Dao Lu Lin v. Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General

The question we consider in this asylum case is the nature of evidence required to support an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) adverse credibility finding based on documentary evidence. We reiterate the longstanding principle that such an adverse credibility finding must be supported by substantial evidence. The IJ’s speculation as to what an official document should look like, conjecture about the significance of the missing details in the document, and musings as to format of the document cannot be regarded as “reasonable, substantial, and probative evidence” required by the Supreme Court in INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478, 481 , 112 S.Ct. 812 , 117 L.Ed.2d 38 (1992).

Here, the IJ denied Dao Lu Lin’s (“Lin”) asylum application not because she thought Lin lacked credibility or that Lin told an implausible story. Rather, the IJ denied the application because she was suspicious about the official documents submitted by Lin. We readily acknowledge that an IJ need not accept all documents as authentic nor credit documentary submissions without careful scrutiny. But the rejection must be premised on more than a guess or surmise. A review of this record reveals that the IJ’s suspicions…