In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit No. 17-2746 MANJIT SINGH SEMBHI, Petitioner, v. JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS III, Attorney General of the United States, Respondent. Petition for Review of an Order of The Board of Immigration Appeals No. A076-726-625 ARGUED FEBRUARY 14, 2018— DECIDED JULY 31, 2018 Before EASTERBROOK and ROVNER, Circuit Judges, and GRIESBACH, District Judge.* * The Honorable William C. Griesbach, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, sitting by designation. 2 No. 17-2746 ROVNER, Circuit Judge. When Manjit Singh Sembhi failed to appear for an October 2001 hearing in his removal proceeding, the immigration judge ordered him removed to his home country of India. More than 10 years later, Sembhi filed a motion to reopen and rescind the in absentia removal order, which the immigration judge denied. Sembhi then sought relief, unsuccessfully, from the Board of Immigration Appeals. After a total of five adverse decisions from the Board, Sembhi now faces the unenviable task of convincing us that the Board abused its discretion in denying his third motion to reconsider and fifth motion to reopen, with the latter being presumptively barred in both number and time. Finding no error in the Board’s latest decision that would warrant a remand, we deny Sembhi’s petition for review. I. Sembhi, a native and citizen of India, entered the United States in 1995 as a non-immigrant visitor and subsequently overstayed his visa. Two years later, after he was unsuccessful in seeking asylum from an Immigration and Naturalization Service officer, Sembhi was served with a notice to appear charging him with being removable from the country for want of authorization to remain here. Initially, it was Sembhi’s expectation that he would be able to obtain an I-130 visa based on his marriage to a U.S. citizen, and with such a visa in hand he would be able to seek adjustment of status. But when Sembhi appeared before an immigration judge for a hearing in August 2001, his counsel reported that his wife had obtained a default judgment of divorce against Sembhi earlier that year, rendering him ineligible for adjustment of status. Sembhi’s counsel, Justin Burton, indicated to the judge that Sembhi No. 17-2746 3 intended to explore the possibility of vacating the divorce judgment and, in the alternative, apply for cancellation of removal as an allegedly battered spouse or, failing that, to seek voluntary departure from the country. The judge put the matter over to October 10, 2001, in order to permit Sembhi and his counsel to pursue these possibilities. When the hearing convened on October 10, Burton was present but Sembhi was not. Burton advised the judge that he had not communicated with his client in several weeks despite attempts to contact him but that Sembhi was on notice of the court date. Agreeing that Sembhi had received both written and oral notice of the October 10 hearing, the judge proceeded with the hearing in absentia, and, noting that Sembhi ...
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