Gloria Maribel Carrillo-Gonzalez v. Immigration and Naturalization Service

Gloria Maribel Carrillo-Gonzalez, a citizen of Guatemala, seeks review of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) order affirming the denial of her application for adjustment of status. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1105a(a), and we deny the petition for review.

After entering the United States without inspection in 1991, Carrillo-Gonzalez filed an application for asylum, withholding of removal and voluntary departure, in the course of which she admitted the charge of deportability. During the pendency of her application, she was selected as eligible for an immigration visa through the Diversity Immigration Visa Lottery Program for 1997 (“DV Lottery Program”). Carrillo-Gonzalez submitted an application to the INS for adjustment of status to permanent resident based on the lottery number she received. She subsequently withdrew her application for asylum and withholding of removal.

Carrillo-Gonzalez had not received a diversity visa before the 1997 DV Lottery Program expired on September 30, 1997. She was thus unable to produce an actual visa in support of her adjustment application before the immigration court.

The immigration judge (“IJ”) issued an oral order finding…