Is it possible for AP to be over and start again? need advice plzz

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Ok, here's my story. My wife sponsored me in dec 2006 (see my timeline to get a better idea). My visa was approved in Feb 2007 but since then I have been stuck in AP. About three weeks ago, my wife received a letter from the Montreal consulate asking for my passport, med exams and police cert as they had expired. The same day my wife called the DOS and asked about the AP and she was told that the security checks are over and if we had submitted the docs requested by the embassy. She told them we'll be sending them out in a couple of days. We submitted them last week and they were received by the embassy on last wednesday the 25th of june. We emailed the embassy yest. to get a status but didn't receive a reply yet so my wife called the DOS today hoping that maybe they will have some info on when the visa might be issued and the CO told her that she still sees the visa pending AP. What the heck is this? Wife told her that last time (only two weeks ago) the checks were over according to them and now they still see it in AP? The co said that just like docs can get expired the security checks get expired too and they can go in and out of checks and it could be either that the checks started all over again or that maybe since something recently happened at the embassy level and so they don't have a status on it yet. From our knowledge and posts on VJ they only ask for passport and other docs if they are about to issue a visa and that's what the wife told the co and the co said that yeah it's possible that they want to issue the visa and we might be getting an update from them soon and that we can call DOS back in 2 to 3 weeks if no updates are given through the embassy. After hearing this, it's like our dreams came crumbling down once again. We waited in line patiently for almost a year and a half just to hear the good news that checks were over a few days ago and now we are being told that it's still pending AP? We had already started making plans and now we are in the black hole once again. If i look at it positively, it seems like it could be just that the embassy has not updated the status so DOS is seeing it as pending and after the july 1st and july 4th holidays we might hear something positive but the fact that we have been stuck in this rut for so long makes us think otherwise. Any advice from people who have faced similar experiences would be appreciated esp. ppl who were told the checks are over and then told they are still pending! Sorry for the long post, we are just really frustrated with this visa thing now.