UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ZECHARIAH SINDT Plaintiff, v. Civil Action No. 22-774 (CKK) UNITED STATES CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES, et al., Defendants. MEMORANDUM OPINION (March 1, 2023) In this visa case, Plaintiff Zechariah Sindt (“Plaintiff” or “Sindt”) seeks declaratory and mandamus relief ordering officials of the United States Department of State (“State Department”) and United States Citizen and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) to more expeditiously process a Form I-130 immigrant visa for his spouse, Sophea Chhem (“Beneficiary”), pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act’s (“APA”) bar on “unreasonabl[e] delay.” 5 U.S.C. § 706(1). In addition to his APA claim, Plaintiff alleges a procedural due process claim, predicated on his right to fairness in administrative adjudication. Because USCIS has reaffirmed and conveyed Plaintiff’s visa application for processing to the State Department’s National Visa Center (“NVC”), all claims as against the USCIS Defendants are moot. Because USCIS had yet to convey Plaintiff’s application to NVC at the time Plaintiff commenced this action, he lacks standing to challenge any delay at NVC. Even were he to file a supplemental pleading to cure this jurisdictional defect, he nevertheless cannot state a claim upon which the Court may grant relief. Accordingly, and upon review of the pleadings, 1 the relevant 1 The Court’s consideration has focused on the following documents: • Plaintiff’s Complaint (“Compl.”), ECF No. 1; 1 legal authority, and the record as a whole, the Court shall GRANT Defendants’ [7] Motion to Dismiss or for Summary Judgment. I. BACKGROUND The Court assumes the reader’s familiarity with the process and statutory background for visa applications broadly. The Court takes the following facts, to the extent they are plausible, as true for the purposes of resolving the pending Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss. See Ralls Corp. v. Comm. on Foreign Inv. in U.S., 758 F.3d 296, 315 (D.C. Cir. 2014). Plaintiff Zechariah Sindt is a citizen of the United States. Compl. at ¶ 1. Plaintiff’s spouse, Sophea Chhem, is a citizen and resident of the Kingdom of Cambodia. Id. at ¶ 2. On April 15, 2020, Plaintiff filed a Form I-130 visa petition on behalf of his spouse, paying all applicable visa and filing fees. Id. at ¶¶ 16–17. USCIS approved the Form I-130 petition on December 8, 2020, completing its portion of the processing of the visa petition. Id. at ¶ 18. The visa petition was then transferred to the State Department’s National Visa Center (“NVC”), which completed its processing of the petition and sent it to the U.S. Embassy, Phnom Penh. Id. at ¶¶ 19–20. A consular officer from the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh interviewed Chhem in June of 2021, rejecting the petition for lack of a bona fide marriage and returning it to USCIS in August of 2021, where the petition remained at the time Plaintiff commenced this action in March of 2022. Id. at ¶¶ 20–22. In April of 2022, USCIS issued a Notice of Intent to Revoke its previous approval of Plaintiff’s petition, to which • …
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