About Expired Visa

[AlbieBio 7]

My sister got her visa in March and visa expired in July, does the embassy automatically extend it or do we have to do something to extend it due to the pandemic.

[milimelo 4,505]

Should’ve traveled. If it’s IR-1 visa she can get it reissued. If it’s FB4 can’t do anything until the ban is lifted. 

[Lucky2Lucky 2,526]

14 minutes ago, AlbieBio said:

My sister got her visa in March and visa expired in July, does the embassy automatically extend it or do we have to do something to extend it due to the pandemic.

That's unfortunate; they do not automatically extend; she needed to travel. What kind of visa was it?

[AlbieBio 7]

8 minutes ago, Luckycuds said:

That's unfortunate; they do not automatically extend; she needed to travel. What kind of visa was it?

She has the CR-1 Visa and she got it with her 3 kids, she did not want to endanger the kids and the borders in Ghana were closed after a week when they got their visa.

17 minutes ago, milimelo said:

Should’ve traveled. If it’s IR-1 visa she can get it reissued. If it’s FB4 can’t do anything until the ban is lifted. 

its  CR-1 Visa

[NancyNguyen 1,657]

She can contact the consulate to request reissuing new visa.

[Lucky2Lucky 2,526]

16 minutes ago, AlbieBio said:

She has the CR-1 Visa and she got it with her 3 kids, she did not want to endanger the kids and the borders in Ghana were closed after a week when they got their visa.

its  CR-1 Visa

She should contact the embassy; it is possible she may need a new medical, police certificate, interview, pay a new fee, etc.

 

If you could update us here how that goes that would be great because it would add to our knowledge and help others out in this uncharted territory. 

[geowrian 22,337]

They may qualify for a 1 month extension of the medical:

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/one-month-extension-of-immigrant-visa-medical-examinations.html

Edited July 27, 2020 by geowrian

[Crazy Cat 41,982]

1 hour ago, geowrian said:

They may qualify for a 1 month extension of the medical:

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/one-month-extension-of-immigrant-visa-medical-examinations.html

That brings up a good question (to my simple brain). I presumed that a 30 day extension of the medical would not extend the expiration date printed on the visa.  

But, that link sounds like the visa expiration is extended for a month.

Edited July 27, 2020 by Lucky Cat

[geowrian 22,337]

50 minutes ago, Lucky Cat said:

That brings up a good question (to my simple brain). I presumed that a 30 day extension of the medical would not extend the expiration date printed on the visa.  

But, that link sounds like the visa expiration is extended for a month.

The way I see it, there are extensions and re-issues.

 

Extensions are extremely limited. Immigrant (and K) visas are limited to 6 months max, constrained by the medical validity.

In the OP's case, it sounds like the visa was issued in March and expired this month. So the medical was presumably done in January. Therefore, extending the medical validity by 1 month would allow the visa to be valid for up to 1 additional month.

References:

Regulation (CFR): https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/22/42.72

Policy (FAM): https://fam.state.gov/fam/09FAM/09FAM050410.html#M504_10_5

Quote

(b) Extension of period of validity. If the visa was originally issued for a period of validity less than the maximum authorized by paragraph (a) of this section, the consular officer may extend the validity of the visa up to but not exceeding the maximum period permitted.

 

If this is a "re-issue" - which I think it is based on the wording - the 6 month limit doesn't apply.

This is akin to just re-issuing the visa with a new expiration date based upon the new expiration date of the existing medical.

Subsequently, if this was a barred visa category, it would also be unable to be issued as a result of it being a re-issue and not an extension.

 

Note the announcement only says that the medical validity is extended, not the visa. The visa is only referred to in terms of being issued or reissued.