Getting aggravated with U.S. Consulate in Montreal

[LKMK2004 0]

Hey everyone,

I really need some help understanding where we are at. My fiancee sent in packet 3 and on Nov. 4th he got an email from the consulate stating that they received everything but he needed to fill out ds 160. He did it on Nov. 9th, got the confirmation page and all. Since then we haven't heard anything. I finally called DOS a few times right before Thanksgiving and they kept telling me that it shows as if the consulate didnt receive or acknowledge the ds 160 form. I even had my fiancee take it step further and print out the confirmation page and send it to them express. Still nothing. Is this normal? Its been a month....how can it still show no status on the ds 160? I mean it was done Nov. 9th and its now Dec 5th! I can understand processing taking a bit but they didnt even put in their system that they received it! I even emailed the consulate but no answers. I am getting extremely frustrated. Everything was going rather quickly before this.

[floridaboundcanuk 7]

Supposedly it takes 3 to 6 weeks for Montreal to respond to email. I sent in my packet 3 via email on November 19th and confirmed with the State Department today that they haven't logged it yet . Add to that the chaos of Thanksgiving and that the consulate is a slow nightmare of suck to begin with and it's easy to get frustrated. You are not alone. Be glad they emailed you at all. I have yet to receive any physical correspondence from anyone over there. I've done it all on my own through phone calls and trial and error. I'm sure that there will be movement for both of us soon, but all I can suggest is to keep calling the state department and it wouldn't hurt to email the consulate from their online form.

[LKMK2004 0]

Supposedly it takes 3 to 6 weeks for Montreal to respond to email. I sent in my packet 3 via email on November 19th and confirmed with the State Department today that they haven't logged it yet . Add to that the chaos of Thanksgiving and that the consulate is a slow nightmare of suck to begin with and it's easy to get frustrated. You are not alone. Be glad they emailed you at all. I have yet to receive any physical correspondence from anyone over there. I've done it all on my own through phone calls and trial and error. I'm sure that there will be movement for both of us soon, but all I can suggest is to keep calling the state department and it wouldn't hurt to email the consulate from their online form.

Thank you so much for responding. I know it's slow enough because of the holidays, I'm just very nervous why they haven't just logged in the DS 160 form yet. They responded fairly quickly about receiving Packet 3. I guess my fiancee didn't realize he had to do DS 160 which is why he had to do it after when they emailed them. It just seems a little off that its been a month and they haven't logged in that one form. I want to make sure my fiancee did it correctly.

[floridaboundcanuk 7]

Can I ask why he didn't email in the pdf confirmation with his packet 3? it's literally the first thing they tell you to do in the new instructions. Did they just email him out of the blue that they received his packet 3? Was it a personalized message? I'm just trying to figure out some of their procedures. None of it seems to be cohesive and I have no idea what's coming when they eventually log my packet 3, if anything. I've not been impressed with this whole experience to say the least. My guess is that when they switched from snail mail to email only for packet 3 they found it easy at first and now that everyone knows they are getting flooded with endless packet 3's that would have before arrived in batches in the mail room. I sort of anticipated it would take a while but you're right in that it seems to be inconsistent on timing. I actually emailed them through their form asking where packet 4 was about 2 minutes after emailing packet 3..lol Hopefully we'll all know something soon.

Edited December 6, 2013 by floridaboundcanuk

[LKMK2004 0]

Can I ask why he didn't email in the pdf confirmation with his packet 3? it's literally the first thing they tell you to do in the new instructions. Did they just email him out of the blue that they received his packet 3? Was it a personalized message? I'm just trying to figure out some of their procedures. None of it seems to be cohesive and I have no idea what's coming when they eventually log my packet 3, if anything. I've not been impressed with this whole experience to say the least. My guess is that when they switched from snail mail to email only for packet 3 they found it easy at first and now that everyone knows they are getting flooded with endless packet 3's that would have before arrived in batches in the mail room. I sort of anticipated it would take a while but you're right in that it seems to be inconsistent on timing. I actually emailed them through their form asking where packet 4 was about 2 minutes after emailing packet 3..lol Hopefully we'll all know something soon.

My fiancee made a mistake. He is terrible with paper work, let me tell you.

This is what the consulate emailed him:

We thank you for your communication regarding the below-referenced immigrant visa case. In order to continue processing the case, please complete, scan and send the DS-160 Confirmation page by replying to this message. https://ceac.state.gov/genniv/ or http://travel.state.gov/visa/forms/forms_1342.html We thank you for your cooperation. Sincerely, Immigrant Visa Unit U.S. Consulate General Montréal

Now I emailed them back with the confirmation page, emailed them a screen shot as well, I mailed a physical copy to the consulate. When I called DOS, one of them told me that Im not supposed to email them or send them it. That just completing it online was enough and that's it. I am totally confused. Not sure if I should try emailing it to them again. Is there another special email I don't know about? I would think they would have logged it in by now!!!

[floridaboundcanuk 7]

Definitely follow the instructions that the consulate gives you instead of the state department operators on the phone. They can help, but are mainly following a script as to what is supposed to happen. Again if I were to guess, you're at the bottom of the pile like me and the others who submitted around that time. If you take out thanksgiving you're almost a week earlier then you think you are in processing time. No special emails I know about, just the one with the automated message you get back in reply and the form email they want you to use now which is linked to in that automated message.

I'd give it another week or so before I start stressing about it. Hopefully they process all of our P3's in one batch.

[LKMK2004 0]

Definitely follow the instructions that the consulate gives you instead of the state department operators on the phone. They can help, but are mainly following a script as to what is supposed to happen. Again if I were to guess, you're at the bottom of the pile like me and the others who submitted around that time. If you take out thanksgiving you're almost a week earlier then you think you are in processing time. No special emails I know about, just the one with the automated message you get back in reply and the form email they want you to use now which is linked to in that automated message.

I'd give it another week or so before I start stressing about it. Hopefully they process all of our P3's in one batch.

Hopefully! I was so excited that everything was going pretty quick, so its a real bummer that it slowed down now. Fingers cross that we hear something soon.

[floridaboundcanuk 7]

Hopefully! I was so excited that everything was going pretty quick, so its a real bummer that it slowed down now. Fingers cross that we hear something soon.

I know mine are crossed.

A bit of hope though - if you think about it, this is the last bit of uncertainty in the whole process. You'll know what you are supposed to do and where to go as soon as this bit of waiting is over. Then when it comes time to get married and do it all over again with the USCIS, you'll not care as much since you'll be together.

[waitingonwaito 0]

Hey! Just read all of your posts. I'm in the same boat. Emailed them packet 3 on Nov 14th and still haven't heard anything. I'd definitely like to stay in touch and let each other know when we do receive packet 4. Also.. question.. we have to do this all over again once we're married? UGH....

[NikLR 13,232]

After you're married you have to file the AOS. I suggest reading up on it because until you start the AOS process the beneficiary is in limbo. They can't work and they can't travel outside the USA among other things.

[floridaboundcanuk 7]

Just emailed them AGAIN. Still no reply from my first inquiry, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to try again.

[waitingonwaito 0]

Tried calling and apparently they're closed today. Don't know why..

[Shelbym 2]

I've officially called enough that they're starting to recognize me, but there's still no record of it even being logged I'm starting to wonder if we should just resort to mailing it in. Seems like that way was a lot faster. At this rate, we won't have an interview until April, which is almost a year from originally mailing in the K-1 packet.

[waitingonwaito 0]

We got the email today! Booked our interview for March 24th

[LKMK2004 0]

We got the email today! Booked our interview for March 24th

How did you book it? I went on the csc site and it says no available appointments? I clicked on immigrant visa - ready to schedule. Is this correct?