What are my options?

[MCMLXXXII 29]

I know everyone will say that you shouldn't make plans before you have the visa in hand. However here is my situation. I don't know what options I have.

I filed for I-130 for my spouse on September 13th 2011. At that time the wait was given as 5 months. I thought that I should be done with USCIS by mid Feb and then even if NVC and the consulate takes 4 months, my wife should be here by end of June. We never really had a wedding reception and wanted to host one here once she arrived. However venues were not really available and it was hard to find any available dates for 2012 as people were already booking for 2013. This is in northern New Jersey. I was afraid we wouldn't have any venue available so in November I went ahead and booked a place for July 14th 2012. I paid a deposit and signed a contract. At that time I was fairly confident that 10 months since filing should be plenty of time for my wife to get here from Canada. Now it seems like this might not be the case and I am worried what would happen. Technically there is still a possibility that she will be here by July 14th. Maybe others who are more familiar with the consulate at Montreal can guide me if this is a realistic option.

I was thinking that I would wait till March to see if the I-130 was approved and then decide what to do. My contract with the venue has financial penalties for cancelling. I wanted to discuss with them if I could avoid those penalties by re-scheduling. Currently the charges for cancellation are as follows:

CANCELLATION – The cancellation schedule below represents a cancellation request in writing based on your event date of July 14, 2012

180 Days from Event Date - $ 3,000.00

179 to 90 Days from Event Date - $ 6,000.00

89 to 30 Days from Event Date - $ 9,000.00

29 Days from Event Date - $12,000.00

My questions to VJers are the following:

1) Do you think it is safe to expect my wife to be here before July 14th?

2) Do you think I could be eligible for an expedite request based on financial difficulties if I provided the contract as evidence?

3) Do you think I should just reschedule the date of the reception to sometime in the future? What date would be safe to pick? I am unsure how long this whole process will take and would not want to reschedule it again in the future if she is still not here.

Just to add. My wife is not a Canadian citizen, she is a Pakistani citizen. She has Canadian PR. She cannot come here to visit while the process continues. Also, what possibility is there for her to be put in AP? Does that happen much in Canada? I hear that it is an easier time for females. I hope to God that we stay clear of this AP nightmare.

[LIFE'SJOURNEY 970]

What's your Plan for if your wife should go into AP for 3 to 6 months. That's the Plan I would vote you utilize.

[Ryan H 3,812]

Answers in bold:

My questions to VJers are the following:

1) Do you think it is safe to expect my wife to be here before July 14th?

Never assume anything or believe any date is safe, that's why I see most VJ'ers echo the government's recommendation not to make any plans until the visa is in hand.

2) Do you think I could be eligible for an expedite request based on financial difficulties if I provided the contract as evidence?

No

3) Do you think I should just reschedule the date of the reception to sometime in the future? What date would be safe to pick? I am unsure how long this whole process will take and would not want to reschedule it again in the future if she is still not here.

You answered this question yourself, you are not sure how long this process will take and therefore, there is no such thing as a "safe date."

Just to add. My wife is not a Canadian citizen, she is a Pakistani citizen. She has Canadian PR. She cannot come here to visit while the process continues. Also, what possibility is there for her to be put in AP? Does that happen much in Canada? I hear that it is an easier time for females. I hope to God that we stay clear of this AP nightmare.

Moving from IR-1/CR-1 Progress Reports to Canada regional forum, OP is seeking Canada specific answers.

[aaron2020 11,651]

I know everyone will say that you shouldn't make plans before you have the visa in hand. However here is my situation. I don't know what options I have.

I filed for I-130 for my spouse on September 13th 2011. At that time the wait was given as 5 months. I thought that I should be done with USCIS by mid Feb and then even if NVC and the consulate takes 4 months, my wife should be here by end of June. We never really had a wedding reception and wanted to host one here once she arrived. However venues were not really available and it was hard to find any available dates for 2012 as people were already booking for 2013. This is in northern New Jersey. I was afraid we wouldn't have any venue available so in November I went ahead and booked a place for July 14th 2012. I paid a deposit and signed a contract. At that time I was fairly confident that 10 months since filing should be plenty of time for my wife to get here from Canada. Now it seems like this might not be the case and I am worried what would happen. Technically there is still a possibility that she will be here by July 14th. Maybe others who are more familiar with the consulate at Montreal can guide me if this is a realistic option.

I was thinking that I would wait till March to see if the I-130 was approved and then decide what to do. My contract with the venue has financial penalties for cancelling. I wanted to discuss with them if I could avoid those penalties by re-scheduling. Currently the charges for cancellation are as follows:

My questions to VJers are the following:

1) Do you think it is safe to expect my wife to be here before July 14th? No. Nothing in the immigration process is guarantee or safe. All you can do is hope for the best, but you should prepare for the worst - AP. No one can assure you that it is safe to expect your wife will be here by July 14.

2) Do you think I could be eligible for an expedite request based on financial difficulties if I provided the contract as evidence? No. You were advised not to make any plans until the visa was in hand. These financial difficulties arose because you choose to ignore the advice not to make any plans until the visa was in hand. If the US government made allowance to expedite base on people ignoring their advice, then everyone would make pricey mistakes like yours to get an expedite. You are not going to get rewarded with an expedite base on ignoring the advice not to make plans before the visa is in hand.

3) Do you think I should just reschedule the date of the reception to sometime in the future? What date would be safe to pick? I am unsure how long this whole process will take and would not want to reschedule it again in the future if she is still not here.

No one can advise you to reschedule with any educated guess - your guess is as good as ours as to when she will get here. As you stated - you are unsure how long this whole process will take; no one here can tell you how long the case for your wife will take - all we can do is give you an average for all cases.

A safe date to pick would occur after she gets a visa. There is no safe date until she gets the visa.

Just to add. My wife is not a Canadian citizen, she is a Pakistani citizen. She has Canadian PR. She cannot come here to visit while the process continues. Also, what possibility is there for her to be put in AP? Does that happen much in Canada? I hear that it is an easier time for females. I hope to God that we stay clear of this AP nightmare. No one can tell you what your wife's chances are of being put into AP. Being from Pakistan is a minus because the ISI protects a bunch of terrorist which makes AP almost mandatory for Pakistanis. Being a Canadian PR is a plus since the Canadian government presumably did a background check before granting her that status.

[sheeshkabelle 153]

From what I have read in the past; LPR of Canada, having their interview in Canada are usually held up for a while in AP. It happened to another lady in the Canada forums not too long ago and she was held up about 8 weeks in AP.

There's a reason they say not to make plans until you have the visa in hand. We filed in June 2011 and sill haven't had our NOA2 yet. It's been 8 months and we haven't heard a word from USCIS. IF we stuck with 'oh it takes 8-9 months' and my husband quit his job and packed all his stuff, we'd be screwed.

It is possible you're going to have to eat the contract and pay the fees. I understand the frustration, we wanted to have a reception here too. We've been married almost two years and it still hasn't happened.

[decocker 7,198]

I would be surprised if she didn't get put into AP.

It doesn't have much to do with going through Montreal/Canada, it has to do with being from Pakistan - being female might give her a slight bonus, but not much.

Edited February 14, 2012 by valerie78

[Leatherneck 693]

It is never "...safe to expect" anything with regards to this process.

"...what possibility is there for her to be put in AP?" The possibility of being placed in AP exist for everyone, the CO can question anything and request additional documents, etc.

Just being presented with those penalties for cancellation would be enough to make me balk. Call them and get information about re-scheduling, just in case the need to do so arises.

Good luck OP.

[MCMLXXXII 29]

I would be surprised if she didn't get put into AP.

It doesn't have much to do with going through Montreal/Canada, it has to do with being from Pakistan - being female might give her a slight bonus, but not much.

Wouldn't it be the CO at Montreal who would make that decision? Why doesn't it have much to do with going through Montreal? I haven't been able to find out much about cases where people were placed in to AP from Montreal so if people could point me in the right places for that, it will be greatly appreciated.

[skiptex 225]

jus wait till visa in hand

[pocheros 101]

Wouldn't it be the CO at Montreal who would make that decision? Why doesn't it have much to do with going through Montreal? I haven't been able to find out much about cases where people were placed in to AP from Montreal so if people could point me in the right places for that, it will be greatly appreciated.

Canadian permanent residents who are born in foreign countries in the middle east almost always are put in AP in Montreal and the receipt of their visa is delayed. This has been common practice since 9/11 because the terrorists came through Canada. No I'm not saying your wife is a terrorist, it's crappy and unfair towards her but that is unfortunately the reality of immigration to the USA, even when going through a Canadian embassy.

Edited February 14, 2012 by pocheros

[MCMLXXXII 29]

Perhaps using the word "safe" was the wrong choice of word. I know there is no guarantee. I know that it all varies from case to case. I know a lot depends on the discretion of the particular officer who is handling your case. However I am in a bit of a pickle and I need to make a decision to mitigate my losses as much as possible. I know there is risk involved with it. I need more information before making that decision, that is why I asked the question on this forum. I know that I made a mistake while making my initial decision so I want to avoid that this time around and make an informed decision. Yes pretty much at this time, I would value your guesses as to what to expect. As I see it, I only see 3 options.

1) Cancel the venue and pay the fees.

2) Reschedule for a later date (What date exactly?) and recover portion of the cancellation fees.

3) Go ahead with current dates and hope for the best.

All three options have some risk and cost involved with it.I need to figure out how much risk exactly. I would like to find out from people who recently went through NVC and the consulate how long the process should take. I have everything prepared for NVC and will be doing electronic processing. I have been following the progress of Canadians at NVC very closely. I need to know what would be resonable expectations post USCIS process.

Also, I have not been able to find much information about cases from montreal that went to AP. I would like to know if there are specific cases that I can look at to get a better idea.

I appreciate everyone's opinion on this but please, the purpose here for me is to find a solution for my current predicament. Not for people to tell me that I made a mistake to get in this predicament in the first place. Trust me, no one is more aware of that fact than me.

[skiptex 225]

1) Cancel the venue and pay the fees.

what is the fee?

2) Reschedule for a later date (What date exactly?) and recover portion of the cancellation fees.

what is the fee compared to #1

3) Go ahead with current dates and hope for the best.

what is the back up plan if it don't work? 1 or 2?

I appreciate everyone's opinion on this but please, the purpose here for me is to find a solution for my current predicament. Not for people to tell me that I made a mistake to get in this predicament in the first place. Trust me, no one is more aware of that fact than me.

you are in a pickle.. but i were in this situation.. i would look at how much money will i lose if i stop it now.. vs.. how money would i lose.. if i can to cancel if #3 don't work.. like you said.. you made a mistake.. which would be the least costly.. good luck sir..

either way you look at this.. your wife will be here sooner then she would 6 months ago..

[Flames9_RN 358]

1 should look a bit more on how long the process is taking. 5 months??? I have never seen it that fast, it was faster back in 2004 and still took us 6 months,lol Take a closer look at timelines. 1 could ask, but its not likely to get an expedite based on you making plans that one is not suppose to make. And having a spouse from Pakistan, I'm sure that isnt going to speed anything up!!

[MCMLXXXII 29]

you are in a pickle.. but i were in this situation.. i would look at how much money will i lose if i stop it now.. vs.. how money would i lose.. if i can to cancel if #3 don't work.. like you said.. you made a mistake.. which would be the least costly.. good luck sir..

either way you look at this.. your wife will be here sooner then she would 6 months ago..

The fees were listed in the OP. Basically if it is cancelled before April 14th, it will be $6,000. Between April 15th and June 14th it will be $9,000 and after that it will be $12,000.

Fees for scheduling varries. it is dependent upon if they are able to fill in some other event on that date and the difference in price between the two. I have no way of knowing this beforehand.

Basically I have till around April 14th to make a decission without it affecting the penalties. I am hoping that I will receive the NOA2 before then.

Edited February 14, 2012 by MCMLXXXII

[decocker 7,198]

Wouldn't it be the CO at Montreal who would make that decision? Why doesn't it have much to do with going through Montreal? I haven't been able to find out much about cases where people were placed in to AP from Montreal so if people could point me in the right places for that, it will be greatly appreciated.

pakistan is one of the countries where AP is practically just another step in the visa order. The majority of folks that have been placed in AP through Montreal either have absolutely no idea why they were placed in AP OR they were born in another country. while it may in fact be up to the individual CO to put a case in AP, there are certain criteria that automatically put the applicant in the AP category.

i'm not trying to scare you or say that she definitely will be put in ap, i'm just saying, her chances are much much higher than most.