Valentin

MEMORANDUM

Claudia Valentin (“Petitioner”) petitions for review of the final order of deportation entered by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) on September 1, 1999. Petitioner was served with an order to show cause (“OSC”) on December 1, 1995, approximately six years and two months after she entered the United States. At a hearing on March 19, 1997, the Immigration Judge (“IJ”) denied Petitioner’s application for suspension of deportation because she had failed to meet the continuous physical presence requirement before being served with the OSC and thus was statutorily ineligible for suspension. On appeal, the BIA affirmed.

Petitioner contends that she was eligible for suspension of deportation and challenges the BIA’s decision that the “stop-time rule” — a new continuous physical presence requirement set forth in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (“IIRIRA”)— bars such relief in her case. Moreover, Petitioner contends that the IJ erroneously applied the stop-time rule to her case on March 19, 1997, nearly two weeks before IIRIRA’s effective date of April 1, 1997. We agree that the IJ erred in applying the stop-time rule to…