Yu-Ling Teng v. District Director, No. 14-55558 (9th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff, a naturalized citizen, appealed the district court's dismissal of her petition to change the birthday listed on her certificate of naturalization. Because the date of birth on plaintiff's naturalization certificate does not match the date of birth on file with the Social Security Administration, California has not allowed plaintiff to renew her state driver’s license. The court held that, although it is sympathetic to plaintiff's situation, federal courts lack jurisdiction to amend agency-issued naturalization certificates. The court noted that, until 1991, courts had exclusive jurisdiction to naturalize persons as citizens of the United States. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Immigration. The panel affirmed the district court’s dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction of Yu-Ling Teng’s petition to require the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service to amend her date of birth on her naturalization certificate, which was issued in 1974 by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The panel held that federal courts lack subject matter jurisdiction under the Immigration Act of 1990 to modify naturalization certificates issued by an administrative agency. The panel wrote that the courts would have jurisdiction to modify a certificate issued by a court before 1991, noting that the panel addressed that different situation in its separate opinion filed concurrently in Collins v. USCIS, 13-55290, __F.3d__ (9th Cir. 2016).
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