review of consulate/poe etc

[configuration 2]

Hi,

Just a quick review of my CR-1 journey over the last 2 weeks. I had my appointment on November 5th in Montreal. Nothing special to report, my experience seemed to be similar to that of all the others at MTL. Got in line at the consulate, went upstairs, showed my documents at the first window, had my "interview" 5 mins later at the second window, and was told I was approved after some pro-forma questions.

One thing that did strike me though was how unnecessary the whole interview process was. The questions I was asked were perfunctory, and the checking of documents seemed unnecessary given how much documentation I have sent USCIS/NVC over the last few months. I have actually gone through the entire Permanent Residence process in Canada too (5 years ago) and the Canadian process was much more efficient. No need for an in-person interview, they just asked for documents by mail, requested additional information if needed, and then asked for your passport by mail as well in order to stamp the visa which they returned by Fedex. By contrast the US makes applicants from all over Canada travel to Montreal just for a 5 minute interview. Seems like a huge waste of time and money, both for the consulate and the applicants. I understand needing to personally interview applicants in some high-fraud countries, or even some questionable applicants in Canada, but making ALL of us do this is silly in my opinion.

Anyway, the consulate told me that the visa and passport would be returned in a week. That was too long for me to wait in Montreal, since my wife and newborn baby were at home in the US (NY state) and it was too hard for my wife to manage things on her own for a week. So I drove to the US the same day using my Nexus card, then drove back to Montreal a week later to get the passport. I then crossed the border at Champlain, NY to activate the visa. The agents there were generally competent, although the agent doing my paperwork took FOREVER to get my fingerprints right. I had anticipated being at the POE for just 20 minutes, but it took over an hour just to get the prints. In the end I'm glad she made sure that the prints came out ok, but I'm sure a more experienced officer would have done them right in 2 minutes.

So all done. Just waiting for the green card and new SSN card now.