Paulo Ramos da Silva Filho v. Mayorkas
- James Oetken
- 1:25-cv-08864
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Paulo Ramos da Silva Filho v. Mayorkas, Judge Swain required fees or a fee-waiver application within 30 days and denied fee-waiver status for an appeal.
The order directly affects Paulo Ramos da Silva Filho by requiring him to pay $405 or submit an application to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days. It also delays issuance of a summons and states that the action will be dismissed if he does not comply.
What happened
Paulo Ramos da Silva Filho v. Mayorkas et al. is a case brought by a self-represented plaintiff who submitted a complaint without paying the required fees or providing an application to proceed without prepaying them.
The court ordered the plaintiff, within 30 days, to either pay $405 in fees or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees. No summons will issue at this time. If the plaintiff does not comply within the deadline, the action will be dismissed; if he submits the application and it is granted, he may proceed without prepaying fees.
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for an appeal. The order does not decide the underlying claims against the defendants.
The detailed version
- Paulo Ramos da Silva Filho v. Mayorkas · No. 1:25-cv-08864
- James Oetken
- Oct. 27, 2025
Background
Paulo Ramos da Silva Filho brought this action without a lawyer. He submitted the complaint without paying the filing fees and administrative fee and without submitting an application to proceed without prepaying fees, commonly called an IFP application.
Order
The court explained that proceeding with a civil action requires either payment of $405— consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee—or submission of a signed IFP application under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915.
The court directed the plaintiff to do one of those two things within 30 days of the order. If he submits an IFP application, it must identify docket number 25-CV-8864 (LTS). If the court grants the application, he may proceed without prepaying fees. The court ordered that no summons issue at that time. If the plaintiff does not comply within the deadline, the action will be dismissed. The order does not address the merits of the underlying claims.
Appeal ruling
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. It therefore denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal.
Result
The order requires the plaintiff to pay the specified fees or submit an IFP application within 30 days. It does not dismiss the action immediately, but states that dismissal will follow if the plaintiff fails to comply.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.