Kumar

MEMORANDUM *

Sanju Lata Kumar, a native and citizen of Fiji, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ denial of her motion to reopen deportation proceedings, so that she may apply for adjustment of status pursuant to an approved relative petition as the spouse of a U.S. citizen. The Board denied Kumar’s motion to reopen under the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1252b(e)(2)(A) (1997), which provides that an alien is ineligible for an adjustment of status for a period of five years if she fails to comply with the terms of a grant of voluntary departure, absent a showing of “exceptional circumstances.”

In her petition, Kumar argues that she failed to depart in accordance with the terms of her grant of voluntary departure because of “exceptional circumstances,” in that: (1) her first motion to reopen was dismissed as untimely by the Board due to an admitted error, which it later corrected; and (2) she relied on her lawyer’s instruction that she need not depart the United States while her petition for our review of an application for political asylum was pending, and her lawyer never alerted her to the fact that her petition had been dismissed due to his…