Oz88

I'd think that by putting the name exactly as it is on the divorce decree, it would help avoid having to produce further evidence that your ex wife changed her name.

Sorry to hear about your ordeal... hopefully things go up from here!

When my Fiance and I started our journey, we considered going to an immigration attorney, but being 'cheap', I decided to do a little bit of research on the internet before committing to paying lots of $$$ for something that we could potentially do ourselves. I found VJ and other really informative sites which offered loads of examples and step-by-step guidance on the whole process, and because our case seemed fairly straight-forward, I concluded that hiring counsel would be a waste of money, as eventually, we would need to provide all the information for the forms and the documentation ourselves.

That said, we still had a couple of questions (for some reason I've always googled questions, not realising there was a forum on VJ!), so my Fiance booked a consultation with an immi attorney through his legal services subscription plan at work. On the day of the consultation, he went in, only to be told that the attorney had to go somewhere and instead, his legal secretary would be his replacement. She gave us 'advice' that we later found out to be WAY off the mark. Luckily we took everything that she said with a level of scepticism, and verified it with other authoritative sources before acting upon it.

Thanks for the informative reply - I emailed them asking to extend the petition validity. Hopefully it all works out! Cheers!

It means that within the noted time frame, the visa must be approved (assuming all the requirements are satisfied). However, if you think the interview will be scheduled close to or after the expiration date, then the USC must file for an I-129F petition extension. The "revalidation" will be good for another 4 months.

Does the USC NEED to file a petition extension request or is it done automatically by the consular officer?

Also, is the petition extension request just a letter from the USC (like the example in the downloads section of VJ)?