Ok, my very smart Canadian peeps!

[Cassie 8]

Ok, so I was contacted by the daughter of a friend of my mom's (actually, I used to babysit her many moons ago) who is starting the immigration process through spousal visas.

it's the classic story:

US boy meets Canadian girl in the US

boy and girl fall in love

boy (who happens to be a lawyer) consults various immigration officials who tell him to tell girl something along the lines of "she can come to the US on a visitor's visa, wait three months, then apply for a spousal visa" (this is what she told me they said, not sure if that is exactly what they said, anywho)

boy and girl go and get married in Canada

boy and girl try to cross the border and she is turned back

boy and girl are now applying for the spousal visa!

So she has contacted me, knowing that I have experience with US immigration. Along with recommending this lovely site, I want to answer some of her questions as best as I can, and I haven't been on the site much (darn job!) so I am a bit out of touch with trends and timelines at the moment. Can you all help me??

has K3 processing speeded up at all in the last 6 months? They are filling out the I-130 as we speak, and plan on doing the K3 as well. If there is no point in having both petitions going at once, I'd like to let them know. How long on average is the entire process taking at the moment? I do believe he's in Florida, so they would be going through VSC, yeah?

as far as the medical goes, is it still good for up to a year? how hard is it to get a medical in Montreal? can you get it done while in town for the interview, or does it have to be done and sent in before an interview date is set? She's in Nova Scotia, so it would mean possibly two trips to Montreal and they need to plan expenses.

Like I said, I will be directing them to VJ in my reply email, but I want to prep them a bit with some realistic timelines, so any help you can give, that would be fantastic!

[carslo 0]

If we had of been a bit smarter I think our CR-1 would have been done in 8 - 9 months hope that helps.

Good luck to them,

Janet

[scandal 951]

The word is that K3 are pretty much useless these days. IR1/CR1 is the recommended route for married folks, K1 for fiances. K3 should be seen as extinct other than in rare circumstances. pushbrk and others have commented on this in a number of threads recently. ... perhaps we can coax him to answer here. I would consider him to be the SME (subject matter expert) on this topic.

[Reba 2]

K3s are pretty much a waste of time and paper these days, especially if she lives in the eastern part of Canada and would interview in Montreal anyhow. Even for potential Vancouver interviewees, I'd suggest CR1, simply because it's still only about a month slower, and costs $1010 less than the K3 and is a lot less headache. Which I'm sure they've already had enough of!

[wowswift 3]

Do the CR-1 and you can't do the medical unless you have your interview letter. Its pretty easy to get one, just when you know your interview date, get an appointment for that. I think they have results in 2 days at one place, and 3 days at the other. You turn the medical in at the interview. But of course they can change this again by the time she gets an interview, so you never really know. Hubby flew to Montreal for a day a week before his interview for his medical, and we picked up the results when we flew back a week later.

Edited May 9, 2009 by wowswift

[Cassie 8]

Thanks for the input guys, I will let her know not to bother with the K3!