Help With Extending I-129F Approval

[throwaway6824 0]

I am looking for some help/guidance with our current petition. After 3 long months, my fiancé and I have received Packet 3 from the Montreal Consulate, and are currently waiting for the Police Certificate to arrive so we can submit all documents to continue with the process. However, our I-129F approval expires very shortly, and we will certainly not have an interview scheduled before the approval expires. Due to most of the 4 month period being taken up by waiting for the consulate to give us our next steps, I have tried requesting an extension both through email (to Canada.Visas@gdit-gss.com or Canada.ACS@gdit-gss.com) and phone number (438-793-1947 or 514-398-9695) and get the same response back that those contacts are only for interview scheduling service, and to go to the website for the correct information on how to contact properly. This is the contact information the website displays, so we are stuck in an infinite loop without being able to get ahold of anyone who can help. Does anybody else have any other contact information to speak with someone or experience with how to do so? If not, is this something we should even be focused on doing? (Most forums and videos online state that once we complete all documents and attend the interview, that they will automatically extend the validity there and then). Consensus says it's not something to be worried about, but I thought I'd ask for help rather then let it be and show up just to be denied as we are this far along in the process. Thank you!

[MalloryCat 472]

extension of the approval of the I-129f is almost always done at the time of the K-1 interview. Montreal is notoriously slow since they do all immigrant visa processing there. trying to get in contact is gonna be incredibly difficult.

 

did packet 3 ask you to submit those documents before the interview? typically those things are brought to the interview.

[Edward and Jaycel 1,080]

There is no point contacting them about the expiring I-129F approval. It will not be done ahead of time. The consular officer conducting the interview, if they are going to approve the K-1 visa, will extend the validity date at that time. My only suggestion would be to bring updated letters of intent to marry if your NOA2 is past the expiration date at the time of the interview. The expiry date will not hinder you getting the interview scheduled 

[throwaway6824 0]

Packet 3 asks us to email: 

1 - Confirmation receipt of DS-160

2 - Scanned copy of Packet 3 Checklist

3 - Scanned copy of Canadian Police Certificate 

 

The packet says once those are emailed, we will then receive Packet 4 which will have instructions on how to get the medical exam and to schedule the visa appointment. Packet 3 explicitly says in bold letters that we are not authorized to make an interview appointment, and any unauthorized appointments are automatically canceled as well as advising us to not schedule the medical appointment. My concerns are based that this all will happen after our NOA2 (I-129F) will have been expired.

[Edward and Jaycel 1,080]

12 minutes ago, throwaway6824 said:

My concerns are based that this all will happen after our NOA2 (I-129F) will have been expired.

This should not be one of your concerns… as I said above, having an expired NOA2 will not affect your ability to schedule the interview nor will it have any influence on the consular officer in making his or her decision on your visa

[MalloryCat 472]

Ahh I gotcha

Fair enough

 

As long as you are actively pursuing the petition (i.e emailing those documents) you should be fine.

 

The embassy is aware of the validity of i-129fs. It is not uncommon for people's interviews to be after the validity date has passed and they have zero issues

 

For example, our i-129f approval expired on July 4th, and my husband's interview was after that. Zero issues, they didn't even ask about it at the interview

 

If you do everything before the expire date (ie submitting ds-160, emailing documents) you'll be ok.

 

It would be a good idea to have another signed and dated intent to marry letter to bring along to the interview, from both partners.

[SL2024 175]

I brought signed letters of intent from both of us to my interview at the London Embassy as my petition had expired and they were ok with that.