UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ABDUL WALI KHAN, Plaintiff, v. Civil Action No. 22-2422 (JEB) DONALD BLOME and ANTONY BLINKEN, Defendants. MEMORANDUM OPINION Plaintiff Abdul Wali Khan is a Pakistani citizen who awaits a decision on his application for a J-1 visa, which he requires to enter the United States and enroll in a medical residency program. He contends that the seven months that he has waited for his visa to be issued or finally refused constitute an unlawful delay and asks the Court to order the Government Defendants to act. Defendants now move to dismiss. Because the Court finds that a decision on Khan’s visa application has not been unreasonably delayed, it will grant the Motion. I. Background The Court begins with an overview of the process for obtaining a J-1 visa and then turns to the background of Plaintiff’s claims and the procedural history of the case. The J-1 visa is a nonimmigrant “exchange visitor” visa that allows a foreign citizen to travel to the United States in order to teach or study. See U.S. Dep’t of Homeland Sec., Exchange Visitors (Apr. 22, 2020), https://bit.ly/3d1Nq32 [https://perma.cc/CPY6-QT4U] (USCIS J-1 Visa Information); 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(15)(J). As the J-1 visa is a nonimmigrant visa, J-1 visitors must return to their country upon completion of their program. Id. 1 The Department of State administers the J-1 exchange-visitor program by designating various public and private organizations as sponsoring entities. See USCIS J-1 Visa Information. To obtain a J-1 visa, an applicant must first “apply for and be accepted into an exchange visitor program through a designated sponsoring organization in the United States.” U.S. Dep’t of State, Exchange Visitor Visa (last visited Sept. 12, 2022), https://bit.ly/2wnrSFl [https://perma.cc/M9WA-JQ3F]. Upon acceptance to an approved program, she must then complete Form DS-160 (the Online Nonimmigrant Visa Application), submit biometric data, and attend an interview with a Department of State consular officer to determine eligibility for the visa. Id.; see 8 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1)(B); 22 C.F.R. §§ 41.102, 41.103. Once an applicant has properly completed each of these components, a consular officer “must issue the visa, refuse the visa, or,” in circumstances inapplicable here, “discontinue granting the visa.” 22 C.F.R. § 41.121(a). The officer need only make an initial, rather than final, determination about an applicant’s visa eligibility. In other words, under § 221(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), an officer can temporarily refuse to issue a visa in order to allow for further administrative processing of an applicant’s case if the officer needs more information or time to determine eligibility. See 8 U.S.C. § 1201(g); U.S. Dep’t of State, Administrative Processing Information (last visited Sept. 12, 2022), https://bit.ly/2GO3jEg [https://perma.cc/NK8K-9U8H]. The Department of State publishes visa-application statuses online, but, beginning in March 2020, changed its website to display the status of applications undergoing further administrative processing as “refused.” U.S. Dep’t of State, Visas: CEAC Case Status Change (March 5, 2020), https://bit.ly/3DkqCWP [https://perma.cc/K8XQ-F6UY] (Status Change Memo). This reporting change in such circumstances …
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