Opinion ID: 173076
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: The date-of-adjudication approach is fundamentally unfair.

Text: Finally, in our view, the reading of the statute adopted by the immigration judge and the BIA violates basic principles of common sense and fairness. As one district court has observed, under the date-of-adjudication theory, a minor child could receive a K-2 visa up until the day of his twenty-first birthday, but that same visa would be worthless the next day. Verovkin, 2007 WL 4557782 at . And, under that theory, even an individual who obtained a K-2 visa and applied for an adjustment of status several years before his or her twenty-first birthday would have no way of knowing whether the entire lengthy process might prove futile merely because of the length of time that the application languishe[d] in the agency's filing cabinet. Choin, 537 F.3d at 1121; Verovkin, 2007 WL 4557782 at . We see no indication in the statutory language that Congress authorized such an unfair practice. Accordingly, in light of the language of 8 U.S.C. §§ 1101(a)(15)(K) and 1255(d), we hold that a K-2 visa holder who applies for an adjustment of status must be under twenty-one at the time he or she seeks to enter the United States as the child of the fiancee or fiance of a citizen of the United States. See § 1101(a)(15)(K). In light of the language used in § 1101(a)(15)(K), the date that the individual seeks to enter the United States may be plausibly read as either (1) the date that the United States citizen files a petition for K-1 and K-2 visas with the Secretary of Homeland Security under 8 U.S.C. § 1184(d)(1), or (b) the date that the K-1 and K-2 visa applications are filed with the consular officer in the country of origin. See 22 C.F.R. § 41.81 (State Department regulation addressing the issuance of K visas by consular officers). We need not decide which date is controlling here. Although the record does not indicate the exact dates on which Mr. Colmenares (1) filed a petition for a K visa with the Secretary of Homeland Security under 8 U.S.C. § 1184(d)(1), and (2) filed an application for a K visa with a consular officer in Venezuela (after the Secretary of Homeland Security approved the petition), the record does establish that Mr. Colmenares obtained a K-2 visa on September 24, 2002, when he was twenty years-old. Thus, he was under twenty-one when he [sought] to enter the United States as the child of the fiancee or fiance of a citizen of the United States. 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(15)(K). Mr. Colmenares's age at the time of adjudication of his application for an adjustment of status did not render him ineligible for that adjustment. We therefore reverse the BIA's ruling based on the date-of-adjudication theory.