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[À Montréal 14]

Hi everyone,

I just signed up and this is my first post -- even though I've already been lurking for a while.

So my situation is as follows: I'm a German citizen, married to a US/Canada dual citizen, and currently residing with my wife in Canada (I'm a permanent resident of Canada). My wife has recently received a job offer from the US (in Wisconsin) and we now want to start the process of applying for a visa for me.

From reading the various guides and FAQs here, I think I have a reasonably good idea how the process works. Nonetheless a few questions:

• How does the fact that I'm a German citizen but a PR of Canada influence the process? I'm assuming that an interview would be here in Canada? Is there any benefit in providing a German mailing/residential address?
  
• Is it correct that applying for a K-3 is pointless and I should expect to not be able to enter the US before the end of the whole process?
  
• I have a hard time understanding the timeline statistics provided here. The guide says I should expect about 10 months of processing in total. Is that the case? Is there much variance in how long it takes, based on ...? When I applied for my Canadian PR it made a big difference which office processed your application.
  

Cheers,

Martin

I'm sure I'll have further questions down the road, but I think that's it for now.

[hikergirl 277]

Welcome to VJ!

Being a PR of Canada means you would interview at the US Consulate in Montréal. Unless you are planning on moving to Germany for the process I would not put a German address for the petition.

Very few K3s are necessary or approved nowadays. Because the process for CR-1/IR-1 has sped up so much in the last few years. You may visit the US as per your normal visiting protocol being a German Citizen. Just bring proof of ties to Canada (i.e. lease, letter from employer saying how long you’ll be gone, pay stubs, that sort of thing) to show that you are going back to Canada and not intending to immigrate on that trip.

Length of time depends on where your file is processed. Files are being transferred around right now due to workload so it’s harder to predict but generally 10 months is a good guideline. I’m not sure of the workload at the field office in Wisconsin and there is a good chance that is where your file will be processed.

Best Wishes.

Edited March 14, 2013 by hikergirl

[NikLR 13,227]

I would provide your Canadian mailing address. The interview will take place in Montreal since you reside in Canada.

Yes the K3 is pointless.

You can certainly visit the USA. I have done it 3 times, others go every weekend. Just bring proof of ties to Canada to show if asked for them and make the trips shorter vs longer. Generally speaking you probably won't have problems. Just do not lie to the POE officer EVER, and be prepared to perhaps get denied.

At this point, I would file while your spouse is in Canada. Hopefully this would gain you a quicker time through the USCIS since there is no local office to worry about and the NBC itself is pretty fast at processing the petitions.

The timeline statistics are very random right now. Because of the way files are being processed and all the different places that they are, it can take up to 10 months or more just to get to the second stage of the process. My husband's petition was approved in exactly 4 months, took almost a month to get to the NVC, and now I'm waiting on case numbers to complete. I figure I have about 3 months left including interview. I think. Which was what I always hoped for when we filed in October. But I expected it to take a year.

[À Montréal 14]

Thanks everyone, that's very helpful! We're indeed planning to file ASAP and I've already started assembling everything -- one upside of having gone through the Canadian PR process somewhat recently is that I already have a lot of the documents and information.