A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has rejected an emergency request from two Diversity Visa applicants who wanted the State Department to make final decisions on their cases before the program’s September 30, 2026, deadline.
U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta dismissed the lawsuit filed by Karolina Ugrenyuk and Vincent Knight, who represented themselves in court. Both were selected for the Fiscal Year 2026 Diversity Visa program and were trying to complete the process before the legal cutoff.
The applicants had previously faced canceled visa interviews. Although the interviews were eventually held, their cases remained stuck in administrative processing. With the deadline approaching, they asked the court to order the government to make immediate final decisions.
Why the Judge Declined
Mehta said another federal case already covers their situation. Both applicants are members of a certified class in Medani v. Trump, an ongoing case in the Northern District of California involving 2026 Diversity Visa selectees whose applications were delayed during a government-wide processing pause.
Under the federal “first-to-file” rule, when separate courts are handling lawsuits involving the same parties and core issues, the case filed first generally takes priority.
Ugrenyuk and Knight argued that being part of the larger California case left them without a way to get relief specifically tailored to their individual circumstances.
The judge disagreed, explaining that granting them separate orders could give them priority over other members of the same class.
“If the court were to grant the relief Plaintiffs seek,” Mehta wrote, it could move them ahead of other Medani class members, which would conflict with the purpose of class-wide relief.
Mehta also said he “very much sympathizes with Plaintiffs’ plight.” He noted that his court had previously provided relief in similar visa-processing disputes during 2020 and 2021.
However, he concluded that existing legal rules prevented him from taking individual action in these cases while the broader class lawsuit was already addressing the same issues.
Key Takeaways
- The applicants were selected for the 2026 Diversity Visa program.
- Their interviews were initially canceled but later completed.
- Their cases remained in administrative processing.
- The judge said the existing Medani class action already covers their situation.
- The case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning the dismissal was not a ruling against the underlying merits of their visa applications.
The court ultimately denied the emergency motions and dismissed the lawsuit, leaving the applicants subject to the legal framework governing the broader class action.
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