UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ZAKIA NUSRAT, Plaintiff, v. Civil Action No. 21-2801 (TJK) ANTONY J. BLINKEN et al., Defendants. MEMORANDUM OPINION Zakia Nusrat is an American citizen who submitted visa petitions on behalf of her noncit- izen parents. She sued the Secretary of State and other government officials alleging that they have unreasonably delayed adjudicating her parents’ follow-on visa applications. She seeks a court order compelling adjudication of the applications, as well as declaratory and injunctive relief from a policy allegedly causing the delay. Defendants moved to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and failure to state a claim. For the reasons below, the Court will grant Defendants’ motion and dismiss the case. I. Background A. The I-130 Petition for Alien Relative The Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) authorizes the issuance of immigrant visas to certain relatives of U.S. Citizens. 8 U.S.C. § 1101 et seq.; Arab v. Blinken, No. 21-cv-1852 (BAH), 2022 WL 1184551, at *1 (D.D.C. Apr. 21, 2022). To obtain permanent resident status for qualifying foreign relatives under the INA, a U.S. citizen must submit Form I-130 (“Petition for Alien Relative”) to U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (“USCIS”). See 8 U.S.C. § 1154; 8 C.F.R. § 204.1(a)(1); see also Petition for Alien Relative, U.S. Citizenship & Immigr. Servs., 1 available at https://www.uscis.gov/i-130. If USCIS approves the petition, it is forwarded to the State Department’s National Visa Center, and the “foreign national is notified to go to the local U.S. consulate in [her] country to complete visa processing, which includes submitting [a Form DS-260 visa application] and appearing for an interview with a consular officer.” Ghadami v. United States Dep't of Homeland Sec., No. 19-cv-397 (ABJ), 2020 WL 1308376, at *1 (D.D.C. Mar. 19, 2020); see 22 C.F.R. §§ 204.2(a)(3), 42.67(a)(3). The consular officer must then either issue or refuse the visa. See Ghadami, 2020 WL 1308376, at *1. B. This Suit Nusrat alleges that in February 2018 she submitted I-130 petitions on behalf of her noncit- izen parents. ECF No. 1 ¶ ¶ 13–15. USCIS allegedly approved the petitions in October 2018 and forwarded them to the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh, for further review. Id. ¶ 13. After her parents submitted visa applications, Embassy officials interviewed her mother and father in December 2019 and January 2020, respectively. Id. ¶ 15. Nusrat alleges that Embassy officials then placed the applications in “administrative processing” and have made no final decisions. Id. ¶ 16. Nusrat further alleges that Defendants are “intentionally delaying” the adjudication of her parents’ applications because of the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program (“CARRP”), a Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) policy addressing “applications deemed to present potential ‘national security concerns.’” ECF No. 1 ¶ 37–41. The policy pur- portedly directs USCIS officials “to deny the application or delay adjudication” of applications that involve potential “national security concerns.” Id. ¶ 39. Nusrat alleges that CARRP affects applicants from mainly Muslim countries, such as her parents. Id. ¶ 41. 2 Nusrat …
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