Nishchal Bhattarai v. Loretta E. Lynch

Nishchal Bhattarai petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) denial of his application for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). The BIA upheld the immigration judge’s (“IJ”) adverse credibility finding based on alleged inconsistencies between Bhattarai’s testimony and certain supporting documents, and because Bhattarai failed to provide additional corroborative evidence, including testimony by his brother. The alleged inconsistencies are either unsupported by the record or are more properly considered gaps in corroboration, and the IJ failed to give Bhattarai notice and an opportunity to provide the corroborative evidence she deemed necessary. See Ren v. Holder, 648 F.3d 1079, 1090-92 (9th Cir. 2011). We therefore grant the petition and remand for further proceedings.

I. Background

A. Bhattarai’s Asylum Application . and Testimony

The following narrative was set forth in Bhattarai’s asylum application and testimony before the IJ.

Petitioner Nishchal Bhattarai is a 33-year-old native of Nepal, born to a politically active family who “influenced [him] with the democratic ideology since [his]…