What do I need to do to get a visa error corrected?

[Eve & Jim 4]

Eve and Mae just arrived at the airport with their tickets and luggage ready to come the the U.S. The Delta ticket agent looked at Eve's visa and said it expired on 2/23/2012 when it was just issued on 2/7/2012. They also said her daughters K2 visa which was issued on the same day is set to expire in March of 2012. I know they won't normally let her enter the embassy without an appointment letter or something. What do we need to do to get this fixed? Obviously we are very disappointed and embarassed.

--Jim

[Hank_ 9,174]

Eve and Mae just arrived at the airport with their tickets and luggage ready to come the the U.S. The Delta ticket agent looked at Eve's visa and said it expired on 2/23/2012 when it was just issued on 2/7/2012. They also said her daughters K2 visa which was issued on the same day is set to expire in March of 2012. I know they won't normally let her enter the embassy without an appointment letter or something. What do we need to do to get this fixed? Obviously we are very disappointed and embarassed.

--Jim

Someone did a major opps at the embassy typewriter.

Here is a link to their contact info, you are going to need to talk to someone for sure.

http://manila.usembassy.gov/contact.html

I am looking for their email address, can't believe I misplaced it.

[LIFE'SJOURNEY 970]

Someone did a major opps at the embassy typewriter.

Here is a link to their contact info, you are going to need to talk to someone for sure.

http://manila.usembassy.gov/contact.html

I am looking for their email address, can't believe I misplaced it.

Nope, look at when they did their medical, the visa was issued to expired from the date of the medical in 09/201. They may need to re-do their medical. ??????

[Enigma11561 336]

In the excitement of it all, I guess you guys did not look very carefully when the visa were issued. If it was caught at the embassy or as soon as they arrived ( don't know exactly how it works in the Phils) this could have been avoided. But it is definitely wrong. Visas are good for 90 days so they should expire sometime around the 5-6 of May. Please contact the embassy ASAP and get this corrected. They know they screwed up. Sorry about that.

[LIFE'SJOURNEY 970]

In the excitement of it all, I guess you guys did not look very carefully when the visa were issued. If it was caught at the embassy or as soon as they arrived ( don't know exactly how it works in the Phils) this could have been avoided. But it is definitely wrong. Visas are good for 90 days so they should expire sometime around the 5-6 of May. Please contact the embassy ASAP and get this corrected. They know they screwed up. Sorry about that.

Look at the OP time line for their medical, visa is expiring 6 months after intial medical date.

[Eve & Jim 4]

Look at the OP time line for their medical, visa is expiring 6 months after intial medical date.

The medical was retested when they went back in December.

[LIFE'SJOURNEY 970]

The medical was retested when they went back in December.

It's looks at if they are using the intial date, you will need to bring that to their attention.

[Eve & Jim 4]

I don't know what they based their expiration date on. Issuing a visa on 7 Feb 2012 and having it expire on 23 Feb 2012, is just wrong! Why would they issue a visa that can never be used given that she would have to go through a seminar in the Philippines and it takes a couple days before she actually has the visa in her hands due to delivery delays? Why don't they have some kind of checks in the software that prints the visa to prevent this kind of foolish error? If she would have used the visa before it expired, she would have been overstaying her visa before she could have even gotten a return plane ticket, let alone us getting married.

The U.S. Embassy may not even allow her into the building to get this corrected, and I have sent them emails in the past, and even in this case, but they only respond with their canned reciept message saying they will get back to me in 7 days because they get too many emails.

Eve is so upset with the situation that she doesn't even want to go to the U.S. Embassy and try to get in to fix the problem. The last problem with them not being able to find a Cenomar that we had proof had been delivered to them took me having my U.S. Senator contacting them to get it resolved. I have sat on the phone listening to it ring for over an hour when trying to call the U.S. Embassy with no answer.

The 23 Feb 2012 date doesn't match up to any medical date or anything like that.

So short of me buying a plane ticket and going to the U.S. Embassy in Manila myself to get this resolved, what can I do to get this fixed?

[Leatherneck 693]

I don't know what they based their expiration date on. Issuing a visa on 7 Feb 2012 and having it expire on 23 Feb 2012, is just wrong! Why would they issue a visa that can never be used given that she would have to go through a seminar in the Philippines and it takes a couple days before she actually has the visa in her hands due to delivery delays? Why don't they have some kind of checks in the software that prints the visa to prevent this kind of foolish error? If she would have used the visa before it expired, she would have been overstaying her visa before she could have even gotten a return plane ticket, let alone us getting married.

Certainly is a real mess you have here Jim. I'm not sure of the procedure how the staff at USEM checks visas before shipping them out the door, but we are the best checks to ensure accuracy and discover mistakes by USEM, long before the tickets are purchased. I know what I said is like putting on a rain coat after one is already wet.

The K-1 visa expires upon reporting to CBP at the POE, the K-1 is a single use, one time visa. Your 90 day count down to get married has nothing to do with the K-1 expiring, it expired at the POE, you have 90 days from the date of POE. Therefore, had Eve flown prior to Feb 23, she would have been fine.

The U.S. Embassy may not even allow her into the building to get this corrected, and I have sent them emails in the past, and even in this case, but they only respond with their canned reciept message saying they will get back to me in 7 days because they get too many emails.

Eve is so upset with the situation that she doesn't even want to go to the U.S. Embassy and try to get in to fix the problem. The last problem with them not being able to find a Cenomar that we had proof had been delivered to them took me having my U.S. Senator contacting them to get it resolved. I have sat on the phone listening to it ring for over an hour when trying to call the U.S. Embassy with no answer.

The 23 Feb 2012 date doesn't match up to any medical date or anything like that.

So short of me buying a plane ticket and going to the U.S. Embassy in Manila myself to get this resolved, what can I do to get this fixed?

I understand your sentiments considering the hassles you and Eve endured prior to the current fiasco. I know they can be rigid with regards to locals having an appointment before entering the embassy, however, this will take some time to straighten out. Getting on a plane will be a pain just to get this corrected.

You already have a link that was provided, here is additional info.

"Inquiries on a specific case may be directed to the Immigrant Visa (IV) Unit by e-mail at IVManilaReplies@state.gov or by fax at (632) 301-2591. Petitioners and applicants may also call the IV Inquiry line at (632) 301-2000, extension 5184 or 5185 during normal business hours."

[Rufus2012 175]

So short of me buying a plane ticket and going to the U.S. Embassy in Manila myself to get this resolved, what can I do to get this fixed?

She's an adult, she can deal with the embassy, it's in her country - and the mistake is obviously the embassy's. Really, you flying over there to get them to fix a typo is just crazy.

But let this serve as a warning to everyone, double check your visa when you go get it (unless it's shipped to you of course).

[VanessaTony 3,567]

In the excitement of it all, I guess you guys did not look very carefully when the visa were issued. If it was caught at the embassy or as soon as they arrived ( don't know exactly how it works in the Phils) this could have been avoided. But it is definitely wrong. Visas are good for 90 days so they should expire sometime around the 5-6 of May. Please contact the embassy ASAP and get this corrected. They know they screwed up. Sorry about that.

Visas are good for 6 months, or, as others stated until the length of the medical, whichever is shorter. Once they are in the US they have 90 days to get married.

[Eve & Jim 4]

She's an adult, she can deal with the embassy, it's in her country - and the mistake is obviously the embassy's. Really, you flying over there to get them to fix a typo is just crazy.

But let this serve as a warning to everyone, double check your visa when you go get it (unless it's shipped to you of course).

Eve did check the expiration date on her daughters visa which is 09 Mar 2012 which is wrong too, but it would have been valid long enough to get into the U.S. Since the visas are together, they should have had the same expiration date. She checked everything else, she just missed the expiration date on her visa being expired. I think the U.S. Embassy just did this because I had my U.S. Senator get involved because they lost paperwork and kept ignoring all of our attempts to resolve the problem.

--Jim

[Eve & Jim 4]

Eve went to the U.S. Embassy in Manila today. This is probably the worst news we have gotten during this process. It seems that her visa expired on 23 Feb 2012 because of the date that her negative sputum result was returned. They flagged her visa as Medical PTB B1 which means that her medical clearance expired after 90 days. Then because she had to get a Japanese police clearance after her interview and they lost the CENOMAR for her daughter's biological father, by the time I got my U.S. Senator involved and the visa was issued on 7 Feb 2012 but not delivered to her until 10 Feb 2012 we simply ran out of time. She had looked at her daughters expiration date and it was 9 Mar 2012 because her daughter didn't have to go through a sputum test, so her visa was good for 6 months after her initial medical exam. She thought that the expiration dates would have been the same.

As soon as she got the visa's we started to get things moving but ran into issues like St. Mary's doesn't do the CFO stuff for her daughter, so that added a couple days, and she needed the transcripts from her daughters school, and the flights were just booked for anything other than 1st Class. If I had known about the expiration issue I would have found the money for the plane tickets.

The embassy told her that we could request that the visa's be replaced. I have given her the letter to do that, but this means that we will have to pay all the fees again, redo any expired police clearances, and go through the interview process again. So basically we start back at NOA2.

I have sent a message to my senator asking for more help, but I'm not sure if there is anything that can be done.

If anybody has any information that could help us, I would love to hear it. Most of all, if you happen to remember us in your prayers, that would be greatly appreciated.

--Jim