Teresita Ching v. Alejandro Mayorkas

Teresita Ching and her husband, Brooke Joseph, claim that their procedural due process rights and their rights under the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”) were violated during the adjudication of Joseph’s 1-130 visa petition for an immediate relative. Under the circumstances of this case, we conclude that their rights under the APA were not violated, but their procedural due process rights were. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

I

Teresita Ching, a native of China and citizen of the Philippines, lawfully entered the United States on November 5, 2004 as a nonimmigrant visitor. Ching claims that she came to the United States intending to stay for one month, but then began dating Elden Fong, a U.S. citizen, whom she met on a dating website. Ching and Fong married on January 7, 2005, and Fong filed an 1-130 visa petition on her behalf. Eventually, Ms. Ching withdrew the 1-485 application for permanent residence and informed USCIS that she no longer wished to proceed as a beneficiary of Fong’s petition because she planned to divorce Fong, and USCIS denied the petition for abandonment. A year later, on December 27, 2007, Fong and Ching divorced.

On January 27, 2008,…