Canadian August+September 2018 Case Complete To Interview For Spousal Visa Filers Thread

[Loois 21]

Update: we received our passport pretty last night (9:30pm) at our home yesterday! Now currently in the US!!! 🙌

 

What happened with us is that our passport did not arrive on the Friday like the tracker said it would. Instead, the tracker showed that it was sitting in some facility in our city and did not move/change status for over 24hrs. So the next day Saturday, we called like crazy. Once in the morning, once early afternoon and again late afternoon. After much persistence we finally got patched through to a higher up manager who took our case seriously - we emphasized that it was a passport and we were on a deadline etc. They opened a “case” for us or something, put our file on priority. It was then delivered that night outside of Xpresspost’s normal delivery hours.

 

If your passport does not arrive on its scheduled date, it’s worth calling aggressively and letting them know that your passport is late and you need it urgently. Ask to speak to a manager if they try to brush you off. 

[SKB2017 95]

Camped out at the post office early this morning and finally got my passport yay. My husband and I have a 5pm flight to California. Good Luck everyone who’s interview is in January and to those still waiting for their passport. 

[Alyssamac90 40]

19 hours ago, Loois said:

Update: we received our passport pretty last night (9:30pm) at our home yesterday! Now currently in the US!!! 🙌

 

What happened with us is that our passport did not arrive on the Friday like the tracker said it would. Instead, the tracker showed that it was sitting in some facility in our city and did not move/change status for over 24hrs. So the next day Saturday, we called like crazy. Once in the morning, once early afternoon and again late afternoon. After much persistence we finally got patched through to a higher up manager who took our case seriously - we emphasized that it was a passport and we were on a deadline etc. They opened a “case” for us or something, put our file on priority. It was then delivered that night outside of Xpresspost’s normal delivery hours.

 

If your passport does not arrive on its scheduled date, it’s worth calling aggressively and letting them know that your passport is late and you need it urgently. Ask to speak to a manager if they try to brush you off. 

That’s helpful to know! Who did  you call? And what number?

[torcida1950 1]

Hi guys, hoping someone could help me with this. It says to bring the original affidavit of support to the interview. My question is, I know my signature needs to be wet. But what about my lawyers? Do you think I need to get her to mail me her wet signature or is the scanned copy fine?

also, for tax returns. Can I just print the return that I downloaded off IRS website or do I need to request by mail. Sorry if anyone has already  asked this. 

[Sh.0911.CANtoUS 4]

On 12/12/2018 at 10:35 PM, SKB2017 said:

My interview is on December 21 and I will be asking that question for myself, so I will let you know what they say.

We had our interview on Dec 20 and they did not give us the option to pick up our passport. We unfortunately had to cancel our overseas trip due to this inconvenience. My husband is still waiting to receive his tracking number to have his passport returned. Did you by chance get a notification on when to pick up your passport from the mail?

 

[Sh.0911.CANtoUS 4]

I forgot to post good news that my husband was approved. Our cc date was Sept 11 and our interview date was Dec 20. He was only asked 5 questions. Similar to previous post he had to wait for about 3 hours for the entire process but the interview only lasted 5 minutes. I have a question for anyone else interviewed around Dec 20: Did you receive notification of when to pick up your passport from the mail. My husband is still waiting to get his tracking number. We had to cancel our trip overseas twice now because he has not received his passport in the mail. I am hoping to hear good news that folks are starting to get their passports back.

[SKB2017 95]

8 hours ago, Sh.0911.CANtoUS said:

We had our interview on Dec 20 and they did not give us the option to pick up our passport. We unfortunately had to cancel our overseas trip due to this inconvenience. My husband is still waiting to receive his tracking number to have his passport returned. Did you by chance get a notification on when to pick up your passport from the mail?

 

Wow, that's a long time to wait for a tracking number if your interview date was one day before mine.  I got my first email on December 28th that a shipping label was created by the consulate for my passport, and another email that Canada Post picked up my passport the very same day (which was a friday).  The email said an estimated delivery date to the post office that we had chosen to pick it up in Montreal would be December 31st, which was a monday, 3 days later.  I went down to that post office (800 Rue Rene LeVesque) on Monday the 31st and my passport arrived a little bit after 10am that day.

You should call or email the embassy if you haven't recieved any kind of word on it yet.  That's an abnormally long time to wait for it.  Also, have you checked your junk mail folder to see if it might have gone into that?

Edited January 8, 2019 by SKB2017

[Loois 21]

On 1/2/2019 at 6:21 PM, torcida1950 said:

Hi guys, hoping someone could help me with this. It says to bring the original affidavit of support to the interview. My question is, I know my signature needs to be wet. But what about my lawyers? Do you think I need to get her to mail me her wet signature or is the scanned copy fine?

also, for tax returns. Can I just print the return that I downloaded off IRS website or do I need to request by mail. Sorry if anyone has already  asked this. 

Hey torcida1950,

 

The original affadavit of support requires the sponsor's wet signature but don't worry about the lawyer signature. We had the same concern when going into our interview and asked our lawyer to mail us a copy. The mail did not reach us in time but it did not matter because they accepted the copy version of their signature anyway. Just make sure the sponsor's signature is wet.

 

Good luck!

[Loois 21]

On 12/31/2018 at 3:38 PM, Alyssamac90 said:

That’s helpful to know! Who did  you call? And what number?

Sorry for delayed response - we called a general Canada post number I believe and just kept selecting the different options and requesting to escalate our issue/speak with a manager.

[MissMyHusband 22]

We have our interview tomorrow. Can anyone tell me when/how you paid the last visa fee? No one mentions it in their interview reviews. Thanks!

[SKB2017 95]

3 hours ago, MissMyHusband said:

We have our interview tomorrow. Can anyone tell me when/how you paid the last visa fee? No one mentions it in their interview reviews. Thanks!

There may be fees for a K1, not sure,  but for Cr1, I didn't have any fees at all to pay at the consulate.  You do however have to pay a $220.00 fee, if your interview is successful and approved for the greencard.  You wait until they mail you your passport back to pay the $220 fee.  You should do it if possible before you leave for the US so that they start making your actual greencard as soon as possible.

Edited January 14, 2019 by SKB2017

[MissMyHusband 22]

9 hours ago, SKB2017 said:

There may be fees for a K1, not sure,  but for Cr1, I didn't have any fees at all to pay at the consulate.  You do however have to pay a $220.00 fee, if your interview is successful and approved for the greencard.  You wait until they mail you your passport back to pay the $220 fee.  You should do it if possible before you leave for the US so that they start making your actual greencard as soon as possible.

Thank you, this is the exact info I was looking for.

[LaurenJSchafer 13]

On 12/30/2018 at 8:36 PM, Loois said:

Update: we received our passport pretty last night (9:30pm) at our home yesterday! Now currently in the US!!! 🙌

 

What happened with us is that our passport did not arrive on the Friday like the tracker said it would. Instead, the tracker showed that it was sitting in some facility in our city and did not move/change status for over 24hrs. So the next day Saturday, we called like crazy. Once in the morning, once early afternoon and again late afternoon. After much persistence we finally got patched through to a higher up manager who took our case seriously - we emphasized that it was a passport and we were on a deadline etc. They opened a “case” for us or something, put our file on priority. It was then delivered that night outside of Xpresspost’s normal delivery hours.

 

If your passport does not arrive on its scheduled date, it’s worth calling aggressively and letting them know that your passport is late and you need it urgently. Ask to speak to a manager if they try to brush you off. 

Hi, a few questions for you. When you got your passport back, did it come sealed and with anything else? We were given the impression that it was just going to be the passport mailed back. Also, was it sealed to be opened at the border? And what numbers did you use for your $220 payment? I know it said that we had to pay that before they left Canada, but it also said we needed a visa number. And I was confused that if we can't open the package until we get to the border, then how will we pay the fee? Just a little confused. Any help you can offer from what happens after the interview up to the border crossing would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Loois 21]

4 minutes ago, LaurenJSchafer said:

Hi, a few questions for you. When you got your passport back, did it come sealed and with anything else? We were given the impression that it was just going to be the passport mailed back. Also, was it sealed to be opened at the border? And what numbers did you use for your $220 payment? I know it said that we had to pay that before they left Canada, but it also said we needed a visa number. And I was confused that if we can't open the package until we get to the border, then how will we pay the fee? Just a little confused. Any help you can offer from what happens after the interview up to the border crossing would be appreciated. Thanks.

I can only speak to the CR-1 visa, but the passport came back in a sealed package from Canada Post. We were definitely able to open everything beforehand. If I recall correctly, the package included the passport, original security check document, a general info sheet and maybe a few other original documents. We used the visa number in the actual passport to pay the fee online. I do vaguely recall reading that this might be different for the K1 visa (there might be a sealed package you have to wait to open), but that was not the case for us.

[LaurenJSchafer 13]

1 minute ago, Loois said:

I can only speak to the CR-1 visa, but the passport came back in a sealed package from Canada Post. We were definitely able to open everything beforehand. If I recall correctly, the package included the passport, original security check document, a general info sheet and maybe a few other original documents. We used the visa number in the actual passport to pay the fee online. I do vaguely recall reading that this might be different for the K1 visa (there might be a sealed package you have to wait to open), but that was not the case for us.

That was helpful. We have a CR-1 visa as well. The passport should be back by Thursday. And I am glad to know we can just open it to get the number to pay the fee for the greencard. Thank you so much!