Jin Mei Lin v. Secretary United States Department of Homeland Security ( 2015 )

NOT PRECEDENTIAL
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
_______________
No. 14-2777
_______________
JIN MEI LIN,
Appellant in Civil No. 2-11-cv-06373
v.
SECRETARY UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT
OF HOMELAND SECURITY;
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, Director U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services;
EVANGELIA A. KLAPAKIS, Filed Office Director U.S. Citizenship & Immigration
Services
XIAO LIN,
Appellant in Civil No. 2-11-cv-06374
v.
SECRETARY UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT
OF HOMELAND SECURITY;
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, Director U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services;
EVANGELIA A. KLAPAKIS, Field Office Director U.S. Citizenship & Immigration
Services
_______________
On Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
(Civ. Nos. 2-11-cv-06373, 2-11-cv-06374)
_______________
Submitted Pursuant to Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a)
March 17, 2015
Before: RENDELL, FUENTES, BARRY, Circuit Judges
(Filed: September 1, 2015)
_______________
OPINION
_______________
FUENTES, Circuit Judge:
Jin Mei Lin and Xiao Lin brought this suit challenging the Department of
Homeland Security’s denial of their naturalization applications. The District Court
granted summary judgment to the defendants, and, on appeal, we will affirm.
The plaintiffs are siblings, natives of China, and Chinese nationals. Their father,
Hai Rui Lin, is also a native of China and a Chinese national. In February 1999, Hai Rui
Lin married U.S. citizen Tina Chu, a person with whom he had little previous contact, in
China. The following day, Chu returned to the United States, but she filed I-130 Petitions
to admit into the United States Hai Rui Lin as her husband and the plaintiffs as her
stepchildren. In May 2001, the plaintiffs applied to the U.S. Consulate in China for
immigrant visas and alien registrations. Their applications were approved by consular
process, they obtained Legal Permanent Resident status, and they entered the United
States shortly thereafter. Though the plaintiffs stated on their applications that they
intended to live with Chu in California, two weeks after arrival they relocated to
Philadelphia to live with their father’s brother. Hai Rui Lin and Chu formally divorced in
November 2002.

This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not
constitute binding precedent.
2
In 2006, the plaintiffs filed the N-400 Applications for Naturalization that are at
issue in this appeal. The government denied the applications on the basis that, though the
plaintiffs were admitted to the country as lawful permanent residents, the admission was
based on a sham marriage. The plaintiffs then filed an N-336 Request for Hearing. The
government again denied their applications, specifically noting that the only evidence
produced by the plaintiffs to show that the marriage between their father and Chu was
bona fide was assorted phone bills and envelopes that Chu sent to Hai Rui Lin without
contents, along with limited travel records for Chu. The plaintiffs then filed the instant
suits in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania seeking de novo review of the denial of their
naturalization applications. Agreeing with the government that the marriage supporting
the applications was indeed a sham, the District Court granted summary judgment to the
defendants.1
On appeal, the plaintiffs point to nothing tending to show that the marriage
between Chu and Hai Rui Lin was legitimate. Eligibility for naturalization depends on the
applicant’s lawful admission for permanent residence, and we have held that a person has
not been lawfully admitted for permanent residence if that status is obtained by fraud.2
We thus agree with the District Court’s conclusion that, “[v]iewing the undisputed facts
in a light most favorable to Plaintiffs, it is clear that Hai Rui Lin and Tina Chu did not
1
The District Court had jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1421. We have jurisdiction over the
final order of the District Court under 28 U.S.C. § 1291.
2
Gallimore v. Attorney General of U.S., 619 F.3d 216, 224-25 (3d Cir. 2010); 8 U.S.C.
3
intend to establish a life together, and therefore Jin Mei Lin and Xiao Lin cannot
demonstrate their eligibility for naturalization.”3 Meanwhile, though the plaintiffs’ brief
invokes the Administrative Procedure Act, that Act is inapposite where, as here, there are
independent statutory provisions providing for judicial review of an agency’s decisions.4
For substantially the same reasons given by the District Court, we will affirm.
§§ 1427, 1429.
3
See Jin Mei Lin v. Napolitano, Nos. CIV. A. 11-6373, -6374, 2013 WL 2370588, at *4
(E.D. Pa. May 31, 2013).
4
5 U.S.C. § 704; Bowen v. Massachusetts, 487 U.S. 879, 903 (1988).
4