Montreal taking so long

[Varba 0]

There should be a hi-I'm-a-newbie-and-full-of-anger forum. lol

Haha, I concur. I'm trying my best not to be rude

So Huggles, funny reasons why Montreal is so slow? A bunch of them ate bad poutine and had to take time off (man, i'm bad a jokes)

One of them brought a pet pig to show-and-tell day and now they are all panicking cause they think they have swine flu?

[justcheckin 0]

As someone else has already mentioned we cannot expect that DOS will solve the issue at the Montreal consulate anytime soon. Those institutions are very inert and do not react to changing conditions fast enough. If they did, they wouldn't have allowed the consulate to get understaffed. It's not like 80% employees quit at the same time without notice. Whoever allowed this to happen which I would think is the consul general should face the consequences. We have all the right to be pissed off with people at Montreal and DOS who are in control and didn't do enough. The regular folk working at the consulate cannot be blamed. If it's really true that so many people quit, then they must have done it for good reason (incompetent and indolent management most likely).

[trailmix 77]

I imagine it IS really frustrating for them, however, I still think they probably have a cushy job, especially those in administrative positions, and probably aren't worrying about losing their jobs... but that's just me.

I never thought of it as cushy per se, personally. I guess anyone who works in an office could be labelled as having a cushy job - as I said before, they aren't digging ditches.

I spent many hours at the consulate here in Calgary - those people are working, I didn't see anyone wandering around having chit chat with their neighbour. They are busy, sometimes they are stressed and a little bit grouchy too

One guy who had my Mom and I take an oath before we signed something practically yelled it out to us to repeat - like "i've said this 10 thousand times".

Edited October 8, 2009 by trailmix

[SomberCat 0]

I've watched our office be cut drastically over the last two years due to the economy. I know that my company expects my department and I to get the same amount of work done, even though we consist of only two people now instead of the previous six. How? The same old cliche they always use - work smarter not harder. Blah. Whatever.

Two things popped to mind while reading this thread. First, as Trailmix said, they must have bad management. I heard rumors of massive turnover in Montreal last February when I started this process. Did they have more people leave or are these the same people? And why did so many leave? If it's the same people we heard about eight months ago and DOS still hasn't solved the problem, that's rather lame. No matter what, it sounds like it's a bad place to work, aka bad management.

Second, who are these people who left? They must be the "behind the scenes" people that we do not see. I say that because I've been reading everyone's reviews for almost a year and when I went for my interview, it was like I already knew the people that were there - the mean lady at the window, the nice guy interviewer who chats like a friend, the nice lady interviewer who is very professional, etc. Those who have been around for a while know that the "up front" employees are still there, so I guess it's the support staff that keeps leaving.

Hang in there guys.

[Hugglebuggles 60]

There should be a hi-I'm-a-newbie-and-full-of-anger forum. lol

Haha, I concur. I'm trying my best not to be rude

So Huggles, funny reasons why Montreal is so slow? A bunch of them ate bad poutine and had to take time off (man, i'm bad a jokes)

One of them brought a pet pig to show-and-tell day and now they are all panicking cause they think they have swine flu?

Oh! Oh!

The ceiling started leaking due to a plumbing accident and destroyed everyone's paperwork?

That wouldn't be that funny would it?

[eklondon 0]

There should be a hi-I'm-a-newbie-and-full-of-anger forum. lol

Haha, I concur. I'm trying my best not to be rude

So Huggles, funny reasons why Montreal is so slow? A bunch of them ate bad poutine and had to take time off (man, i'm bad a jokes)

There is no such thing as bad poutine! It's like saying bad Timmies! I miss them both! Miss my wife and kids more, I have never been away from them for soo long and I'm starting to get depressed. I don't think the government has any clue on the affect this has on a family.

[eklondon 0]

Has anyone ever figured out what order people get interviews? Do K1, or C1, or I1 get precedent over others, themselves? Is it just first come first serve (by NVC completion date)?

[trailmix 77]

Has anyone ever figured out what order people get interviews? Do K1, or C1, or I1 get precedent over others, themselves? Is it just first come first serve (by NVC completion date)?

I have never seen a pattern like that. Sometimes you see a lot of K1s one month and a lot of CR1s the next, but never one type having priority over the other.

For IR1/CR1 is pretty much seems to be first come first served, not always perfectly - but pretty close.

[Lance27 19]

Wow Montreal got slow again? It took me 5 months to get my interview date after sending in packet 3 to the consulate. This was in 2007. In 2008 I was looking at timelines and it was taking 2and 1/2 to 3 months to get the interview date. 4 months is a long time but its a little better than the 5-7 months it was taking in 2007. Hopefully everyone waiting will get their interview dates soon.

[trailmix 77]

Hi Lance,

Long time no see!

Yes, Montreal is back to the 4-5 month wait right now.

[Dan and Ali 3]

Two things popped to mind while reading this thread. First, as Trailmix said, they must have bad management. I heard rumors of massive turnover in Montreal last February when I started this process. Did they have more people leave or are these the same people? And why did so many leave? If it's the same people we heard about eight months ago and DOS still hasn't solved the problem, that's rather lame. No matter what, it sounds like it's a bad place to work, aka bad management.

Second, who are these people who left? They must be the "behind the scenes" people that we do not see. I say that because I've been reading everyone's reviews for almost a year and when I went for my interview, it was like I already knew the people that were there - the mean lady at the window, the nice guy interviewer who chats like a friend, the nice lady interviewer who is very professional, etc. Those who have been around for a while know that the "up front" employees are still there, so I guess it's the support staff that keeps leaving.

Perhaps the conflict has been started by the infamous grouchy lady at Montreal?

[Peachey 10]

So A few of us called today and found out that our interviews no longer existed.

Apparently, we (varba and I) were the 3rd person to call today (just to that agent) and she was going to talk to her supervisor about it. They think Montreal did something to the system last Friday that made it appear that quite a few people got interviews. So this apparently is completely Montreals fault and the nice agent told Varba that I should expect a January interview...

Edited October 13, 2009 by Peachey

[KnJ 0]

So A few of us called today and found out that our interviews no longer existed.

Apparently, we (varba and I) were the 3rd person to call today (just to that agent) and she was going to talk to her supervisor about it. They think Montreal did something to the system last Friday that made it appear that quite a few people got interviews. So this apparently is completely Montreals fault and the nice agent told Varba that I should expect a January interview...

nooooooooooooooo

dammit.

[trailmix 77]

So A few of us called today and found out that our interviews no longer existed.

Apparently, we (varba and I) were the 3rd person to call today (just to that agent) and she was going to talk to her supervisor about it. They think Montreal did something to the system last Friday that made it appear that quite a few people got interviews. So this apparently is completely Montreals fault and the nice agent told Varba that I should expect a January interview...

Well that would be a 6 month wait - totally unacceptable. I'm a bit surprised she told you that - you would think, after what you just told her that they would stop guessing at when someone is going to get an interview!!

How the heck would she know? There are obviously problems at Montreal and nothing is running as it has in recent history (ie: slow but not slow as molasses) so her guessing at your January interview is based on.....what - her gut feeling - magic 8 ball?

Edited October 13, 2009 by trailmix

[Spoom 8]

I'm going to get my fiancee's congressperson in the mix if I don't hear from them by the end of November. This is pretty ridiculous.

(Not that I think they can really do anything at the Consulate stage anyway, but at least there would be more people aware of the problem.)

Edited October 13, 2009 by Spoom