1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

IVELINA ALEKSANDROVA RUSEVA , P laintiff ,

v. RONALD ROSENBERG , District Director , Washington Field Office, U

.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services , 1 et al. , Defendant s . Case No. 20

- cv - 00630 (TNM)

MEMORANDUM OPINION P laintiff Ivelina Ruseva filed this action to compel the Government to adjudicate her stalled naturalization application. After t he C ourt remanded the matter to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services ( “ USCIS ” ) to furnish a decision, the agency denied Ruseva’s application. The Government now moves to dismiss the case as moot. Agreeing that there are no longer any live issues, the Court w ill grant the Government’s motion and dismiss the

case. I.
Ruseva , a Bulgarian national, became a Permanent Legal Resident of the United States in
2012 through her marriage to a U.S. citizen. Pl. ’s Pet

. f or Writ of Mandamus ¶ 11, ECF 1. In August 2017, Ruseva filed an Application for Naturalization (F orm N

- 400) with USCIS. Id

. ¶ 12. A USCIS o fficial interview ed Ruseva in May 2018 , but she did not receive a decision at

1 Under Fed. R. Civ. P. 25(d), Ronald Rosenberg, the current District Director of the Washington Field Office , automatically replaces Sarah Taylor , his predecessor

.2 that time or in the months that followed

. Id. ¶ 14. After repeated inquiries to the agency failed to elicit a decision or an update, Ruseva petitioned this Court i n March 2020

. Id. ¶ 15. She sued the Attorney General, Secretary of Homeland Security, FBI Director, and District Director of
USCIS’s Washington Field Office (collectively, the “ Government ” ) , alleging that their agencies unreasonably failed to adjudicate her n aturalization a pplication and thereby violated the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 701 et seq
. Id. ¶ ¶ 17

– 22. She s ought a writ of mandamus compelling the Government to adjudicate her application, as well as attorney’s fees, court costs, and “such other and further relief as this Court may deem proper.” 2 Id. ¶ 22.
In April 2020, USCIS s cheduled a second interview with Rus eva in June. Joint Status Rep. at 2, ECF No. 7. 3 The Court then granted the Government’s consent motion to stay the proceedings and remand this matter to USCIS. Defs. ’ Mot. to Remand and Stay Proceedings,
ECF No. 6. Ten days after the interview , the agency denied Ruseva’s Application for Naturalization. See Joint Status Rep

. Ex. 1 at 3 , ECF No. 7

- 1. USCIS concluded that Ruseva gave false testimony about her now

- dissolved marriage , rendering her ineligible for naturalization. Id. at 6

. Now that th e Court has lifted the stay, the Government moves to dismiss the case

. Defs.’ Mot. to Dismiss, ECF No. 8.
II. Article III’s case

- or - controversy requirement limits federal courts to adjudicating “actual, ongoing controversies.” Honig v. Doe , 484 U.S. 305, 317 (1988). “A case becomes moot

— and therefore no longer a ‘Case’ or ‘Controversy’ for purposes of Article III

— when the issues presented are no longer ‘live’ or the parti es lack a legally cognizable interest in the outcome.”

2 Th is Court has jurisdiction under the mandamus statute , 2 8 U.S.C. § 1361 , and the federal question statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1331. 3 All page citations refer to the pagination generated by the Court ’ s CM/ECF system.3 Already, LLC v. Nike, Inc. , 568 U.S. 85, 91 (2013) (cleaned up). A party may lack a cognizable interest in the outcome “ when , among other things, the court can provide no effective remedy because a p arty has already obtained all the relief that it has sought.” Conservation Force, Inc. v. Jewell , 733 F.3d 1200, 1204 (D.C. Cir. 2013) ( cleaned up ). A motion to dismiss for mootness is properly brought under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) becau se mootness deprives the court of subject matter jurisdiction. See Flores ex rel. J.F. v. D istrict of Columbia , 437 F. Supp. 2d 22, 27

– 29 (D.D.C. 2006). The plaintiff bears the burden of establishing jurisdiction by a preponderance of the evidence, id

. , but at this stage the Court “must treat the complaint ’ s factual allegations as true and afford the plaintiff the benefit of all inferences that can be derived from the facts alleged.” Olu

- Cole v. E.L. Haynes Pub. Charter Sch. , 376 F. Supp. 3d 77, 81 (D.D.C. 2019). The Court may, however, “consider materials outside the pleadings in deciding whether to grant a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.” Jerome Stevens Pharm., Inc. v. F DA , 402 F.3d 1249, 1253 (D.C. Cir. 2005).
III. The Government con tends that this case is moot because Ruseva has received all the relief that she desired : The adjudication of her pending naturalization application. Def s . ’ Mem

. at 2, ECF No. 8

- 1. The Court agrees. Ruseva’s petition asked this Court to compel the
Gove rnment to adjudicate her naturalization application, and USCIS did so when it denied her application in June 2020

. Now that Ruseva has secured a decision , she has lost a cognizable interest in the outcome of this matter

. 4 Ruseva has not moved to amend her petition , and th e

4 Although Ruseva ’ s petition also request ed attorney ’ s fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act (“EAJA”), 28 U.S.C. § 2412, she has not explained why she is entitled to an award as a “prevailing party” here

. See Maduka v. Meissner , 114 F.3d 1240, 1241 (D.C. Cir. 1997) (per4 Court can no longer provide any remedy to Ruseva because she “has already obtained all the relief that [she] ha s sought.” Conservatio n Force , 733 F.3d at 1204. Ruseva’s petition is therefore moot. At bottom, Ruseva does not refute this conclusion. In fact , her opposition to the Government’s motion does not even mention mootness. See Pl.’s Opp., ECF No. 9. Ruseva instead urges this Court to “ re tain jurisdiction ” over her case to promote “judicial efficiency.” Id . at 5. She explains that she might ask USCIS to reconsider its decision by filing a Form N

336 , might obtain another adverse decision from the agency , and then might pursue judicial review of that final agency denial by again filing in this C ourt

— this time under 8 U.S.C § 1421(c). Id . Ruseva stops short of asking to circumvent the agency appeals process and proceed straight to de novo review of USCIS’s decis ion

. But she requests that this Court “keep her federal case open” to ensure that the Government resolves any administrative appeal expeditiously and to spare her the expense of filing a new case should she end up back in federal court. Pl.’s Opp. at 6, ECF No. 9. The problem for Ruseva is that she invites th e Court to exercise power that it does not
possess . Even if it were so inclined, the Court cannot sit on a mooted case , no matter how strong its hunch that a new claim between the parties will arise later

. 5 “If a case is moot, the court must dismiss it for lack of jurisdiction.” Cierco v. Mnuchin , 857 F.3d 407, 414 (D.C. Cir. 2017). The

curiam) (explaining standard). Even if she had, a “ request for attorneys ’ fees does not preserve a case that is otherwise moot.” Friends of Keeseville, Inc. v. F.E.R.C. , 859 F.2d 230, 233 n.7 (D.C. Cir. 1988). A party seeking fees and expenses under the EAJA may apply to the Court within 30 days of the final judgment in the action. 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(1)(B). 5 In some c ases , factually mooted claims may be still review able under the doctrines of voluntary cessation o r capable of repetition yet evading review. See Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Envtl. Servs. (TOC), Inc. , 528 U.S. 167, 189

– 91 (2000) (describing doctrines). But Ruseva has not raised these arguments, and rightly so .5 Court cannot keep the engine running when the destination has been reached

. Ruseva grounds her invitation in a misr eading of out

- of

- circuit authorities. In those

cases, plaintiffs sued for relief under 8 U.S.C. § 1447(b), which gives a district court jurisdiction
to either remand a matter to USCIS or adjudicate a naturalization application itself when the
agency f ails to issue a decision within 120 days of an applicant’s examination. And those courts chose to “retain jurisdiction” specifically to adjudicate an application in first instance. See, e.g. , Kim v. McAleenan , No. 1:19

- CV

- 01212

- SKC, 2020 WL 1026494, at * 5 (D. Colo. Mar. 3, 2020) ( concluding that adjudication in federal court promoted “judicial efficiency”). Those are not the circumstances here, where Ruseva sought from this Court a writ of mandamus to compel USCIS
to act , and USCIS has now issued a decision. Nor do those cases justify th e C ourt retaining jurisdiction solely to hover over the agency and maintain pressure on it to timely adjudicate
Ruseva’s Form N

- 336 appeal

— assuming she has filed one or will file one

. Ruseva may not have received the answer she had hoped for when applying for naturalization, or the result that she thinks she deserve s . But she did receive what she asked for
f rom this Court: a djudication of her application. H er petition to this Court lacks any “substantive claim that seeks relief beyond just a timely ruling from USCIS

. ” Jafarz adeh v. Duke , 270 F. Supp. 3d 296, 30 3

– 0 4 (D.D.C. 2017) (dismissing request for mandamus relief as moot after USCIS adjudicated plaintiffs ’ applications , but rejecting motion to dismiss because challenges to agency policy remained live)

. Now that Ruseva h as an answer, the case is moot and must be dismissed.6 IV. For these reasons , the Government’s M otion to D ismiss will be granted. A separate Order will issue

.

Dated: September 22, 2020 TREVOR N. McFADDEN , U .S.D .J.