Mandamus decisions / District of Maryland

Niroomand v. United States Department of Homeland Security

District of MarylandJulie Rebecca RubinDecided July 3, 2025No. 1:24-cv-02103

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2,914 written decisions from 2,661 cases in the whole mandamus and agency-delay group, the group's newest decided October 30, 2026. Updated November 3, 2026 at 1:24 a.m. CT; the Passim connector counts the live collection, which can differ by the day's additions and retirements (which total to quote). Coverage: of the 1,606 public decisions since January 1, 2025 that a CourtListener and GovInfo search for mandamus and agency delay finds, Passim holds 1,371 (85%), measured November 3, 2026. Some of what that search finds are not mandamus decisions. Tell us about a decision we're missing.

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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 Further, according to Plaintiff, the State Department “is and has been complicit in the delay in processing [Mr. Niroomand’s] visa application.”
Form or filing	221(g) (consular refusal); DS-260 (immigrant visa) Read by a model Niroomand then filed an application for immigrant visa and alien registration with the State Department and paid the requisite fees.
What the suit asked for	Finish 221(g) processing Read by a model Plaintiff seeks relief including, relevant here, that this court “issue a writ of mandamus compelling Defendants to promptly complete all administrative processing within thirty days.”
Kind of order	A ruling on a motion or the petition Read by a model For the reasons that follow, by accompanying order, the Motion, construed as a motion to dismiss, will be granted.
Motion decided	Motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction; Motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim Read by a model The court therefore construes the motion as one for dismissal pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) (in addition to Rule 12(b)(1)).
Whose motion	The government's motion Read by a model Pending before the court is Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss or, in the Alternative, for Summary Judgment.
Disposition	Dismissed The case or every delay claim was dismissed for a reason other than mootness. Read by a model For the reasons set forth herein, by separate order, Defendant’s Motion (ECF No. 5), construed as a motion to dismiss, will be granted.
Prevailing party	Government Read by a model For the reasons set forth herein, by separate order, Defendant’s Motion (ECF No. 5), construed as a motion to dismiss, will be granted.
The delay claim	Dismissed Read by a model Accordingly, the court concludes that it lacks jurisdiction over Plaintiff’s request for mandamus and related APA claim arising from unreasonable delay.5 To the extent Plaintiff’s claims are based on same, they will be dismissed.
The other claims	Dismissed Read by a model For the reasons set forth herein, by separate order, Defendant’s Motion (ECF No. 5), construed as a motion to dismiss, will be granted.
Months pending	9.2 months from the application to the suit; 20.6 months from the application to the court's decision Read by a model Mr. Niroomand completed his consular interview in October 2023.
TRAC factors	The court did not weigh the TRAC factors Read by a model
Threshold rulings	No duty to re-adjudicate a 221(g) refusal Read by a model Plaintiff identifies no authority to support a finding that Defendants have a clear duty to review or readjudicate an application in administrative processing after a refusal.
Nationality	Iran Read by a model Mr. Niroomand is an Iranian citizen residing in Turkey.
I-130 category	Immediate relative Read by a model Plaintiff Shima Niroomand, a U.S. citizen, brings the instant mandamus action regarding her spouse’s, Nima Niroomand, visa application.

How the case ended

Docket: No. 1:24-cv-02103
Filed: July 22, 2024
Ended: July 3, 2025
Suit's filing to its end: 346 days
How it ended: Dismissed on jurisdiction or the merits
From the record: idb disp 3 (dismissed: lack of jurisdiction)

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.

Department of State v. Muñoz, 602 U.S. 899

Supreme Court, June 21, 2024. A U.S. citizen has no fundamental liberty interest in a noncitizen spouse's admission, so marriage alone entitles the citizen neither to Mandel review of the consular refusal nor to an explanation beyond the statutory citation.

ImmCite: treatment available, history exists, not clearance
Trump v. Hawaii, 585 U.S. 667

Supreme Court, June 26, 2018. Mandel's facially-legitimate-and-bona-fide standard governs constitutional challenges to entry restrictions, and a citation to a valid statutory ground ordinarily satisfies it.

ImmCite: treatment available, history exists, not clearance
Kleindienst v. Mandel, 408 U.S. 753

Supreme Court, June 29, 1972. When a visa refusal burdens a U.S. citizen's own constitutional rights, courts ask only whether the Executive gave a facially legitimate and bona fide reason and do not look behind it.

ImmCite: treatment available, history exists, not clearance
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
Sesay v. United States, 984 F.3d 312

Fourth Circuit, January 5, 2021. Consular nonreviewability bars review of a relative's visa refusal; under Din and Trump v. Hawaii a valid statutory citation satisfies Mandel, and the court will not look behind it absent a particularized showing of bad faith.

ImmCite: treatment available, history exists, not clearance. ImmCite has read all 4 published decisions citing this case, as of 2026-10-30; none treats it adversely. That describes those decisions; it is not a determination that the case is good law.
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.