Kramer Levin Successfully Overturns Immigration Judge Decision Denying Asylum to a Pro Bono Client

Kramer Levin successfully overturned an Immigration Judge decision denying asylum to a pro bono client. The case was particularly challenging because our client, a gay man from Columbia, applied for asylum approximately four and half years after arriving in the United States, which is well beyond the one year deadline to file for asylum. Before Kramer Levin’s involvement in the case, the Immigration Judge denied our client’s claim, finding that he did not meet any of the exceptions to the one-year filing deadline. The Kramer Levin team appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals, arguing that among other things, our client was unable to meet the filing deadline because of the lasting effects of persecution he experienced in Columbia and that the client, therefore, had established the “extraordinary circumstances” exception. The BIA found that our client had established extraordinary circumstances on this basis and sustained the appeal, a very rare result.