Most delay cases argue about what “reasonable” means. A stalled N-400 after the interview doesn't have to: Congress wrote a number into the statute, and when USCIS blows through it, the law hands the decision to a federal judge.
If USCIS fails to decide your naturalization application within 120 days of your examination — the interview — the statute lets you apply to the federal district court where you live, and the court may decide the application itself or remand with instructions. That is not a request for speed; it is a transfer of jurisdiction. It is the rare delay posture in which the judge could, in principle, administer the outcome rather than order the agency to hurry.
Post-interview holds are usually background-check stragglers, file transfers, or a “review” nobody will define. Pre-interview delays fall under the ordinary unreasonable-delay framework instead — still actionable, different statute. The interview date is therefore the first fact to pin down, receipts in hand.
Two federal statutes turn an unreasonable wait into a lawsuit. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1361, a district court can order a federal officer to perform a duty owed to you; under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 706(1), the court can “compel agency action unlawfully withheld or unreasonably delayed.” Neither statute lets a judge decide your case for the agency — the relief is an order to adjudicate, which is usually exactly what a stuck case needs.
Judges in the D.C. Circuit weigh the so-called TRAC factors: how long the delay has actually run, whether Congress supplied a timetable, what the agency says is in the way, and what the delay is costing you. Congress has said processing within 180 days is the expectation for immigration benefits — a sense of Congress, not a deadline, but courts read it as a benchmark. There is no magic month at which a delay becomes actionable; there is a record to build, and most of these cases end with the agency simply doing its job shortly after service.
Venue matters. These suits are filed in federal district court, and the District of Columbia — where the agencies live — is very often a proper venue. That is this firm's home court.
No — the 120-day clock runs from the examination. Pre-interview delays proceed as ordinary unreasonable-delay claims under the APA and mandamus statutes, which this section's general guide covers.
The suit concerns a case that is already not moving. The common government response is to complete adjudication promptly — many 1447(b) plaintiffs are scheduled for oath while the case is pending, and the suit is then dismissed as moot, which is the good ending.
Once jurisdiction vests in the court under 1447(b), whether USCIS can still act at all is contested ground the government must fight on — a much better posture than silence.