Montreal embassy EB-2 interview wait time

[204 59]

17 minutes ago, From_CAN_2_US said:

Minor clarification here - being born in a country does not automatically allow you to transfer your case to that country.

 

Being born in Bahrain to Indian citizens, I would not be able to transfer my case to Manama. Citizenship is the more relevant parameter. Being a citizen of India even if one never lived there, may allow you to transfer your case to India, but I understand there are challenges in procuring relevant documents if you don’t have sufficient ties to the country (I understood that residence proof in India would have been needed which I couldn’t provide, obtaining police certificates may also be a challenge).

 

It is best to interview in the country of your current residence. 

That's true. Being a Canadian PR and Chinese passport holder, I tried to change my interview location from Montreal to Guangzhou (which process cases way faster than Montreal Post) while ago. I emailed the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou and they replied with couple days asking for proof of residence in China in order to accept my case to be transferred. 

However, quarantine requirement in China is tough and crazy. So I gave up the process. 

[New_123 18]

Hi all, has anyone on the EB category been in a situation where their company got acquired by another company (successor in interest) while waiting for an interview? if yes, what did you do in that case? 

Thanks!

[Leeching Spouse 87]

23 hours ago, David San said:

Thank you jakay.gypsy for your reply. I born in Iran so I have some ties with them. At the same time, USA doesn't have embassy in Iran. Can I choose any other countries or it should be the countries that USA choose for Iranian as the go to countries? Also I checked some embassies like US embassy in Almaty and is not clear if they interview employment based visa, is there any place that we can find these information? What is DQ date that everyone talking about?

 

Hey, i would suggest changing your consulate to Jordan if you can. Someone DQ'ed on April 15, 2022 just got IL in Jordan consulate for June 6 2022.

[David San 11]

29 minutes ago, CanadianMD said:

Hey, i would suggest changing your consulate to Jordan if you can. Someone DQ'ed on April 15, 2022 just got IL in Jordan consulate for June 6 2022.

Thanks, do you know by any chance his type of visa? was it employment base? according to this url: https://ir.usembassy.gov/visas/immigrant-visas/ Jordan is not one of go to countries for Iranian.

[Leeching Spouse 87]

2 minutes ago, David San said:

Thanks, do you know by any chance his type of visa? was it employment base? according to this url: https://ir.usembassy.gov/visas/immigrant-visas/ Jordan is not one of go to countries for Iranian.

His category is EB2 NIW.

[Leeching Spouse 87]

5 hours ago, 204 said:

That's true. Being a Canadian PR and Chinese passport holder, I tried to change my interview location from Montreal to Guangzhou (which process cases way faster than Montreal Post) while ago. I emailed the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou and they replied with couple days asking for proof of residence in China in order to accept my case to be transferred. 

However, quarantine requirement in China is tough and crazy. So I gave up the process. 

Does owning a home in that country suffice, or do you have to prove actual ties living there, like hydro bills, credit card statements etc?

[topman 42]

1 hour ago, New_123 said:

Hi all, has anyone on the EB category been in a situation where their company got acquired by another company (successor in interest) while waiting for an interview? if yes, what did you do in that case? 

Thanks!

Yes, this happened to me. But luckily, the legal entity name did not change with the acquisition, just the company brand name for marketing purposes got changed to the new acquiring company. We were told by our company lawyers that this will not have any impact on pending immigration cases because our company's legal entity has not changed. 

 

I'll stongly recommend you consult with internal company lawyers to understand if this acquisition will have any impact on your pending greencard EB case. 

[Hanif 2]

On 5/4/2022 at 6:12 PM, David San said:

Thank you jakay.gypsy for your reply. I born in Iran so I have some ties with them. At the same time, USA doesn't have embassy in Iran. Can I choose any other countries or it should be the countries that USA choose for Iranian as the go to countries? Also I checked some embassies like US embassy in Almaty and is not clear if they interview employment based visa, is there any place that we can find these information? What is DQ date that everyone talking about?

 

Hey David,

I'm Iranian too and transfered my case from Montreal to Abu Dhabi in January. We have other problems there and that's why I'm still following this thread.

Apparently they discriminate against non-uae-residents and for some reason in favor of EB3 (which is huge there) at the expense of EB1&2. Apparently they have different queues. And at least montreal has some transparency publishing since dates and stuff. Abu Dhabi has none and the forums are not as active. Not even close. So you have less prediction power which makes waiting/planning harder. The wait time there for Iranians is definitely more than 1 year might be close to 2 years same as here. Except that the hope here is Montreal at some point comes to its senses and reponds to the pressure. There, there is no pressure or senses. Only there are a handful of non-resident applicants like us vs a lot of residents and a handful of EB2s vs a lot of EB3s, and no active online forum to coordinate and consult anything and a consulate that doesnt even bother explaining. At least montreal pretends to care. They don't even do that.

 

Iranians also have the options of Ankara and Yerevan consulates both of which seem to be have the same situation as Abu Dhabi or maybe worse. It's hard to judge between consulates with almost no information other than monthly visa issuances which doesn't paint a full picture.

 

Do you have the option of Adjustment of Status? If so do it ASAP. Doesn't make sense to waste more time on this nonsense.

[David San 11]

52 minutes ago, Hanif said:

Hey David,

I'm Iranian too and transfered my case from Montreal to Abu Dhabi in January. We have other problems there and that's why I'm still following this thread.

Apparently they discriminate against non-uae-residents and for some reason in favor of EB3 (which is huge there) at the expense of EB1&2. Apparently they have different queues. And at least montreal has some transparency publishing since dates and stuff. Abu Dhabi has none and the forums are not as active. Not even close. So you have less prediction power which makes waiting/planning harder. The wait time there for Iranians is definitely more than 1 year might be close to 2 years same as here. Except that the hope here is Montreal at some point comes to its senses and reponds to the pressure. There, there is no pressure or senses. Only there are a handful of non-resident applicants like us vs a lot of residents and a handful of EB2s vs a lot of EB3s, and no active online forum to coordinate and consult anything and a consulate that doesnt even bother explaining. At least montreal pretends to care. They don't even do that.

 

Iranians also have the options of Ankara and Yerevan consulates both of which seem to be have the same situation as Abu Dhabi or maybe worse. It's hard to judge between consulates with almost no information other than monthly visa issuances which doesn't paint a full picture.

 

Do you have the option of Adjustment of Status? If so do it ASAP. Doesn't make sense to waste more time on this nonsense.

Hi Hanif, thanks for your detail explanations. Actually in last 24 hours I was researching and comparing those 3 embassies. I came to your conclusion as the condition is worst not better. I could not find a lot of information in regards to Yerevan, but I don't want to take any chances. I had Adjustment of Status option, but since I have family here and kids going to school I didn't want to move all to US or leave them alone for a year. @CanadianMD suggested to try Jordan. Do you know if we as Iranian can transfer to Jordan?

Edited May 6, 2022 by David San

[Canusa1 0]

Hey guys,

 

I am new to the forum, nice to meet all of you.

I currently hold a E1 visa that I just renewed last year - after 120 days I applied for my EB1C. I had my i140 approved just on Monday. My whole plan was to do consular processing in Montreal but reading this thread has been very scary on the wait times which seem like almost 2 years to get an interview after my DQ. I have not applied at NVC yet.

 

I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions for me. One way I could do is get a L1A visa with premium processing very quickly and then I could apply for AOS within the USA. My biggest hurdle is my family is in Canada and we are not planning on moving at once. I want to get my green card as quickly as I can and then will sponsor then when I am ready. The L1A visa allows travel as its dual intent while AOS has been applied for.

 

What are your thoughts guys? Do you suggest NVC or AOS?

 

Thank you so much

 

 

[topman 42]

8 minutes ago, Canusa1 said:

Hey guys,

 

I am new to the forum, nice to meet all of you.

I currently hold a E1 visa that I just renewed last year - after 120 days I applied for my EB1C. I had my i140 approved just on Monday. My whole plan was to do consular processing in Montreal but reading this thread has been very scary on the wait times which seem like almost 2 years to get an interview after my DQ. I have not applied at NVC yet.

 

I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions for me. One way I could do is get a L1A visa with premium processing very quickly and then I could apply for AOS within the USA. My biggest hurdle is my family is in Canada and we are not planning on moving at once. I want to get my green card as quickly as I can and then will sponsor then when I am ready. The L1A visa allows travel as its dual intent while AOS has been applied for.

 

What are your thoughts guys? Do you suggest NVC or AOS?

 

Thank you so much

 

 

AOS will be much faster than waiting on MTL to schedule your appointment. This is coming from a guy who has been waiting since April 2020 (my DQ date). If AOS is not an option, try to see if you qualify for any consulate/embassy outside Canada. Lastly, the most unlikely option for success is to try to expedite your case with the MTL consulate. I read someone on this forum got approved for their expedite request by MTL but still waiting for the last couple of months for an interview date. 

 

I know it's really depressing to hear this, especially EB cases where we are waiting several months to reach the NVC stage in the long EB process. I really hope your waiting time is much shorter than ours. Good luck!

 

 

[Canusa1 0]

4 minutes ago, topman said:

AOS will be much faster than waiting on MTL to schedule your appointment. This is coming from a guy who has been waiting since April 2020 (my DQ date). If AOS is not an option, try to see if you qualify for any consulate/embassy outside Canada. Lastly, the most unlikely option for success is to try to expedite your case with the MTL consulate. I read someone on this forum got approved for their expedite request by MTL but still waiting for the last couple of months for an interview date. 

 

I know it's really depressing to hear this, especially EB cases where we are waiting several months to reach the NVC stage in the long EB process. I really hope your waiting time is much shorter than ours. Good luck!

 

 

Hello topman - thank you for the reply. I think the process for AOS would be less then 2 years. I wonder what the reasoning for expedited requests would be considered as well. 

[David San 11]

Hi everyone,

I have a question regarding relation between visa being current and waiting time to interview.

As you all know EB2 visas are current this year, now that we have to wait for 2 years for interview. How does it work? If we DQ this year are they going to allocate a visa for us until the interview or they will check in the time of interview if the visa is still current? Suppose we wait for 2 years then when interview slot is available visa is no longer current, do we have to wait more until visa become current again?

[Van24 13]

2 hours ago, David San said:

Hi everyone,

 

I have a question regarding relation between visa being current and waiting time to interview.

 

As you all know EB2 visas are current this year, now that we have to wait for 2 years for interview. How does it work? If we DQ this year are they going to allocate a visa for us until the interview or they will check in the time of interview if the visa is still current? Suppose we wait for 2 years then when interview slot is available visa is no longer current, do we have to wait more until visa become current again?

Yes, visa should be current.

[corg 1]

On 5/3/2022 at 12:37 PM, 3LabMom said:

I wonder if some of the others are not active and that's why?  But odd that @Sorrel didn't get one.  @LMIV @topman @corg @RKD @Dip - Any updates?

Nothing for us either - CEAC just says at NVC