UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA GUSTAVE AUGUSTIN, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Civil Action No. 23-76 (JEB) ANTONY J. BLINKEN, et al., Defendants. MEMORANDUM OPINION Wishing to bring his parents to the United States, Joseph Augustin, a U.S. Citizen, filed I- 130 Immigration Petitions for Alien Relatives on behalf of Plaintiffs, his Haitian-national father, Gustave Augustin, and mother, Marie Therese Gustave Chadic (Chadic), in May 2020. (To distinguish father from son and meaning no disrespect, the Court uses their first names hereafter.) As of January 2023, the U.S. Government had not yet scheduled visa-application interviews or otherwise adjudicated either Gustave or Chadic’s applications beyond marking them documentarily complete. To compel the Government to act, Plaintiffs therefore filed this action against the Secretary of State and other State Department officials. The delay in their visa adjudications, Plaintiffs argued, amounts to a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 555(b), 701 et seq. Since then, Gustave completed his interview with a consular officer at the U.S. Embassy in Haiti, who adjudicated Gustave’s application and refused it pending further processing. Chadic continues to await her consular interview. The Government now moves to dismiss, contending that Gustave’s claim has since become moot because his visa has been adjudicated and that the nine-month delay in scheduling Chadic’s consular interview is not unreasonable as a 1 matter of law. Because the Court ultimately finds that neither Plaintiff’s visa applications has been unreasonably delayed, it will grant the Motion. I. Background A. Legal Background For U.S. citizens seeking to bring their foreign relatives to this country, the Immigration and Nationality Act requires that the process begin with the filing of a Form I-130 petition with the United States Customs and Immigration Service. See 8 U.S.C. § 1154; 8 C.F.R. § 204.1(a)(1), (b). If the petition is approved, the foreign national must then go to his local U.S. consulate to complete visa processing, which includes submitting an online Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration Application (Form DS-260). See 22 C.F.R. § 42.67(a)(3). As part of this step, the I-130 petitioner must submit processing fees, forms, and supporting documents to the National Visa Center through the State Department’s Consular Electronic Application Center, which provides access to the case profile, processing steps, and case status. See Immigrant Visa Process, Dep’t of State, https://perma.cc/5EJZ-ZM97. After the NVC determines that all preliminary steps have been accomplished, it marks the case file as documentarily complete and works with the appropriate U.S. Embassy or Consulate to schedule an appointment for an in- person interview. Id.; 22 C.F.R. § 42.67(a)(3). After the interview, the officer must either issue the visa or refuse it. See id. § 42.81(a). If the latter, he “must inform the applicant of the provisions of law on which the refusal is based, and of any statutory provision under which administrative relief is available.” 9 Foreign Affairs Manual § 504.1-3(g). The officer need only make an initial, rather than final, determination about an applicant’s visa eligibility. In other …
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