Montreal embassy EB-2 interview wait time

[viksaw 12]

1 minute ago, viksaw said:

I dont think EB applicants can upload documents on CEAC. I am sure all of us here have mailed their documents. Are you EB or Family based?

Did you see a section in your CEAC profile to upload documents? What did your welcome letter say?

@MiloPinkman: Never mind. Just saw ur signature. If you are IR1/CR1 you are posting in a wrong thread.

Check this thread: part IV, the big IR1/CR1 DQ'd message group... - Canada - VisaJourney

[MiloPinkman 23]

19 minutes ago, viksaw said:

@MiloPinkman: Never mind. Just saw ur signature. If you are IR1/CR1 you are posting in a wrong thread.

Check this thread: part IV, the big IR1/CR1 DQ'd message group... - Canada - VisaJourney

 

Ahhh thanks buddy

[Ds553513 16]

Hi guys

any updates regarding November IL .it’s totally silence .I think no to many interview in December.Because of holidays  

[Sorrel 83]

3 hours ago, Gha said:

Hi guys

any updates regarding November IL .it’s totally silence .I think no to many interview in December.Because of holidays  

The last post from consular operations, dated November5th, 2021, still says that SOME interviews are being scheduled from the Tier 4 group.  But no one on VJ has received any IL's since indicating that they will begin scheduling Tier4's in October.  The wait is very stressful!

[Hanif 2]

Hi everyone,

Long time reader first time contributor.

Just found out about this:

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/diversity-visa-2021-update.html

That must be why they processed DV cases in September like that.

Does anyone know about similar legal efforts for EB?

Let's say something similar happens, how long do you think for them to clear out the two years backlog?

[viksaw 12]

5 hours ago, Hanif said:

Hi everyone,

Long time reader first time contributor.

Just found out about this:

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/diversity-visa-2021-update.html

That must be why they processed DV cases in September like that.

Does anyone know about similar legal efforts for EB?

Let's say something similar happens, how long do you think for them to clear out the two years backlog?

This is exactly why i was saying we need to file lawsuit for EB as well 

 

Just like DV, EB is also numerically capped to 140k green cards every year. Last fiscal year (which ended in Sept 2021) they wasted 80k green cards.

 

Also leaglly speaking there is no basis for tier'ed prioritization. With already 2 year backlog, i am not sure when we will get IL. 

[VA21202 109]

3 minutes ago, viksaw said:

This is exactly why i was saying we need to file lawsuit for EB as well 

Since these are EB applications, it would be the employer who needs to be motivated to sue right? Or does being the applicant/beneficiary suffice? Either way, feels like the employer will be looped in at some point and not sure if they would be interested in case.

[Hanif 2]

1 minute ago, VA21202 said:

Since these are EB applications, it would be the employer who needs to be motivated to sue right? Or does being the applicant/beneficiary suffice? Either way, feels like the employer will be looped in at some point and not sure if they would be interested in case.

Yes definitely the petitioner which is the employer should sue. We will be the plaintiff.

Of course the smaller employers don't have resources for these stuff and for the bigger employers it's probably just easier to find someone else as they never have urgent need for any single person (they always can wait) and there are not a lot of EBs in consular processing compared to AOS so our weight is not significant enough for them to act on it.

But what I'm curious about is, let's say they decide to clear the EB cases starting tomorrow morning. how many cases do you think has been backed up in these two years? ~500 cases? like if they can process 80 something DV cases in a single month, so six months and it's done? 

[viksaw 12]

1 hour ago, Hanif said:

Yes definitely the petitioner which is the employer should sue. We will be the plaintiff.

Of course the smaller employers don't have resources for these stuff and for the bigger employers it's probably just easier to find someone else as they never have urgent need for any single person (they always can wait) and there are not a lot of EBs in consular processing compared to AOS so our weight is not significant enough for them to act on it.

But what I'm curious about is, let's say they decide to clear the EB cases starting tomorrow morning. how many cases do you think has been backed up in these two years? ~500 cases? like if they can process 80 something DV cases in a single month, so six months and it's done? 

Before covid Montreal used to process ~70 cases per month. Assuming the inflow remained the same during covid, we have backlog of about 1700 applications over last 2 years backlog.

 

Even if Montreal start processing tomorrow with 70 cases per month, we will still have 2 years backlog. Obviously there will be new applications joining the pool during that time.

 

In order to clear the backlog in 6 months they will need to process at least 300 applications per month. I don't see that happening in near future (especially with the tier'ed prioritization in place). 

[VA21202 109]

3 hours ago, Hanif said:

and there are not a lot of EBs in consular processing compared to AOS so our weight is not significant enough for them to act on it.

 

Interesting. I’m in a situation where I’m actually back in the US (on a work visa) and wondering if it makes sense to switch to AOS at this point given we aren’t even able to guess what the Consular timeline looks like. But debating that since I can’t find any reliable data on timelines for AOS, specifically around EAD and AP…not too worried about the timeline for receiving the green card itself since the EAD/AP itself would give me relief in my current situation. I guess consular is still going to end up being the quicker path but the total blindness of the situation is what’s not helping.

[Hanif 2]

5 minutes ago, VA21202 said:

Interesting. I’m in a situation where I’m actually back in the US (on a work visa) and wondering if it makes sense to switch to AOS at this point given we aren’t even able to guess what the Consular timeline looks like. But debating that since I can’t find any reliable data on timelines for AOS, specifically around EAD and AP…not too worried about the timeline for receiving the green card itself since the EAD/AP itself would give me relief in my current situation. I guess consular is still going to end up being the quicker path but the total blindness of the situation is what’s not helping.

Interesting. These days AOS is very fast and it is generally less risky. Why haven't you not switched to AOS already? What is your DQ date?

[VA21202 109]

4 minutes ago, Hanif said:

Interesting. These days AOS is very fast and it is generally less risky. Why haven't you not switched to AOS already? What is your DQ date?

Seeing timelines of 12-14 months for AOS online and seeing 7-10 months processing time for EAD/AP (post-Covid). Appreciate if you can share a source that shows faster timelines so I can make a decision. I just got back a couple of months back actually and I believe there’s a 90 day minimum before switching to AOS if you’re back on a non-immigrant visa. DQ is Jun ‘20, PD is current (RoW)

Edited November 10, 2021 by VA21202

[Hanif 2]

6 minutes ago, VA21202 said:

Seeing timelines of 12-14 months for AOS online and seeing 7-10 months processing time for EAD/AP (post-Covid). Appreciate if you can share a source that shows faster timelines so I can make a decision. I just got back a couple of months back actually and I believe there’s a 90 day minimum before switching to AOS if you’re back on a non-immigrant visa. DQ is Jun ‘20, PD is current (RoW)

So I checked https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/ . I guess it depends on the service center you should probably talk to your lawyer, but for Nebraska for EAD it says 4.5 months minimum which these days the minimum is the one you have to plan on. And that's also what I've heard from people and my lawyer.

I don't have that much info regarding the actual green card but one of my friends got it in less than 7 months although he might have gotten lucky and I don't know what was the service center. But generally USCIS had gotten very fast and positive, and that's based on my lawyer's experience.

I agree it's a tough decision as you have been waiting for more than a year. And I guess you have the option of switching to AOS in the slim chance something goes wrong at the consulate.

I think in your case it makes more sense for you to wait a little bit more as consulate just went back from yellow to green ( full bandwidth) and they have family based situations relatively under control so we might here for news early 2022. If the situation stays the same you can then switch to AOS.

And that's my opinion. Nobody really knows.

[VA21202 109]

19 minutes ago, Hanif said:

And that's my opinion. Nobody really knows.

Thanks Hanif! Yup that’s exactly what I’m thinking as well. Hopefully the swift clearance of the family side of things results in some movement here on EB. Good luck to all  

[GLI 4]

42 minutes ago, VA21202 said:

Seeing timelines of 12-14 months for AOS online and seeing 7-10 months processing time for EAD/AP (post-Covid). Appreciate if you can share a source that shows faster timelines so I can make a decision. I just got back a couple of months back actually and I believe there’s a 90 day minimum before switching to AOS if you’re back on a non-immigrant visa. DQ is Jun ‘20, PD is current (RoW)

Are you a Canadian? I was told that if I will leave Canada, I can't keep my case here because I won't have any valid visa in Canada (PR or WorkPermit) as I'm not Canadian.