Gurus please help!
My mom visited US once before and the extension of her stay was filed timely and approved by INS in 2002. After she went back and stayed in our home country for more than 3 years, we are inviting both my parents on visitor visas (my dad never visited US) and their applications for B2 visitor visas were rejected because we did not provide the copy of my mom's extension approval notice! We made a grave mistake by not copying the original approval notice and we put the whole page in her passport while she left USA and apprently the immigration officer took the whole page out. Now the visa interview officer in our embassy told them if they could provide a copy of the approval notice, their applicaitons would be granted next time. We searched on the Internet and found that there is one application of I-824 to apply for a duplicated approval notice. But our questions are:
1) On the USCIS webpage regarding using I-824 to ask for duplicates, there is one requirement saying "You must file Form I-824 while the original application or petition is still in effect in order to receive a duplicate approval notice." Her extension approval was more than 3 years ago with only 6 month valid extension and she did not overstay even by one day. Does this requirement mean that we can not get a duplicated approval notice from USCIS for her extension approval notice?
2) If we can apply for a duplicate, how long does the process of the application take?
3) If we can not apply for a duplicate, what alternative documents we should provide in order to get the visas?
Thanks. Please please help here!
My mom visited US once before and the extension of her stay was filed timely and approved by INS in 2002. After she went back and stayed in our home country for more than 3 years, we are inviting both my parents on visitor visas (my dad never visited US) and their applications for B2 visitor visas were rejected because we did not provide the copy of my mom's extension approval notice! We made a grave mistake by not copying the original approval notice and we put the whole page in her passport while she left USA and apprently the immigration officer took the whole page out. Now the visa interview officer in our embassy told them if they could provide a copy of the approval notice, their applicaitons would be granted next time. We searched on the Internet and found that there is one application of I-824 to apply for a duplicated approval notice. But our questions are:
1) On the USCIS webpage regarding using I-824 to ask for duplicates, there is one requirement saying "You must file Form I-824 while the original application or petition is still in effect in order to receive a duplicate approval notice." Her extension approval was more than 3 years ago with only 6 month valid extension and she did not overstay even by one day. Does this requirement mean that we can not get a duplicated approval notice from USCIS for her extension approval notice?
2) If we can apply for a duplicate, how long does the process of the application take?
3) If we can not apply for a duplicate, what alternative documents we should provide in order to get the visas?
Thanks. Please please help here!