Conflicting information between USCIS approved form and email from Immigrant Visa Unit

[JuanAustin 0]

Hi all,

We received approval of USCIS beginning of August 2014. After a month or so, my fiance never received any package in the mail from the US Embassy in Colombia. I started to call and send emails. I finally received an email from the Immigration Visa Unit of the US Embassy in Bogota on Oct 15 2014 telling me that they had sent everything via email to my fiance. Effectively, they did do that, but that email ended up in the spam folder.

In the email, they sent 1) instructions on how to proceed 2) IMBRA information and 3) a scanned version of the I-129F form that I sent with the approval stamps. The email states:

Debe tener en cuenta que dispone de un plazo de un año a partir de la fecha que USCIS aprobó su petición para programar y asistir a su cita.

(Translation: Take in account that you have up to one year from the date that USCIS approved your petition to program and assist the the appointment)

The approval date, on the I-129F form is July 25, 2014.

However, on the I-129F form, in the "For USCIS Use only" box, the following is checked

- "The petition is approved for status under Section 101(a) (5)(k). It is valid for 4 months from the date of action."

- And then the following is written by hand: 07-25-14 - 11-24-14

What is that suppose to mean? How is that different from the statement in the email that we have one year from the date that USCIS approved the case. I'm confused, and scared. Did we just mess things up by not doing things immediately?

My fiance and I have both been traveling a lot for our jobs. I'm now in Colombia so we can start organizing this process because there are a lot of persona things we need to take care of (family, jobs, etc). I'm going to be spending a month or two in Colombia so we were planning to organize the medical exams and embassy appointment in late January, early February. That is all in the time frame of "one year from the date that USCIS approved the petition". But I'm still confused with what is on the I-129F form.

Thanks

[TBoneTX 43,058]

The consulates can (and do) extend the validity of approved I-129F petitions for up to a year, in 4-month increments. This is done routinely.

E-mail the Bogota embassy to let them know that their e-mail ended up in your spam folder and that you're actively proceeding.

[JuanAustin 0]

The consulates can (and do) extend the validity of approved I-129F petitions for up to a year, in 4-month increments. This is done routinely.

E-mail the Bogota embassy to let them know that their e-mail ended up in your spam folder and that you're actively proceeding.

Got it.

So technically, the I-129F was approved for 4 months, but the consulate automatically extends it up to 1 year.

[TBoneTX 43,058]

If it's clear that the petition remains active, yes.

[Pitaya 2,576]

http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/types/family/fiance-k-1.html