Taiwanese Green Card Holder Sues USCIS Over 18-Month Citizenship Delay
Meng Ju Liu, also known as Michael Liu, a Taiwanese national and lawful U.S. permanent resident since 2002 living in Ohio, has sued U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) over what he calls an unreasonable delay of his citizenship application, Newsweek exclusively reported on October 22.
Liu filed his Form N-400 naturalization application on April 25, 2025. About 18 months later, he had still not received an interview notice. On October 15, he sued USCIS in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, asking the court to order the government to complete his background checks within 30 days and, if he clears them, to decide his application within 30 days after that.
The complaint describes his application as "gathering dust on an office shelf," warning that without judicial intervention he could wait "an eternity." USCIS's own posted processing time for its Cincinnati office was 9.5 months for 80 percent of cases — a yardstick Liu's wait has far exceeded, with no explanation given.
The suit lands against a growing backlog: USCIS had 813,453 naturalization applications pending at the end of August 2026, with 513,462 waiting more than six months. The agency decided about 71,000 naturalization cases from April to June 2026, versus about 265,000 in the same months of 2025. Newsweek said it had asked DHS, USCIS and the Justice Department for comment; no response was reported. So far Newsweek is the only outlet to report the case.
(GSM, based on Newsweek)
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 美国入籍仪式（资料图）。照片：Fort Vancouver National Historic Site，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / A U.S. naturalization ceremony (file photo). Photo: Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
