Mehta v. DOS TRO Rejected

Mehta v. DOS TRO Rejected

The federal court has rejected the petition for a temporary restraining order that would have reinstated the original October Visa Bulletin. Instead, the revised October Visa Bulletin – the one that at the eleventh hour revoked the filing dates for thousands of imminent Green Card applicants – remains controlling. A class action suit was filed (Mehta v. DOS) in Seattle in the Western District of Washington. The requested relief was a temporary restraining order, which is an exceptionally difficult standard to meet.

The litigators and main parties suing remain optimistic. They were able to crowdfund 25,000 to fund the legal fight against the Department of State. The hope is that once all of the evidence is presented, the court will rule in favor of the plaintiffs. The other important aspect of the TRO was that it forced an explanation of the rescission of the original visa bulletin.

This lawsuit germinated from the rescission of the original October Visa Bulletin with a revised bulletin that rolled back many of the categories months and years. EB-3 and EB-2 categories were particularly hard hit and are the focus of the lawsuit, though there are many hopeful applicants in the family categories affected adversely. The visa bulletin is published monthly by the State Department in conjunction with USCIS, so that individuals know when they are able to file for their Green Cards based on priority dates. The visa bulletin published just priority dates until last month, when visa modernization manifested through a filing date and action date. The filing dates in the original October Visa Bulletin had many individuals hopeful that their time had finally come.

The November Visa Bulletin is expected Friday.