Earlier this year, our office filed a mandamus lawsuit against USCIS in federal court in California in order to compel the agency to adjudicate an I-526 petition that has been pending over 40 months. In response, USCIS filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming that the almost four-year delay was not unreasonable.
Today, the court ruled in our favor, holding that five of the six relevant factors weigh in our client’s favor. Among other things, the judge held that we “plausibly allege that USCIS’s processing of I-526 petitions is not solely governed by the visa availability approach” that USCIS claims it follows.
Many EB-5 applicants have found that the delays impacting USCIS’s processing times are far from reasonable, and that normal avenues for moving an application forward (such as an inquiry with USCIS or the Ombudsman) are simply no longer effective or available. Please reach out to us if you are interested in learning more about how litigation can be an effective option to counter the government’s unreasonable processing times.
