Montreal embassy EB-2 interview wait time

[topman 42]

13 hours ago, WaitingInLine said:

Not sure if it provides any context but we received an email in March with an appt for April 20th.  This was a family petition by my daughter. Needless to say, Covid hit and the appt got cancelled. I was pretty upset that I had paid a good deal of money on the medical exams which probably are now useless since they are supposedly only good for 6 months. So yeah, after years of waiting the appt got cancelled 3 1/2 weeks before the interview.

That really sucks! I was under the impression that Immediate relative category were still having interviews in MTL. Hoping you can get an interview soon, now that the ban has been lifted for all immigrant visa categories. Did you try to contact the consulate to reschedule your interview date after the ban was lifted?

 

[WaitingInLine 13]

6 minutes ago, topman said:

That really sucks! I was under the impression that Immediate relative category were still having interviews in MTL. Hoping you can get an interview soon, now that the ban has been lifted for all immigrant visa categories. Did you try to contact the consulate to reschedule your interview date after the ban was lifted?

 

No, I haven't yet. I figured it would probably take them at least a couple of weeks to figure out how to move forward.

 

Regarding that it "sucks", yes I agree and also no. Partly, I want the process to be over but maybe this was a blessing in disguise. I am not sure I would have wanted to move to the U.S. last year In the middle of a pandemic specially with the poor Healthcare system in the U.S. Here I can walk into the emergency room and know that I will pay zero dollars. Imagine catching Covid in the U.S. and getting hit with a 10k or more bill. Some people who were In the ICU have received 100k bills after 10 days of stay. 

 

Maybe I will email them this week.

[artfly 1]

Montreal post updated the Consular Operation on March 2, 2021 at 4:10pm EDT. The rhetoric has changed a LITTLE from the version of January 19. New  depiction said "The U.S. Consulate General in Montreal is processing immigrant visas and will prioritize Immediate Relative family members of U.S. citizens including intercountry adoptions, fiancé(e)s of U.S. citizens, and certain Special Immigrant Visa applications, as well as other mission critical categories such as medical professionals."

Although the service status is still YELLOW,  it seems that EB Categories are not entirely excluded from processing. Is that a good sign?

For more information, refer to the official Consular Operations Updates page:

https://ca.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/consular-operations-updates/

 

Edited March 3, 2021 by artfly

[Van24 13]

US Department of State did a briefing on the Current Status of Immigrant Visa Processing at Embassies and Consulates on March 1st, 2021.
The major point is in January 2020 there were about 75,000 immigrant visa cases pending at the National Visa Center ready for interviews.  Thirteen months later, in February 2021, there were 473,000 – about six to seven times greater. 

Looks like the waiting game will be long. Please correct me if I am wrong, pre pandemic wait for employment based visas at Montreal consulate was around 8 months, with increased backlog it would be 4 years?! 

 

Full text can be found here: https://www.state.gov/briefing-with-consular-affairs-acting-deputy-assistant-secretary-for-visa-services-julie-m-stufft-on-the-current-status-of-immigrant-visa-processing-at-embassies-and-consulates/

[topman 42]

5 minutes ago, Van24 said:

US Department of State did a briefing on the Current Status of Immigrant Visa Processing at Embassies and Consulates on March 1st, 2021.
The major point is in January 2020 there were about 75,000 immigrant visa cases pending at the National Visa Center ready for interviews.  Thirteen months later, in February 2021, there were 473,000 – about six to seven times greater. 

Looks like the waiting game will be long. Please correct me if I am wrong, pre pandemic wait for employment based visas at Montreal consulate was around 8 months, with increased backlog it would be 4 years?! 

 

Full text can be found here: https://www.state.gov/briefing-with-consular-affairs-acting-deputy-assistant-secretary-for-visa-services-julie-m-stufft-on-the-current-status-of-immigrant-visa-processing-at-embassies-and-consulates/

Woah.. More than 6 fold increase to 473K! It would be nice to see what is the backlog by consulates, specifically MTL.

[Stephenc111 30]

2 hours ago, topman said:

Woah.. More than 6 fold increase to 473K! It would be nice to see what is the backlog by consulates, specifically MTL.

I disagree with the logic. Don’t scare yourself unnecessarily. 
 

Under normal circumstance, we need to assume the immigration visa is under a dynamic equilibrium. the rate of case flowing-in is equal to rate of case closed. There is always a backlog steady. That’s why there is a average 8-month waiting period. 
 

the reason for the backlog to move up by 400,000 is because there was no action for almost one year. 400,000 maybe the normal number of immigration through visa route (family based plus employment based)

- most of employment based GC is issued through status adjustment ( such as me, since I work and live in US already.  My application here is follow-to-join case for my son)

- most of family based GC is issued through visa route, since most likely the applicants are outside US. 
 

so in case of Montreal, I think the new waiting time for any new case is 20 months (8 month plus the lost 12 months),  if Montreal consulate RESUME the same processing rate as pre-Covid 

 

this is a big assumption of course. 
 

Based on the record just before March 2020, people with Sep/19 Document Complete Date (the basis of the queue) was getting appointment in March for April 2020. 
 

So if everything resume to normal speed right away, you can guess when you would get appointment notice. for example 

- for me, DC is Nov/19, I hope get get notice 2 months from now, in May, for June appointment. 
- if your DC is June/20, you would expect notice in Dec, for Jan/22

 

lets see if that is true. 
 

 

[Van24 13]

10 minutes ago, Stephenc111 said:

I disagree with the logic. Don’t scare yourself unnecessarily. 
 

Under normal circumstance, we need to assume the immigration visa is under a dynamic equilibrium. the rate of case flowing-in is equal to rate of case closed. There is always a backlog steady. That’s why there is a average 8-month waiting period. 
 

the reason for the backlog to move up by 400,000 is because there was no action for almost one year. 400,000 maybe the normal number of immigration through visa route (family based plus employment based)

- most of employment based GC is issued through status adjustment ( such as me, since I work and live in US already.  My application here is follow-to-join case for my son)

- most of family based GC is issued through visa route, since most likely the applicants are outside US. 
 

so in case of Montreal, I think the new waiting time for any new case is 20 months (8 month plus the lost 12 months),  if Montreal consulate RESUME the same processing rate as pre-Covid 

 

this is a big assumption of course. 
 

Based on the record just before March 2020, people with Sep/19 Document Complete Date (the basis of the queue) was getting appointment in March for April 2020. 
 

So if everything resume to normal speed right away, you can guess when you would get appointment notice. for example 

- for me, DC is Nov/19, I hope get get notice 2 months from now, in May, for June appointment. 
- if your DC is June/20, you would expect notice in Dec, for Jan/22

 

lets see if that is true. 
 

 

That's helpful! Thank you for your calculations!

 

P.S. Don't think that they will resume at normal speed though and they did state that they will prioritize family visas over employment. 

Edited March 3, 2021 by Van24

[raisins 27]

Man oh man. None of this sounds like good news though. 

Interested to hear if anyone hears anything back from Montreal in regards to resuming interviews.

 

I hope we are wrong, and things will move pretty fast. 

[WaitingInLine 13]

I wouldn't overly-worry either. I guess it depends where you were in the process when everything stopped. We received last March the interview appt for the third week of April (family based) and got cancelled a week later because of Covid. I emailed them recently to see what the next step may be but haven't heard back as of yet.

 

My assumption is that if the appt was already set then it should take about 1 to 2 months for a new appt, unless they completely screwed up the positions and it's anybody's game at the moment. I doubt this though.

 

If anything, I think it should take people the same amount of time starting today as it would have taken them when things stopped. In other words, if last March people had a wait time of 6 months, this is more or less what they will have now as things resume. The delay already happened so there shouldn't be a further delay now, perhaps minor because they may see fewer people per day because of restrictions. Who knows... It is clear the new Biden admin wants things to move along so I assume the overseas posts will follow this direction.

 

[Van24 13]

34 minutes ago, WaitingInLine said:

I wouldn't overly-worry either. I guess it depends where you were in the process when everything stopped. We received last March the interview appt for the third week of April (family based) and got cancelled a week later because of Covid. I emailed them recently to see what the next step may be but haven't heard back as of yet.

 

My assumption is that if the appt was already set then it should take about 1 to 2 months for a new appt, unless they completely screwed up the positions and it's anybody's game at the moment. I doubt this though.

 

If anything, I think it should take people the same amount of time starting today as it would have taken them when things stopped. In other words, if last March people had a wait time of 6 months, this is more or less what they will have now as things resume. The delay already happened so there shouldn't be a further delay now, perhaps minor because they may see fewer people per day because of restrictions. Who knows... It is clear the new Biden admin wants things to move along so I assume the overseas posts will follow this direction.

 

They stated that they will prioritize Immediate Relative family members of U.S. citizens including intercountry adoptions, fiancé(e)s of U.S. citizens, and certain Special Immigrant Visa applications, as well as other mission critical categories such as medical professionals. https://ca.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/consular-operations-updates/

I am not sure what they meant by 'Special Immigrant Visa applications', but for me it seems that any EB category would be given less priority. 

[WaitingInLine 13]

8 minutes ago, Van24 said:

They stated that they will prioritize Immediate Relative family members of U.S. citizens including intercountry adoptions, fiancé(e)s of U.S. citizens, and certain Special Immigrant Visa applications, as well as other mission critical categories such as medical professionals. https://ca.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/consular-operations-updates/

I am not sure what they meant by 'Special Immigrant Visa applications', but for me it seems that any EB category would be given less priority. 

Our petition is family based (my daughter) but I am not sure what their definition is of immediate family. As usual, they provide information but leave important details out.

[Van24 13]

2 minutes ago, WaitingInLine said:

Our petition is family based (my daughter) but I am not sure what their definition is of immediate family. As usual, they provide information but leave important details out.

Yeah, they might not know that either.

 

Just FYI, this is employment based thread - specifically EB2 category, so this information is not relevant to your case.

[Stephenc111 30]

54 minutes ago, WaitingInLine said:

I wouldn't overly-worry either. I guess it depends where you were in the process when everything stopped. We received last March the interview appt for the third week of April (family based) and got cancelled a week later because of Covid. I emailed them recently to see what the next step may be but haven't heard back as of yet.

 

My assumption is that if the appt was already set then it should take about 1 to 2 months for a new appt, unless they completely screwed up the positions and it's anybody's game at the moment. I doubt this though.

 

If anything, I think it should take people the same amount of time starting today as it would have taken them when things stopped. In other words, if last March people had a wait time of 6 months, this is more or less what they will have now as things resume. The delay already happened so there shouldn't be a further delay now, perhaps minor because they may see fewer people per day because of restrictions. Who knows... It is clear the new Biden admin wants things to move along so I assume the overseas posts will follow this direction.

 

Just curious: for you to get notice of interview last March, for family based, when was your documents completed at NVC? 

 

and if you mind telling us if you are US citizen or LPR, for sponsoring your daughter

 

Just like to cross reference to EB progress

 

Thanks,

[Stephenc111 30]

20 hours ago, Stephenc111 said:

received an email from NVC today. Always though after DC, the file was transferred to NVC. Apparently it is still at NVC. 
 

anyway, hearing something fromNVC is still a good news in my opinion. It means the ball starts rolling again. 
 

 

see below:

 

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

This notice is to inform you that your case for an immigrant visa is documentarily complete at the National Visa Center (NVC) and has been for at least 60 days.  NVC has received all of the fees, forms and documents required prior to attending an immigrant visa interview. Your petition is awaiting an interview appointment. At this time, no further action is required.  We appreciate your patience.

Your case will remain at NVC until an appointment is scheduled, at which time we will send it to the appropriate U.S. Embassy or Consulate General.  We will notify the applicant, petitioner, and attorney (if applicable) when an appointment is scheduled.

The U.S. Embassy or Consulate tells NVC which dates they are holding interviews. NVC fills these appointments on a first-in, first-out basis and is unable to predict when an interview will be scheduled.

Visa interviews at many U.S. Embassies and Consulates have been delayed as a result of the global COVID-19 outbreak.  For the most up-to-date information about the U.S. Embassy or Consulate's operating status, please visit their website at https://www.usembassy.gov.

The next communication you receive from NVC will be either a notice that your appointment is scheduled, or if an appointment is not scheduled within the next 120 days, we will send a notice confirming that your case is still in line for an interview.

Important: The applicant should not make any permanent financial commitments until they have received their immigrant visa. This includes activities such as: 
   - Selling a house, car or property, 
   - Resigning from a job, or;
   - Making other travel arrangements.

Thank you for your continued patience. 

 

 

 

 

[VA21202 109]

@Stephenc111 yup, I got this email too at around 2pm EST today. Sounds like they sent a bulk update. Hopefully we can get some sense of when they are scheduling interviews. I think the March letters should be going out in the next few days - it’ll be interesting to see if they send some EB letters too!