McEntee Law Group and Lee & Godshall-Bennett are considering filing a suit on behalf of Chinese student visa applicants who are experiencing long delays in administrative processing.
We will represent any Chinese citizen with a pending F-1 application who received a refusal notice under INA Section 221(g) at their visa interview and has been waiting 180 days or more for an approval or confirmation of refusal.
The Administrative Procedure Act mandates that government agencies adjudicate cases within a reasonable period of time. We believe that the amount of time that the US government is taking to process these applications constitutes an unreasonable delay under the Administrative Procedure Act.
This suit is being filed as a mass action, not a class action. It only affects you and the other plaintiffs. A class action would take more time and would not guarantee a better result.
In unreasonable delay cases, we ask the court to make the government adjudicate to approve or deny the visa application. The outcome of litigation is unpredictable. But our team has evaluated the issues involved and believes there is a reasonable expectation of success.
We will represent you to the best of our ability, but success is not guaranteed.
Even if we succeed, there is no certainty that your individual case will result in an approval.
We will likely not see results for several months after filing. The government is typically required to respond within 60 days of being served with the suit. However, it is possible for the court to grant the government extensions to respond.
We are charging $2,500 per plaintiff to participate in the suit.
This is a one-time fee due upon applying to participate and non-refundable once we file the suit with the Federal District Court. Should we decline to file the suit for any reason (such as not having enough plaintiffs to make mass action viable) or if your case is resolved before we file the suit, you will be refunded your fee.
Apply to Participate →
We are accepting new plaintiffs until .
James Hollis is Partner and Head of Sports, Entertainment, and Business Immigration at McEntee Law Group in Chicago, IL. Prior to his current firm, Mr. Hollis was a member of the IMMpact Litigation team, where he helped challenge unreasonable delays in visa adjudications stemming from Trump and Biden administration visa bans.
Eric Lee and Chris Godshall-Bennett are partners at Lee & Godshall-Bennett LLP. They have represented clients in high-profile lawsuits challenging decisions by the U.S. government in immigration matters including deportation, detention, and visa refusals. Mr. Lee argued the Dept. of State v. Muñoz case before the United States Supreme Court in 2024. Mr. Godshall-Bennett is former Legal Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and has been involved in defending the rights of victims of police brutality, students facing retaliation for their political activism, prisoners denied basic care and dignity, employees fighting workplace discrimination, and non-citizens facing detention and deportation.
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Is there a risk of backlash if I participate in the suit?
We have found that people who file a lawsuit are more likely to be treated better than people who don’t. Defending a suit is expensive and time-consuming for the government, so they will want to make sure they adjudicate a plaintiff’s case carefully.
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What if I already have another lawyer?
If you are represented by counsel, you should discuss with them whether joining this suit makes sense for you. We will not be representing you with respect to your individual case and can’t advise on your individual case strategy as a part of this litigation.
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What if I don’t already have another lawyer?
You are welcome to hire one of our firms if you need individual representation apart from this litigation.
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How will you protect our personal information during the suit?
We will collect your information via our secure portal so that there’s no need to use email for sharing personal information. Any filings that we share amongst the plaintiffs will be properly redacted beforehand. All submitted information and documents will be destroyed 7 years after completion of the suit.
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What does the process look like once we’ve been accepted as plaintiffs?
Once you’ve been accepted as a plaintiff and the suit has been filed, all communications will happen via the portal. You will receive email notifications as we share filings and updates on the suit or need to request additional information from you. You will also be able to update us via the portal on whether your individual case has been resolved.
We may also conduct Q&A livestreams as events in the suit warrant.