APA review happens on the agency's record, and ordinary discovery is scarce. FOIA inverts the problem: request the record before choosing the fight, and pick the road with the file already open.
FOIA queues do not respect I-290B windows — the request often cannot return before the 30-day deadline. The play is parallel: preserve the challenge on time, integrate what the file yields at the brief or the next stage. And where the queue itself is the obstacle, the FOIA suit exists.
Sometimes — expedite criteria occasionally apply, and AAO briefing extensions plus supplemental submissions give the file a landing spot when it arrives late. Build the timeline assuming late.
Internal notes that don't match the decision's stated grounds, and prior-filing inconsistencies you can now explain preemptively rather than be ambushed by.
The request is cheap against any filing fee at stake. The realistic answer is that it's malpractice-adjacent to litigate a record nobody on your side has read.