Hovhannisyan

MEMORANDUM ***

Lilit Hovhannisyan, a native and citizen of Armenia, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) affirmance of an immigration judge’s (“IJ”) denial of her applications for asylum and withholding of removal, and request for relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). We deny the petition for review.

The IJ’s partial adverse credibility finding was supported by substantial evidence. Although Hovhannisyan’s eventual honesty is laudatory, it does not negate the fact that she submitted a counterfeit document and lied on her asylum application. She reiterated this he five times on her asylum application. She also fabricated details of seeing her brother’s body and organizing his funeral.

The IJ’s adverse credibility determination was not based on inappropriate “conjecture” or “speculation.” Ninth Circuit caselaw precludes the IJ from making factual findings without any evidentiary basis. See Shah v. INS, 220 F.3d 1062, 1071 (9th Cir.2000) (“Speculation and conjecture cannot form the basis of an adverse credibility finding, which must instead be based *874 on substantial evidence.” (emphasis added)). However, the evidence that Hovhannisyan…