Extending our CR1 Visa!!

[hannah3737 0]

Hello, my husband and I have received our CR1 visa and it expires on the 27th of April 2011. We are NOT ready to leave yet, several problems have came up and some family issues. Has anyone had to contact the Consulate about extending their visa to a later date? Or heard about anyone doing so? Anything would be helpful, I'm planning on calling the Consulate this week. Thanks so much,

Hannah

[Penguin_ie 5,995]

Visas can be re-issued (usually for another 6 months), but it depends on the consultate whether they do it, and you usually need a good reason (close family member sick, wanting kids to finish the year in the local school or such).

[pushbrk 13,019]

Hello, my husband and I have received our CR1 visa and it expires on the 27th of April 2011. We are NOT ready to leave yet, several problems have came up and some family issues. Has anyone had to contact the Consulate about extending their visa to a later date? Or heard about anyone doing so? Anything would be helpful, I'm planning on calling the Consulate this week. Thanks so much,

Hannah

You can contact the Consulate and ask but you may find your simplest solution is just to take a short trip to the USA. You can return to the UK the same day if you want to. The endorsed visa will serve as a temporary green card for a year and the real card will be mailed to the address you provided on your DS230.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

London website has this in the immigrant visa FAQs.

What if I cannot travel during the validity period of the immigrant visa?

You should return the unused visa to the Immigrant Visa Branch with a

letter explaining why you were unable to travel. Depending on the

reasons for you not using the visa, it may be possible to re-issue you

with a new visa on payment of new visa processing fees.

[JoannaV 174]

A very brief trip to America would cost the same as another set of visa processing fees, and the latter has the possibility of denial.