UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA NAFISA BABAMURADOVA, et al., Plaintiffs v. Civil Action No. 22-1460 (JDB) ANTONY J. BLINKEN, et al., Defendants. ZULFIYA KHAMIDOVA, et al., Plaintiffs v. Civil Action No. 22-1990 (JDB) ANTONY J. BLINKEN, et al., Defendants. LEONID FATIKOV, et al., Plaintiffs v. Civil Action No. 22-2428 (JDB) ANTONY J. BLINKEN, et al., Defendants. MEMORANDUM OPINION Plaintiffs Nafisa Babamuradova, Zulfiya Khamidova, and Leonid Fatikov, along with their derivative family members, were selected to apply for a diversity visa in fiscal year (“FY”) 2022. Although they were selected to submit an application and did so in a timely manner, plaintiffs have not received an interview from the State Department, which is required to be considered for a diversity visa. In September 2022, each plaintiff filed a motion for temporary restraining order 1 (“TRO”) seeking to compel the State Department to schedule a visa interview before the September 30, 2022 end of fiscal year. For the reasons set forth below, the Court will deny plaintiffs’ motions. Background I. Diversity Visa Program Each fiscal year, the State Department allows citizens of certain underrepresented countries to submit an entry to the Diversity Visa program. Diversity visas are made available under the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) to promote immigration from countries that historically have had lower rates of immigration to the United States. See 8 U.S.C. § 1153(c)(1). Congress has capped the annual number of diversity visas at 55,000. Id. § 1151(a)(3), (e). A number of those are reserved for use under a separate program (established by the Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act), so the State Department estimates that only 54,850 diversity visas will actually be available this year. See Aug. 2021 Visa Bulletin [Babamuradova ECF No. 13-5] at 9. The number of entries or applicants vastly exceeds the number of spots available. Of the millions of entries, the Kentucky Consular Center (“KCC”) selects fewer than 150,000 applications each fiscal year and offers those people an opportunity to apply for a diversity visa. See Aug. 2021 Visa Bulletin at 9 (noting that in FY 2022 “[a]pproximately 119,021 applicants” out of over seven million entries were selected). KCC holds selected applicants’ cases “until those selected are entitled to make a formal application for a visa at a U.S. consular office abroad.” 9 Foreign Affs. Manual (“FAM”) § 502.6-4(c)(1)(b). An applicant’s selection by KCC does not guarantee that they will receive a visa, only that they will be given an opportunity to apply for one. See P.K. v. Tillerson, 302 F. Supp. 3d 1, 3 (D.D.C. 2017). KCC selects applicants using a random number system which generates “rank order number[s]” broken down into six geographic regions. See 9 FAM § 502.6-4(c)(2)(a)–(b). “Within 2 each region, the first entry randomly selected will have a rank order number 00000001, the second entry selected will be 00000002, etc.” Id. § 502.6-4(c)(2)(b). Applicants who are selected by KCC “will be instructed to complete Form DS-260, Online Application for Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration.” …
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