Montreal embassy EB-2 interview wait time

[topman 42]

2 minutes ago, JustHopeful said:

Hi all. So glad found this thread. 

My EB-1C I-140 was approved on April 18th 2022. The I-140 was filled out for Consular Processing. 

We have not yet received the welcome letter from NVC - almost 2 months now. Our Attorney has also not received any notifications.

 

We live in Canada, but the I-140 (form) section where it states which consulate to interview at was left blank by our attorney. They do not think that will be an issue, as by default NVC will send it to Montreal as we are Canadian PR and the address listed on the I-140 application is our Canadian address. 

We called NVC (before they shut down the phone help lines) and they had not yet received our case from USCIS.

 

We called USCIS and they said they will have to check and call us back in a month !!

 

Just wanted to ask if anyone has encountered this kind of situation and any suggestions what to do to receive the NVC welcome letter.

Reading the long queues to get ILs in Montreal already gives me the jitters. And now just wasting time waiting for the welcome letter  ☹️ !  

yes, this did happen to me when my I-140 got approved and the USCIS online case status said something like they have mailed the document to NVC for further processing. After waiting for three months, and making multiple weekly calls to NVC and USCIS,  I couldn't make much progress. I received the standard response from NVC that my case has not been received from USCIS yet. USCIS case inquiry said something like they have forwarded the case to NVC for processing.  

 

Ultimately, I reached out to my local Senator’s office and they made an inquiry to USCIS & NVC on my behalf. They fwd me the response from USCIS. It stated that USCIS has forwarded my case to NVC on the day Senator’s office had reached out to them. Then after about two weeks later, NVC confirmed that they have received my application. Hope this helps!

[JustHopeful 40]

3 hours ago, ALC said:

Just curious, if you have applied under EB1-C, and most folks would have already been working in the States at that point, wouldn't AOS be easier (maybe faster)?

Though I have lived and worked in US before, this EB-1C,  I-140 was applied for me as a manager from overseas. We considered a AOS, but for that we need to get our L1A filed and stamped and once we are in US, we need to wait 3 months before applying for AOS.

 

To add to this, my son is in University and will turn 21 this year. So if we go into US and wait 3 months and apply AOS he may not be entitled to be on L2. So to avoid all these confusions, thought of staying with consular processing. Not sure if it is the right decision now , with so much waiting just to move file from USCIS to NVC . Contemplating still ... 

[ALC 61]

1 minute ago, JustHopeful said:

Though I have lived and worked in US before, this EB-1C,  I-140 was applied for me as a manager from overseas. We considered a AOS, but for that we need to get our L1A filed and stamped and once we are in US, we need to wait 3 months before applying for AOS.

 

To add to this, my son is in University and will turn 21 this year. So if we go into US and wait 3 months and apply AOS he may not be entitled to be on L2. So to avoid all these confusions, thought of staying with consular processing. Not sure if it is the right decision now , with so much waiting just to move file from USCIS to NVC . Contemplating still ... 

Sorry to hear about the predicament! It's never easy with a family in toll, I suppose you could explore the Mandamus option if needed. 

[JustHopeful 40]

3 hours ago, topman said:

yes, this did happen to me when my I-140 got approved and the USCIS online case status said something like they have mailed the document to NVC for further processing. After waiting for three months, and making multiple weekly calls to NVC and USCIS,  I couldn't make much progress. I received the standard response from NVC that my case has not been received from USCIS yet. USCIS case inquiry said something like they have forwarded the case to NVC for processing.  

 

Ultimately, I reached out to my local Senator’s office and they made an inquiry to USCIS & NVC on my behalf. They fwd me the response from USCIS. It stated that USCIS has forwarded my case to NVC on the day Senator’s office had reached out to them. Then after about two weeks later, NVC confirmed that they have received my application. Hope this helps!

Thank you . That must have been so stressful !! 
 

Will wait and see how things go. My attorney said we should wait for the USCIS call and then we can decide what to do. Fingers crossed .

[JustHopeful 40]

Just now, ALC said:

Sorry to hear about the predicament! It's never easy with a family in toll, I suppose you could explore the Mandamus option if needed. 

Thank you. Oh sure that's something I will look into. Appreciate the suggestion.

[ALC 61]

Just now, JustHopeful said:

Thank you. Oh sure that's something I will look into. Appreciate the suggestion.

Yep, we have been having discussion on that during the previous 4-5 pages, hope you can find a solution soon!

[JustHopeful 40]

Just now, ALC said:

Yep, we have been having discussion on that during the previous 4-5 pages, hope you can find a solution soon!

Sure, I am trying to catch up on the past pages of this thread.

[JustHopeful 40]

On 6/7/2022 at 12:21 PM, VA21202 said:

Apparently they updated it yesterday but the timestamp at the top still says May 4 so I didn’t read further. Just read the details below and the info is still inaccurate  We know FB interviews were in the Aug-Oct range after yesterday’s batch. So yup, now on top of no information, there’s potentially inaccurate information coming in as well.

 

“As of June 6, 2022, most Immediate Relative and fiancé(e) visa cases being scheduled for interview in Montreal were documentarily complete at the National Visa Center in April 2022;  most Family Preference cases scheduled for interview were documentarily qualified June 2020; and most Employment cases scheduled for interview were documentarily complete in March 2020.”

Where do you find this info on the DQ dates that were scheduled for Interviews? Can you please give the link to the page. Also is this available for all US consulates ?

 

Thanks, this is really valuable information. 

[VA21202 109]

5 minutes ago, JustHopeful said:

Where do you find this info on the DQ dates that were scheduled for Interviews? Can you please give the link to the page. Also is this available for all US consulates ?

 

Thanks, this is really valuable information. 

Sure, you can find updates here for Montreal: https://ca.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/consular-operations-updates/

 

I personally haven’t checked at other consulate pages but I’m sure they may have periodic updates as well.

[JustHopeful 40]

2 hours ago, VA21202 said:

Sure, you can find updates here for Montreal: https://ca.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/consular-operations-updates/

 

I personally haven’t checked at other consulate pages but I’m sure they may have periodic updates as well.

Thank you !

[montreal-eb3 7]

6 hours ago, JustHopeful said:

Where do you find this info on the DQ dates that were scheduled for Interviews? Can you please give the link to the page. Also is this available for all US consulates ?

I've only seen one other consulate (Manila) provide these sort of updates. Manila is currently scheduling EB cases DQd in March 2022.

 

Interested to hear how others estimate DQ to interview times.

[ALC 61]

Sarah, the Mandamus suit lawyer, made it sound like the only consulate that's so backed up in the world is Montreal, and the DOS/DOJ is starting to hear more about it because she's filing so many cases against them. Might be an exaggeration, but I am sure there is some truth to it. 

[Tony05 2]

24 minutes ago, ALC said:

Sarah, the Mandamus suit lawyer, made it sound like the only consulate that's so backed up in the world is Montreal, and the DOS/DOJ is starting to hear more about it because she's filing so many cases against them. Might be an exaggeration, but I am sure there is some truth to it. 

Montreal is so close to US that we have to spend 27 months to get an IL, lol.

[VA21202 109]

IR/CR got letters for early August interviews. Let’s hope August is the month for some EB interviews to get slotted once again! 🤞🏻 

[KDEE 2]

23 hours ago, VA21202 said:

IR/CR got letters for early August interviews. Let’s hope August is the month for some EB interviews to get slotted once again! 🤞🏻 

Can you please share the link for IR/CR forum.