UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA VAN NU TU TRUONG, : : Plaintiff, : Civil Action No.: 21-316 (RC) : v. : Re Document No.: 9 : UNITED STATES CITIZENSHIP : AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES, et al., : : Defendants. : MEMORANDUM OPINION DENYING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR DISCOVERY I. INTRODUCTION In this case, Plaintiff Van Nu Tu Truong challenges an administrative denial of her petition for a visa. Currently before the Court is Plaintiff’s request to take discovery. Plaintiff acknowledges that discovery is not normally appropriate in Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”) cases, but argues that one of her claims—that United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) impermissibly applied a new policy to her case retroactively— does not rely on the APA. She is wrong about that, and does not argue that any exception to the APA “record rule” applies. Therefore, the Court denies the motion for discovery. But it does so without prejudice to Plaintiff bringing a new motion for discovery that draws upon the correct legal framework. II. BACKGROUND The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program offers permanent residency visas to individuals who invest qualifying sums in qualifying businesses in the United States. Compl. ¶ 1; see 8 U.S.C. § 1153 (b)(5); EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022, Section 103(b)(1), Pub. L. No. 117-103, 136 Stat. 49, 1075. Plaintiff Van Nu Tu Truong, a resident of Vietnam, obtained a qualifying amount under the relevant regulations—as applicable to her investment, $500,000— from selling property and by way of “a cash gift from her in-laws.” Compl. ¶¶ 2, 12, 29. She planned to invest in a qualifying busines entity, CMB Georgia Infrastructure Investment Group 51, LP, which was raising funds to build a lodge in LaGrange, Georgia. Id. ¶ 28. But Vietnamese law restricts the conversion of Vietnamese currency, so Plaintiff engaged in a common practice for EB-5 immigrants from countries with conversion restriction laws: she engaged in a currency swap. Id. ¶ 30; see id. ¶ 21. Specifically, she transferred about $550,000 in Vietnamese currency to a Vietnam-based affiliate of a Singaporean company, VNT Trading and Investment, Pte. Then, VNT Trading transferred $550,000 from its Singapore bank account to the Georgia investment entity. Id. at 30. The investment taken care of, Plaintiff filed an I-526 petition for an EB-5 visa with USCIS in December 2016. Id. ¶ 31. Mindful of the admonition of 8 C.F.R. § 204.6(e) that “[a]ssets acquired, directly or indirectly, by unlawful means (such as criminal activities) shall not be considered capital” that qualifies as an EB-5 investment, she included documentation of the sources of her invested funds: letters confirming her earnings, property sale documents, gift contracts, and papers documenting the transfer of funds from Plaintiff through VNT Trading. Compl. ¶¶ 13, 32. USCIS responded with a request for evidence that VNT Trading had converted and transferred the funds lawfully. Id. ¶ 33. In response, Plaintiff provided evidence including “a certificate from Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority[] documenting VNT Trading as a registered Singaporean company, …
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