My parents came to US in April 2002 with 5 months' B-2 VISA (expired Spetember 5th, 2002). As they inititally wanted to leave before their VISA's expiration but changed their mind later, I did not send out the VISA extension request untill later August. In October, INS asked me to send airline tickets copies to prove that my parents would leave US in a few months to approve the extension. However due to their unexpected health problem, they left US on Nov 17th 2002 (They did not have the I-94 forms as they were sent to INS along with the extension application forms) . And I then immediately sent a letter to INS to explain this situation along with my parents' airline tixs copies. Later they sent me a notice, stating my parents' application was abanboned since they were not in US.
Now my question is: since they stayed in US about 2 more months after their VISA expired, and I believe that this will affect their application for the new VISA (I am graduating this summer and hope they can come to US again). And I am wonderring how I could help to minimize the negative effects from this and what other documents I need to help solve this. Anybody who has the same experience or knows how to dela with this problem is more than welcome to comment here, and I would really appreciate it.
Thanks.
Charles