09/16/2026
USCIS HAS HAD MY CASE FOR YEARS. CAN I SUE?
Sometimes—but an APA or mandamus lawsuit is not a magic button that forces USCIS to approve a case.
A federal lawsuit may be available when:
• USCIS has a legal duty to take a specific action;
• the agency has unreasonably delayed that action;
• the applicant has taken the required administrative steps; and
• no statute prevents the federal court from reviewing the claim.
Even then, a judge will usually be asked to order USCIS to make a decision—not to order USCIS to approve the application.
A new published Ninth Circuit decision involving U-visa petitioners illustrates the limits.
The court held that advance parole for certain U-visa petitioners is discretionary. Because USCIS was not legally required to grant or consider that discretionary benefit under the circumstances presented, the court could not compel it through the Administrative Procedure Act.
But the court left open part of the challenge concerning USCIS’s delay in making U-visa waiting-list determinations. That claim was sent back for additional consideration of whether the petitioners suffered concrete harm from the delay.
The lesson is important: the age of the case alone does not determine whether an APA or mandamus lawsuit is viable.
The analysis may be different for:
• U-visa petitions and waiting-list determinations
• I-130 family petitions
• I-485 adjustment applications
• asylum applications
• naturalization applications
• waivers and other immigration benefits
I am preparing a question-and-answer discussion about lawsuits against USCIS for unreasonable delay.
What questions do you have?
Please do not post your A-number or other confidential information. You may identify the type of application, when it was filed, its current status, and what USCIS has—or has not—done.
This is general legal information and not legal advice about any individual case.
USCIS ImmigrationAttorney FederalCourt
