NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT _______________ No. 19-2772 _______________ MELHA BATTOU, U.S. Citizen*; LOUIZA BATTOU, Sisters; NANCY A. SELZER; FREDI LOPEZ, Husband; CHRISTIAN TENA QUINTERO; ALBERTO TENA GARCIA, U.S. Citizen Son and Father; ESMERALDA LUCERO; PETRA ROSALES MORAN, U.S. Citizen Daughter and Mother; LEODAN GOBEA OTERO; HIGENIA OTERO FLORES; SIPRIANO GOBEA, U.S. Citizen Son, Mother and Father, Appellants v. SECRETARY UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE; JOHN DOES 1-200, in their official capacity as the consular officials responsible for issuing immigrant visas; DEPARTMENT OF STATE *Amended pursuant to the Clerk Order dated September 17, 2019 _______________ On Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey (D.C. No. 2:18-cv-03370) District Judge: Honorable Esther Salas _______________ Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) on January 30, 2020 Before: CHAGRES, RESTREPO, and BIBAS, Circuit Judges (Filed: April 29, 2020) _______________ OPINION* _______________ BIBAS, Circuit Judge. In a system that forbids advisory opinions, federal courts are not in the business of predicting the future. A group of U.S. citizens and their noncitizen relatives ask us to de- clare that a federal immigration law making certain aliens inadmissible does not apply to the relatives. But whether they will ever be subject to the law depends on the outcome of contingent events. Because their claims are not yet ripe, the District Court properly dis- missed their complaint for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. We will affirm. I. BACKGROUND A. The visa-application process for relatives of U.S. citizens This case is about the process that relatives of U.S. citizens must go through if they want a U.S. visa. Imagine that a U.S. citizen wants to sponsor a visa for her father, a native of Italy. The daughter must first file a Petition for Alien Relative on behalf of her father. See U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Servs., DHS, Instructions for Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, and Form I-130A, Supplemental Information for Spouse Beneficiary 1 (Feb. 13, 2019), https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-130instr.pdf. If the Government approves the petition, her father can then apply for a U.S. visa. Id. at 6. * This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and, under I.O.P. 5.7, is not binding precedent. 2 The process for the father depends on his status and location. If he lives abroad (say in Italy), he must schedule an in-person interview at a U.S. embassy or consulate there to complete his application. If the father already lives in the United States on some temporary legal basis, he can apply to adjust his status to lawful permanent resident without leaving the United States for an interview. See 8 U.S.C. § 1255(a). But if he lives here illegally, he typically does not have that option. See id. § 1255(a), (c). Instead, he must return to Italy for an in-person interview. Doing so would not be as easy as buying a round-trip flight. Under the statutory unlaw- ful-presence provision, aliens who leave the country after living here unlawfully for one year or more ...
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