Busquets-Ivars

Opinion by Judge BEEZER; Dissent by Judge FERNANDEZ.

*1009 OPINION

We consider the requirements for proper notice of scheduled removal hearings.

Pedro Sebastian Busquets-Ivars, Angelica Sylvia Busquets, Alejandro Ernesto Busquets-Araneda and Mauricio Ignacio Busquets-Araneda (“Busquets”) were ordered removed in absentia. The Busquets contend that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS”) failed to prove service of notice. The Busquets petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) decision to not reopen. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1229 (b) and we grant the petition for review.

I

The Busquets are natives of Chile who entered the United States in April 1988, with visitor visas. In September 1997, the Busquets submitted an application for asylum and withholding of deportation. The Busquets were instructed to complete an INS form and to provide a street address to which the INS could mail hearing notices. The Busquets gave two distinct addresses. They were:

The address used by the INS to notify the Busquets of an established date and time for hearing was as follows:

The INS used a correct street designation of one address coupled with…

Dissenting:

Busquets-Ivars asks us to grant his petition because the INS used the wrong ZIP code when it used certified mail to give him the required notice to appear. It is notable that he does not now assert, and never has asserted, that the notice, which did bear the street address he gave to the INS, did not arrive at its destination. The majority agrees with him; I do not. Absence of or error in a ZIP code does not mean that the address is insufficient for delivery. See Domestic Mail Manual of the Postal Service, 39 C.F.R. § 111.5 , A010 (General Addressing Standards); id. at F010 (Basic Information); id. at S912 (Certified Mail). 1 A plethora of cases is to the same effect. In Santoro v. Principi 274 F.3d 1366 (Fed.Cir.2001), for example, the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims had declared that a notice of appeal sent to it by Mr. Santoro was insufficient because it had an incorrect ZIP code. Id. at 1368- *1011 69. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit disagreed and said:

Id. at 1369-70 (citations omitted); see also In re Longardner & Assocs., Inc., 855 F.2d 455, 460 (7th Cir.1988) (holding absence of a ZIP code on notice mailed from court does not eliminate…