In Re K,P, BIA, December 2014

An interesting decision we just received from the BIA. The decision addresses legal requirement of filing of an asylum application within the applicant’s first year of the last arrival in the USA and also clarifies the extent of mistreatment to constitute persecution. The Board agreed with the applicants’ argument that the mistreatment he was subjected to in Belarus did amount to persecution, thus overruling the holding by the Immigration Judge. The BIA disagreed with the applicant that debilitating treatment by the Belarus government of his similarly situated friend, which sparked the applicant’s fear of returning to Belarus several years after his arrival in the USA, and the temporary loss of memory by the friend, which resulted directly form that mistreatment, was not sufficient exceptional circumstance to excuse late filing of the asylum application by the applicant. One of the BIA members dissented from the majority opinion and agreed with the applicant that his circumstances did amount to exceptional and warranted waiver of the one-year filing requirement.