Mandamus decisions / Eastern District of Virginia

Estrada v. Miller

Eastern District of VirginiaMichael S NachmanoffDecided January 9, 2024No. 1:23-cv-00402

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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	USCIS Read by a model Plaintiffs Ronald and Katherine Estrada ask the Court to compel the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) to adjudicate Mr. Estrada’s Form I-601A, Application for Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver.
Form or filing	I-601A (provisional waiver) Read by a model Plaintiffs Ronald and Katherine Estrada ask the Court to compel the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) to adjudicate Mr. Estrada’s Form I-601A, Application for Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver.
What the suit asked for	Decide the application Read by a model Plaintiffs Ronald and Katherine Estrada ask the Court to compel the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) to adjudicate Mr. Estrada’s Form I-601A, Application for Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver.
Kind of order	A ruling on a motion or the petition Read by a model ORDERED Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction (Dkt. 4) is DENIED.
Motion decided	Motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction Read by a model This matter comes before the Court on Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction (Dkt. 4).
Whose motion	The government's motion Read by a model This matter comes before the Court on Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction (Dkt. 4).
Disposition	Denied in the applicant's favor The principal motion was denied in full: a motion to dismiss denied so the case goes on, or relief denied on the merits. Read by a model ORDERED Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction (Dkt. 4) is DENIED.
Prevailing party	Applicant Read by a model ORDERED Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction (Dkt. 4) is DENIED.
The delay claim	The delay claim goes on Read by a model ORDERED Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction (Dkt. 4) is DENIED.
Months pending	39.8 months from the application to the court's decision Read by a model Mr. Estrada submitted a Form I-601A on September 16, 2020, which USCIS has yet to adjudicate.
TRAC factors	The court did not weigh the TRAC factors Read by a model
Threshold rulings	None Read by a model
Nationality	Guatemala Read by a model Mr. Estrada must return to his native Guatemala for consular processing.

How the case ended

Docket: No. 1:23-cv-00402
Filed: March 26, 2023
Ended: March 6, 2024
Suit's filing to its end: 346 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 Fourth 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.

Norton v. Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, 542 U.S. 55

Supreme Court, June 14, 2004. Section 706(1) and mandamus reach only a discrete agency action that the agency is legally required to take, so a court cannot compel programmatic improvements or action the law leaves to agency discretion.

ImmCite: treatment available, history exists, not clearance
Gonzalez v. Cuccinelli, 985 F.3d 357

Fourth Circuit, January 14, 2021. Courts may review delay in placing U-visa petitioners on the waitlist under the TRAC factors and should not dismiss such claims at the pleading stage, but lack jurisdiction over delay in pre-waitlist work-permit requests, a point on which the Sixth Circuit disagrees.

ImmCite: caution, adverse or limiting treatment found. Rejected in the Sixth Circuit by Barrios Garcia v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 25 F.4th 430 (2022).
Lovo v. Miller, 107 F.4th 199

Fourth Circuit, July 3, 2024. The 'decision or action' language of § 1182(a)(9)(B)(v), which the court treated as coextensive with § 1252(a)(2)(B)(ii), does not reach USCIS inaction, so a district court may hear a claim that USCIS unreasonably delayed a provisional unlawful-presence waiver.

ImmCite: treatment available, history exists, not clearance. ImmCite has read all 5 published decisions citing this case, as of 2026-10-29; none treats it adversely. That describes those decisions; it is not a determination that the case is good law.