Already had interview, received email asking us to extent petition

[shearoberts 0]

Hello all, my fiance had her interview in Tokyo on April 26th. Before she had her interview, she spoke with a woman that said she required police records from Canada because my fiance spent a year studying English there. She was told she had until October of this year to send these documents to the Consulate.

Upon completion of her interview, the interviewer told her "Besides the document from Canada, everything is good! You're all set!"

On May 12th, we received an email stating our case expired on May 4th and we needed to send a letter of extension to extend it another 4 months. Just to be cautious, I did so. But I let them know that her interview had already taken place and she was verbally told TWICE that all she needed was that document from Canada. Shouldn't they have automatically extended our petition until October? She was not informed at all that we needed to send an extension letter until we received that email yesterday. Could it have been just a bug?

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

There is no firm rule about when a consulate will automatically extend the validity of an approved petition. It is up to their discretion. Most consulates will automatically extend the validity as long as there is ongoing activity in the case, or there is a delay which is caused by the consulate. In this case, they probably didn't automatically extend the validity of the case because they were waiting on documents from your fiancee. In other words, the case was waiting for action from her and not them.

The upside is that they gave you a chance to ask for an extension, rather than just sending the expired petition back to USCIS. Never underestimate the lack of common sense when dealing with US government bureaucrats.

[shearoberts 0]

There is no firm rule about when a consulate will automatically extend the validity of an approved petition. It is up to their discretion. Most consulates will automatically extend the validity as long as there is ongoing activity in the case, or there is a delay which is caused by the consulate. In this case, they probably didn't automatically extend the validity of the case because they were waiting on documents from your fiancee. In other words, the case was waiting for action from her and not them.

The upside is that they gave you a chance to ask for an extension, rather than just sending the expired petition back to USCIS. Never underestimate the lack of common sense when dealing with US government bureaucrats.

Thanks for the response! What's frustrating to me is they both said she had everything complete (minus that document) and she would have until October to get it, but failed to mention anything about me sending an extension letter. I thought once the interview was done that was it (they told her there would be no second interview, just needed the document is all). So one would THINK....but I guess you're right, it IS the US Gov't we're dealing with.