Four more new mandamus actions filed this week

We have filed four more new mandamus action in the federal district court for Northern California. One case is a new kind worth mentioning here. This case involves the denial of immigrant visa to our client's husband and two stepchildren by the visa officer in American Consulate in Guangzhou, China. Based on past experience, consular return and CIS action on returned petitions may take years and our client did not want to wait. We are asking the court to compel the consulate to immediately return the petition and the CIS to make a decision in a reasonable time, not in years.

Recently, we see an increasing number of consular refusals of family immigrant visas, especially those involving marriages. Most families cannot wait for years to have their chance to be heard so they practically abandon their petitions. As a result, many families are dissolved. Our client is determined not to let this happen to her. We will report later on the development of this case.

We are also in the process of filing a declaratory judgment in federal court on CSPA's retention of priority date provision(INA section 203(h)(3)). When parents are immigrated to the U.S., if their son or daughters are aged out under CSPA, the law provides that the parent can file a new I-130 and use the original priority date of the old petition. In our case, the old priority date is 1991. CIS has failed to promulgate regulations or issue policy memorandum on this issue. Asa result, USCIS refuses to accord the old priority date to the new I-130. As far as we know, this would be the first such lawsuit in federal court. We will again discuss the progress of this lawsuit when it becomes available.