LAWSUIT PROSPECTUS:

Attorney Curtis Lee Morrison is onboarding plaintiffs for a group lawsuit for Iranian Family-Based visa applicants stuck in administrative processing, and their petitioners who live in the counties of Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Orange, Riverside, or San Bernardino.

LAWSUIT OBJECTIVE:

Our primary objective is accelerating the final adjudications of visa applications for our clients.

In this group lawsuit, will argue State Department policies that are responsible for delaying the final adjudications of the visa applications for our Iranian clients are unlawful, and the delays caused by those policies are unreasonable, and thus also unlawful.

WHAT PARTICIPATION INCLUDES:

Participants will be named plaintiffs in a group lawsuit filed on November 22, 2024, challenging unlawful policies and the resulting unreasonable delays.

Further, if the government Defendants decide to fight back with a motion to dismiss (which is likely), Attorney will continue their representation by opposing that motion to dismiss, and (if required), attending oral arguments on the motion. (Recently, several judges across the US have sympathized with immigrant plaintiffs and denied the government’s motions to dismiss. See: Curtis’ blog.)

Further, the Attorney, with much help from experienced paralegals, will provide consular processing support, guidance, and representation to named plaintiffs for the remainder of their immigrant visa journeys.

POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF LAWSUIT:

There are two potential benefits of participating in this group lawsuit:

(1) We know from a September 27, 2023 declaration from the State Department’s Carson Wu that, when notified of litigation, the Screening office (the office doing the vetting of DS-5535 responses in Washington, DC), assesses the visa case to determine whether the case is being processed consistent with existing standards.”

This has value. It is awful to be one of 61,000 applications being addressed by only 37 analysts and not in first-in, first-out order. However, it is much worse to not even be in that pool because the consular officer failed to send, or the SAC office failed to process correctly, the Security Advisory Opinion (SAO) request.

(2) It is our goal that participation in the lawsuit leads to the acceleration of the final visa adjudication. There are two ways this could happen. First, the State Department could decide to complete SAOs (which usually means final clearance and visa issuance) in order to moot out the claims of some or all visa applicant plaintiffs, either to improve their litigation position, or to impress the judge. Second, if we prevail on summary judgment (which could take several months), the judge could compel the State Department to complete SAOs (which usually means final clearance and visa issuance).

ATTORNEY: 

CURTIS LEE MORRISON

RED EAGLE LAW, L.C.

COURT: 

District Court for the Central District of California

DEFENDANTS:

ANTONY J. BLINKEN, in his official capacity as U.S. Secretary of State 

ROBERT JACHIM, in his official capacity as Acting Director, Office of Screening Analysis, and Coordination

DEADLINE TO PARTICIPATE: 

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2024

COMPLAINT FILING DATE: 

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2024

REQUIREMENTS TO PARTICIPATE:

1) Petitioner Plaintiffs must live in the jurisdiction of the DISTRICT COURT FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA, meaning in the counties of Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Orange, Riverside, or San Bernardino.

2) Petitioner Plaintiffs must have submitted a family-based immigration petition approved by USCIS for Beneficiary(s) who later attended immigrant visa interviews, but their applications are now in administrative processing and pending final decisions. 

3) The visa applicant(s) interview must have occurred at least 6 months before we file the complaint- so on May 21, 2024 or before.

4) Prospective participants must disclose any prior lawsuits filed to the attorney.

FEE TO PARTICIPATE:  
 

The attorney fees per petition is $2,000. There will not be deferred payments in this lawsuit.

DISCLOSURES:

1) The clients understand that there is a significant risk that clients will face other immigration barriers following the January 20, 2025 inauguration of President Elect Donald Trump, and it is unclear whether this litigation will provide an advantage to clients in overcoming those barriers.

2) The client understands that there are no guarantees as to the outcome of litigation.
 

3) The client understands that the government will never disclose when a visa is approved due to attorney’s efforts.
 

4) The client understands that participating in a lawsuit sometimes means public disclosure of private facts. For example, a Google search of the client’s name could bring up a record of the lawsuit on websites such as pacermonitor.com or courtlistener.com.
 

5) There will be multiple participants in the lawsuit, and attorney will need to prioritize the interests of the whole.

6) Attorney does not have professional liability insurance. (California law requires that attorneys who do not have that insurance disclose that they do not carry that insurance.)

7) The client understands that the attorney may have other attorneys and paralegals with Red Eagle Law, L.C. perform work related to the representation. Also, the attorney may include other attorneys who are not with Red Eagle Law, L.C. to also aid in the representation. 

HOW TO REGISTER?
 

Registration to participate in this group lawsuit will be online only. Online registration will be open, on this webpage only, until November 19, 2024.