Song v. Director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services

Opinion

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

9 DAMI SONG, Case No. 2:25-cv-00835-RSL 10 Plaintiff, STIPULATED MOTION TO HOLD 11 v. CASE IN ABEYANCE AND ORDER

12 DIRECTOR OF UNITED STATES CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION 13 SERVICES,

14 Defendant.

15 16 For good cause, Plaintiff and Defendants, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6 17 and Local Rules 7(d)(1), 10(g) and 16, hereby jointly stipulate and move to stay these proceedings 18 until November 17, 2025. Plaintiff brought this litigation pursuant to the Administrative Procedure 19 Act seeking an order compelling U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) to 20 adjudicate her Form I-829, Petition by Investor to Remove Conditions on Permanent Resident 21 Status. USCIS’s response to the Complaint is currently due on July 14, 2025. The parties are 22 currently working towards a resolution to this litigation. 23 Courts have “broad discretion” to stay proceedings. Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681, 706 24 (1997). “[T]he power to stay proceedings is incidental to the power inherent in every court to 1 control the disposition of the causes on its docket with economy of time and effort for itself, for 2 counsel, and for litigants.” Landis v. N. Am. Co., 299 U.S. 248, 254 (1936); see also Fed. R. Civ. 3 P. 1.

4 USCIS recently issued a Request for Evidence (“RFE”). Plaintiff has until September 18, 5 2025, to submit a response to the RFE. Once Plaintiff has submitted the response, USCIS will 6 need time to review it and continue with processing of her application. Because further litigation 7 may not be necessary after the review is completed, the parties agree that holding this case in 8 abeyance through November 17, 2025, is appropriate. Therefore, the parties believe good cause 9 exists for a stay in these proceedings to save the parties and this Court from spending unnecessary 10 time and judicial resources on this matter. 11 Accordingly, the parties request that the Court hold the case in abeyance until November 12 17, 2025. The parties will submit a joint status report on or before November 17, 2025. 13 DATED this 2nd day of July, 2025.

14 Respectfully submitted,

15 TEAL LUTHY MILLER BUCHALTER PC (SEA) Acting United States Attorney 16 s/ Michelle R. Lambert /s/ Kripa Upadhyay 17 MICHELLE R. LAMBERT, NYS #4666657 KRIPA UPADHYAY, WSBA #40063 Assistant United States Attorney Buchalter 18 United States Attorney’s Office 1420 Fifth Avenue, Suite 3100 Western District of Washington Seattle, Washington 98101 19 1201 Pacific Ave., Ste. 700 Phone: (206) 389-7007 Tacoma, WA 98402 Email: kupadhyay@buchalter.com 20 Phone: (253) 428-3824 Fax: (253) 428-3826 Attorneys for Plaintiff 21 Email: michelle.lambert@usdoj.gov

22 Attorneys for Defendant

23 I certify that this memorandum contains 289 words, in compliance with the Local Civil 24 Rules. 1 ORDER 2 The case is held in abeyance until November 17, 2025. The parties shall submit a status 3 update on or before November 17, 2025. It is so ORDERED. 4

5 DATED this 3rd day of July, 2025. 6

7 A 8 ROBERT S. LASNIK United States District Judge 9

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