Agopian

MEMORANDUM **

Levon Garabed Agopian, a native and citizen of Bulgaria, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) decision dismissing his appeal from an immigration judge’s decision denying his applications for asylum, withholding of deportation, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). Agopian’s application for asylum is derivative; the principal applicant is his mother, Satenik Arsharouni. The BIA terminated Arsharouni’s deportation proceedings in March 2009, while this petition for review was pending. The impact of the termination of the principal applicant’s proceedings on Agopian’s applications for relief and his petition for review is unclear. We therefore grant Agopian’s petition for review, and remand for further proceedings.

Because the BIA terminated his mother’s deportation proceedings, it appears that her asylum application has been abandoned, possibly leaving Agopian in the position of having no pending asylum application. Although Agopian is now over 21 years of age, he would be considered a child under 8 U.S.C. § 1158 (b)(3)(B), and therefore eligible to receive derivative asylee status if the asylum application were granted,…