Albana Avullija v. Secretary, Department of Homeland Security

── Albana Avullija v. Secretary, Department of Homeland Security ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Date: April 23, 2026 Category: NEW USCA11 Case: 24-12965 Document: 31-1 Date Filed: 04/23/2026 Page: 1 of 8 NOT FOR PUBLICATION In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 24-12965 Non-Argument Calendar ____________________ ALBANA AVULLIJA, Plaintiff-Appellant, versus SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, DIRECTOR, U.S. CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES, Defendants-Appellees. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 3:23-cv-01185-HES-MCR ____________________ Before ROSENBAUM, GRANT, and LUCK, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: USCA11 Case: 24-12965 Document: 31-1 Date Filed: 04/23/2026 Page: 2 of 8 2 Opinion of the Court 24-12965 Albana Avullija seeks review of the denial of the fifth alien relative petition filed on behalf of her husband, Leonard Avullija.1 The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services denied the petition under 11 U.S.C. section 1154(c) because Leonard had pre- viously sought to obtain United States citizenship through a sham marriage. Four previous petitions on Leonard’s behalf met similar fates, including one that we reviewed. See Avullija v. Sec’y of State, 839 F. App’x 292, 299 (11th Cir. 2020). Albana filed suit to challenge the Services’s denial as arbitrary and capricious under the Admin- istrative Procedure Act. The district court dismissed the suit be- cause she failed to state a claim that the Services’s denial was arbi- trary and capricious. We affirm. FACTUAL BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY Albana and Leonard had their first child in April 2000 and married in June 2000. At the time, both were nationals and resi- dents of Albania. They divorced in March 2001. One month later, Albana married her second husband, an American citizen, and, nine months after that, she became a lawful permanent resident. Another eight months later, Albana gave birth to her and Leonard’s second child—while still married to her second husband. In May 2007, Albana became an American citizen. Within four months, she divorced her second husband—they had no children together. 1 Since Albana and Leonard share a last name, we will refer to them by their first names. USCA11 Case: 24-12965 Document: 31-1 Date Filed: 04/23/2026 Page: 3 of 8 24-12965 Opinion of the Court 3 Meanwhile, in March 2003, Leonard married his second wife, an American citizen named Alice Spivey. Leonard, however, did not share Albana’s success in becoming an American citizen. In June 2011, Leonard divorced Spivey. Six months later, Leonard and Albana remarried. All the while, beginning in 2003, five I–130 forms, which al- low an American citizen to petition for the admission of an alien relative, were filed on Leonard’s behalf. Spivey filed the first peti- tion in March 2003, the same month she married Leonard, and the petition was initially approved in September 2004. But after Leon- ard applied for an immigrant visa: he attended an interview with authorities at the U.S. Consular Office in Tirana, Albania. The