Was unable to enter US before Visa expired

[wac718]

Hello!

I submitted an application for my husband and everything was approved and he received his immigrant visa on February. We recently just finalize our trip plans since we had to wait for paper work and approval for our 2 dogs to travel as well. Unfortunately we were booking our flight and we actually realized the visa expired in march, less than a month after being issued. What process do we have to do now to get his visa reissued or reactivated? We really though his visa had a year before it expired. The embassy that issued the visa was in Bogota. Thanks in advance for all the help

 

[SusieQQQ]

The maximum time an immigrant visa is valid for is 6 months, but it is always limited to the expiry of the medical exam, which could be why your husband’s was so early after issue (especially if he had to undergo administrative processing). It is never valid for a year, so even if it had been issued with maximum expiry you would have gone past expiry date by now.

You’ll need to contact Bogota to ask them to reissue the visa. If they agree to do so, you will need to pay the visa fee again and get a new medical done. You may or may not need to get other civil documents updated (depending when they expired), and they will tell you what else they need (he may or may not need to go for another interview, if the DS260 was submitted more than a year ago it will need to be redone, may need to resubmit supporting documents etc). Be aware that some consulates are more willing than others to reissue visas, not sure where bogota falls on this spectrum. Make very sure to be aware of the expiry date next time!