Passim

Mandamus decisions / District of Columbia

Sedaghatdoust v. Blinken

District of ColumbiaTREVOR N. McFADDENDecided May 23, 2024No. 1:23-cv-03218

Read the decisionOriginal on CourtListener

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What the decision decided

Each value cites the passage it was read from. Values read by a model were checked against that passage; values read by rule come from fixed text patterns. Read the decision before relying on either.

Agency Department of State Read by a model
The State Department has refused Sedaghatdoust’s visa application.
Form or filing 221(g) (consular refusal); DS-160 (nonimmigrant visa) Read by a model
Alireza Sedaghatdoust applied for an “Alien Fiancé visa” to join his U.S.-citizen fiancée in this country.
What the suit asked for Finish 221(g) processing Read by a model
Sedaghatdoust sued a handful of State Department officials, arguing that they have unreasonably delayed a decision on his application, and seeking a writ of mandamus to compel them to adjudicate it.
Kind of order A ruling on a motion or the petition Read by a model
Thus, the Court will grant the Motion to Dismiss.
Motion decided Other motion to dismiss Read by a model
Because the Government has moved to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b),
Whose motion The government's motion Read by a model
Defendants have moved to dismiss Sedaghatdoust’s claims.
Disposition Dismissed The case or every delay claim was dismissed for a reason other than mootness. Read by a model
Thus, the Court will grant the Motion to Dismiss.
Prevailing party Government Read by a model
Thus, the Court will grant the Motion to Dismiss.
The delay claim Dismissed Read by a model
Thus, the Court will grant the Motion to Dismiss.
Months pending 17.2 months from the application to the court's decision Read by a model
He submitted that petition in December 2022.
TRAC factors The court weighed the TRAC factors
  • 1. Rule of reasonfavors the government
  • 2. Congressional timetablefavors the government
  • 3. Human health and welfarefavors the applicant
  • 4. Competing prioritiesfavors the government
  • 5. Interests prejudicedfavors the applicant
  • 6. No impropriety neededfavors the government
Read by a model
The first two TRAC factors “strongly favor” the Government because “Congress has not supplied a rule of reason” or “statutory deadline” for processing visa applications like this one.
The government's delay arguments Line-jumping accepted Read by a model
The fourth likewise “strongly disfavors” Sedaghatdoust, because granting his application would enable “line jumping,” putting his application “ahead of longer-pending petitions.”
Threshold rulings Consular nonreviewability applied; No duty to re-adjudicate a 221(g) refusal Read by a model
So under the consular nonreviewability doctrine, Plaintiff is out of luck. The Court can give him nothing that he wants.
Nationality Iran Read by a model
Plaintiff Alireza Sedaghatdoust is an Iranian national

How the case ended

Docket
No. 1:23-cv-03218
Filed
October 26, 2023
Ended
May 23, 2024
Suit's filing to its end
210 days
How it ended
Dismissed, ground not recorded
From the record
idb disp 14 (dismissed: other)

A voluntary or stipulated dismissal is how most suits end once the agency acts; the docket rarely says why. Other suits in this court.

Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit authority

District decisions bind no one. On the questions this decision raises, the Supreme Court decisions and the circuit's published decisions listed here bind this court; a circuit disposition marked nonprecedential was not published as precedent and is persuasive only. ImmCite status as read November 3, 2026. Check the current status before relying on one.