Asaduzzaman

MEMORANDUM ****

Asad Asaduzzaman, a Bihari who previously lived in Bangladesh, petitions for review of the.Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) affirmance without opinion of the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of his application for asylum and withholding of removal. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252 , and we deny the petition.

Asaduzzaman seeks asylum and withholding of removal on the ground that he and his family were targets of violence and persecution in Bangladesh because of their Bihari ethnicity. We first consider whether the IJ’s adverse credibility finding was supported by substantial evidence, see Shah v. INS, 220 F.3d 1062, 1067 (9th Cir.2000), and hold that it was not. The IJ’s adverse credibility finding was improperly based on speculation that it would be impossible for a Bihari to acquire a Bangladeshi passport.

Ordinarily, when we reverse an adverse credibility determination, we must remand to the BIA. See He v. Ashcroft, 328 F.3d 593, 603-04 (9th Cir.2003). However, because the IJ proceeded to the merits of the asylum claim and, accepting petitioner’s testimony as true, found that Asaduzzaman was not persecuted on account of a statutorily…