Can you sue on a overseas visa case that is stuck at USCIS? Hi, I'm Jim Hacking, immigration lawyer practicing law throughout the United States out of our office here in St. Louis, Missouri.
If you've been watching our videos, you know that we sue USCIS a lot, and we sue the State Department a lot. And one of the lawsuits that we've been filing most often lately are situations where a case was approved at USCIS, processed through the National Visa Center, and then sent to the embassy for an interview, and then long delay after the interview.
But lately, we've been getting some calls for people who've had their overseas cases stuck at that very first stage at USCIS. I had a consult with a fellow yesterday. He filed his I-130 for his wife 18 months ago, and USCIS is still sitting on it.
It's going to eventually end up in Lebanon, but it hasn't even gotten started yet. So his case is still at USCIS. He has a receipt number, and that's all he has. And he makes calls, he does everything he can to try to get the case moving. But the only thing that's going to work is if he sues them. And we've been seeing some interesting results in these cases.
Lawsuits of this type take longer than the other kinds. So when there's been an embassy interview, and they're just waiting for the visa to issue, those are relatively easy to get processed in three or four months after you file the lawsuit. But when a case is stuck way back at USCIS, USA has to approve the case, then the case has to get sent to the National Visa Center, and then it has to go through the embassy.
So we're working with the US attorney to postpone deadlines and things to allow the process to run its course. And it's in a more condensed timeline. So we actually had one client who was so on top of things, we filed the lawsuit, his I-130 got approved, about six weeks later, his case got out of the National Visa Center, and sent to the embassy, and his spouse's interview was six weeks later.
So he got it all done in about five or six months. That's pretty rare. Usually when the case is stuck at the I-130 stage at USCIS, it takes about seven or eight months with a lawsuit. But at the end of the day, if your case has been pending at USCIS for 18 months, there's something wrong, and it's up on a shelf somewhere, and nobody's looking at it. So the lawsuit gets them to pay attention to that, and then it gets it processed faster.
No guarantee, of course, we can't guarantee any result in any case. But what we've been seeing so far is that as soon as we file that lawsuit, that I-130 gets adjudicated very quickly, and then the case gets sent over to the National Visa Center. I think part of that is USCIS likes to be done with it, and done with the lawsuit, and then to let the State Department deal with everything at the National Visa Center And the embassy.
So, that's how that works. It does take a little bit longer, but it does definitely work. We've probably done it about 10 or 12 times. If you have a case that stuck at USCIS, or at the embassy, give us a call. (314) 961-8200. You can email us at info at HackingLawPractice.com. Be sure to join us in our Facebook group, which is called Immigrant Home. And if you like this video, we ask that you please join us as a subscriber to our YouTube channel, and you'll get updates whenever I make videos just like this one. Thanks a lot. Have a great day.
