Zia v. Garland, 112 F.4th 1194

Zohaib Zia, a Pakistani citizen, became a conditional permanent resident in the U.S. through marriage to a U.S. citizen.
The marriage ended in divorce shortly after Zia obtained his status, precluding a joint petition to remove residency conditions.
Zia sought a "good faith" marriage waiver to remove conditions, asserting his marriage was genuine.
USCIS, and later the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), denied Zia’s request, finding the marriage not entered into in good faith and him not credible.
Zia appealed to federal court, challenging the BIA’s findings, the credibility determination, and raising a due process claim over an incomplete hearing transcript.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Jurisdiction over good faith marriage waiver	Prior precedent allows review of such waivers	Supreme Court’s Patel and Wilkinson preclude review	Court lacks jurisdiction over adverse credibility finding
Credibility determination	IJ’s adverse finding was erroneous	Factual findings unreviewable; supported by record	Credibility finding unreviewable
Good faith marriage determination	Evidence (testimony, documents) shows good faith	Testimony not credible, documents insufficient	No error in BIA’s finding; deferential review
Due process (incomplete transcript)	Transcript gaps prejudiced ability to appeal	Gaps did not prevent meaningful review or prejudice	No due process violation; no shown prejudice

Patel v. Garland, 596 U.S. 328 (2022) (limits judicial review of discretionary relief determinations in immigration proceedings)
Wilkinson v. Garland, 601 U.S. 209 (2024) (clarifies the limited reviewable scope for mixed questions of law and fact in removal proceedings)
Kucana v. Holder, 558 U.S. 233 (2010) (interprets the meaning and breadth of jurisdiction-stripping provisions in immigration law)
Guerro-Lasprilla v. Barr, 589 U.S. 221 (2020) (holds that "questions of law" include mixed questions of law and fact for limited judicial review)