BIA HEADNOTE:
”Where a petitioner seeking to prove a familial relationship submits a birth certificate that was not registered contemporaneously with the birth, an adjudicator must consider the birth certificate, as well as all the other evidence of record and the circumstances of the case, to determine whether the petitioner has submitted sufficient reliable evidence to demonstrate the claimed relationship by a preponderance of the evidence.”
BIA PANEL: Judge Adkins-Blanch, Vice Chair; Appellate Immigration Judges Mann and Kelly
OPINION BY: Judge Ana L. Mann
*************************************
The point of this decision is that in dealing with a non-contemporaneous birth certificate (here in the context of a Visa Petition Proceeding, but the issue also arises in Removal Proceedings) the adjucdicator cannot reject it as probative evidence simply because it was not contemporaneous. The adjudicator must examine all the factors in weighing the certificate, including factors indicating reliability.
Here, the BIA correctly rejected the Director’s phantom “one-year rule” that automatically required the submission of “secondary evidence” if the birth certificate was issued one year or more after the birth.
PWS
09-22-17