K-1 221G at Interview in Montreal...

[cbaker284 7]

My fiance had his K-1 interview in Montreal yesterday morning. We knew going in that we were going to have an issue because he had not received his Canada background check in the mail yet. It was supposed to have arrived a few days before that, but had not. All of our other paperwork was in order. We had three copies just to be safe and everything was well organized. When he went to window #8 for the actual interview part they asked him a few questions but said that he was denied because of not having the Canadian background check. He then sent me back to the apartment where we were staying to see if maybe it had come in the mail and if so I could bring it back to him, but unfortunately it had not. He was given a letter explaining that he needs to mail the background check and his passport to the courier service and then they will forwarded it to the U.S. Consulate in Montreal and once it gets there it will take 6-8 weeks to process.

This is devastating news for us as we cannot afford to have him wait in Montreal for 8 weeks for this to be processed, but it seems like this is our only option. Has anyone else gone through this? I really wish I could just take the background check to the consulate myself when it arrives since they allowed me into the building no problem as a U.S. citizen (I kept having to leave to pay more for parking as the day went on and I was able to come and go easily into the building unlike everyone else who was there who was not a U.S. citizen), but it says clearly on the letter that you cannot do that. You must mail it to the courier.

I know that we failed by not having that document in time for the interview, but it seems so crazy that if we had had it at the interview we'd be expecting his visa within a few days or so, but by bringing it in the next day we set ourselves back up to two months. I naively expected that the process would just be put on hold until we could provide it, not that the process would be delayed by this insane amount. Any advice on how to expedite this would be appreciated. Thanks!

[jfgk1987 303]

He doesn't have to wait in Montreal for up to 8 weeks, he can go home.

He has to mail the background check through Loomis, he has to go to the website where he set everything up for the interview and go through the process "mailing documents to the consulate" (or something similar, my memory is hazy). Once he fills that out and prints it he goes to his local Loomis branch and they'll mail it on the consulate's dime, he pays nothing.

Then you sit and wait about 6-8 weeks. Consulate mail gets sorted at a separate facility offsite to get screened, that takes some time and then it gets sent to the consulate. Then there's more waiting but eventually the paperwork will get to the right person. It might take less than 6-8 weeks.

Edited April 2, 2015 by jfgk1987

[TBoneTX 45,324]

*** Thread moved from K-1 Process forum to the K-1 Case Progress subforum. ***

[Cathi 5,756]

Why would he have to stay in Montreal? He can go home. As soon as you get the police clearance certificate send it to where they told you to. Then the wait of 6-8 weeks will begin. There is absolutely no reason why he would need to stay in Montreal while waiting for the visa to be issued.

[JolyDan 13]

Hi,

I had the same problem with missing document in Montreal and was told 6-8 weeks. I had my visa in hand 2 weeks after I dropped the documents at Loomis. Loomis is really fast to deliver from Lachine to the consulate and if everything else is ready for approval it won't take forever. I think they are saying 6-8 weeks to be sure they are within the time frame

[charmed2006 31]

Is gathering Police Certificate in Montreal different from Vancouver? We can get our Police Clearance here within one day. The name and birthdate check only takes 30mins and you will get your report right away.

Goodluck to you! I know it will be ok. I also had to send another document before my visa was issued before. It did not take two weeks, but two days.

Just send the document right away.

[charmed2006 31]

Is gathering Police Certificate in Montreal different from Vancouver? We can get our Police Clearance here within one day. The name and birthdate check only takes 30mins and you will get your report right away.

Goodluck to you! I know it will be ok. I also had to send another document before my visa was issued before. It did not take two weeks, but two days.

Just send the document right away.

[raven52 233]

My good friend, going through about same thing, his K-1 is from Philippines, and spent time in Japan, last year, and interview was approved, pending, a Japanese police clearance.

So the waiting goes on! Maybe up to 3 months, but the office at the embassy said she should have her visa in 7-8 days.,.,.,we live and learn.,,.something new with every case.

[Sarac 1]

What is a "police clearance"...is it the criminal record check??

[MissSarah 22]

I'm assuming that your fiance is from the Montreal area. Did he go to the commissionaire to get his clearance? I did mine there and it took about 5 business days to complete, I picked it up instead of having it mailed to me. Is this still an option to have it picked up?

[Ms Hogan 295]

Did he need something more in-depth than a regular check? I was able to get mine within 20 minutes when I had to do mine.

You already know that this is on you for not having done it earlier. So you have to accept the situation as it is and move on. Be prepared on the receiving end to get it sent out right away as soon as it arrives.

If it was expected to arrive a few days before then perhaps there is a problem with it arriving at all and you should focus you efforts on looking into that part so you are ahead of it if there is indeed a problem with it being generated.

Were you with your fiance during the time this piece of mail was expected? I don't want to be mean but is it possible it arrived and he didn't notice? My husband is BRILLIANT but he grabs the mail and puts it aside and won't take note of what's there right away. Sometimes we expect such important documents to come in a noticeable envelope but it isn't the case.

No matter what happens... you will complete the task and get through this. So figure out what you need to do and make it happen!

[NikLR 13,227]

I am assuming for the wait it is a fingerprint police check. Did he give up his home residence already?

[cbaker284 7]

He is currently subletting a place in Montreal and I'd rather not go into more detail than that. He had to get background checks done for multiple countries so he waited to do the Canada one after he got to Montreal (after visiting me in the U.S.). In Montreal, he went to the commissionaire first, but they were very rude since he arrived right before their lunch break (which was not posted ANYWHERE online or otherwise) so he went to the police station instead. They took his fingerprints and info and electronically submitted it to the RCMP in Ottawa. The RCMP in Ottawa mailed it via Canada Post the next day. The problem is simply that Canada Post is taking forever to deliver it. It has definitely not been delivered yet. He is very organized and we have gone back through every piece of mail that has been delivered since the day it was mailed from Ottawa.

We are looking into driving to Ottawa to just get a new one done there, but I haven't finished researching if this is even a possibility. Unfortunately it is also Easter weekend which is a four day weekend here so no mail again until Tuesday.

Thanks for all of your responses.

[cbaker284 7]

UPDATE:

After another day went by and the background check still did not arrive in the mail, we went to a place in Montreal in Place Versaille to get another background check done. This time we did the more basic one (no fingerprints) and we were assured that we would be able to pick it up in 24 hours, maybe 48 hours at the very most. We called every day to check on it. They kept saying that they were having an issue with the police system so they had not received anyone's back yet, but it should be fixed any time now. After four days of us checking they finally offered us a refund, but said that if it came in that they would still notify us and we could come and pick it up. We then went to a different place downtown. Supposedly they are not affected by this police system problem and we should be emailed in 24 hours and can print the background check results ourselves. Unfortunately now it is Friday and while there is a chance we could get it tomorrow, it will most likely be Monday. And after all this time the original one has still not been delivered by Canada Post.

Driving to Ottawa to get a copy of the original one was not an option since they do not keep any files and they do not let civilians in the building there anyway. We never expected we would run into so much trouble on this one item. At this point we just keep laughing because how on earth is it possible that we are on our third attempt at getting a Canadian background check and there seems to be no end in sight!

On top of this our sublet here has gone through a series of unfortunate events. No heat or hot water for five days, then as soon as that was fixed the fridge broke, once that was resolved the stove/oven broke. Trying to break out streak of bad luck!