NVC Termination Letter (TL1) best way to respond

[BrandInaqui 0]

HI all!

I am a US born citizen, I applied for my Mexican husband in 2008 after our marriage in Washington - he had entered illegally.  We applied for the I-130 and received the NVC letter, we just never sent it in with the fee for the appointment but we did call to renew every year and update address/phone/email.
 

In 2011 we came to Mexico for a job at my international company.  We have been happy and comfortable here but now we have an opportunity again with my company to return to the US.  All this time we never did anything with his case given we planned to stay here.  I kept calling the NVC every year until 2017.  I was reviewing an old email account the other day and see that they sent me an email in June of 2017 that they were going to terminate if they did not hear from me.  Then in June of 2018 I have the email from them with the TL1 letter.  It says that as long as I respond this year before June of 2019 that they can reinstate the case before it is completely cancelled.

 

I called the NVC on Thursday and after a long wait I spoke to a guy who said I have to hand write a letter explaining why we did not contact them and ask for the case to be reinstated. Then scan it and send it via their Inquiry Form on the state.gov website.

 

I wanted to find out if others have been in this situation and what is the best language to put in the letter to convince them to reactivate the case?