Montreal embassy EB-2 interview wait time

[Leeching Spouse 87]

11 minutes ago, mam521 said:

The long and short: IR visas are considered immediately available.  EB and FP are numerically limited.  Until recently, Montreal's IR/CR's waited more than 3 months from QD until interview.  It averaged 157 days for multiple years.  For a visa type that is supposedly immediately available and without limits unlike numerically limited EB's, that doesn't sound very instantaneous.  Not sure where it's "law" that EB's and FP's supersede IR's in priority.  As stated by USCIS: 

 

When the demand is higher than the supply of visas for a given year in any given category or country, a visa queue (a waiting list or backlog) forms. To distribute the visas among all preference categories, DOS allocates the visas according to a prospective immigrant’s preference category, country of chargeability, and priority date. DOS uses the priority date to determine an immigrant’s place in the visa queue. When the priority date becomes available, or is “current,” immigrants may be able to apply for adjustment of status (or apply for an immigrant visa with DOS if they are outside the U.S.) and obtain lawful permanent resident status, if otherwise eligible.

 

No one is arguing that Montreal isn't a hot mess.  Montreal is ridiculous and it's beyond understandable how a consulate so close to the US border and not a high fraud country is so delayed.  It also doesn't make any sense why some of these other categories couldn't be handled by Calgary or Vancouver.  However, for this reason, you can't compare the number of visas issued by Korea for any given category unless you're going to compare the backlog for that visa type as well.  Other consulates are far more up to date and have never had backlogs like Montreal.  

Are you really comparing 157 days of wait time to 750 days of wait time?

 

There are more than sufficient visas available just FYI, so the numeric limitation argument does not hold. I believe up to 80k visas expired last year due to insufficient number of visas handed out.

Edited January 24, 2022 by CanadianMD

[VA21202 109]

Thanks for your opinions @mam521. Appreciate the input and the quotes, while I’m sure many/all in this forum will have data to counter your notes, I don’t think it’s in the best interest of anyone’s time and energy and would request you to let this forum be a place for EB applicants and those feeling the burn associated with that kind of wait. Thanks again, really.

 

@Everyone else here: Before you respond with all types of data to Mam521 (it’s tempting I know), just remember that Mam521 has no power to do anything with that and so let’s talk about channeling this energy and data for some actionable steps regarding the Montreal consulate (Congressmen/Senator office/emails/Twitter threads etc) since this does deserve attention. 

Edited January 24, 2022 by VA21202

[204 59]

9 minutes ago, mam521 said:

DQ and PD aren't the same thing.  PD could have been from 2007 for all you know.  

I'm F2B and my visa is current about one year ago. Attached is Feb. 2022 visa bulletin. 

[204 59]

2 minutes ago, CanadianMD said:

Are you really comparing 157 days of wait time to 750 days of wait time?

 

There are more than sufficient visas available just FYI, so the numeric limitation argument does not hold. I believe up to 80k visas expired last year due to insufficient number of visas handed out.

Plus, the current wait time for IR/ CR is shorter than pre-covid. 

[Sorrel 83]

2 hours ago, VA21202 said:

Thanks for your opinions @mam521. Appreciate the input and the quotes, while I’m sure many/all in this forum will have data to counter your notes, I don’t think it’s in the best interest of anyone’s time and energy and would request you to let this forum be a place for EB applicants and those feeling the burn associated with that kind of wait. Thanks again, really.

 

@Everyone else here: Before you respond with all types of data to Mam521 (it’s tempting I know), just remember that Mam521 has no power to do anything with that and so let’s talk about channeling this energy and data for some actionable steps regarding the Montreal consulate (Congressmen/Senator office/emails/Twitter threads etc) since this does deserve attention. 

As I mentioned a number of pages back, I did try and reach out to the Congressperson from the area we will be living, and was told that they can only help American citizens! We need someone from the Montreal Consulate to actually explain the methodology used for scheduling one group over another, and why the EB category seems to get so few interviews each month.  At first we thought that once the K1/CR categories were caught-up that they would breeze through the EB category, and each month we pray that this will be the case, but now we are waiting for March IL's. 

[VA21202 109]

1 minute ago, Sorrel said:

We need someone from the Montreal Consulate to actually explain the methodology used for scheduling one group over another

Got it, any ideas on how to get there? Maybe fire off a common email from each of our inboxes at the same time/hour so they can understand that there’s something boiling? Open to ideas!

[Sorrel 83]

13 minutes ago, Sorrel said:

As I mentioned a number of pages back, I did try and reach out to the Congressperson from the area we will be living, and was told that they can only help American citizens! We need someone from the Montreal Consulate to actually explain the methodology used for scheduling one group over another, and why the EB category seems to get so few interviews each month.  At first we thought that once the K1/CR categories were caught-up that they would breeze through the EB category, and each month we pray that this will be the case, but now we are waiting for March IL's. 

This was the reply I received on September 15th, 2021:

Thank you for your inquiry to the Immigrant Visa Unit at U.S. Consulate General Montreal.

 

 

Please note, if an answer to your question is found below, you will not receive an individualized email response.  Otherwise, our goal is to respond within five (5) business days.   

 

Important information for visa applicants regarding the COVID-19 global pandemic:  

COVID-19 Testing Requirement for Air Travel to the United States:  

Information on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) order regarding pre-flight testing for all international travelers to the United States, including answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs), is available at the CDC’s website: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/testing-international-air-travelers.html 

 

For more on Montreal and Quebec testing options travelers please note: Testing must be done at private clinic, some offer residential service.  List of clinics at: https://www.quebec.ca/en/health/health-issues/a-z/2019-coronavirus/instructions-for-travellers-covid19/ 

 

The United States Consulate General Montreal has resumed certain immigrant visa services, and is prioritizing spouses and children of U.S. citizens, K-1 fiancé(e) visa applicants, and other categories such as medical professionals. While the Consulate General aims to process cases as soon as practicable, wait times will continue to be lengthy due to the ongoing pandemic. We recently posted the information about which documentarily qualified cases we’re working on in the FAQs of the Consular Operations page of the U.S. Mission to Canada website. We encourage applicants to regularly check this site, as that information will be updated monthly: https://ca.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/consular-operations-updates/ 

 

 

For all nonimmigrant visa inquiries, kindly reach out to the nonimmigrant visa unit directly at: montreal-niv@state.gov and refer to the auto-response as your question may be answered directly there. If not, the nonimmigrant visa unit will respond to your inquiry as soon as possible. 

 

   

 

Please see these notices for detailed information about the current status of visa services worldwide and visa restrictions related to the COVID-19 global pandemic: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news.html    

                

 

Thank you for your understanding, and please continue to monitor the website of the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Canada for updated information: https://ca.usembassy.gov/  

  

Thank you for your patience and cooperation, 

 

 

Immigrant Visa Unit   

Consulate General of the United States of America   

Montreal, Can

[VA21202 109]

6 minutes ago, Sorrel said:

This was the reply I received on September 15th, 2021:

Thanks, I think one thing we can try is to hopefully have 5-10 of us coordinate an email inquiry to the Montreal IV address with NVC on CC. Explain the scenario and some of the data points seen above, and then individually include each member’s DQ date, PD current status and NVC Case ID for reference and fire off those emails at about the same time so like 10am EST for example. Hopefully the same email issue with same subject but different cases all at the same time might gain some attention. Who knows. Given that we can never reach them by phone and Congressmen are not willing to help non-citizens, this might be one of the things we can do. If anyone’s interested let me know with a reaction and we can draft and send it out. Again, looking for some ideas if the above is a bad one

Edited January 24, 2022 by VA21202

[Sorrel 83]

25 minutes ago, VA21202 said:

Thanks, I think one thing we can try is to hopefully have 5-10 of us coordinate an email inquiry to the Montreal IV address with NVC on CC. Explain the scenario and some of the data points seen above, and then individually include each member’s DQ date, PD current status and NVC Case ID for reference and fire off those emails at about the same time so like 10am EST for example. Hopefully the same email issue with same subject but different cases all at the same time might gain some attention. Who knows. Given that we can never reach them by phone and Congressmen are not willing to help non-citizens, this might be one of the things we can do. If anyone’s interested let me know with a reaction and we can draft and send it out. Again, looking for some ideas if the above is a bad one

Could we not just provide a snap shot of the spread sheet, because the above info would give everyone access to our accounts?

[VA21202 109]

6 minutes ago, Sorrel said:

Could we not just provide a snap shot of the spread sheet, because the above info would give everyone access to our accounts?

No, we definitely won’t be sharing any personal info here or in messages. That info will be in your individual email to the Montreal IV address with NVC on CC. We’ll just be coordinating on sending the email at the same time and the same format, the emails itself will be individually sent with our personal details only visible to Montreal/NVC, none of us here will see each other’s details, of course.

Edited January 24, 2022 by VA21202

[VA21202 109]

13 minutes ago, Sorrel said:

Could we not just provide a snap shot of the spread sheet, because the above info would give everyone access to our accounts?

Sharing the screenshot doesn’t really help coz they won’t have any sense of credibility without NVC IDs, Names etc that we can hopefully share in our separate individual emails to the consulate. From their perspective, anyone can fill up a Google sheet with a few random Usernames and arbitrary dates of DQ that they’re not able to verify.

[pow123 14]

4 hours ago, mam521 said:

DQ and PD aren't the same thing.  PD could have been from 2007 for all you know.  

I don’t understand what you are trying to say. But as another poster mentioned, there is nothing to be gained from arguing with you. 
 

I think emailing Montreal is not a bad idea. My DQ is Nov 2021 though so I doubt an email from me will carry as much weight as someone who has been waiting for a longer time.

[3LabMom 76]

1 hour ago, VA21202 said:

Thanks, I think one thing we can try is to hopefully have 5-10 of us coordinate an email inquiry to the Montreal IV address with NVC on CC. Explain the scenario and some of the data points seen above, and then individually include each member’s DQ date, PD current status and NVC Case ID for reference and fire off those emails at about the same time so like 10am EST for example. Hopefully the same email issue with same subject but different cases all at the same time might gain some attention. Who knows. Given that we can never reach them by phone and Congressmen are not willing to help non-citizens, this might be one of the things we can do. If anyone’s interested let me know with a reaction and we can draft and send it out. Again, looking for some ideas if the above is a bad one

I like this idea!  I'm in for sure.  I am only DQ'd since July, but when I see people waiting since November getting interviews it makes a me a little annoyed.  We all chose to apply for a visa knowing the potential wait/implications, why should one group be prioritized over another though.  Everyone is just as important as the next and everyone's lives are on hold. 

I have also gotten nowhere reaching out to a US Senator.  It's been two months and crickets.

Do you think Ambassador Cohen would be interested in this if we sent his office a number of e-mails at the same time as well?  We need someone with some "clout" to start asking questions.

[VA21202 109]

22 minutes ago, pow123 said:

I don’t understand what you are trying to say. But as another poster mentioned, there is nothing to be gained from arguing with you. 
 

I think emailing Montreal is not a bad idea. My DQ is Nov 2021 though so I doubt an email from me will carry as much weight as someone who has been waiting for a longer time.

Thanks @pow123. Appreciate it, the good thing is it doesn’t matter what date your DQ is at this point, what we’re trying to do is get them to pay attention to this category and move the needle, so for that the more cases the better it is, dates don’t matter too much. As long as we can all bucket and say that there’s a 26 month backlog at this point while there’s a 2 month backlog for other categories - so please distribute accordingly in the spirit of reducing backlogs overall as was shared by the DoS. 

[VA21202 109]

13 minutes ago, 3LabMom said:

I like this idea!  I'm in for sure.  I am only DQ'd since July, but when I see people waiting since November getting interviews it makes a me a little annoyed.  We all chose to apply for a visa knowing the potential wait/implications, why should one group be prioritized over another though.  Everyone is just as important as the next and everyone's lives are on hold. 

I have also gotten nowhere reaching out to a US Senator.  It's been two months and crickets.

Do you think Ambassador Cohen would be interested in this if we sent his office a number of e-mails at the same time as well?  We need someone with some "clout" to start asking questions.

Awesome! Yup I think the more volume we can demonstrate and email, the better it is. Thanks! I hope we can collect 5-10 folks from here and if so I’ll type out the email and paste it here. We can then align on when (date/time) to send this out so it’s a consolidated, persistent effort. I don’t think there’s any harm in adding the office of the Ambassador on CC line along with the NVC, but we can decide that later for sure.