Huang

Meihua Huang and his wife, Mingyan Qiu, natives and citizens of China, petition for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) order. The order dismissed their appeal from an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) decision denying their application for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture. We grant the petition for review in part, dismiss in part, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

In an oral decision, the IJ denied relief because “[b]ased on the numerous, significant inconsistencies in [Huang]’s representations of record, the Court reluctantly concludes that he has failed to discharge his burden of proving past persecution based on religion or a well-founded fear of the same.” The IJ conflated what he may have intended as an adverse credibility finding based on “numerous, significant inconsistencies” with a finding that Huang and Qiu failed to prove past or a well-founded fear of future persecution. However, the IJ never stated that he did not believe Huang’s testimony or that a specific claim was not credible. We conclude that the IJ failed to make a credibility finding. See Mendoza Manimbao v. Ashcroft, 329…