IR1/CR1 interviews at Montreal next week

[trailmix 77]

OK I'll give a real short version right now and a long one when I get back home. Good news is, we're approved and picking our visa up in a few hours! :thumbs: Bad news is montreal may not be as safe as you think, when I'm dealing with crackhead carjackers right outside the consolate at 7:00am on a tuesday morning. Police came, had to give statements, got pulled out of the line up (didn't delay us too long) so yeah, interesting morning. Details to follow tommorrow night. I'm taking the fam out to the biosphere right now.

Sorry to hear about the hassle! Glad to hear of your approval, we needed one around here

Look forward to your review

[sdhiman 0]

OK I'll give a real short version right now and a long one when I get back home. Good news is, we're approved and picking our visa up in a few hours! :thumbs: Bad news is montreal may not be as safe as you think, when I'm dealing with crackhead carjackers right outside the consolate at 7:00am on a tuesday morning. Police came, had to give statements, got pulled out of the line up (didn't delay us too long) so yeah, interesting morning. Details to follow tommorrow night. I'm taking the fam out to the biosphere right now.

Congratulations!!! Will wait for the long version review

[SomberCat 0]

Glad to hear all went well after the drama. I can't wait to hear about it. Congrats!

[Lenie7 0]

Glad to hear you were approved...congratulations!

[trailmix 77]

Well BradnKim should be there now!

Her Husband is already living in the U.S. - he has a K3 visa already but they decided to go ahead with the CR1/IR1 as well, so that is what he is interviewing for today.

Edited November 25, 2009 by trailmix

[lgg 2]

Congrats and sorry about the potential car-jacking! That's a little messed up...

Hope they start scheduling some more interviews soon -- the radio silence is a bit deafening.

[LeprechaunSean 0]

ok here's my review(was going to do it last night but was too bagged...)

We stayed at the hotel les suites labelle, which is located between st. catherine and rene levesque on rue labelle. This hotel was great, it was $83 a night, with free parking downstairs, free wifi and a free buffet breakfast, which was actually really good. The room we stayed in was large and had a full kitchenette-which we used everyday. So overall I would definitely recommend this hotel, staff was friendly and it's about a 2 minute drive to the consulate. (expedia did mess up and had to reimburse me for our parking-but that was expedia, not the hotel.)

So the day of the interview we showed up early, about 6:15am. We were the first people there, and parked on the street with the meters(which don't start until 9am)We could clearly see the consulate entrance from our seats in the car. I think around 6:45 I saw someone show up and start the lineup, so I got out to get in line and my wife and son stayed in the car to stay warm(it was cold!) I was chatting it up with the people in the lineup (more were steadily showing up) for probably 15-20 minutes when I noticed my wife heading towards us with a look on her face that immediately got my attention. She proceeds to tell me that some guy had walked past our car, looked at her, then started trying to break into the minivan directly behind us. She also saw another guy standing on the corner behind us(st. catherine) apparently as a lookout. So she's freaked out, starts the car up and starts honking the horn. None of us in the lineup heard a thing. We can only conlude that the traffic from rene levesque combined with the conversation drowned out the horn. Anyways, the two guys take off and that's when my wife gets out and heads for us. So after telling me about it, I head up to the car, and see that they left their tool still in the door of the minivan. It looked like a bike kickstand that had been modified to me. I figured I'd better not touch it, and as I start walking back to the lineup I look over my shoulder and see a scruffy looking guy on a bike pull up beside the van and stop, so I turn around and start heading back towards him and he immediately takes off. Now I'm thinking, ok these guys are hanging around and want their tool back, so I go back to the line up and one of the ladies there offer to walk around the corner and call the cops, which she does. About 5-10 minutes go by and we're all talking about it, when two guys come back around the corner again and start towards us, and I say to my wife "is that them?" she says yes so I start jogging up towards them (yes I was pissed off by now) I get to the van and stop in front of it, and then proceed to have a stare down with the one guy(the guy that had been on the bike was shifty and actually at one point turned around, then came back) he gets to me and says 'bonjour' and walks by. I know they wanted their tool, and I just wasn't going to let them have it. they then walked around the corner at rene levesque and proceed to stop for a smoke. Unbelievable. The one guy (not the scruffy one) seemed totally unconcerned. Now we're all waiting for the cops to show up, and the two guys come back around the corner and walk back up the street, but now on the opposite side from the consulate, they're about halfway up the street when we see the cops coming down the street from st. catherine, so my wife and I run out and point at the two guys, tell the cops what was going on, they peel out in reverse and jump to get these guys. That's when security opens the doors and starts processing the lineup, so I'm like "ok honey the cops are here now let's get to our interview" I wasn't about to risk missing that. We go through security and get to the waiting room downstairs with the elevator, when a security guard comes downstairs and asks who's involved with the situation and that the police need to talk to us. He also said not to worry, we wouldn't lose our place in line and they'd take care of us. (by the way, all the security guys at the consolate were great, no jerks at all) So we go out and talk to the cops, Shar gives a statement and I show them the tool in the van(they hadn't noticed it yet). Turns out the guy on the bike is homeless, and the guy that actually tried to steal the van was on probabation. He was apparently a repeat offender, for what they didn't say, but I'd guess car theft. The cop also said he was strung out too, and probably wouldn't remember anything once he sobered up. By now we're frozen and the cops let us go back to the consulate. we're let right through and head up the elevator to floor 19.

Now for the actual interview. We get to window 12 and at first the lady just asked us about the whole scene in the street(I'm pretty sure the whole office was talking about it) but after a bit she started doing all the paper work. I filled out the right I-864 for my wife, but the wrong one for my son. Something to do with the citizenship act of 2000 and him automatically getting his citizenship once he crosses, anyways, I had to fill out another I-864 form (I think it was I-864w)

For evidence of support she looked at my tax forms(which were copies from my own records-not IRS transcripts) and my letter of employment-which had my wages on it. Never even looked at pay stubs or bank statements. She then took all our documents-birth certificates, marriage, passports and police certificate for my wife. She never asked for anything to prove our relationship, but I didn't expect her to anyways since we're married with a child. For proof of domocile, she copied my arizona drivers license and took our lease agreement and some utility bills. My wife had two passport photo's, but they were taken at different times (we've taken ALOT of passport photos this year) and the lady just took one of them and photcopied it. So I would recommend making sure your pictures match, even if they are the right size. For the medical stuff, my wife's was fine. We held our breath when she opened our sons, since this was something we were worried about since my son had not gotten his flu vaccination because of his egg allergy. We had allergy specialist and doctors letters ready, but she just looked at the notation from the US panel physician stating that he had an egg allergy and said 'oh poor little guy' at which point we had a little discussion on how allergies in north america are getting worse, processed foods, etc....and then she said 'ok your paperwork looks great, go wait in the main room and you'll get called into room 7 for your interview." We waited about 15 minutes(and that room was FULL) then got called in. The consul was a thinner lady, with a wrist brace, probably in her late 40's. She was very pleasant, and wanted to know about the scene in the street-LOL-so we repeated the whole story again. Then she asked me about my work, why I moved down ahead of my wife(I told her the truth, work wanted me there ASAP) and a few questions about my son. She asked my wife a few questions, if we had health insurance in the US, pretty light questions altogether. Then she says, well, you're approved, welcome to america. WOO WOOOO! at which point I hit her up for the next day pick up-told her how I'd booked my wifes ticket believing that a week would be enough to get it, (she didn't seem optiimistic about that) but before I even got to point of actually asking for it, she says "why don't you come back tommorrow and pick them up?" So that ROCKED. She said it was the least they could do for us helping out with the car thieves. LOL.

So the moral of the story kids, is this: DO THE RIGHT THING. It always pays off in the end.

[trailmix 77]

Then she asked me about my work, why I moved down ahead of my wife

I had to shake my head at the question you were asked (bolded above)

Well Sean, I have to say this is the most dramatic interview review i've seen

Congratulations!!!!

[LeprechaunSean 0]

Then she asked me about my work, why I moved down ahead of my wife

I had to shake my head at the question you were asked (bolded above)

Well Sean, I have to say this is the most dramatic interview review i've seen

Congratulations!!!!

lol-story of my life. I often joke that I am the walking and talking murphys law, if it can happen, it will happen to me. hehe but hey it keeps life interesting.

Now I have the daunting task of bringing our apartment back up to my wifes specs. It may be an insurmountable task

[Hugglebuggles 60]

Wow! That was the most interesting consulate review I've ever read!

Good job doing the right thing and congrats on the approval! So you walked out of there a hero and with a visa for your wife and child. Sounds like a good day to me!