How can a question that asks about travelling, visa status and reapplying for a visa be off topic ?
I do not fully understand how this question : Legal status in the US if flights are delayed by a day? , after 2 years, is now off-topic. The duration it was on topic is even more important because I believe sufficient number of moderators and other users have eyeballed it and haven't found this to be off topic (unless question rules have drastically changed in the recent past).
I have cast the fifth reopen vote, question open.
I also voted to close the first time around, but I'll admit that I could have read both questions more thoroughly. It's funny, wording can often determine whether a question is closed or not.
For example:
I am applying for a tourist visa to the US. In the past, I once overstayed my HB1 visa due to a flight being delayed for a day. How will this affect my legal status and my application for a tourist visa?
Is this pretty much a similar question to what you were asking? Not a single person would have called the above off topic.
Generally those who vote to close these questions argue that because you have a work visa or a resident status, a different set of rules than those for a simple visitor might apply.
Also note that someone voted to close it in January 2014, at least judging by your comment.
I can't say why someone decided to revisit this 2 year old question, sometimes people decide to go on cleaning sprees. We've had some questions where the premise was the OP was on some sort of working visa and wanted to travel and there was some back and forth between closing and reopening.
Presumably, somebody randomly saw the question, felt it was off-topic and voted to close it, which puts it in the queue for others to see.
But your premise is faulty, here. You talk about "the duration the question was on-topic" but that doesn't really make much sense. Old questions don't receive much attention so the real situation is that the question was posted and then it was forgotten about for two years. The amount of time the question was forgotten about is not a deciding factor in whether or not the question is on-topic. It's not the case that people were continuously looking at the question, saying "Yep, that's still on topic." Rather, somebody came along after a long time and said, "Hang on a moment – I don't think this should be here."
(Disclosure: I voted to close the question, for the reasons I gave in the comments there. But I think my answer here would be essentially the same even if I'd voted to keep it open.)
