Montreal embassy EB-2 interview wait time

[Canadianeh! 14]

Another day and still no news.  FYI, when I take the entire dwheels spreadsheet, copy/paste it into Excel and filter for Country of Interview (Canada/Montreal) and Visa Type (only Employment-Based), this is what I get.  As you all can see, our wait times have been waaayyyy above the norm.  What is going on?

 

Edited July 2, 2018 by Canadianeh!

[Canadianeh! 14]

Hi everyone, I just wanted to share the great news that my Immigrant Visa appointment has been scheduled.  My total wait time from cc to assignment of interview date was 109 days.  Has anyone else heard yet?  I put in an additional request to have the case expedited so I’m not sure if that is what pushed it through or if this was simply it’s natural course.  I hope you all get similar news soon.  Keep the faith!

[bkbk8 5]

4 minutes ago, Canadianeh! said:

Hi everyone, I just wanted to share the great news that my Immigrant Visa appointment has been scheduled.  My total wait time from cc to assignment of interview date was 109 days.  Has anyone else heard yet?  I put in an additional request to have the case expedited so I’m not sure if that is what pushed it through or if this was simply it’s natural course.  I hope you all get similar news soon.  Keep the faith!

That is awesome news! Congratulations!!

 

Do you mind sharing when your interview date is?

 

Also, if it's not too personal, can you share the high level reason(s) for the expedite request?  Unfortunately I left the USA and living in Canada and I'm on unpaid leave for the past 2 months and unable to work remotely for the company until I get my Visa appointment scheduled. So I'm out of a job technically and just afraid it will take longer to get an appointment than expected.

[TexasForeverYall 4]

9 minutes ago, Canadianeh! said:

Hi everyone, I just wanted to share the great news that my Immigrant Visa appointment has been scheduled.  My total wait time from cc to assignment of interview date was 109 days.  Has anyone else heard yet?  I put in an additional request to have the case expedited so I’m not sure if that is what pushed it through or if this was simply it’s natural course.  I hope you all get similar news soon.  Keep the faith!

So happy for you!!  What date your interview is?  My CC date was March 9th and no news yet for me...

[Canadianeh! 14]

1 hour ago, bkbk8 said:

That is awesome news! Congratulations!!

 

Do you mind sharing when your interview date is?

 

Also, if it's not too personal, can you share the high level reason(s) for the expedite request?  Unfortunately I left the USA and living in Canada and I'm on unpaid leave for the past 2 months and unable to work remotely for the company until I get my Visa appointment scheduled. So I'm out of a job technically and just afraid it will take longer to get an appointment than expected.

Thanks, bkbk8!  My interview date is Aug. 21, 2018.  For my first expedite request, I focused primarily on the US community that I am meant to be serving once I commence employment and why the long wait for this visa is harmful to them (they are a vulnerable sector of the public).  This time, I focused a bit more on personal reasons such as severe financial loss.  Good luck to you and hopefully you hear back soon as well!

[Canadianeh! 14]

1 hour ago, TexasForeverYall said:

So happy for you!!  What date your interview is?  My CC date was March 9th and no news yet for me...

Hi TexasForverYall,

 

Have you tried calling them today?  Since they are a part of the federal government, emails are screened more closely before sending out and it can take 2-3 days before you receive an actual email.  My interview date is Aug. 21, 2018.  Best of luck!

[HEL-Canada 6]

18 minutes ago, Canadianeh! said:

Hi TexasForverYall,

 

Have you tried calling them today?  Since they are a part of the federal government, emails are screened more closely before sending out and it can take 2-3 days before you receive an actual email.  My interview date is Aug. 21, 2018.  Best of luck!

I tried calling NVC just now (I have a CC date of March 9th, same as Texas ForverYall), and they did not have an interview date for me yet (boo).  However, the woman I spoke with said she thought they would be scheduling August interviews through the end of this week, so she suggested that I call back on Friday.  

[Canadianeh! 14]

5 minutes ago, HEL-Canada said:

I tried calling NVC just now (I have a CC date of March 9th, same as Texas ForverYall), and they did not have an interview date for me yet (boo).  However, the woman I spoke with said she thought they would be scheduling August interviews through the end of this week, so she suggested that I call back on Friday.  

It must have been the additional request then.  Best of luck.  I’m rooting for you guys and I really hope that you both get dates assigned soon.

[TexasForeverYall 4]

1 hour ago, Canadianeh! said:

Hi TexasForverYall,

 

Have you tried calling them today?  Since they are a part of the federal government, emails are screened more closely before sending out and it can take 2-3 days before you receive an actual email.  My interview date is Aug. 21, 2018.  Best of luck!

Hi Canadianeh!  Okay thank you for that information... I am EB-1, so not sure if they prioritize EB-2s ahead of us?  I had emailed the Montreal Embassy ten days ago and just received this response:

 

“According to our records we do not have a pending visa case for you at the U.S. Consulate General in Montreal. Your case might still be at the National Visa Center (NVC). The NVC does all the pre-processing for all the Consulates worldwide and schedules the immigrant visa appointments on our behalf for all the cases that are documentarily qualified.”

 

I am confused... do the cases stay at the NVC until we get a date booked??  I will call the Embassy this Friday, but until then if anyone has any more insight please let me know! 

 

[FERBOS 11]

That's great news! It means that everything is moving and the rumor that August has no interviews... That's a rumor. I just called  nvc and they said they are booking but it's a bit slow because of the holidays. I'm going to call again Friday. I wonder if your interview was booked because you requested the expedition or if it was a coincidence. I also requested expedition of it based on financial loss and family issues but it was denied. In any case I'm asking my lawyer to do a second expedition request. I'm happy for you!! 

 

[TexasForeverYall 4]

1 hour ago, Canadianeh! said:

It must have been the additional request then.  Best of luck.  I’m rooting for you guys and I really hope that you both get dates assigned soon.

Thank you to both of you.  And Canadianeh!,  congratulations again on getting your interview date!! I bet you will feel extra patriotic tomorrow!!!

[FERBOS 11]

1 minute ago, TexasForeverYall said:

Hi Canadianeh!  Okay thank you for that information... I am EB-1, so not sure if they prioritize EB-2s ahead of us?  I had emailed the Montreal Embassy ten days ago and just received this response:

 

“According to our records we do not have a pending visa case for you at the U.S. Consulate General in Montreal. Your case might still be at the National Visa Center (NVC). The NVC does all the pre-processing for all the Consulates worldwide and schedules the immigrant visa appointments on our behalf for all the cases that are documentarily qualified.”

 

I am confused... do the cases stay at the NVC until we get a date booked??  I will call the Embassy this Friday, but until then if anyone has any more insight please let me know! 

 

Hi... I think the consulate does not receive your case until the interview is booked. Once the interview is booked by  the  nvc, then they will mail all your paperwork to the consulate. That's why they don't have your case  yet. 

[TexasForeverYall 4]

2 minutes ago, FERBOS said:

Hi... I think the consulate does not receive your case until the interview is booked. Once the interview is booked by  the  nvc, then they will mail all your paperwork to the consulate. That's why they don't have your case  yet. 

Hi FERBOS,

 

Okay thank you for your response. I got a little nervous when I received that email from them.  I’m checking in with my immigration consultant about whether I can request to expedite my case too.

 

[HEL-Canada 6]

12 minutes ago, TexasForeverYall said:

Hi Canadianeh!  Okay thank you for that information... I am EB-1, so not sure if they prioritize EB-2s ahead of us?  I had emailed the Montreal Embassy ten days ago and just received this response:

 

“According to our records we do not have a pending visa case for you at the U.S. Consulate General in Montreal. Your case might still be at the National Visa Center (NVC). The NVC does all the pre-processing for all the Consulates worldwide and schedules the immigrant visa appointments on our behalf for all the cases that are documentarily qualified.”

 

I am confused... do the cases stay at the NVC until we get a date booked??  I will call the Embassy this Friday, but until then if anyone has any more insight please let me know! 

 

I don't think there's a difference in priority among EB-1, EB-2 or EB-3.  I think it just goes by CC date among the employment-based applications, unless you get your date expedited. 

 

The consulate only gets your case once NVC schedules your interview dates.  So until then, you can call NVC at 603-334-0700 to check status (which just potentially gives you a couple of days advance notice over the email notification).

[Canadianeh! 14]

Hi TexasForeverYall

 

Ferbos is correct about what he said re: case being at NVC.  I’m not exactly sure the algorithm that the NVC uses to schedule cases.  I also don’t know if the 5 different EB classes are prioritized differently at this stage.  I do know that the first 3 EB categories (1,2 and 3) each receive 28.6% of the worldwide limit.   EB4 and EB5 each get 7.1%.   It is advantageous to be EB-1 because you are also entitled to any unused visa in 4th and 5th categories.  EB2s then get any unused visas from first categories, and EB3s from 1st and 2nd.  Worldwide, 140,000 EB visas are given out which includes spouses and minor children.  This number is for people like us who go through consular processing and ppl who take the adjustment of status route (wayyyy more of them - see bar graph in link bag SciFamily sent and in prev. comment that I posted.    

 

Each country can only have a max of 7% of the worldwide limit.  There is a pie graph on the site SciFamily sent which shows that China and India (plus others) are by far the biggest users of these.  Canada is in the “other” category at less than 2%.

 

Since family-based categories have no annual limit, as many of these can be given out as there are ppl.  The bottleneck for them seems to be the number of interview slots available each month at the different embassies.  

 

I just don’t know the system that the NVC uses when deciding how to allocate interviews to people.  Clearly, visa category does matter.

 

Have a look at the filtered dwheels excel sheet that I posted yesterday.  Since 2014, only 11 people have indicated they were from Canada and in EB categories.  You can see  that our wait times have been very atypical.  Several of these people were assigned interviews in a few weeks.  Before us, SSeb has the longest wait time in the bunch which was 72 days.  I’m not sure why there is such an enormous backlog now