Shon Ning Lee v. Immigration & Naturalization Service

Shon Ning Lee petitions this court to review the denial by the Board of Immigration Appeals of her motion to reopen her deportation proceedings. The BIA treated the motion as a new application for permanent resident status and denied it on the grounds that a visa was not available to Lee on its filing date.

The major issue is whether the motion to reopen is a new application or a renewal of a previously denied application. If it is a renewal, as Lee argues, a visa could be available to Lee. If the former, the BIA was correct in finding Lee ineligible for resident status. We have concluded that Lee’s motion to reopen was a new application.

A second issue is whether the BIA should be estopped from holding that a visa is not available to Lee because the BIA “delayed” a decision on Lee’s previous application for nine months. Lee asserts that, had there been no delay, she could have filed the application presented in her motion to reopen during any of three occasions on which visas became available to her. We have concluded that, given the circumstances of this case, there are no facts upon which an estoppel theory can be based.

Lee is a citizen of the Republic of China (Taiwan). At…