FOR PUBLICATION UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT MARVIN MARTINEZ ALQUIJAY, No. 20-70470 Petitioner, Agency No. v. A088-709-286 MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, OPINION Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals Submitted May 11, 2022* Pasadena, California Filed July 27, 2022 Before: Sandra S. Ikuta, Jacqueline H. Nguyen, and John B. Owens, Circuit Judges. Opinion by Judge Ikuta * The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2). 2 MARTINEZ ALQUIJAY V. GARLAND SUMMARY** Immigration Denying Marvin Martinez Alquijay’s petition for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals, the panel held that the BIA did not err in concluding that Martinez Alquijay failed to establish extraordinary circumstances to excuse his delay in filing his asylum application. Martinez Alquijay missed the filing deadline for his asylum application by over three years and argued that he qualified for the extraordinary circumstances exception to the time limitation based on his “incapacity or legal disability” due to ignorance of the relevant immigration laws, his young age of 22 years old at the time of his arrival, his lack of English-language skills, and the stress he experienced from fleeing his home country. The panel concluded that none of the factors identified by Martinez Alquijay, either separately or in the aggregate, were of a similar nature or seriousness to the examples of extraordinary circumstances set forth in the regulation. 8 C.F.R. § 1208.4(a)(5). The panel held that the BIA therefore did not err in concluding that Martinez Alquijay failed to establish the presence of an extraordinary circumstance to excuse the delay in filing his asylum application. ** This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has been prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader. MARTINEZ ALQUIJAY V. GARLAND 3 COUNSEL Ramiro J. Lluis, Lluis Law, Los Angeles, California, for Petitioner. Leslie McKay, Senior Litigation Counsel; Madeline Henley, Trial Attorney; Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.; for Respondent. OPINION IKUTA, Circuit Judge: An applicant for asylum must generally file his application within one year of his arrival in the United States. 8 U.S.C. § 1158(a)(2)(B). There are exceptions to this deadline, including an exception if the applicant can show “extraordinary circumstances relating to the delay in filing an application.” Id. § 1158(a)(2)(D). The applicable regulations list examples of the sorts of circumstances that qualify as extraordinary. 8 C.F.R. § 1208.4(a)(5). In this appeal, an applicant who missed the filing deadline for his asylum application by over three years argues that because he was ignorant of the relevant immigration laws, was 22 years old at the time of his arrival, lacked English-language skills, and was stressed because he had fled from his home country, his circumstances qualify as extraordinary. Because none of these circumstances “are of a similar nature or seriousness” to the examples of extraordinary circumstances in the regulation, Gasparyan …
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