by Elizabeth R. Blandon

If you have submitted your case for processing and it seems forever has passed without a decision, you might be able to sue the government in Federal Court. It is possible to file a lawsuit against Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS) if they have unreasonably delayed your petition, are withholding action on your petition or are not moving forward with your petition in a reasonable time.

While I would be the first to argue that it is better to negotiate than litigate, CIS responds appropriately when sued. Like any government agency, CIS must follow their own regulations as well as this country’s laws. When they fail to do so, the courts notice.

Delays in residency. CIS must act within a reasonable time period on the applications received. If the agency’s review of the case has not been completed within one year, an attorney may take certain actions to expedite the case. At Blandon Law, we initially inquire with CIS to determine the status. If the response is not appropriate, we inform CIS that we will be filing a lawsuit to compel movement if a decision is not made. Finally, after an additional wait, we file the lawsuit. In a recent case, CIS printed our client’s legal permanent resident card (a “green card”) on the day the federal court ordered them to respond to the lawsuit.

CIS takes action because the Federal Court commands the agency to process the application. In some cases, the Court will also order Immigration to pay for reasonable attorney’s fees. Because the government does not want to pay, CIS resolves in months cases that have been pending for years.

Delays in Removal of Conditions. Forms I-751 filed by foreign nationals who are (or were) married to U.S. citizens are given low priority by CIS. However, this delay in processing has a terrible effect. For example, a foreign national may have a difficult time proving that a former marriage to a U.S. citizen was valid if Immigration requests the evidence three years after the divorce. Because the foreign national must demonstrate the validity of the marriage, the inability to obtain the I-751 evidence results in losing legal permanent residency.

Delays in citizenship. Likewise, CIS is bound to issue a decision on a naturalization application within 120 days after the interview. Blandon Law follows a similar procedure to first inquire about the reason for any delays but files naturalization lawsuits rapidly. Delays forbid the most important right of voting and many other benefits. Perhaps for this reason, federal courts take CIS to task severely with unreasonable delays on naturalization applications.

What you can do now. In order to file such a lawsuit, the immigration attorney will need to demonstrate the long delay. It is important to save copies of all applications and correspondence with CIS. The foreign national will also need to comply with government requests (such as fingerprint appointments or requests for evidence).

Immigration laws and the regulations used to interpret them are complicated and constantly changing. The information presented here is not legal advice as other benefits and exceptions may apply to a particular case.