US-Born Man Sues State Dept Over Passport Denial

A federal court in Washington, DC refused in September 2026 to dismiss a lawsuit brought by David Nnadiotu Amadioha, a man born in Atlanta, Georgia, who has been denied a US passport twice — once in Lagos and once in Brussels. The US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that his case can move forward against Secretary of State Marco Rubio under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the law that lets people challenge unlawful government decisions in court.

What happened and why it matters

Amadioha was born in Atlanta in 1988. His family moved to Nigeria when he was a toddler and later changed their surname from "Amadioha" to "Hmadioha." He did not learn he was a US citizen until he was about 18. When he applied for a US passport at the US Embassy in Lagos in 2019, the Embassy denied it because the name on his Georgia birth certificate did not match the name on his Nigerian and Belgian documents. He applied again in Brussels in 2022, this time submitting extra evidence — including a Nigerian Embassy certificate confirming that "David Nnadiotu Amadioha" and "David Nnadiotu Hmadioha" are the same person. The Embassy denied that application too in February 2023, saying the evidence was still not enough to prove US citizenship.

The State Department asked the court to throw out the case, arguing that a separate law — Section 1503 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) — already gives people outside the US a way to challenge passport denials. Under that process, a person abroad must first ask a US consulate for a "certificate of identity," then travel to a US port of entry and apply for admission — while being subject to immigration detention. The court rejected that argument. Judge Loren AliKhan found that this alternative process is too burdensome, expensive, and uncertain to count as an "adequate" substitute for APA review. The court also allowed Amadioha's Fifth Amendment due process claim to proceed.

This ruling matters beyond Amadioha's case. Many US citizens born abroad to immigrant families face similar problems: name changes, clerical errors in foreign documents, or records that simply do not match. The court's decision signals that people in this situation may be able to sue the State Department directly in federal court rather than being forced through the difficult INA Section 1503 process — which can include detention at the border.

What to do

• If the State Department denied your passport application because of a name discrepancy or document mismatch, gather every piece of evidence that links your identities — court orders, affidavits, embassy letters, old photos, school records, or a "Certificate of Individuality" from your country's embassy.
• If you are outside the US and your passport was denied, ask an immigration or citizenship attorney whether you can file an APA lawsuit in US federal court rather than going through the INA Section 1503 process, which can require traveling to a US port of entry and risking detention.
• Keep copies of every denial letter from the State Department. Courts look at the exact language the agency used to explain the denial — those letters are key evidence.
• Do not assume a second denial is final. Amadioha's case shows that federal courts can review these decisions, and the government's motion to dismiss was denied.

Related: our step-by-step guide — “Immigration Court Rulings”.