Sychev v. Cuccinelli

District Court, District of Columbia·Decided March 30, 2022·No. Civil Action No. 2020-3484·Published

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

KIRILL SYCHEV, Plaintiff,

v. Civil Action No. 20-3484 (CKK)

UR M. JADDOU, et al., Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

(March 30, 2022)

In this action, Plaintiff Kirill Sychev (“Plaintiff” or “Sychev”) seeks injunctive and mandamus relief ordering officials of the United States Department of State (“State Department”) and the United States Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) to more expeditiously act on his Form I-526 petition for an EB-5 immigrant investor visa pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act’s (“APA”) bar on “unreasonabl[e] delay[].” 5 U.S.C. § 706(1). Because DHS has already conveyed Plaintiff’s visa application for processing to the State Department’s National Visa Center (“NVC”), the Court shall dismiss as moot the complaint as against the DHS Defendants. As for the State Department Defendants, the Court shall order additional briefing from the parties before ruling. Accordingly, and upon review of the pleadings, 1 the relevant legal authority, and the record as a whole, the Court shall GRANT IN PART AND HOLD IN ABEYANCE IN PART Defendants’ [15] Motion to Dismiss.

1 The Court’s consideration has focused on the following:

• Plaintiff’s Complaint, ECF No. 1 (“Compl.”);

• Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss and Memorandum in Support Thereof, ECF No. 15 (“Mot.”);

• Plaintiff’s Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Defendants’ Motion Motino to Dismiss, ECF No. 16 (“Opp.”); and

I. BACKGROUND

The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program The Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”), U.S.C. §§ 1101 et seq., authorizes the issuance of “EB-5” visas to immigrants who have “invested” capital in a “new commercial enterprise” that “will benefit the United States economy and create full-time employment” for ten citizens or non-citizens with work authorization. 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(5)(A)(i)-(ii). Through this process, the applicant must have also made a direct investment of at least $1,000,000 or an investment of $500,000 into a “targeted employment area.” § 1153(b)(5)(C)(ii). 2 A “targeted employment area” is a “rural area or an area which has experienced high unemployment.” § 1153(b)(5)(B)(ii); see also 8 C.F.R. § 204.6(e).

At the time of the complaint, the law offered EB-5 applicants a second route through investing into a “regional economic center.” See Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 1993, Pub. L. No. 102-395, § 610(a), 106 Stat. 1828, 1874 (Oct. 6, 1992); 8 C.F.R. § 204.6(m). These regional centers combine the funds of many investors and channel them to enterprises that “increase[] export sales, improve[] regional productivity, job creation, or increase[] domestic capital investment.” 8 C.F.R. § 204.6(m)(3)(i). A foreign investor’s investment in an approved Regional Center satisfies the

• Defendants’ Reply in Support of Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss, ECF No. 17 (“Repl.”).

In an exercise of its discretion, the Court has concluded that oral argument would not assist in the resolution of the pending Motion. 2 Effective November 21, 2019, the threshold amounts required for EB-5 investments were increased from $1,000,000 to $1,800,000 generally and from $500,000 to $900,000 for targeted employment areas. See Final Rule, EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program Modernization, 84 Fed. Reg. 35,750, 35,808 (Jul. 24, 2019). The Government notes that “[b]ecause Plaintiffs filed their petitions before the requisite amounts were changed, they may still qualify under the old amounts.” See Def.’s Mem. at 2 n.3.

EB-5 “employment-creation” requirement by creating jobs indirectly. Id. §§ 204.6(j)(4)(iii), 204.6(m)(7)(ii).

To receive an EB-5 visa, an applicant must first file with USCIS a petition for classification as an EB-5 investor, using a “Form I-526.” See 8 C.F.R. § 204.6(a), (c). Once the Form I-526 is approved by USCIS, the applicant must still wait for a visa to become available, which, the D.C. Circuit has observed, “may take years,” Mirror Lake Village, LLC v. Wolf, 971 F.3d 373, 375 (D.C. Cir. 2020); see also Nohria v. Renaud, No. 20-cv-2086-BAH, 2021 WL 950511, at *2 (D.D.C. Mar. 14, 2021) (“Successful adjudication and approval of an I-526 petition makes a petitioner eligible for a visa, but does not automatically provide a visa.”(emphasis added)).

Because the INA limits the total number of visas available each fiscal year and allots percentages of visas by country and type of visa, 3 when the demand for visas is higher than the supply, visa petitions are queued based on their “priority date”—typically the date the visa petition was filed with USCIS. 8 U.S.C. § 1153(e); 8 C.F.R. § 204.6(d). A petitioner then becomes eligible for a visa when the “priority date” is listed for the applicant’s country and visa category in the State Department’s monthly Visa Bulletin. See Haider v. U.S. Deo’t of Homland Sec., No. 20-3808 (CKK), 2021 WL 5630794, at *2 (D.D.C. Dec. 1, 2021). Finally, a State Department consular officer conducts an interview with the applicant and ultimately approves or denies the visa. Id.

3 At the time of the complaint, the INA limited the total number of immigrant visas per year, the total number of employment-based visas granted to individuals from a given country, and also limits EB-5 visas to 7.1% of all employment-based visas granted. 8 U.S.C. § 1151 (a)(2), (b)(5)(A), (d).

Since its inception, the Program had been repeatedly reauthorized by statute. U.S.

Immigration Fund-NY LLC v. Mayorkas, No. 21-0358 (CKK), 2022 WL 715239, at *2 (D.D.C. Mar. 10, 2022). The Program, however, expired on July 21, 2022, and, for its part, DHS ceased review of Form I-526 petitions. See id. at *3. On March 15, 2022, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. signed the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act into law, reauthorizing the Program and EB-5 visa applications tied to the program. See Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2022, Pub. L. 117-103, 136 Stat. 49, 1075 (2022). In particular, the law forbids the denial of a Form I-526 petition on the basis of the prior lapse in the Program’s statutory authorization. Id. at 1109.

Factual Background

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