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PSV Enters., LLC v. United States Citizenship & Immigration Servs.

PSV Enters., LLC v. United States Citizenship & Immigration Servs.

United States District Court for the District of Columbia

May 25, 2021, Decided; May 25, 2021, Filed

No. 20-cv-2287 (KBJ)

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER TRANSFERRING CASE TO THE DISTRICT OF NEBRASKA

Plaintiff PSV Enterprises, LLC ("PSV") is a construction company headquartered in North Dakota. (See Compl., ECF No. 1, ¶ 7.) On August 19, 2020, PSV filed the instant action against the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS") and the Director of USCIS (collectively, "Defendants"), challenging the decision of USCIS's Nebraska Service Center ("NSC") to deny four Form I-140 petitions that PSV had submitted. (See id. ¶¶ 1, 8.) Broadly speaking, Form I-140 allows employers, such as PSV, to seek authorization for a non-citizen to work and permanently reside in the United States. See George v. Napolitano, 693 F. Supp. 2d 125, 128 (D.D.C. 2010); Ravulapalli v. Napolitano, 773 F. Supp. 2d 41, 44-45 (D.D.C. 2011). PSV had submitted Form I-140 petitions on behalf of four of its employees (see Compl. ¶ 7), and [*2]  in its complaint, PSV claims that NSC's decision to deny the four petitions violated the Administrative Procedure Act (see id. ¶ 4), because NSC did not comply with the Immigration and Nationality Act ("INA") or its accompanying regulations, and did not undertake reasoned decision making with respect to the denial determination (see id. ¶¶ 11-19, 46). As relevant here, PSV alleges, in particular, that NSC improperly rejected PSV's financial statements on the ground that they were not audited (see id. ¶¶ 36, 47-49), and that NSC failed to consider the other evidence that PSV had submitted with the petitions in order to demonstrate its ability to pay the employees' wages (see id. ¶¶ 50-51).1

Before this Court at present is a motion that Defendants have filed that seeks transfer of PSV's legal action to the District of Nebraska or the District of North Dakota pursuant to section 1404(a) of Title 28 of the United States Code. (See Defs.' Mot. to Transfer, ECF No. 13, at 1; see also Defs.' Mem. in Supp. of Mot. to Transfer ("Defs.' Mot."), ECF No. 13-1, at 1.)2 Defendants do not dispute that the District of Columbia is a proper venue, but they maintain that this case should be transferred "in the interest of justice[,]" because PSV's complaint concerns "final agency actions that were taken [*3]  in Nebraska" and "has no meaningful connection to the District of Columbia." (Defs.' Mot. at 1.) PSV responds that Defendants "reside in this District[,]" and that "USCIS's decision to deny the petitions at issue marks an agency-level policy determination, in violation of statute and regulation, as evidenced by the fact that multiple USCIS off[ic]ers made the same erroneous determination over time." (Compl. ¶ 6; see also Pl.'s Opp'n to Defs.' Mot. to Transfer Venue ("Pl.'s Opp'n"), ECF No. 16, at 1.)

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2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98188 *; 2021 WL 2115251

PSV ENTERPRISES, LLC, Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES, et al., Defendants.

CORE TERMS

petitions, transferring, venue, public interest factors, marks, courts, quotation, private interest factors, challenging, convenience, resides