Montreal embassy EB-2 interview wait time

[Sorrel 83]

35 minutes ago, F2J_March said:

Looks like they are using additional resources to interview ir1/ir2 /cr1 categories. Does not make sense trying to reduce backlog in just one group and creating backlog in other groups ( esp those groups which have visa number allocated each year). 

Do you think they have skipped over the EB's altogether this month?  So frustrating!  

[F2J_March 49]

Hope they are not planning for that. I am very eagerly waiting to see if anyone woyld get IL for next month.. this waiting is killing me..

[viksaw 12]

4 hours ago, F2J_March said:

Hope they are not planning for that. I am very eagerly waiting to see if anyone woyld get IL for next month.. this waiting is killing me..

I think they skipped EB for this month. They generally send IL's for all categories together and in the first half of month. I dont think we are getting IL's this month

Also, if you check IR1/CR1....their processing jumped from DQ 3rd Dec to March 15 (3.5 months!!!) That also tells me that they must have exhausted all their capacity for November.

[F2J_March 49]

I know! This us so unfair for all of us esp for those waiting since 2019.. This is really fraustating. 

[viksaw 12]

I think ONLY option left for us to sue the DoS/NVC/Consulate. Hear me out:

- The 4 tier prioritization system has no constitutional basis.

- Although I am Ok to have some prioritization, however, it cant be so biased that IR1/CR1 has just 7 months backlog and we are waiting over 2 years. 

- EB categories as numerically capped to 140k GC's per year. They have already wasted ~80k for last years quota. There is no numerical limit for family based.

- EB categories need underline job offer. Its unfair that employer needs to wait for 4 years(2 years for getting Labor/1i140 + 2 years waiting at consulate) for employee to join.

- If something happens to underline job offer, GC will be lost

 

I think we have a strong case at our hands but unfortunately I doubt anyone's employer will be willing to sue the DoS/NVC/Consulate. I have read online that there are at least 3-4 law-suits already filed on DoS.

 

I think we will have to pool some $$ and hire a lawyer. Thoughts???

[Blueeyes1989 90]

I had considered doing that, but was still hesitant. Would be willing to support though. Take a look at Josh Goldstein (https://immigrationlawyerslosangeles.com/). He does only this type of lawsuit- but I don't have $20K lying around if I do this alone. 

Edited October 16, 2021 by Blueeyes1989

[Blueeyes1989 90]

OR  we can just keep waiting. With the current rate, they will have only 15 days backlog for IR/CR/K1, when they issue the ILs in January 2022. After that they will have no other option but to process our cases also. Unless off course they decide to take vacation after clearing all IR/CR/K1 backlogs.   

Edited October 16, 2021 by Blueeyes1989

[viksaw 12]

Wow...20k is too much but I am sure there must be cheaper lawyers around. 

 

If you check their last video update they mentioned that they have added processing capacity for the months of Oct/Nov/Dec. With Novembers IL already out, we have only December with so called increased capacity before they go back to their old ways I assume. Last 2 rounds of IL's caused major progress in IR1/CR1 (3 months progress per month) due to increase in capacity for Oct and Nov. I think the next round will bring their backlog closer to 4 months which is reasonable in consulates mind I guess.

 

Starting Jan if they go back to reduced capacity, just the new IR1/CR1 applications will take up most of it. As per my analysis before COVID they used to process ~70 EB cases per month. Even if they start processing ~70 EB cases we are looking at backlog of 2.5 years. Although I highly doubt that they will go back to 70 cases per month.

 

Also EB is tier 4 and there is is tier 3 (family) above us with similar backlog as ours.

 

I am sorry but since they did not sent any IL's for EB absolutely broke my level of patience. 

 

And remember....a new covid variant is all it takes to bring this whole thing crashing down

 

 

[raisins 27]

Has anyone tried contacting to MTL or the NVC to confirm? It seems very unprofessional for them to state this month and then not deliver, why bother even saying that and giving everyone false hope. 
Maybe the EB appointments don’t come out the same time as IR and we might see some next week?

[dcisw 20]

9 minutes ago, raisins said:

Has anyone tried contacting to MTL or the NVC to confirm? It seems very unprofessional for them to state this month and then not deliver, why bother even saying that and giving everyone false hope. 
Maybe the EB appointments don’t come out the same time as IR and we might see some next week?

I’m assuming that there are many people that aren’t part of this forum, waiting like us, that may have received an IL.  Let’s wait and see how it goes.  My DQ is January 2020, so I’m hopeful I may get a letter in December.

[dcisw 20]

There was an update on the consulate website.  Looks like they did two months of interviews this month for tier 3 and 4.  

https://ca.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/consular-operations-updates/

• It is not possible to provide precise wait times for immigrant visa appointments, as facilities, staffing resources, and local conditions all affect capacity and scheduling. As of October 7, 2021, most IR1, IR2, IR5, and K visa cases scheduled for interview were documentarily qualified at the National Visa Center in December 2020. Most Tier Three and Four cases scheduled for interview were documentarily qualified in September and October 2019.

[topman 42]

6 hours ago, dcisw said:

There was an update on the consulate website.  Looks like they did two months of interviews this month for tier 3 and 4.  

https://ca.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/consular-operations-updates/

• It is not possible to provide precise wait times for immigrant visa appointments, as facilities, staffing resources, and local conditions all affect capacity and scheduling. As of October 7, 2021, most IR1, IR2, IR5, and K visa cases scheduled for interview were documentarily qualified at the National Visa Center in December 2020. Most Tier Three and Four cases scheduled for interview were documentarily qualified in September and October 2019.

Are we sure no one in this group received any interview letters this month? Can folks with DQ dates from Sept or Oct confirm.

 

I understand that we don't have the entire EB population for MTL consulate in this group but I'd assume we have a good sample size. 

[viksaw 12]

7 hours ago, raisins said:

Has anyone tried contacting to MTL or the NVC to confirm? It seems very unprofessional for them to state this month and then not deliver, why bother even saying that and giving everyone false hope. 
Maybe the EB appointments don’t come out the same time as IR and we might see some next week?

I tried emailing MTL in the past with similar questions but the group which responds to emails seem like junior employees and always provide templated response. I doubt that group can answer high level policy questions and have access to processing stats.

Its possible that EB appointments are not sent out yet but we are already at 17th Oct and if you check IR1/CR1, their November appointment dates extend all the way till 29th Nov. This means they don't have much vacant days in November and also the number of invites they sent to IR1/CR1 tells me that they mostly have exhausted their processing capacity.

Keeping my fingers crossed though and hoping we might still see some invites this month.

All they need to keep their promise is to schedule 1 tier 3/4 interview and claim that they started processing. They never promised how may interviews they are going to process

 

[viksaw 12]

7 hours ago, dcisw said:

There was an update on the consulate website.  Looks like they did two months of interviews this month for tier 3 and 4.  

https://ca.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/consular-operations-updates/

• It is not possible to provide precise wait times for immigrant visa appointments, as facilities, staffing resources, and local conditions all affect capacity and scheduling. As of October 7, 2021, most IR1, IR2, IR5, and K visa cases scheduled for interview were documentarily qualified at the National Visa Center in December 2020. Most Tier Three and Four cases scheduled for interview were documentarily qualified in September and October 2019.

This is as of Oct 7th hence before the IL's were sent out. Also as far as I remember, this has been their update from last 2 months. The Sept-Oct people they are talking about are mostly the one who got cancelled back in March 2020. I don't think they did 2 months for tier 3 and 4.

[Blueeyes1989 90]

Also they stopped publishing Visa statistics from August 2021 onwards. Seems something very fishy.