A caller named Cliff came to the Immigration Answer Show with two citizenship cases sitting in the same USCIS pipeline, both stalled. His wife’s N-400 naturalization application was filed in April 2025; she interviewed in August, answered a tax-document request that same month, and heard nothing since. His own N-600 certificate-of-citizenship application had gone to biometrics in September 2025, where an officer told him the system already showed him as a citizen, and then went quiet too.
Each application has its own lever. The N-400 is past the point where the law gives USCIS a hard deadline. Under 8 U.S.C. § 1447(b), once an applicant has been examined at the naturalization interview, the agency has 120 days to decide; if it does not, the applicant can ask a federal district court to decide the case or send it back with instructions.
mic What the Attorney Says
“The law says that if you go in for your interview and you pass your test, USCIS only gets 120 days to decide yes or no … And obviously, if she had her interview in the fall of 2025, we’re well past 120 days.”
The N-600 has no 120-day clock, but delay itself is the claim. The Administrative Procedure Act requires an agency to decide a matter within a reasonable time, and a mandamus action asks a court to compel a decision that is unreasonably withheld (5 U.S.C. § 706(1); 28 U.S.C. § 1361).
mic What the Attorney Says
“There are these things called the Administrative Procedures Act lawsuits that basically says any agency that has … a matter before it has to decide it in a reasonable amount of time.”
Cliff’s N-600 should be a clean approval. He entered as a lawful permanent resident, was 14 and living in his parent’s custody when that parent naturalized, and that combination confers automatic citizenship under the Child Citizenship Act, INA 320 / 8 U.S.C. § 1431. The certificate only documents a status he already holds, which is why the biometrics officer could see it in the system. It is the kind of case where the paperwork, not the eligibility, is the delay.
Because both applications are stuck at the same agency, Hacking’s practical answer was to file them together rather than pay for two separate suits.
mic What the Attorney Says
“We could sue them for both. … We could put your N-600 and her N-400 all in one lawsuit and just do it like that if you want.”
One caution the call surfaced: the wife’s file went quiet after a request for tax records, which is common at naturalization and where good-moral-character questions live. Before litigating, it is worth confirming the RFE was fully answered, because an N-400 interview runs on IRS transcripts, not the returns you kept. Once the record is complete and the 120 days have run, the delay is the agency’s to justify. As the firm has seen with other court-ordered naturalizations under 1447(b), mailing a copy of the complaint is often enough to shake a decision loose.
Sources
- 8 U.S.C. § 1447(b) — Request for hearing before district court (Cornell LII) open_in_new
- 8 U.S.C. § 1431 — Children born outside the U.S., automatic citizenship (Cornell LII) open_in_new
- USCIS — Form N-600, Application for Certificate of Citizenship open_in_new
- USCIS — Form N-400, Application for Naturalization open_in_new
- 5 U.S.C. § 706 — Scope of review (Cornell LII) open_in_new
- Immigration Answer Show — episode 1082 (July 9, 2026) open_in_new