A Washington federal appeals court has ruled a lawsuit challenging the State Department’s denial to process diversity visa applications for individuals impacted by the president’s travel ban isn’t dead quite yet, saying the people in question could still obtain relief.

Judge Thomas Griffith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit wrote for a unanimous panel Tuesday that, while the statutory deadline for the immigrants to receive the visas has passed, the case isn’t moot because “whether the district court retains the authority to award plaintiffs relief is a merits question.”