FILED
NOT FOR PUBLICATION
FEB 18 2016
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
JINHUA HAN, No. 13-70588
Petitioner, Agency No. A096-344-414
v.
MEMORANDUM*
LORETTA E. LYNCH, Attorney General,
Respondent.
On Petition for Review of an Order of the
Board of Immigration Appeals
Argued and Submitted February 9, 2016
Pasadena, California
Before: FARRIS, CLIFTON, and BEA, Circuit Judges.
Jinhua Han, a native and citizen of China, petitions for review of the Board
of Immigration Appeals’ decision dismissing her appeal from an immigration
judge’s denial of her application for asylum.
The immigration judge’s adverse credibility determination, entered in the
course of proceedings on Han’s asylum application, is not supported by substantial
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
evidence. Under Yeimane-Berhe v. Ashcroft, 393 F.3d 907 (9th Cir. 2004), the
submission of a fraudulent document cannot serve as the sole basis for an adverse
credibility determination without a finding, or at least an indication, that the
petitioner knew or should have known that the document was fraudulent. Id. at
911; see also Khadka v. Holder, 618 F.3d 996, 1001 (9th Cir. 2010). There has
been no finding, and there is no indication in the record, that Han knew or should
have known that her resident identification card was fraudulent. Her submission of
that counterfeit document, on its own, cannot sustain an adverse credibility
determination. See Yeimane-Berhe, 393 F.3d at 911.
We therefore grant Han’s petition for review and remand the case to the
Board of Immigration Appeals for reconsideration on an open record.
PETITION GRANTED; REMANDED.
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