Why is my immigration case delayed?

Recently, a client of ours, let’s call him Muhammad H, married a US citizen. Her spouse filed the Petition for Alien Relative (I-130) on her behalf with the Application for Adjustment of Status (I-485). She became pregnant and had a child while the petition was pending. Soon her application was pending for over a year and it became apparent that she was seriously behind schedule. The client had scheduled an infopass appointment and inquired with her local congresswoman, but she received no response.

Concerned that he might have filed the petition incorrectly, he came to our office to ask what could be done. We discuss his case and review a copy of his application. It seemed that he had filed it correctly and we didn’t see any obvious red flags. There seemed to be no obvious reason for the delay in adjudicating his request.

We explained that your best option would be to file a writ of mandamus in federal court. Filing a mandamus requires a federal judge to review the application and requests that they order immigration to adjudicate it within a reasonable time. Once the request is filed and properly served, the government has 60 days to respond.

In this case, the writ of mandamus was presented and the government was notified. Within 60 days we received a call from the US Attorney’s office. They said that they were not going to fight our mandamus and that our client’s interview was scheduled. Muhammad H. and his wife attended the interview and, in particular, the immigration officer was very professional in the interview and just had a few questions for Muhammad and his wife. In 2 weeks we received the decision on your case by mail. Filing the deed of mandamus put the client in control and now he can get on with his life without the worry of immigration hanging over his head. This made him very happy as at least it was one more thing he didn’t have to worry about.

Although this case involved a petition based on marriage, an writ of mandamus can be used on any I-130 petition for alien relative or I-485 application for adjustment of status. Similarly, a deed of mandamus can be filed for any delayed I-140 employment-based application or delayed N-400 application for naturalization. A mandamus can also be used in the context of asylum or really any type of proceeding where the government is causing a delay. The mandamus deed is a powerful tool that can put you in charge of your immigration application.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *