Rosendo Chavez-Ramirez and Zenaida Calderon De Chavez v. Immigration and Naturalization Service

Zenaida Calderon de Chavez (Chavez) and her husband, Rosendo Chavez-Ramirez, petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) decision finding Chavez deportable. The BIA held that although Chavez acquired permanent resident status in 1968, she subsequently abandoned that status by living in Mexico from 1973 to 1978. In reaching its conclusion the Board determined that Chavez’s stay in Mexico was not sufficiently temporary to qualify as a “temporary visit abroad” and that, as a result, she failed to satisfy the requirements for a “returning resident immigrant,” 8 U.S.C. §§ 1101 (a)(27)(A), 1181(b).

This case provides us with an opportunity to articulate a standard for determining which visits abroad are temporary and which are not.

I

Zenaida Calderon de Chavez was bom in 1941. At the age of 14, she became a nun in the religious order of Saint Bernard of San Benito. That Order brought Chavez to the United States sometime during 1966 or 1967 and assisted her in acquiring permanent resident status in 1968.

During 1973, Chavez learned that her mother had been hospitalized because of a perforated ulcer and was seriously ill. No other members of Chavez’s family were…