010), the particular circumstances related to delays in filing an asylum application must be evaluated to determine whether the application was filed “within a reasonable period given those ‘changed circumstances.’”

Matter of MORALES, 25 I&N Dec. 186 (BIA 2010):

A stepparent who qualifies as a “parent” under section 101(b)(2) of the INA at the time of the proceedings is a qualifying relative for purposes of establishing exceptional and extremely unusual hardship for cancellation of removal under section 240A(b)(1)(D) of the Act.

Matter of ROSE, 25 I&N Dec. 181 (BIA 2010):

A conditional permanent resident under section 216(a) of the INA, who is seeking to remove the conditional basis of that status and who has timely filed the petition and appeared for the interview does not need to file a separate section 216(c)(4) hardship waiver if the petitioning spouse died during the 2-year conditional period.