Effective February 29, 2008 the National Visa Center (NVC) will notify the alien directly of the termination of the immigrant visa registration if the alien failed to pursue the application within one year after being notified that a visa was available. Prior to this, the consular officer at the post where an alien was registered as a beneficiary of an immigrant visa petition was responsible for notifying the alien, based the notification on information received from the NVC. The rule notice states further, "There is no change from the point of view of the alien. The alien still has the ability to apply for reinstatement of the immigrant visa registration. Such application should be sent to the National Visa Center and it will be forwarded to the consular officer at the post where the alien was registered, under the same conditions as before."