Section D - Question 2

[Farias 0]

Hi,

I'm doing the paperwork again for my dad, the last time it was back on 2007 - 2008.

What should I put on that question? I have no idea has to EXACTLY what to put there.

I have the case # and when I search it on the NVC site nothing appears.

Can someone give me some advice please.

Thanks,

Roberto Farias

[GlobeHopperMama 95]

Definitely not a lot of information to go by, but I'm assuming by "paperwork" you mean you're filing a new I-130? You'll need to know what happened to it to be able to answer that question. For example, this week I filed a new I-130 for my husband after last filing one for him in 2008, so in that box I wrote the date the last petition was filed, the date it was approved and the service center that approved it although I don't think that's relevant. In fact, I ended up including a copy of the I-797 approval notice (also known as NOA2 around here) that I received back then. Did you receive an approval notice? That should have the filing date and approval date on it, which is basically what you need to know.

Did your case reach the NVC and never go further? Did it get to the consulate? In certain situations, filing I-864 to re-activate your old petition might be more beneficial than filing a new one.

[Farias 0]

It went almost all the way thru, but I never heard of any other paperwork for it.

I believe the only other step was just the appointment at the consulate.

Doesn't the app gets cancel after a certain time period?

Edited July 7, 2012 by Farias

[GlobeHopperMama 95]

OK, in my opinion there are two separate processes when you go through consular filing. Process 1: Petition. The purpose is to verify that a qualifying relationship exists between the US petitioner and the intending immigrant. It is not concerned with any other aspect related to visa eligibility. Once a petition is approved, it is VALID for the life of the relationship. As long as the relationship still exists, the petition remains valid. Then Process 2: Visa Application. This is everything leading up to a visa interview, including all the NVC fees, forms, documents, plus the medical and visa interview itself. However, if time elapses without action on the petition, or after visa denial, the petition is generally "archived". So yeah, the original petition was probably archived in the US. Ours was.

In certain situations, filing I-864 to re-activate your old petition might be more beneficial than filing a new one.

Sorry, I named the wrong form there, I must have been tired. I-824 is the form that can be used to locate and "re-activate" an archived petition. This gets you out of filing a new I-130. However, for most cases, it now seems faster and simpler to just file a new I-130. Even though the old one is still "valid", getting it activated again sometimes takes more time and effort than getting a new petition approved.

So in your case, the petition probably got archived after a year of no contact at the NVC. However, none of this is completely relevant if it was approved. So just try to put the date it was approved and the center it was filed through if possible. If you don't know that, just put approximate dates, and put that it was approved. The bigger issue would have been if the petition were denied, but it wasn't, so just put that it was approved.