Al Khateeb v. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services

Opinion

1 District Judge Tana Lin

7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 8 AT SEATTLE

9 MUATAZ YAHYA ABDULJABBAR Case No. 2:24-cv-00836-TL 10 AL KHATEEB, STIPULATED MOTION FOR 11 Plaintiff, EXTENSION OF DEADLINE AND v. [PROPOSED] ORDER 12 UNITED STATES CITIZENSHIP AND Noted for Consideration: 13 IMMIGRATION SERVICES, et al., February 13, 2025

14 Defendants.

15 16 Plaintiff and Defendants, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6 and Local Rule 17 10(g), and hereby jointly stipulate and move to extend the deadline for U.S. Citizenship and 18 Immigration Services (“USCIS”) to render a final determination on Plaintiff’s N-400, Application 19 for Naturalization, to thirty days after the agency receives Plaintiff’s response to the Notice of 20 Intent to Deny (“NOID”). A court may modify a deadline for good cause. Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(b). 21 Continuing pretrial and trial dates is within the discretion of the trial judge. See King v. State of 22 California, 784 F.2d 910, 912 (9th Cir. 1986). 23 Plaintiff brought this litigation pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1447(b), seeking adjudication of his 24 naturalization application. On December 17, 2025, this Court remanded Plaintiff’s naturalization 1 application to USCIS with instructions. Dkt. No. 13, Order. First, the Order requires USCIS to 2 conduct a follow-up interview with Plaintiff within 30 days. Order, at 4. USCIS conducted this 3 interview on January 15, 2025. Second, the Order requires USCIS to issue a final determination

4 on Plaintiff’s naturalization application within 30 days of the follow-up interview. Id. The parties 5 seek to extend this February 14, 2025 deadline for good cause. 6 On February 10, 2025, USCIS issued a NOID to Plaintiff. Plaintiff has until March 17, 7 2025 to respond to the NOID by submitting either a rebuttal or evidence to show that he can 8 overcome the listed grounds of denial. Plaintiff intends to submit a response. Once USCIS 9 receives Plaintiff’s response, it will need additional time to review it and issue a decision. The 10 parties agree that 30 days from the date USCIS receives Plaintiff’s response is a reasonable period 11 for this to occur. Plaintiff’s counsel agrees to notify Defendants’ counsel when the response is 12 submitted and provide tracking information. 13 As additional time is necessary for this to occur, the parties move to extend USCIS’s

14 deadline to issue a determination to 30 days from the date that USCIS receives Plaintiff’s response 15 to the NOID. The parties will submit a joint status report within 7 days of completion of 16 adjudication by USCIS. 17 18 // 19 20 // 21 22 //

23 24 // 1 DATED this 13th day of February, 2025

2 Respectfully submitted,

3 TEAL LUTHY MILLER GAIRSON LAW, LLC Acting United States Attorney 4 s/ Michelle R. Lambert s/ Jay Gairson 5 MICHELLE R. LAMBERT, NYS #4666657 JAY GAIRSON, WSBA No. 43365 Assistant United States Attorney Gairson Law, LLC 6 United States Attorney’s Office 4606 Martin Luther King Jr.. Way S. Western District of Washington Seattle, Washington 98108 7 1201 Pacific Avenue, Suite 700 Phone: 206-357-4218 Tacoma, Washington 98402 Email: jay@gairson.com 8 Phone: (206) 553-7970 Attorneys for Plaintiff Fax: (206) 553-4067 9 Email: michelle.lambert@usdoj.gov

10 Attorneys for Defendants

11 I certify that this memorandum contains 345 words, in compliance with the Local Civil Rules. 12

14 [PROPOSED] ORDER 15 IS SO ORDERED. 16

17 DATED this 14th day of February, 2025. 18

20 A 21 Tana Lin United States District Judge 22 23