Putting application on hold..?

[Jess_Cah 7]

Hi all, I have a question regarding the dreaded C word. Our application is still awaiting approval from USCIS (Oct expected approval date). Does anyone know how much time you have once the visa is transferred to NVC to act? Covid has changed our plans a bit and we feel we need to stay in our current country (New Zealand) till things settle in the US. We aren't sure if an application can be put on hold or withdrawn without penalty down the road when we are ready to try again. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

[payxibka 10,047]

8 minutes ago, Jess_Cah said:

Hi all, I have a question regarding the dreaded C word. Our application is still awaiting approval from USCIS (Oct expected approval date). Does anyone know how much time you have once the visa is transferred to NVC to act? Covid has changed our plans a bit and we feel we need to stay in our current country (New Zealand) till things settle in the US. We aren't sure if an application can be put on hold or withdrawn without penalty down the road when we are ready to try again. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

You can keep it going almost indefinitely.   Just make contact with NVC once a year to keep it active otherwise it gets placed in storage 

[JuliePineParker 1]

Hi Jess my husband is Kiwi. We got USCIS approval Oct 2019. Only received link to DS-260 in late November and had everything uploaded by 2 Dec. NVC pushed back twice on documents which we had to re-upload then only finally qualified May 2020. Currently awaiting interview to be scheduled. If you are still waiting on USCIS you probably have at least a year before you have the Visa in hand.

[pushbrk 13,184]

7 hours ago, JuliePineParker said:

Hi Jess my husband is Kiwi. We got USCIS approval Oct 2019. Only received link to DS-260 in late November and had everything uploaded by 2 Dec. NVC pushed back twice on documents which we had to re-upload then only finally qualified May 2020. Currently awaiting interview to be scheduled. If you are still waiting on USCIS you probably have at least a year before you have the Visa in hand.

Your experience has little to do with the OP's question, answered well over two months ago.  The OP has already been told accurately that by contacting NVC once a year, they can postpone any progress virtually indefinitely.

[Punisher 40]

On 4/29/2020 at 3:33 AM, payxibka said:

You can keep it going almost indefinitely.   Just make contact with NVC once a year to keep it active otherwise it gets placed in storage 

 

On 6/28/2020 at 2:15 AM, pushbrk said:

 The OP has already been told accurately that by contacting NVC once a year, they can postpone any progress virtually indefinitely.

This is not a type of advice one should ever attempt to follow unless they are OK with the risk of their case being closed as abandoned or such.

 

You are free to interpret the forms or official language any way you're pleased but I'm affraid you are missing the point of what the word "contact" means and I admit that some ceac info fails to properly stress that either, probably adding to the confusion. Therefore I like to use more official definition of the requirements:

 

Quote

Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) section 203(g) provides that the Secretary of State shall terminate the registration (petition) of any alien who fails to apply for an immigrant visa within one year of notice of visa availability. The petition may be reinstated if, within two years of notice of visa availability, the alien establishes that the failure to apply was for reasons beyond the alien’s control. Therefore if you do not respond to notices from the NVC within one year you risk termination of your petition under this section of law and would lose the benefits of that petition, such as your priority date.

The first part clearly states that one needs to APPLY within 1 year from NVC nottice of visa availability.. For me this is pretty clear one needs to submit ds260 and it is the date on the ds260 submission printout that is the right and only proof that you complied with the 1 year requirement.

The later part: "responding to notices from the NVC" is not meant to read you can "respond" in any way you please (i.e. phone call), but rather by "application" that is  proper submission of required forms and documents, in a given (1 year) timeframe.

 

So if I were to read anything into that official statement that is not otherwise clearly/directly stated and yet be on the safe side, it would be that you should also submit all required documents within that same timeframe or be at risk of termination.

We could then have a whole debate on what happens after IV submission with all the REs, whether these REs extend 1 year timeframe or not, but there should be no debate whatsoever that one has to (at least) properly submit IV within 1 year, and by properly I would consider "with required docs".

 

But as I said, one can interpret official language any way he/she wants and if that leads one to think he/she can postopne the process "indefinitely" then good luck with that. It "might" work untill it does not.

Edited June 29, 2020 by Punisher

[pushbrk 13,184]

15 hours ago, Punisher said:

 

This is not a type of advice one should ever attempt to follow unless they are OK with the risk of their case being closed as abandoned or such.

 

You are free to interpret the forms or official language any way you're pleased but I'm affraid you are missing the point of what the word "contact" means and I admit that some ceac info fails to properly stress that either, probably adding to the confusion. Therefore I like to use more official definition of the requirements:

 

The first part clearly states that one needs to APPLY within 1 year from NVC nottice of visa availability.. For me this is pretty clear one needs to submit ds260 and it is the date on the ds260 submission printout that is the right and only proof that you complied with the 1 year requirement.

The later part: "responding to notices from the NVC" is not meant to read you can "respond" in any way you please (i.e. phone call), but rather by "application" that is  proper submission of required forms and documents, in a given (1 year) timeframe.

 

So if I were to read anything into that official statement that is not otherwise clearly/directly stated and yet be on the safe side, it would be that you should also submit all required documents within that same timeframe or be at risk of termination.

We could then have a whole debate on what happens after IV submission with all the REs, whether these REs extend 1 year timeframe or not, but there should be no debate whatsoever that one has to (at least) properly submit IV within 1 year, and by properly I would consider "with required docs".

 

But as I said, one can interpret official language any way he/she wants and if that leads one to think he/she can postopne the process "indefinitely" then good luck with that. It "might" work untill it does not.

You missed this part...

 

Therefore if you do not respond to notices from the NVC within one year you risk termination of your petition