Anyone with a lawsuit against USCIS or thinking about a lawsuit (Merged)

Prayer for Relief

Lazycis and others,

In the “Prayer For Relief” section of my 1447(b) suit I mentioned :

1-Provide a de novo hearing and conduct the Plaintiff’s oath of allegiance in the court in order to naturalize him because of Plaintiff’s fulfillment to all the statutory requirements of the United States Citizenship.

2-In the alternative, Compel Defendants and those acting under them to immediately APPROVE Plaintiff’s application for naturalization before more harm is incurred. Also, Under 8 C.F.R. §337.3(a), grant Plaintiff an expedited oath administration ceremony after Plaintiff’s N-400 application is “APPROVED” by the defendants.

I used the words “APPROVE” rather than “ADJUDICATE” in # 2; Is it OK to ask this request; please advice…

OK-Boy
 
Gurus,

I have a question about jurisdiction of the court site in which complaint need to be filed.
for example, I work in the south bay and reside in the north bay. My home falls in jurisdiction of the san francisco court site but work falls in jurisdiction of the san jose court site. My N-400 application was filed based on home address in the SFO USCIS office. Can I file my complaint in san jose court site, or do i have to file it in san francisco court site? Both fall under the same district.
If I file complaint in san jose, i don't have to take off from my work to go to the court.

Thanks

I believe you need to file in SF/OAK(where you reside). I did my initial filing in Oakland but was assigned a judge in SF.

Based on the new General Rule 61, it seems hearing is no longer required for MSJ. So hope they will get your case resolved before any hearing is conducted :).
 
I have sent 2 service request 6 months apart (PD 01/07). I received timely responses but here is the kicker. Both letters had 2 different PD both of which were incorrect. I am only waiting before I file a WOM because I am giving them the benefit of making good on their promise for name checks (which so far looks good).
I suggest you file a WOM. With strange transfers and RFEs that do not exist, I will file a WOM. If nothing else, you will get them to get their act straight.


Hello guys,

My I-485 has been stuck since Dec 06. My I-130 was filed in Sept 06. All I hear from them is that my case is under administrative review. I am not sure what that is. My NC is cleared as I have been told several times from several officers. Do you think it is time for me to file a WOM or should I wait more? I just celebrated my second anniversary of my marriage. I am sick and tired to waiting on USCIS to do something. I had my interview in Feb 07.

1st they send me a letter saying that my I-130 has been transferred to an address where there is no USCiS office. 2nd they send me a reply to a service request that an RFE was issued to which I didn't respond. I took that letter to Santa Ana office and they told me that there is no RFE and this letter is issued in error. I think there are too many errors taking place in my case.

Any advice would be helpful.
 
the more I read the less sure I am

dear all,

would you mind posting the following doc lazycis posted in Sep 2007 again? I tried the link, but I couldn't see the doc. many thanks!

This document has a pretty good analysis regarding why the USCIS has a duty to adjudicate applications. Folks from AILF did a good research:
http://www.ailf.org/lac/mandamus-jurisdiction9-24-07 PA.pdf'

man, i am not so sure again, after seeing so many good fighters, the grand father of the thread, paz, AGC4ME, xiaocao, Hirm, WOM_RI, WOMMEI, lazycis etc etc, i keep asking myself, am I able to go through all of these? maybe i am not strong enough still. right now, i could barely write a complaint, big thanks to previous templates; i knew so little about the law, so little about how to search a case in pacer, how to find opinion on a case, let alone to write my own opposition to MTD, MSJ, or appeal.

I need to read more and educate myself more.
 
Lazycis and others,

In the “Prayer For Relief” section of my 1447(b) suit I mentioned :

1-Provide a de novo hearing and conduct the Plaintiff’s oath of allegiance in the court in order to naturalize him because of Plaintiff’s fulfillment to all the statutory requirements of the United States Citizenship.

2-In the alternative, Compel Defendants and those acting under them to immediately APPROVE Plaintiff’s application for naturalization before more harm is incurred. Also, Under 8 C.F.R. §337.3(a), grant Plaintiff an expedited oath administration ceremony after Plaintiff’s N-400 application is “APPROVED” by the defendants.

I used the words “APPROVE” rather than “ADJUDICATE” in # 2; Is it OK to ask this request; please advice…

OK-Boy

I would say
1. "Provide a de novo hearing and conduct the Plaintiff’s oath of allegiance if the court finds that Plaintiff fulfilled all statutory requirements for the United States Citizenship".

I am not sure about part 2. If the court remans, it won't do any determination regarding your eligibility so I would probably included similar language (i.e adjudicate without further delay and grant expedited natz ceremony if N400 is approved) or you can skip part 2 althogether.
 
My questions to all of you is that would it really help in getting my case approved. I live in Orange county California.. If they just say that we have straightened out but you still have to wait and then eventually come back and file another lawsuit for us to approve it, that would be no good. There are too many people with similar experiences over here including some gurus of this like lazycis and others. Do you guys think that I should file WOM or wait some more. PD on I-130 was sept, 06, PD on I-485 was dec 1, 2006, interview was in feb 07.

Thanks to all of you guys.
 
The language of 8 USC 1447(b) clearly says: If there is a failure to make a determination under section 1446 of this title before the end of the 120-day period after the date on which the examination is conducted under such section, the applicant may apply to the United States district court for the district in which the applicant resides for a hearing on the matter. Such court has jurisdiction over the matter and may either determine the matter or remand the matter, with appropriate instructions, to the Service to determine the matter.

Lazycis, Don't you think that the "Appropriate Instructions" could mean the instruction from court to APPROVE or I'm not getting it correctly.

I would say
1. "Provide a de novo hearing and conduct the Plaintiff’s oath of allegiance if the court finds that Plaintiff fulfilled all statutory requirements for the United States Citizenship".

I am not sure about part 2. If the court remans, it won't do any determination regarding your eligibility so I would probably included similar language (i.e adjudicate without further delay and grant expedited natz ceremony if N400 is approved) or you can skip part 2 althogether.
 
The language of 8 USC 1447(b) clearly says: If there is a failure to make a determination under section 1446 of this title before the end of the 120-day period after the date on which the examination is conducted under such section, the applicant may apply to the United States district court for the district in which the applicant resides for a hearing on the matter. Such court has jurisdiction over the matter and may either determine the matter or remand the matter, with appropriate instructions, to the Service to determine the matter.

Lazycis, Don't you think that the "Appropriate Instructions" could mean the instruction from court to APPROVE or I'm not getting it correctly.

I just think it does not make sense for the court to make a determination regarding your eligibility and then remand the case to USCIS. Why bother?
The court can instruct USCIS to approve it, but to me it does not seem likely.
 
I believe you need to file in SF/OAK(where you reside). I did my initial filing in Oakland but was assigned a judge in SF.

Based on the new General Rule 61, it seems hearing is no longer required for MSJ. So hope they will get your case resolved before any hearing is conducted :).

Does that mean I can file complaint in San Jose but any judge in the same district will be assigned or is it going to based on my nearest court site from my home. The 28 u.s.c. 1391 (e) states that the vanue should be in the district where plaintiff resides and does not mention anything about court site so I think any court site under that district should be ok. Please confirm.

28 u.s.c. 1391 (e) states:
----
(e) A civil action in which a defendant is an officer or employee of the United States or any agency thereof acting in his official capacity or under color of legal authority, or an agency of the United States, or the United States, may, except as otherwise provided by law, be brought in any judicial district in which
(1) a defendant in the action resides,
(2) a substantial part of the events or omissions giving rise to the claim occurred, or a substantial part of property that is the subject of the action is situated, or
(3) the plaintiff resides if no real property is involved in the action. Additional persons may be joined as parties to any such action in accordance with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and with such other venue requirements as would be applicable if the United States or one of its officers, employees, or agencies were not a party.
 
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Hello guys,

My I-485 has been stuck since Dec 06. My I-130 was filed in Sept 06. All I hear from them is that my case is under administrative review. I am not sure what that is. My NC is cleared as I have been told several times from several officers. Do you think it is time for me to file a WOM or should I wait more? I just celebrated my second anniversary of my marriage. I am sick and tired to waiting on USCIS to do something. I had my interview in Feb 07.

1st they send me a letter saying that my I-130 has been transferred to an address where there is no USCiS office. 2nd they send me a reply to a service request that an RFE was issued to which I didn't respond. I took that letter to Santa Ana office and they told me that there is no RFE and this letter is issued in error. I think there are too many errors taking place in my case.

Any advice would be helpful.
 
Since you have passed about 18 months or an average 1.5 times than the normal time so you can start working on your WOM. Please use this site:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/FBI_name_check

Make the suit and file it and I believe within 2-3 months, your case would be approved. It's nothing but USCIS lazyness and your suit would wake them up...


Hello guys,

My I-485 has been stuck since Dec 06. My I-130 was filed in Sept 06. All I hear from them is that my case is under administrative review. I am not sure what that is. My NC is cleared as I have been told several times from several officers. Do you think it is time for me to file a WOM or should I wait more? I just celebrated my second anniversary of my marriage. I am sick and tired to waiting on USCIS to do something. I had my interview in Feb 07.

1st they send me a letter saying that my I-130 has been transferred to an address where there is no USCiS office. 2nd they send me a reply to a service request that an RFE was issued to which I didn't respond. I took that letter to Santa Ana office and they told me that there is no RFE and this letter is issued in error. I think there are too many errors taking place in my case.

Any advice would be helpful.
 
Does that mean I can file complaint in San Jose but any judge in the same district will be assigned or is it going to based on my nearest court site from my home. The 28 u.s.c. 1391 (e) states that the vanue should be in the district where plaintiff resides and does not mention anything about court site so I think any court site under that district should be ok. Please confirm.

28 u.s.c. 1391 (e) states:
----
(e) A civil action in which a defendant is an officer or employee of the United States or any agency thereof acting in his official capacity or under color of legal authority, or an agency of the United States, or the United States, may, except as otherwise provided by law, be brought in any judicial district in which
(1) a defendant in the action resides,
(2) a substantial part of the events or omissions giving rise to the claim occurred, or a substantial part of property that is the subject of the action is situated, or
(3) the plaintiff resides if no real property is involved in the action. Additional persons may be joined as parties to any such action in accordance with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and with such other venue requirements as would be applicable if the United States or one of its officers, employees, or agencies were not a party.

Under federal rules, you can file at any court site within your district. However, courts can have local rules that may require you to go to a particular site.
 
what to do?

Hello folks

I will give a very brief case history and wanted to get your feedback on it and see what I should do:

- Filed for marriage-based I-130/485 in 2004 (very clean, straight forward case; never been out of status, no crime, etc...)
- Did all sorts of inquiries (InfoPass, calling, Senator, Congressman, First Lady, President, Vice President, etc) no response
- Filed for WOM in 2007 in MD; fought the case quite a bit with AUSA; they filed MTD, MSJ, etc...responded to all of that
- After sitting on the case for about 8 months, judge granted MTD and dismissed the case in March 2008
- Prior to getting dismissed, AUSA filed a letter in court saying FBI namechecks are complete and file transferred to B'more; got interviewed in March of 2008 finally (got grilled!)
- Got follow up RFE after interview; responded to it
- And now waiting again! Emailed officer (have his direct email) and he responded with a typical CIS non-response kind of thing (under review etc...)
- Made InfoPass a couple weeks ago; was told that file is going through review (who knows what type of review)?

What to do now? Don't know what types of checks these are and don't know what to do ????

Choices:
- Re-start all inquiries again, congressman, senator, president, etc...
- Write to district director (working on it)
- Do FOIA request to see what they are doing (Could take very long time)
- What else????? Ideas?

Thanks.
 
dear all,
would you mind posting the following doc lazycis posted in Sep 2007 again? I tried the link, but I couldn't see the doc. many thanks!
Here you go!
It's available at Mandamus Jurisdiction over Delayed Applications: Responding to the Government's Motion to Dismiss

man, i am not so sure again, after seeing so many good fighters, the grand father of the thread, paz, AGC4ME, xiaocao, Hirm, WOM_RI, WOMMEI, lazycis etc etc, i keep asking myself, am I able to go through all of these? maybe i am not strong enough still. right now, i could barely write a complaint, big thanks to previous templates; i knew so little about the law, so little about how to search a case in pacer, how to find opinion on a case, let alone to write my own opposition to MTD, MSJ, or appeal.
I need to read more and educate myself more.
First of all don't be overwhelmed by the things that you see thrown around. It does take time to get used to the terminology at first. But as you will see with little bit of time put into it, you will get a hang of it. There's really a pattern to this type of litigation and some times despite the best of arguments, Govt. just won't admit to its malfeasance but CIS may move on your case. The judge and AUSA that gets assigned to your case do matter. Study a few of the Complaints, arguments in the motion to dismiss filed in that case, plaintiff's opposition to MTD and you will certainly see a pattern. Govt continues to rely on same old defenses and probably hopes that a pro-Govt judge will rule in its favor or plaintiff.

Also if Govt. makes it so easy on Plaintiffs to get their cases decided, trust me Courts will not be able to handle the caseload that this could bring. As AUSA have been lamenting, "floodgates" will open. Believe in yourself and go for it. Once you take the first step (admittedly the hardest), rest is not that hard. Again you always have the option to go with a lawyer if it seems too nerve recking and too much to handle. Either way educating yourself on the process is the key.

There are districts where before or on 60th day when AUSA was supposed to file an answer to the Complaint, AOS magically got approved. Then there are instances where Govt dragged its feet all the way to Appeals court but in the end relented. Imagine if those plaintiff hadn't acted (file lawsuit), you think CIS would have adjudicated their cases "some time". Yes, probably but "when", there's no telling. CIS has horrible backlog and it doesn't get their attention in normal course of events. Lawsuit at least gets CIS's attention to your case.
 
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OK-Boy,

Thank you for your advise. I would start gathering up the documents to file WOM. Do you think I should wait 2-3 months before filing or I should file as soon as I gather up the documents.

I would also appreciate if jefkorn and lazycis can also put their comments.

I am thankful to all of you for your help.
 
LazyCIS/jefkron and others,

Do you have a list addresses of followings to serve complaint:

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security
JONATHAN SCHARFEN, Director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
DONALD NEUFELD, Director of USCIS California Service Center
ROBERT S. MUELLER III, Director of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
MICHAEL MUKASEY, Attorney General of the United States


Thanks
 
Look here

I personally used following and all of them received mail at their corresponding address:

Michael Chertoff,
Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security
Office of the General Counsel
U. S. Department of Homeland Security
Washington, D. C. 20528

Jonathan Scharfen, Acting Director, USCIS
Office of Chief Counsel
20 Massachusetts Ave., Room 4025
Washington, D.C. 20529

Michael B. Mukasey,
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20530-0001

LazyCIS/jefkron and others,

Do you have a list addresses of followings to serve complaint:

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security
JONATHAN SCHARFEN, Director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
DONALD NEUFELD, Director of USCIS California Service Center
ROBERT S. MUELLER III, Director of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
MICHAEL MUKASEY, Attorney General of the United States


Thanks
 
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