T.O 2 FL MTL Consulate Review

[T.O_2_FL 0]

Ok guys and gals! Get your reading glasses on and coffee in hand!

we stayed at Hotel XIXe on 262 St. Jacques in old Montreal. It was a 15 minute walk to the U.S. Consulate from the hotel. Very nice I must say! Can you say uber high ceilings! Must have been at least 15 feet! Boutique hotel-ish and we booked via hotels.com for just under $115/night. We wanted to make the best out of our few days stay to catch some sights, etc after the interview. Especially since it was Valentine's!

Consulate review:

Arrived at the door of the U.S Consulate at 710am. No one was there yet. We huddled in the corner of the doorway since it was snowing quite heavy. Around 730ish, they opened the doors and before letting us through, asked to see our appt letter and to have our passports ready for inspection. Showed him the letter and we proceeded to security where we were asked to remove all items from our pockets, coats, jackets, etc that would go through the x ray machine. I was then given a plastic chip with the letter A and window 9 on it. 'Don't lose it' said the security guy. One by one we went through the metal detector and we both got the standard wand-check. They did take away a little compact dental floss that my Fiance had as well as my garage fob for my condo.

'Go through those doors and head downstairs to the waiting room. In about 10 minutes someone will come down and take you upstairs' said the security guy after we retrieved all our belongings. Down the flight of stairs, we could feel the sterility of the place. Typical goverment building is what we both surmised. In the waiting area in the basement, there were 4 rows of plastic chairs and a photo booth for adhoc passport photos. No background music, nothing. Just the sound of your own heart beat.

10 minutes later a Custom's guy came into the waiting area and removed the rope infront of the elevator stating that only people with the letter A,B,C and D should follow him. There seemed to be a little bit of confusion and perhaps an air of desperation because the whole room got up and wanted to follow us. We enter the elevator that has doors on both ends. He tells us that we will be exiting the other side, so we all turn around. We finally get to the 20th floor and exit. Dead quiet as we are the first ones to arrive. We are ushered into an inner waiting room where windown 9,10,11 and 12 are. The man tells me and my Fiance to wait infront of Window 9 while the other sit down right behind us in the row of chairs for their turn. We stand infront of the window for about 10-15 minutes and a gentleman appears asking me for the appt letter, the letter A tag and gave us an invoice for $131 to pay for the Visa. He then told us that he was going to clear this waiting room first and then would call us back. In the meantime, he told us to pay for the Visa. We headed outside into the larger waiting room and straight to the cashier window #14. At this time, the room was starting to fill up and the elevator brought up people non stop.

We paid and took a seat. I heard my name called in about 10 minutes to go back to window 9. Back we went and this time we provided our documentation. Here is what we actually needed:

• xpresspost envelope (314x394)
• My canadian passport & 1 copy of the bio page (they took both)
• 2 Passport pics (they were affixed to my application forms)
• $131 US & gave them the receipt for having paid it
• Packet 4 appointment letter
• Sealed Medical (Seiden) File
• My birth certificate (full length version) & 1 copy (they took both)
• RCMP Police Certificate & 1 copy for your own records
• I-134 (AOS) notorized & 1 copy for your own records (Affidavit of support)
• Fiance Letter of Employment & 1 copy for your records
• Fiance W2 photo copies (past 4 years which they took)
• Fiance Letter of Intent & 1 copy for your records
• DS-156K (unsigned) & 1 copy for your records
• Tickets: plane, bus, train (did not look at)
• Photographs of us together (did not look at)
• Phone Bills (did not look at)
• Wedding invitation (did not look at)

some questions: when do you guys plan on getting married? do you know how to use the K1 Visa?

He said everything looked good and wished us luck for the interview which we would be called to in a few minutes. "Just wait back in the main waiting room and wait to be called....good luck!" he said. Back out we go and this time I can actually go for a potty break! So far so good, everyone has been pleasant!

10 minutes later we get called to room #7. It sounds like Movie Phone Man! Into mini closet aka interview room #7 we go and we see this tall dirty blond man in a suit with the Movie Phone voice! I told him that he sounded like that guy and he laughed. He said he always gets that comment. Anyway down to business, he asks a few questions:

- so I see you guys met through work? how do you guys keep in touch? how often do you see each other?

Then he told us to raise our right hands and take an oath that everything that we have said and completed is true. He also asked me if I was ever in trouble with the border, etc. No, no and no was the answer. 'OK you're all done. Congratulations you qualify for a Visa, you should get your passport in about 1 week and here is an FAQ sheet with some more information.'

That was it!

Although we weren't asked for all of the stuff we brought, there is no harm being over prepared than under.

So really it wasn't so painful, it was really all the anticipation leading up to the event.

All the VJers on this board really helped and I can't stress enough that you don't need to worry about things. I have found out the hard way that I have worried about a lot of things unnecessarily only to stress myself out.

Can't believe that everything has taken a year! WAHOO! Finally it's done! What a great Valentine's present!

[Krikit 1,164]

Great review! Congratulations!

[trailmix 77]

Sounds like a very pleasant interview! Congratulations !

[~Laura and Nick~ 5]

Awesome review! I enjoyed it very much.

Congratulations to you both and best of luck for the future!!!!

[Flames9_RN 358]

super review!! congrats!!

[BH45 0]

Congrats on your approval. Great review.

[EandL 0]

Congratulations! Thanks for the review!