Writ of Mandamus
Writ of Mandamus is a judicial remedy available to applicants whose immigration cases have been outside normal processing times. Once a writ of mandamus lawsuit is filed with a federal district court, USCIS or U.S. consulate must take action within a certain period (generally within 90 days).
If your immigration case belongs to one of the following and it has been significantly delayed by USCIS or U.S. consulate for a long time, you can file a writ of mandamus lawsuit to push USCIS or U.S. consulate to take immediate action within 90 days:
- I-589 asylum application
- I-485 application for adjustment of status
- N-400 application for naturalization
- I-730 petition for refugee or asylee’s relative
- I-130 immigrant petition for alien relatives
- I-140 immigrant petition for alien worker
- I-601/I-602 application for waiver
- I-360 immigrant petition for special aliens
- I-751 petition to remove conditions on residence
- I-526 immigrant petition by investor
- I-829 petition by investor to remove conditions on residence
- DS-260 application for immigrant visa
Before filing a writ of mandamus lawsuit, you should figure out whether your immigration case has been outside normal processing times. For most USCIS applications, you can check normal processing times at USCIS’s website site. For I-589 asylum applications, USCIS doesn’t provide processing times information. Nevertheless, as long as an I-589 application has been pending for more than three years, you are qualified to file a writ of mandamus lawsuit.
It should be aware that a writ of mandamus lawsuit will not guarantee your immigration case gets approved. The purpose of writ of mandamus is just to push USCIS or U.S. consulate to take immediate action. Depends on your application type and application stage, such immediate action can be schedule an interview, send a request for evidence, or reach a final decision (approval or denial) on your application.
