FOIA Litigation Lawyer — Immigration Records
The government holds the file. You need it. We force the issue.
When USCIS, ICE, CBP, or another federal agency sits on your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request — past the statutory deadline, without an answer, while your immigration case hangs in the balance — that silence is not a procedural inconvenience. It is a denial of the access the statute promises you. Whether you are the person whose A-file is stuck or the attorney trying to defend the case without it, you may have a federal-court remedy.
We are Novo Legal Group, a Denver-based, bilingual immigration and civil-rights firm with a federal-court practice. We sue the government over delayed and denied immigration-records requests, and we co-counsel FOIA / APA suits for other immigration attorneys whose clients need the file before the next hearing. Our results page documents the cases we have litigated when the federal government decided silence was easier than answering — see our federal-records and transparency results.
- Talk to a FOIA litigation attorney → (clients and families)
- Refer a case or co-counsel a FOIA/APA suit → (referring immigration attorneys)
When Your Federal Immigration Records Are Stuck, You May Have a Legal Remedy
The Freedom of Information Act gives every person the right to ask the federal government for its records — and a deadline by which the government has to respond. When the agency blows that deadline, the law does not require you to wait politely. It opens a path to federal court.
For people whose A-file or USCIS records are blocking an asylum claim, a green-card adjustment, a DACA renewal, a citizenship application, or a removal defense, the stakes are not academic. The records are the case. For referring attorneys facing a master-calendar or individual hearing date with no file in hand, the same is true.
You may be able to sue — to ask a federal district court to order the agency to do what the statute already requires. That is not a threat or a slogan. It is the remedy Congress wrote into 5 U.S.C. § 552, and federal courts hear FOIA cases regularly.
Two Ways We Help
We serve two audiences on this page, and we serve them differently. Pick the path that fits.
For Individuals & Families Whose Records Are Delayed or Denied
If you submitted a FOIA request for your A-file or other immigration records and the agency has gone silent — or sent you a denial, or claimed no records exist when you know better — we are the firm that picks up the phone and fights. We do not lecture you about a statute you did not write. We file the lawsuit that makes the agency answer.
Most of our FOIA-litigation clients come to us at one of three moments: the statutory deadline has passed and the agency will not engage; an administrative appeal of a denial went nowhere; or an immigration-court hearing is coming and the file still has not arrived. Each of those moments is a possible trigger for a federal-court complaint under FOIA — sometimes paired with an Administrative Procedure Act (APA) "unreasonable delay" claim or a mandamus petition. We will explain in plain language what your options actually look like for your situation.
You have rights. The agency has obligations. We make the agency keep theirs. Talk to a FOIA litigation attorney →
For Immigration Attorneys: Referral & Co-Counsel
If you practice immigration law and your client's A-file FOIA has stalled — or the USCIS denial of expedited processing is sitting on appeal while the merits hearing approaches — we handle the federal-court piece. You stay lead on the underlying immigration matter; we file the FOIA / APA complaint, brief it, and litigate it through to production or summary judgment.
We co-counsel and accept referrals from immigration-only firms and solo practitioners across the country. FOIA/APA suits are federal, and venue is flexible (the requester's residence, principal place of business, the District of Columbia, or where the records are located). That means we can usually file in the district that makes sense for your client and for the litigation.
Conflict-clean, scoped engagements, and clear referral economics. See our impact-litigation practice for the broader federal-court footprint that backs this offering. Refer a case or co-counsel a FOIA/APA suit →
What FOIA Litigation Can — and Cannot — Do
This is the part most websites get wrong. We will not.
What a lawsuit can accomplish
A FOIA lawsuit gives a federal court the authority to review whether the agency improperly withheld records that the statute requires it to release. If a court finds that the agency wrongfully withheld records, a court can order improperly withheld records released and set a production schedule the agency has to follow.
A federal court can also do several adjacent things that matter in practice. It can review the adequacy of the agency's search and order an adequate one if the search was deficient. It can examine each claimed exemption in camera and order release of segregable, non-exempt portions. And under 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(E), where a requester has "substantially prevailed" — meaning obtained relief through a judicial order, an enforceable agreement, or a voluntary change in the agency's position on a non-insubstantial claim — the court may award reasonable attorney's fees and litigation costs. That fee-shifting provision is the reason FOIA litigation is a realistic remedy and not just a paper right.
There is real precedent for this kind of relief in the immigration-records context. A federal court in the Northern District of California has found a pattern-or-practice of unreasonable delay in USCIS A-file FOIA processing and entered a permanent injunction requiring the agencies to comply with the statute and clear the backlog. Nightingale v. USCIS, No. 3:19-cv-03512, 2020 WL 7640547 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 17, 2020) (Orrick, J.). According to the most recent court-filed compliance reports we have reviewed, that order remains in force and the court continues to supervise compliance.
What it cannot promise
Here is the part every honest firm has to say. Timeline depends on the agency, the records, applicable exemptions, and litigation posture — never guaranteed. A lawsuit does not force immediate production. A court can order release of improperly withheld records, but the court cannot promise a date certain, and the statute itself permits the court to "retain jurisdiction and allow the agency additional time" in narrow circumstances (exceptional circumstances plus due diligence under 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(C)).
Fee recovery is also not automatic. Fees are discretionary — a court may award them, but only if you "substantially prevailed" and only in an amount the court finds reasonable.
We do not promise outcomes. We promise that we will take your case seriously, file it competently, and litigate it like the federal-court matter it is.
Your Immigration Records: Which Agency Holds Them
This section is the one most worth printing out. Five different federal record systems hold the immigration files that may matter to your case, and confusing them is the single most common error we see — even from experienced lawyers. The records map below tells you which agency holds what and how to request it.
Your A-File (Alien File) — obtained via USCIS FOIA
Your A-file is the federal government's master immigration record on you. It contains your applications, benefit history, supporting documents, and prior enforcement contacts. It is held by USCIS, and it is obtained through USCIS FOIA — not through the immigration court, not through ICE, not through CBP.
As of January 22, 2026, USCIS requires online submission of FOIA requests through the FIRST portal at first.uscis.gov, with paper and email accepted only in narrow exceptions. If a hearing date is approaching, USCIS publishes a hearing-prioritization category for A-file requests by individuals with a scheduled immigration-judge hearing. To invoke it, the requester must attach one of four qualifying documents (Form I-862 Notice to Appear, Form I-122 Order to Show Cause, Form I-863 Notice of Referral to Immigration Judge, or a written notice of continuation of a future scheduled hearing) with the request. USCIS does not publish a guaranteed turnaround number for prioritized requests.
If your A-file has been stuck for weeks or months past the statutory deadline, that is the typical fact pattern that pushes a case into federal court. We explain the path in more detail on our deep-dive spokes: how the government's file on you drives a hearing-ready defense, and how to sue USCIS for a delayed A-file FOIA when the FIRST portal goes quiet.
USCIS Records & FOIA Delays
USCIS holds records beyond the A-file: adjudicator notes, AAO appellate records, asylum-office files, and naturalization records, among others. These also flow through the same USCIS FOIA channel and are subject to the same statutory deadlines.
The most common pain point is exactly this: USCIS receives the request, sends an acknowledgment, and then goes silent for months. When the agency's silence has crossed the statutory line, you may have a basis to fight a stalled USCIS FOIA request in federal court. If your matter also involves an AAO denial or other appellate-stage issue, our federal appellate-advocacy practice coordinates the FOIA piece with the underlying appeal.
ICE Records
ICE holds a discrete set of records that USCIS does not: SEVIS records, medical and other records generated while a person was detained by ICE, Form I-213 (Record of Deportable Alien), bond obligor records, and investigation records. ICE accepts FOIA submissions through its SecureRelease portal and through foia.gov. Effective February 23, 2026, ICE generally no longer accepts hard-copy mail requests, with an exception for detained individuals seeking their own records.
If your matter involves detention, removal proceedings, or any of those ICE-specific record categories, the FOIA path runs through ICE — not USCIS — and the litigation, if it comes to that, will name ICE as a defendant. Our deportation-defense practice gives the context for why these ICE records matter to a removal-defense strategy, and our spoke page walks through how to fight a stalled ICE records request.
CBP Records
CBP holds records of apprehension, entry and exit, expedited-removal proceedings, Form I-94 issuance, Passenger Name Record (PNR) data, and voluntary-return records. If your immigration history includes an encounter at the border, an I-94 issue, or an expedited-removal order, the relevant records sit with CBP, not USCIS or ICE — and the request is routed through DHS / CBP FOIA channels.
We litigate CBP-records delays on the same statutory framework as USCIS and ICE delays. A dedicated CBP-records page is in our pipeline and coverage is coming; in the meantime, the right entry point is the consult call below.
EOIR / Immigration Court Records
This is the distinction the rest of the web most often gets wrong. The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) — the immigration courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals — holds the Record of Proceeding (ROP) for a respondent's case: the NTA, motions, evidence, immigration-judge orders, and digital-audio recording (DAR) of hearings. The ROP is not obtained through FOIA. It is requested directly from the immigration court or the BIA, outside the FOIA process, using EOIR's ROP-request procedure. (Form EOIR-59 is recommended; an attorney making the request must already have a Form EOIR-28 on file with the immigration court — or Form EOIR-27 with the BIA — for the case at issue.)
EOIR records other than the ROP — agency policy materials, training records, aggregate statistics, third-party requests where the requester is not authorized by the respondent, and certain closed pre-2011 cases where the respondent does not have ECAS access — go through EOIR's separate FOIA channel via the Public Access Link.
EOIR puts it cleanly in its own words: "When you file a 'Request for ROP,' you will receive a response from the immigration court or the BIA. When you file a FOIA request, you will receive a response from the Office of the General Counsel's FOIA Service Center." Different files, different agencies, different procedures. We do not let clients or referring attorneys send the wrong request to the wrong place.
When Suing the Government Makes Sense
Not every delayed FOIA request belongs in federal court. The cases we litigate tend to share at least one of these features:
- The statutory response deadline has passed and the agency has gone silent or refuses to engage. Under 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(C), missing the statutory time limit puts a requester in a posture of "constructive exhaustion" — meaning you may be able to proceed in federal court without first completing the agency's administrative appeal. The court can still allow the agency more time on a showing of exceptional circumstances and due diligence; this is a safety valve, not a hard production deadline.
- An administrative appeal of a denial went nowhere. When the agency's final determination withholds records under exemptions you believe are improperly invoked, and the administrative appeal has been exhausted (or constructively exhausted), federal court is the next forum.
- A hearing or filing deadline is approaching. Where the records are needed for an imminent removal hearing, a benefits-application deadline, or a habeas posture, expedited-processing requests and judicial review of expedited-processing denials become real tools.
- There is a pattern of agency non-response across many requesters. A federal court has already found a pattern-or-practice of unreasonable delay in USCIS A-file processing and entered a permanent injunction. Nightingale v. USCIS, 2020 WL 7640547 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 17, 2020). According to the most recent court-filed compliance reports we have reviewed, that injunction remains in force. The continuing supervision of the Nightingale injunction is part of the background landscape against which courts evaluate USCIS A-file delays today.
We approach FOIA litigation as a government-accountability matter, not just records retrieval. The Freedom of Information Act is, at bottom, a transparency statute. When an agency goes silent past the deadline, it is not just inconveniencing a requester — it is failing the obligation Congress wrote it. That perspective sits squarely inside our civil-rights and government-accountability practice, and you can see the broader pattern in our federal-litigation track record and the transparency cases we have built into a public results repository.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long can USCIS take to respond to a FOIA request?
Under 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(A)(i), the agency generally must determine within 20 business days whether it will comply — meaning issue an initial response identifying records, exemptions, and any production estimate. That deadline is the determination clock, not the production clock; producing records may take longer, and a 10-working-day "unusual circumstances" extension can apply.
What can I do if my A-file FOIA request is delayed?
The most common moves are: confirm USCIS received the request via the FIRST portal status check; if a hearing date is approaching, attach one of the qualifying scheduling documents (for example, a Form I-862 Notice to Appear, a Form I-122 Order to Show Cause, a Form I-863 Notice of Referral to Immigration Judge, or a written notice of continuation of a future scheduled hearing) to invoke USCIS's hearing-prioritization category; and, where the statutory deadline has already passed, evaluate whether federal-court remedies under FOIA and the APA are appropriate. We walk individual situations through that triage on a consult call.
Can I sue USCIS or ICE for not responding to a FOIA request?
When the agency misses the statutory time limit, 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(C) deems the requester to have exhausted administrative remedies — meaning you may be able to file suit in federal court without first completing the agency's appeal process. A court can order improperly withheld records released and set a production schedule. A court cannot promise immediate production. Timeline depends on the agency, the records, applicable exemptions, and litigation posture — never guaranteed.
Do I have to appeal before I can sue? (Exhaustion)
When an agency misses the statutory time limit, 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(C) deems the requester to have exhausted administrative remedies — meaning you may be able to file suit in federal court without first completing the agency's appeal process. The court can still allow the agency more time on a showing of exceptional circumstances and due diligence.
Can I recover attorney's fees if I win?
Under 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(E), a court may award reasonable attorney fees and litigation costs to a requester who has "substantially prevailed" — meaning obtained relief through a judicial order, enforceable agreement, or a voluntary change in the agency's position on a non-insubstantial claim. Fee awards are discretionary, not automatic.
I need my A-file before my immigration court date — can FOIA be expedited?
5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(E) requires agencies to grant expedited processing where the requester shows a "compelling need" (such as an imminent threat to life or safety) and to decide on the expedited request within 10 days. Expedited treatment speeds the determination — it does not guarantee a production deadline. Separately, USCIS publishes a faster-processing category for A-file requests by individuals with a scheduled immigration-judge hearing, when the requester attaches one of four qualifying scheduling documents — a Form I-862 Notice to Appear, Form I-122 Order to Show Cause, Form I-863 Notice of Referral to Immigration Judge, or a written notice of continuation of a future hearing. USCIS does not publish a guaranteed turnaround.
How does the EOIR Record of Proceeding differ from a FOIA request?
The Executive Office for Immigration Review's Record of Proceeding (ROP) — the immigration court's case file and digital-audio recording — is requested directly from the immigration court or the Board of Immigration Appeals using EOIR's "Request for ROP" procedure (Form EOIR-59 recommended), outside the FOIA process. The A-file, by contrast, is held by USCIS and is requested through USCIS FOIA. Different files, different agencies, different procedures.
I'm an immigration attorney — can Novo co-counsel a FOIA/APA suit?
Yes. We co-counsel and accept referrals from immigration practitioners across the country on FOIA / APA records-delay matters. You stay lead on the underlying immigration case; we handle the federal-court complaint, briefing, and litigation through to production or summary judgment. Engagements are scoped, conflict-clean, and referral economics are clear. See the CTA block below to start.