Federal Agency Decisions
Federal workers' compensation appeals from the Department of Labor's Employees' Compensation Appeals Board (ECAB), federal-sector labor-relations cases from the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), Longshore Act and Black Lung Benefits Act appeals from the Department of Labor's Benefits Review Board (BRB), precedent decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), environmental permit and penalty appeals from the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board (EAB), and whistleblower and other labor appeals from the Department of Labor's Administrative Review Board (ARB), each with a plain-English summary, the law it cites, and whether it counts as precedent. More agencies are coming.
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Matter of Steele
Deportation order upheld under historical exclusion rule
The Board upheld a Canadian man's deportation under a historical exclusion rule that classified homosexuality as a ground for exclusion at entry. It relied on his statement about conduct before his 1952 admission and said it did not rely on conduct after entry. The Board rejected his challenge to…
Matter of Whitehurst
Visa petition approved after U.S. divorce
A U.S. citizen petitioned for visa status for his wife, whom he married in the Philippines. Her prior husband, also a U.S. citizen, had obtained a divorce in South Carolina. The Board found that the prior divorce did not defeat the validity of the later marriage for immigration purposes. It relied…
Matter of Haller
Deportation order upheld after fraud convictions
A German citizen was ordered deported after convictions for issuing a fraudulent check and for federal fraud offenses. The Board held that both convictions involved moral turpitude. A sentencing judge had recommended against deportation, but the recommendation was ineffective because the required…
Matter of Li
Burden of proof provision cannot itself support deportation
A crewman contested an order to deport him after he entered the United States despite being refused permission to land. The Board held that his landing records and admitted entry supported deportability under section 241(a)(2). It also held that section 291 sets a burden of proof, but does not…
Matter of Jue
Adopted son's visa petition approved
A naturalized U.S. citizen sought immediate relative status for a son she adopted in China as an infant. The district director denied the petition because Chinese law required married spouses to adopt jointly, and her husband had not joined the original adoption. The Board found that the husband…
Matter of Wong
Short visits did not break continuous presence
A Chinese national sought suspension of deportation after entering the United States without inspection and making several short trips to visit his family in Canada. He had falsely claimed U.S. citizenship on each return. The special inquiry officer found that these trips interrupted the continuous…
Matter of Aircraft "VT-DJK"
Matter of Aircraft VT-DJK (BIA ID 1744, 1967): airline fine upheld for passenger without visa
Air-India brought a British passenger to New York without a visa and presented him for inspection as a business visitor. The airline argued that its transit agreement covered him and that his urgent travel justified remission of the fine. The Board held that the agreement did not apply because the…
Matter of Monma
Family register alone did not establish legal parentage
A naturalized U.S. citizen petitioned for immediate relative status for a man identified as her father in a Japanese family register. The Board found that her parents had never married. It concluded that Japanese law required marriage, acknowledgment of parentage, and official registration to…
Matter of Wu
Vocational counselor qualifies for professional preference
A visa petition sought third preference classification for a vocational rehabilitation counselor as a member of the professions. The beneficiary held a master's degree in education with a major in counseling and guidance and had worked as a counselor. The District Director found that her accredited…
Matter of Zapletalova
Upbringing by relatives did not establish legal adoption
A naturalized U.S. citizen petitioned for a visa preference for a woman he considered his sister. After his mother's death, her parents, his aunt and uncle, had raised him with their own children. The Board found that adoption in Czechoslovakia at the relevant time required a local court…
Matter of Bufalino
Motion to reopen deportation case denied
A man moved to reopen his deportation case after Supreme Court decisions on entry, proof of deportability, and relief based on family ties. The Board held that his false claim of citizenship on return from travel abroad still counted as an entry. It found his admitted failure to report his address…
Matter of Muslemi
Planned permanent stay defeated adjustment request
An Iranian citizen entered the United States as a temporary visitor while planning to marry a U.S. citizen and stay permanently. He withheld that plan when applying for his visitor visa, then married after his partner's divorce and sought adjustment to permanent resident status. A special inquiry…
Matter of Kurtin
Spouse visa petition approved after Yugoslav divorce
A U.S. citizen petitioned for immediate relative status for his wife, whose earlier marriage had ended in a Yugoslav divorce while both spouses lived abroad. The district director questioned whether California would recognize that divorce. The Board found that Yugoslavia had a basis to hear the…
Matter of McClendon
Demerol conviction supports deportation order
A Jamaican lawful permanent resident had pleaded guilty in New York to obtaining Demerol by fraud. A special inquiry officer ordered her deported and certified the case to the Board. She argued that no laboratory test established the drug's identity and that she had obtained it for personal use…
Matter of Fujii
Adoption did not erase sibling relationship for visa preference
A U.S. citizen petitioned for fifth preference visa classification for her brother, a Japanese citizen. He had been adopted by a relative as a young child, but the siblings had the same natural parents and he had continued to live with them. The adoption was later dissolved under Japanese law…
Matter of Mascorro-Perales
Earlier waiver does not erase theft conviction
A Mexican permanent resident received a waiver of exclusion tied to a 1959 theft conviction. He was later convicted in California of a second crime that the Board treated as involving moral turpitude. A special inquiry officer ended the new deportation case because the earlier conviction had been…
Matter of Newton
Canadian citizenship retention supports deportability finding
A person born in the United States also had Canadian citizenship through his father. He applied to retain Canadian citizenship, then entered the United States without an immigrant visa. A special inquiry officer found that he had lost United States citizenship under the law then applied and was…
Matter of Alfonso-Bermudez
Two disorderly conduct convictions support deportability
A Cuban permanent resident was convicted under California and Phoenix laws after separate incidents involving public lewd conduct. A special inquiry officer found him deportable for two crimes involving moral turpitude but withheld deportation to Cuba. The Board agreed that both convictions…
Matter of Kojoory
Suspension and withholding requests denied
An Iranian student remained in the United States after his authorized stay expired. He sought suspension of deportation based on hardship and withholding of deportation based on his public opposition to the Shah of Iran. The Board found no extreme hardship from his employment prospects, change in…
Matter of Salvador-Fuentes
Illinois remarriage valid despite Mexican divorce restriction
A lawful permanent resident sought visa preference status for his wife after they remarried in Illinois. His Mexican divorce decree from a prior marriage barred remarriage for one year, and the Illinois ceremony took place within that year. The District Director denied the petition on the view that…
Matter of Tonga
Permanent residence request denied after visitor visa entry
A man from Tonga entered the United States on a visitor visa and later sought permanent resident status. He had a United States citizen child and brother, and his wife and another child had joined him as visitors. The Board found that he had intended to remain permanently when he applied for the…
Matter of Turcotte
Voluntary departure upheld despite a criminal conviction
A Canadian visitor was found deportable after a municipal conviction related to prostitution. The immigration officer granted her voluntary departure, and the Service appealed. The Board explained that a single petty offense did not automatically bar a showing of good moral character, but the same…
Matter of Adamska
Refugee classification approved for Polish applicant
A Polish woman who had worked at the United States Embassy in Warsaw sought refugee classification after entering the United States as a visitor. She described surveillance, difficulty finding work and housing, and repeated pressure to join a Communist youth organization. The District Director…
Matter of Lauer
Paternity acknowledgment did not legitimate child under German law
A lawful permanent resident petitioned for preference quota status for his son, who was born out of wedlock in Germany. The father had acknowledged paternity before a German court in 1950. The Board held that acknowledgment alone did not legitimate the child under German law. It said legitimation…
Matter of Mandewirth
Acknowledgment did not legitimate child under Austrian law
A lawful permanent resident sought preference quota status for his son, who was born out of wedlock. The father submitted an Austrian document acknowledging paternity and agreeing to support the child. The Board found that Austrian law treated acknowledgment differently from legitimation. Because…
Matter of Talanoa
Adjustment case reopened after business failed
A man from Tonga received adjustment of status after claiming an exemption from labor certification for his nursery and gardening business. The Service later showed that the business had stopped operating less than 90 days after the hearing and that he had taken a job with an airline. The Board…
Matter of Hoeft
Home ironing work still required labor certification
A woman from Tonga sought adjustment of status while raising her children in the United States. She had worked as a housekeeper and later earned money ironing clothes at home. The Board held that her work required a labor certification, even if her main reason for staying was to care for her…
Matter of Estrada-Betancourt
Exclusion proceedings ended after border entry
Three Cuban nationals crossed from Mexico by boat near Brownsville, Texas, and traveled by car to an airport inland. They said they intended to seek inspection as political refugees in Miami. The Board held that they had entered the United States after bypassing the nearest designated inspection…
Matter of Ferrante
Marriage fraud bar blocked a later visa petition
A United States citizen petitioned for immediate relative status for her husband. His earlier adjustment of status through a prior marriage had been rescinded after the Board found that marriage was entered into solely to obtain immigration status. He argued that the earlier marriage may have been…
Matter of Hung
Refugee classification and adjustment approved
A woman who fled China with her family sought refugee classification and adjustment of status after living in Hong Kong and entering the United States as a student. The District Director found that she had firmly resettled, in part because she might be able to join her student husband in Canada…
Matter of Chin
Chinese adoption supported revalidation of parent petition
A U.S. citizen sought to revalidate an earlier visa petition for the woman who had raised him as his mother. She later disclosed that she and her partner had acquired him from his natural parents as an infant and registered her as his birth mother. After an earlier remand, the Board reviewed…
Matter of Wood
Criminal court trips counted as entries
A Canadian man admitted as a permanent resident later faced exclusion after convictions in Canada. The Board treated his earlier juvenile delinquency conviction as a petty offense, so it did not invalidate his original immigrant visa. It found that his later trips to Canada for criminal proceedings…
Matter of Gerace
Marriage remained valid for visa petition
A United States citizen sought immediate relative status for his wife, who had married previously in the Philippines. Her first spouse had disappeared for about six years, and she believed he was dead when she married the petitioner. The District Director denied the petition because the first…
Matter of Manchisi
Fraudulent marriage did not bar the section 241(f) waiver
An Italian man entered the United States with a nonquota immigrant visa obtained through a marriage that was later found to have been entered into to evade the immigration laws. The special inquiry officer found him deportable and denied the section 241(f) fraud waiver because he would not…
Matter of Iesce
Marriage before entry ended visa eligibility
An Italian woman received an immigrant visa as the unmarried daughter of a fifth preference immigrant. She married in Italy after the visa was issued but before using it to enter the United States. The Board held that she no longer qualified for the unmarried child status shown on the visa when she…
Matter of Doultsinos
Accountant qualified for third preference classification
The petition sought third preference classification for a Greek accountant based on his education and professional work. The District Director found that his foreign accounting degree was equivalent to a United States bachelor's degree from an accredited institution and that accounting was a…
Matter of Benguria Y Rodriguez
Cuban Refugee Act section 2 did not cover an immigrant entrant
A Cuban citizen who had become a lawful permanent resident sought the benefit of section 2 of the Cuban Refugee Act of November 2, 1966. The Regional Commissioner found that his only arrival in the United States after January 1, 1959 was in 1965 with an immigrant visa, after inspection and…
Matter of Mostafa
Geophysicist qualified for third preference classification
The petition sought third preference classification for a geophysicist from the United Arab Republic based on his education and professional work. The District Director found that his bachelor's degree in geology and chemistry, together with his work as a geophysicist, qualified him for…
Matter of Goodalle
Reformatory sentence supported deportability
A lawful permanent resident was convicted in New York of second-degree assault committed within five years of his admission and was sentenced to an indeterminate term at the Elmira Reformatory. He argued that the offense did not involve moral turpitude and that commitment to a reformatory was not a…
Matter of Pfahler
A second planned job required separate labor clearance
A Canadian applicant for immigrant admission had a labor certification for work as a painter-supervisor in Detroit. He also planned to work as a dock foreman for a freight company, for which he had no certification. The special inquiry officer ordered him excluded, believing he intended to work…
Matter of Ho
Translator occupation did not qualify for third preference classification
A Hong Kong resident sought third preference classification as a member of the professions based on his education and work as a translator. The Regional Commissioner found that the beneficiary intended to continue working as a translator and that the Dictionary of Occupational Titles classified…
Matter of Navarrete
Constructive presence supported citizenship at birth
Two children born in Mexico claimed United States citizenship through their mother, who had been born abroad to a United States citizen father. The special inquiry officer found that the mother's constructive continuous physical presence in the United States, previously recognized for citizenship…
Matter of Moise
Continued detention upheld during pending deportation case
A Haitian national was admitted to transit through the United States on the day she arrived but missed her onward flight and later accepted work in New York. The Deputy District Director detained her while deportation proceedings were pending. She argued that continued detention was unwarranted…
Matter of Anastasiadis
Father's acknowledgment did not legitimate child under Greek law
A Greek lawful permanent resident petitioned for preference quota status for his nine-year-old son, who was born outside marriage in Greece. The father had acknowledged the child and submitted Greek registration certificates, one of which described the child as legitimate. The Board found that…
Matter of Antolin
Long residence abroad ended a Guam permanent residence claim
A Philippine citizen entered Guam before December 24, 1952 and worked there as a medical technician. The Board agreed that a regulation gave him a presumption of lawful permanent residence based on that residence, even though he did not know he had acquired it. He voluntarily returned to the…
Matter of Fong and Wong
Marriage under assumed names held valid
A lawful permanent resident petitioned for immigration status for his wife and daughter. Immigration officials revoked the approved petitions because the spouses had married in Hong Kong under assumed names, raising questions about the marriage's validity and the daughter's legitimacy. The Board…
Matter of Garcia-Meijides
Family's adjustment grants affirmed
A husband, wife, and son overstayed visitor admissions and sought permanent residence. The District Director had approved the adults' refugee classifications, but the special inquiry officer initially rejected their adjustment applications after questioning those classifications. On remand, the…
Matter of M/V South African Victory
Fines set aside because the men were not stowaways
Two Colombian longshoremen boarded a vessel looking for food and fell asleep in a rope locker. After the vessel reached the United States, they escaped from a locked shipboard hospital while under guard. The District Director imposed $2,000 in fines on the vessel's agents for failing to detain them…
Matter of Cordero-Santana
Deportation proceedings remain terminated
The Service appealed an order ending deportation proceedings against a Mexican national who had misstated his marital history and children on an immigrant visa application. The Board agreed that the misstatements were material and sustained the fraud charge. It nevertheless held that the section…
Matter of Finau
Contractor's adjustment approved without labor certification
A man from Tonga entered the United States as a student and conceded that work outside his student status made him deportable. He sought adjustment of status after starting a landscaping and Polynesian construction business. The Immigration Service argued that his investment was too small to exempt…
Matter of Vorrias
Reopening denied after voluntary departure grant
A Greek national had remained in the United States beyond the period allowed for his nonimmigrant crewman admission. The Board had previously granted him voluntary departure after he appealed a deportation order. He then sought to reopen the case, arguing that the Supreme Court's Woodby decision…
Matter of Chai
Refugee classification approved after Hong Kong stay
A Chinese citizen fled the mainland at age 15 because of his political views and lived in Hong Kong until he entered the United States as a student in 1960. The District Director denied his application for refugee classification, raising whether he had firmly resettled in Hong Kong. The Regional…
Matter of Riva
Cuban adjustment granted with earlier admission date
A Cuban citizen applied for adjustment under the 1966 law for Cuban refugees. The District Director granted her application but used May 9, 1966, the date she returned from a temporary work trip, as the start of her permanent residence. The Regional Commissioner found that her temporary absence had…
Matter of Lalian
Repeated visitor extensions undercut a claim of flight from Iran
An Iranian citizen entered the United States as a visitor in 1957 and later sought refugee classification and permanent residence. She claimed that she had fled Iran because she could not live there as a Christian. The Regional Commissioner found that her repeated applications to extend her visitor…
Matter of Alvarez-Riera
Entry without inspection barred Cuban Refugee Act adjustment
A Cuban citizen sought to reopen deportation proceedings so he could apply for adjustment under the Cuban Refugee Act of November 2, 1966. He had entered the United States by crossing the Rio Grande near Laredo without presenting himself for inspection. The Board held that the Act required a Cuban…
Matter of Ramirez
Adjustment denied on discretionary review
An El Salvadoran tailor sought adjustment to permanent residence after overstaying a visitor admission. The Board had previously found him ineligible under a change to the immigration statute. A later law allowed his earlier application to be considered under the prior rules, so the Board withdrew…
Matter of Moy
Brief stay in Hong Kong did not bar refugee classification
A Chinese citizen left the mainland for Hong Kong in December 1949 and entered the United States as a visitor in July 1950. The District Director denied refugee classification because the applicant had not shown that he would face persecution in Hong Kong or Taiwan. The Regional Commissioner held…
Matter of Moy
Firm resettlement in Colombia barred refugee classification
A Chinese citizen fled the mainland for Hong Kong in 1949 and later moved to Colombia. The Regional Commissioner accepted for purposes of the decision that he had fled China because of fear of political persecution. In Colombia, however, he acquired permanent residence, an interest in a farm, and…
Matter of Rangel-Cantu
Service appeal allowed, reopening denied
A Mexican national who had been admitted for permanent residence was excluded when he tried to return to the United States after an extended absence. He later asked to reopen the exclusion proceeding, and the special inquiry officer granted that request. The Immigration and Naturalization Service…
Matter of Caramanzana
Adult adoption did not qualify for visa preference
A U.S. citizen petitioned for a preference visa for his adopted daughter, who had been 21 when he adopted her. He argued that changes to the immigration statute allowed her to qualify as an unmarried daughter despite the age limit for an adopted child. The Board held that the adoption still had to…
What these documents are
- The agencies: Federal workers' compensation appeals from the Department of Labor's Employees' Compensation Appeals Board (ECAB), federal-sector labor-relations cases from the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), Longshore Act and Black Lung Benefits Act appeals from the Department of Labor's Benefits Review Board (BRB), precedent decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), environmental permit and penalty appeals from the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board (EAB), and whistleblower and other labor appeals from the Department of Labor's Administrative Review Board (ARB). Each decision page names its agency.
- Commission, Board and Authority decisions: Rulings by the agency's highest review level (the Commission at OSHRC and FMSHRC, the Authority at FLRA, the Board of Immigration Appeals, the Administrative Review Board at Labor, and the Environmental Appeals Board at EPA). These are citable as precedent, though a decision may have been appealed to a U.S. Court of Appeals after issuance.
- ALJ decisions: Rulings by the agency's Administrative Law Judges after a hearing. When no Commissioner directs review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order that binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent: under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j) at OSHRC, and after the 40-day window of 30 U.S.C. § 823(d)(1) at FMSHRC.
- Why finality matters: Every page here says which kind of decision you are reading, so you know whether it is precedent you can cite or a final order that only shows how one judge ruled on one set of facts.
- Where they come from: Every page links the official public release from the deciding agency, and the full text on the page is that release. The plain-English summaries are written by Ezel.