Answers to some questions for Canadian CR-1/IR-1 applicants

[hansven 3]

We just finished the process and feel very fortunate for how quickly things went for us. We filed our I-130 on June 12, got our NVC Case Number on July 18, had an IV scan date of Sept 5, got Case Complete on Oct 21, Interview Dec 9, and POE was Dec 19. Doing this without a lawyer would've been confusing and difficult had it not been for this community. Thanks to everyone who's answered my questions!

There are a few things that others were unable to answer that I wanted to share:

1. Is the Vancouver Police certificate okay? Yes. It does NOT explicitly say that it checks CPIC, although there's a legal-sized info sheet on the website that says that CPIC is checked. I printed this out, highlighted that, and attached it to the certificate when we sent the IV documents in. Afterwards, we got paranoid and got a Commissionaires certificate as well to have on hand in case we got a checklist; we also brought it to the interview. It was not needed.

2. A week before the interview, we got a letter from the Montreal embassy stating that I (the sponsor) did not meet the poverty requirements and that we would need to bring a new AOS from a joint sponsor to the interview. This sucked because (a) I do meet the guideline -- it may have been the case that they looked only at the amount on my 2013 tax return, which doesn't show my Canadian income, or they overlooked my employment letter from the US once I'd reestablished domicile -- and (b) a week wasn't really enough time to pull this together. Rather than get a new AOS, I got a 2013 tax transcript, an updated employment letter, put together some financial statements, and printed out a copy of every paystub I'd received in the past 4 months. The lady at the first window at the consulate said, "So you didn't bring a new AOS?" We stated why. She didn't seem pleased and didn't want to see the info packet I'd neatly assembled, but we did get her to accept my paystubs. This made the next 1.5-hr wait until the interview a bit stressful. In the end, they accepted things and we were approved. It was great to know that they were reasonable about it.

3. With the holiday season approaching, we wanted to buy a plane ticket well in advance. I PM'd a few other Canadians, checked out some of the stats pages, and determined that almost all people in Canada receive their visa 3-8 days after the interview, with the 3-5 day range being most common recently. Based on this, we booked the plane ticket for 10 days after the interview. The visa arrived in 3 days, so we ended up with a week's cushion.

[Keith J 0]

Thanks for your help, the poverty thing has me worried as she is going through a divorce right now and has not worked in almost 20 years, but we still have sometime as I still have about 2 years left before I can retire penalty free, right now it just seems so over whelming right now, but I know that I have only started this process.

[Flames9_RN 358]

Thanks for your help, the poverty thing has me worried as she is going through a divorce right now and has not worked in almost 20 years, but we still have sometime as I still have about 2 years left before I can retire penalty free, right now it just seems so over whelming right now, but I know that I have only started this process.

Until her divorce is final..you can't start this process.....The guides here on VJ are great...its the waiting that can be a pain in the butt

[Keith J 0]

Thanks Flames9_RN well I know we can't do anything right now I still need to get my divorce as well and as I said I still have 2 more years before I can retire without penalty I haven't been able to talk to girlfriend since October on advise from her Lawyer and her court date is now set for Feb 26th once that is finalized I will be able to get her to check out this site to see the things that she will nee to do for us to be together.

[Flames9_RN 358]

Thanks Flames9_RN well I know we can't do anything right now I still need to get my divorce as well and as I said I still have 2 more years before I can retire without penalty I haven't been able to talk to girlfriend since October on advise from her Lawyer and her court date is now set for Feb 26th once that is finalized I will be able to get her to check out this site to see the things that she will nee to do for us to be together.

I just mentioned that..as in the past have had a few people here on VJ try and start the paperwork, when they could not yet legally marry.

[Keith J 0]

Thank you I appreciate the information

[Canadian Tired 6]

Many thanks, hansven for the information. Congratulations on your quick visa journey!

Wondering... did your spouse receive an IR-1 (rather than CR-1), seeing as you have been married for more than 2 years at the time of POE?

Many thanks!

[Dualie 185]

Thank you for your post. Every little bit of information here is valuable! Have a Merry Christmas!!