A federal judge in Washington, D.C., dismissed a lawsuit Friday brought by a German citizen against Secretary of State Marco Rubio, ruling that a nine-month wait for a visa decision does not qualify as an “unreasonable delay” under federal law.
Raheel Sadiq, who first began his quest for a B1/B2 travel visa in 2018, sued the State Department in July 2025 after his application became stuck in administrative processing for a second time. Despite Sadiq’s argument that he has been waiting for the better part of seven years to visit the United States, U.S. District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan ruled that the legal “clock” reset when he filed a new application late last year.
The case, Sadiq v. Rubio, centered on whether the government had sat on the application for too long. Sadiq sought a writ of mandamus to force the government to make a final decision, claiming the stall “inflicts ongoing human and economic harm.”
However, the court applied a specific set of legal guidelines known as the “TRAC factors” to determine if the government was moving too slowly. Judge Sooknanan noted that while Sadiq felt the delay started in 2018, legal precedent in the District dictates that the delay is measured from the last time the government took action.
Since Sadiq had a fresh interview in October 2024, the court calculated the actual delay as only nine months.
“While there is currently no bright line that makes a delay per se unreasonable, nine months is simply not enough,” the judge wrote in the opinion.
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The court also addressed the issue of “queue-jumping.” The government argued that if the court forced Sadiq’s application to the front of the line, it would unfairly push back other applicants who are also waiting. The judge agreed, noting that a judicial order “would simply move all others back one space and produce no net gain.”
In her conclusion, Judge Sooknanan acknowledged the personal toll the long wait has taken on the plaintiff. “The Court understands Mr. Sadiq’s frustrations with the well-documented delays in our visa-adjudication system,” she wrote, but ultimately determined the facts did not support a claim for unreasonable administrative delay.
The dismissal ends the current legal challenge, leaving Sadiq’s visa status in the hands of the State Department’s ongoing administrative process.
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