Approved B1/B2 Extension (I-539) during COVID - No Biometrics

[kswheezy 117]

Hey all,

 

I hope this helps alleviate any anxiety on this topic. Granted every situation is different, I can share my fiancé's story. We were very fortunate that he had a 10 year B1/B2 visa and that he was granted a 6 month stay to come visit me in the US from the middle of September to mid-March. His flight back to Honduras was set for March 16th, with his I-94 set to expire on March 17th. However, COVID happened and panic ensued... Honduras closed their borders completely on March 15th. He was stuck here.

 

We panicked! We were going to mail our petition in to start our K1 visa process the next day. I called the USCIS and asked them for guidance and talked to a couple of very helpful individuals that stated that likely no action would be taken against him… because, COVID. But, if we wanted to play it safe then we should file an extension (I-539)... of course we would always want to play it safe, so we filed the extension online right away with any supporting documents.

 

At the time the Honduran government made an official statement that the borders would be closed for a week, and at that time they would review and decide if it needed to be closed further. As of that time, there were still flights to Honduras the following week, so we rescheduled his flight for then a week out. We applied for the extension (requesting a month but explaining that he would leave as soon as it was possible). A week went by, and the Honduran government extended their border closures. We were pretty convinced that he would have to stay here and were kicking ourselves for not requesting longer. My fiancé was in contact with the Honduran consulate near us in the US and they told us about some repatriation flights. We were able to secure one of those flights ($$$) and he was able to leave the US on March 30th (13 days past his I-94, much shorter I imagine than most cases but this was ours).

 

We got an update (notified from one of the case tracking apps) on September 18th that a biometrics appointment was made. My heart dropped, we didn't know if this would be considering abandonment of the extension request because he was not in the US anymore. I probably stressed myself out way more than I needed to, but did find some information on some old threads of VJ that it was a possibility to do biometrics outside of the US for extreme circumstances if there was a USCIS field office nearby in his country that could perform the biometrics. We were just hoping that would work out and decided to wait for the notification with the biometrics appointment on it to come, as I read that there should be instructions about obtaining biometrics if now outside of the US.

 

I'm going to assume that an officer looked into our case and saw that my fiancé was able to leave on March 30th. We just got another notification on the case tracking app today that his extension was approved! No biometrics! They approved the extension from March 17th-March 30th (obviously they saw that he was able to exit the US on the 30th). We are super thankful and thrilled that this news came just as they have started adjudicating the K1 visas just ahead of ours. We were so worried (though I realize how silly it is) that this was going to affect our K1 case.

 

Again, I realize our extension likely doesn’t look like every other case and the extension ended up being for such a short amount of time, but hopefully this will help someone.

 

March 16, 2020 - Filed extension (I-539) online with immediate notice

March 17, 2020 - Date of I-94 Expiration

September 18, 2020 - Notice that biometrics appointment was made (6 months, 2 days!!)

September 24, 2020 - Case Approved - No Biometrics done

Edited September 25, 2020 by kswheezy

[Mystery 2020 30]

Nice story but there's nothing surprising in what you have posted, exactly what anyone would expect to happen.

[SusieQQQ 11,584]

Thanks for posting this. I’ve never actually seen it reported before that someone has had an extension approved for just the extra time they were in the US, months after they already left.  Usually the outcome is that if you leave before adjudication, the application is abandoned.
Now you/he have no stress about overstay, canceled visas etc. 

Edited September 25, 2020 by SusieQQQ

[kswheezy 117]

8 hours ago, SusieQQQ said:

Now you/he have no stress about overstay, canceled visas etc. 

 

We are definitely relieved about no overstay as we are in the middle of our K1 process. Though I imagine with it being so short and with proper documentation to show he tried to leave, I would hope he wouldn't have any issues from it.

 

On the visa, it was revoked when he got back to Honduras. I imagine it is some sort of automated computer thing from the US embassy in Honduras. He got an email within a week of getting home that his visa was revoked and if he thought it was an error to write to them. He wrote an email back, explaining the circumstances and that he had a pending extension (with support documents, though they would definitely know that the country was closed). Their response was not helpful, stating that they would not discuss individual cases and if he wanted to apply for another visa that he could pay for another interview 🤦‍♀️. We just left it alone, but in light of this new development we are going to reach out to the embassy and see what they have to say. 

[kswheezy 117]

8 hours ago, Mystery 2020 said:

Nice story but there's nothing surprising in what you have posted, exactly what anyone would expect to happen.

I sincerely wasn't expecting it to go through with no biometrics and having left the country. Most of the posts I found stated it would have been considered abandonment of his case, and essentially a waste of a bunch of money. If you have experience with extensions, I would encourage you to help the others in similar posts on here. 😊 I definitely wasn't the only one panicking.

[Boiler 43,430]

Not many people can vacation for 6 months, I would imagine that is why it was pulled.

 

Is he retired? Obviously individual circumstances matter. 

 

Is he looking get another B or will just wait out the K1? K1 seems an odd choice but another subject.

 

 

Edited September 25, 2020 by Boiler

[kswheezy 117]

20 minutes ago, Boiler said:

Not many people can vacation for 6 months, I would imagine that is why it was pulled.

I sincerely believe it is an automated revocation from a database within the embassy, especially considering the automated response after he tried to address it initially. However, I wouldn't know definitively as the embassy doesn't seem to forthcoming with actual information and I guess that's their prerogative. We will keep the post updated with what we find out, hopefully it would help someone else down the road.

 

Is he retired? Obviously individual circumstances matter. 

He is not retired.

 

Is he looking get another B or will just wait out the K1? K1 seems an odd choice but another subject.

If they want him to pay for another interview for another B, we aren't going to bother with it. We just figured if they could reverse the revocation based on the new information, that there may be a possibility that he could come visit again as we wait out our K1 sentence, I mean petition *joke*.

 

Why is K1 an odd choice? We were dating for over a year and had discussed marriage. We wanted to spend more than 2 weeks together to make sure that we liked each other even with our little quirks. Thankfully we got 6 months, 6 months that have been the happiest either of us have ever been. We got engaged near the end of those 6 months and we planned to apply for the K1 visa as it theoretically had the quickest turn around at the time, and that it what was important to us. I sent in the I-129F in mid-March, before we knew the impact that COVID would have on our case. In hindsight, knowing now that the world was going to completely shut down, I wish we had gotten married and either filed for spousal or just adjusted based on the circumstances dealt to us at the time. But, that's hindsight for you.

 

 

 

[Boiler 43,430]

Well I can just comment on my experience of being on here for a long time, K1 and its issues have been covered so many times on here I will leave that and it is history now.

 

I would be surprised if the Consulate do anything, well it would be a first anyway. Please let us know what they say.

[SusieQQQ 11,584]

10 hours ago, Mystery 2020 said:

Nice story but there's nothing surprising in what you have posted, exactly what anyone would expect to happen.

Except the fact that cases usually get abandoned when people leave before adjudication, not approved retroactively for the correct period.  So it’s more than just the “nice story” you dismissed it as. 

 

 

1 hour ago, kswheezy said:

 

We are definitely relieved about no overstay as we are in the middle of our K1 process. Though I imagine with it being so short and with proper documentation to show he tried to leave, I would hope he wouldn't have any issues from it.

 

On the visa, it was revoked when he got back to Honduras. I imagine it is some sort of automated computer thing from the US embassy in Honduras. He got an email within a week of getting home that his visa was revoked and if he thought it was an error to write to them. He wrote an email back, explaining the circumstances and that he had a pending extension (with support documents, though they would definitely know that the country was closed). Their response was not helpful, stating that they would not discuss individual cases and if he wanted to apply for another visa that he could pay for another interview 🤦‍♀️. We just left it alone, but in light of this new development we are going to reach out to the embassy and see what they have to say. 

Ok, it presumably would have been because an overstay was registered at that stage. It probably doesn’t matter anyway if he’s not planning to visit again before the K1 is issued. 
 

[kswheezy 117]

9 hours ago, SusieQQQ said:

 

Ok, it presumably would have been because an overstay was registered at that stage. It probably doesn’t matter anyway if he’s not planning to visit again before the K1 is issued. 
 

Oh for sure, we are still going to probe (and when I say we I mean me), just to see if they would consider reversing the revocation. Call it an experiment. We are hoping that our K1 stuff will be settled within the next 6 months, hopefully sooner. If it's not, it would be nice to be able to fall back on the B2 for a visit. It is much easier for him to visit than it is for me. I appreciate your input.

 

10 hours ago, Boiler said:

Well I can just comment on my experience of being on here for a long time, K1 and its issues have been covered so many times on here I will leave that and it is history now.

 

I would be surprised if the Consulate do anything, well it would be a first anyway. Please let us know what they say.

Fair enough, I've read the K1 threads pretty deep and can see what a hot mess can come of it. We are two very boring individuals compared to some of my peers on here 😉. I too would be surprised if the embassy will do anything, but you never know unless you try, right? Thanks for your input. I'll let you guys know if I hear anything from them, the good and the bad.

[deborabr 16]

That is awesome! Thanks for sharing your experience. I am still waiting for the biometrics appointment but hoping they approve my mom's application. Also I was told by USCIS that if my mom were to leave the country before she receive a response from the immigration all she has to do is keep the paperwork showing she applied while she was in the country and did not overstay her visa. When she come visit again she should have that paperwork with her to show to the immigration officers but she should not have a problem to return.

Edited September 26, 2020 by deborabr

[DIVx 0]

On 9/24/2020 at 11:16 PM, kswheezy said:

We got an update (notified from one of the case tracking apps) on September 18th that a biometrics appointment was made. My heart dropped, we didn't know if this would be considering abandonment of the extension request because he was not in the US anymore. I probably stressed myself out way more than I needed to, but did find some information on some old threads of VJ that it was a possibility to do biometrics outside of the US for extreme circumstances if there was a USCIS field office nearby in his country that could perform the biometrics. We were just hoping that would work out and decided to wait for the notification with the biometrics appointment on it to come, as I read that there should be instructions about obtaining biometrics if now outside of the US.

Not clear from your message if you notified USCIS someway after you received biometric appointment that your fiancee had already left the U.S. and can't keep that appointment. Please kindly clear up. Thank you.

[kswheezy 117]

41 minutes ago, DIVx said:

Not clear from your message if you notified USCIS someway after you received biometric appointment that your fiancee had already left the U.S. and can't keep that appointment. Please kindly clear up. Thank you.

No, we did not notify them. I was waiting for the official notice from them regarding the biometrics appointment. The case changed on it's own from "Biometrics Appointment Was Scheduled" on September 18, 2020, to "Case was Approved" on September 24, 2020 with no intervention on our part.

 

My fiancé actually got the biometrics notice on his myUSCIS account, but didn't realize it was there until we saw the approval notice. Looking at that notice, there was not any information about being able to reschedule the appointment if out of the country. One statement from the notice that stood out to me was this:

 

PLEASE APPEAR AT THE BELOW APPLICATION SUPPORT CENTER (ASC) AT THE DATE AND TIME SPECIFIED. IF YOU FAIL TO APPEAR AS SCHEDULED, YOUR APPLICATION, PETITION, OR REQUEST WILL BE CONSIDERED ABANDONED.

 

Near the bottom of the notice they have, "If you have any questions regarding this notice, please contact the USCIS Contact Center at 1-800-375-5283", which is just the general line for the USCIS. 

 

The "ASC Appointment Notice" for the biometrics had a Notice Date of 09/18/2020 on it.

The "Approval Notice" had a date of 09/22/2020 on it.

[SalishSea 16,770]

16 hours ago, kswheezy said:

Oh for sure, we are still going to probe (and when I say we I mean me), just to see if they would consider reversing the revocation.

I have never heard of this happening for a cancelled B visa.  What makes you think they will do that?

 

There is no appeal process for a B revocation.   The expectation would be to apply again, since the burden is on the applicant to demonstrate their eligibility for the visa, rather than the burden being on the DOS to demonstrate the applicant's ineligibility.

Edited September 26, 2020 by Jorgedig

[kswheezy 117]

6 minutes ago, Jorgedig said:

I have never heard of this happening for a cancelled B visa.  What makes you think they will do that?

 

There is no appeal process for a B revocation.   The expectation would be to apply again, since the burden is on the applicant to demonstrate their eligibility for the visa, rather than the burden being on the DOS to demonstrate the applicant's ineligibility.

No one has heard of someone having an extension approved for extra time they were in the US months after they already left, yet it was. The B2 was revoked based on a presumed overstay that was completely out of our hands. We submitted the extension before the I-94 was expired, and it has now been approved 6 months later, no overstay.

 

I am not saying that I think they will reverse the revocation. I don't think they will do anything, as I stated in that same post. However, you never know unless you ask. This case was under extreme extenuating circumstances. If we get a reply that there is nothing they can do, then we won't bother with it and will wait out our K1 visa. I completely understand it's their prerogative. I am just posting in hopes that this may help someone else in similar circumstances.