Hernandez-Garcia

MEMORANDUM *

We grant the petition for review of Felipe Hernandez-Garcia (“Hernandez”) and remand for further proceedings.

Although the duration and circumstances of a petitioner’s stay in a third country may raise a presumption of firm resettlement, see Cheo v. INS, 162 F.3d 1227, 1230 (9th Cir.1998), Hernandez successfully rebutted the presumption by showing that he had never received an offer of permanent residency or other type of permanent resettlement in Mexico and that “the conditions of his ... residence in [Mexico] were so substantially and consciously restricted by the authority of the country of refuge that he ... was not in fact resettled.” 8 C.F.R. § 1208.15 (b); see also Camposeco-Montejo v. Ashcroft, 384 F.3d 814, 819-21 (9th Cir.2004). We therefore turn to the merits of Hernandez’s asylum application.

While the BIA acknowledged that the IJ had committed a legal error in determining that Hernandez did not have a well-founded fear of future persecution, it affirmed the IJ’s ultimate conclusion. However, even if we assume that the IJ’s determination regarding changed country conditions was sufficiently supported by the record and individualized to Hernandez’s…