IR-1/CR-1 Montreal DQ'd private message group goes public CONTINUED

[DGF 730]

34 minutes ago, Lovepeace0303 said:

For folks already in the US, how long did it take to receive your GC (specifically service center - Texas)? I’ve heard they are sending them out quite fast! It also took me awhile to figure out how to track the GC status, but I finally got it! I entered my immigrant visa fee payment receipt number and that worked! Status still says “fees paid”.
 

Also, called SSN and they said husband’s card was issued and we should receive it in next few days. 🙏🏼

Mine took just shy of 11 weeks (Texas SC). 

[VIR CHAMP 25]

8 hours ago, acmanu said:

@VIR CHAMP - How did your interview go today?

Hello, thank you for asking. It was a great experience overall.
Starting with the stay: I stayed at Best Western - Hotel Europa, nothing to complain about it...$100 for a night with parking was not bad at all. 

My appointment was at 9:30 AM. I just went early in the morning to check the place and see if they would allow my little bag with files in it. The answer is NO. You can only bring file(s) which has documents.
Went at 9:30 AM, usual process as others: Security screening and directed to go upstairs.
As soon as I reached upstairs, I was directed to a window to give the passport. The officer was very friendly, officer opened a page where I had my B1/B2 stamped and put a Sticky note there.
Sat down for 10-15 min. and called on another window, also amazing officer. Asked for current Canadian address and spouse's address in USA. Took my Birth, Marriage, Police certificates and PP Photo (which I got back after scanning). Provided my finger-prints and given with a pamphlet and I was told "we will call you in few minutes for interview".
I sat down and started reading the pamphlet, before I finish reading it, I was called for the main interview...yes, that quick!!
Very generic questions:
- When and how I and my spouse met ?
- What my spouse does ?
- What my parents in-law do?
- Where I will be living in USA?
- Any history of issue at USA border?
- When did you came to Canada ?
- How often you and your spouse were seeing each other after wedding ? 
- Countries visited in last 5 years, other than USA/Canada..

Officer took couple of minutes to check something in the system and told me, "Your visa is approved, we are going to keep your passport and you will get it in 2-3 weeks with visa on it"

Thats it, it took approx. 50 min for the whole process.

Was I nervous before going there ? Yes, its one of the biggest day. But everyone was great and very understanding.
I am very much thankful for all the support from the VJ Family. You made it very easy. Good luck to all!

[Meghan.brooke 60]

What has been the average wait time passports are taking to get back to you? 

[darth vader 133]

1 hour ago, VIR CHAMP said:

Hello, thank you for asking. It was a great experience overall.
Starting with the stay: I stayed at Best Western - Hotel Europa, nothing to complain about it...$100 for a night with parking was not bad at all. 

My appointment was at 9:30 AM. I just went early in the morning to check the place and see if they would allow my little bag with files in it. The answer is NO. You can only bring file(s) which has documents.
Went at 9:30 AM, usual process as others: Security screening and directed to go upstairs.
As soon as I reached upstairs, I was directed to a window to give the passport. The officer was very friendly, officer opened a page where I had my B1/B2 stamped and put a Sticky note there.
Sat down for 10-15 min. and called on another window, also amazing officer. Asked for current Canadian address and spouse's address in USA. Took my Birth, Marriage, Police certificates and PP Photo (which I got back after scanning). Provided my finger-prints and given with a pamphlet and I was told "we will call you in few minutes for interview".
I sat down and started reading the pamphlet, before I finish reading it, I was called for the main interview...yes, that quick!!
Very generic questions:
- When and how I and my spouse met ?
- What my spouse does ?
- What my parents in-law do?
- Where I will be living in USA?
- Any history of issue at USA border?
- When did you came to Canada ?
- How often you and your spouse were seeing each other after wedding ? 
- Countries visited in last 5 years, other than USA/Canada..

Officer took couple of minutes to check something in the system and told me, "Your visa is approved, we are going to keep your passport and you will get it in 2-3 weeks with visa on it"

Thats it, it took approx. 50 min for the whole process.

Was I nervous before going there ? Yes, its one of the biggest day. But everyone was great and very understanding.
I am very much thankful for all the support from the VJ Family. You made it very easy. Good luck to all!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! I PMed you - please check your inbox!

[showag 52]

44 minutes ago, Meghan.brooke said:

What has been the average wait time passports are taking to get back to you? 

Mine took 5 days from the interview date. Shipment details were emailed after two days.

[mam521 2,062]

3 hours ago, Lovepeace0303 said:

For folks already in the US, how long did it take to receive your GC (specifically service center - Texas)? I’ve heard they are sending them out quite fast! It also took me awhile to figure out how to track the GC status, but I finally got it! I entered my immigrant visa fee payment receipt number and that worked! Status still says “fees paid”.
 

Also, called SSN and they said husband’s card was issued and we should receive it in next few days. 🙏🏼

178 days 😂😡

 

Now, after I had to get Kid2’s fixed, it was like less than 2 weeks. 
 

Trump screwed up the contract renewal for the one place that printed the majority of green cards. It’s since been fixed and they seem to come pretty fast. 

[Hawk Riders 814]

9 hours ago, Meghan.brooke said:

What has been the average wait time passports are taking to get back to you? 

this data is tracked on the spreadsheet

[Hawk Riders 814]

Interview outcomes for 

@DoubleE, @B&Grr, @monicatjoy?

[karan97 7]

any suggested hotels near the consulate?

[B&Grr 17]

On 3/15/2021 at 9:42 AM, Mel and Deb said:

So I emailed Dr Cheemas's office first thing Friday morning to schedule an appointment as I imagine everyone else did as well. Can people post here when they get their appointment date from him?

I had emailed Dr Cheema's office for appointment back on Feb 8th late morning and they had responded within an hour. At that time they were providing me with Feb 23 and on appointments with my interview being on March 15th. I chose March 3rd because in March flu shots wouldn't be required and my medical got to Montreal Consulate office in time.  Also please note medical examinations are usually booked in the early morning starting 6: 30 am till 10 am.  My appoint was me and 2 kids, the first hour was filling out forms and getting photos taken. Another 15-20 min wait for doctor. The actual medical exam was about 30 for all of us including vaccine shots. 

[B&Grr 17]

Hello everyone,

Sorry, I was originally going to post results and details  a few days ago but I'm very depressed and frustrated right now. My two kids were approved and I was given 221(g) because my long format birth cert doesn't have my parents names on it. It shows up as "refused" on my status.

 

We stayed at Best Western - Hotel Europa - relatively clean, quiet, Coras was steps next to reception.  Anyone who is travelling to Montreal and staying in downtown area please be aware the 8 pm curfew still applies right now. We flew in Friday night (taxi around $45 from airport to hotel) for Monday 8:30 am interview. We spent the weekend walking around and ordering takeout and eating it at the hotel. No dine ins allowed. Shopping wise - line ups everywhere because of the limited occupancy at each store.  Krispy Creme had a long line up because only 4 customers were allowed inside at any given time. 

Our appointment was at 8:30 AM (with the spring time change and the zone time change it was literally still feeling like 4:30 am).  

 

We arrived 5 minutes early, security checked off our names. Went through mini version of airport security check - my son's digital watch had to be stored at the locker. I had a very small bottle of water, some crackers and books for the kids to read which they allowed. I carried it in my small cloth bag to hold kids stuff including my documents.

Then usual process as others: Security screening and directed to go upstairs.
As soon as I reached upstairs, I was directed to window 6 to give the passport and received tix number 1505. At 8:30, I was number 1505 and I am assuming there was approx 5 people ahead of me with physically 3 other people in the room.. not sure if they other two's interview was done or not with 1502 number now on the ticket tv screen but 1501 was still there.

Sat down for 10-15 min and called back to window 6.

Asked for current Canadian address and spouse's address and phone in USA. Took my birth, marriage, police cert and passport (which I got back after scanning), kids document that provides details we have consent from their biological father to move to US. Provided my finger-prints and given with a pamphlet and sat down

15 min later... called to the window 1 - I asked the officer if the kids needs to be here right now. He asked where's the kids and I replied they are in the waiting area reading. He responded - let them continue reading and will call them here later

 

The questions:

- When and how I and my spouse met 
- What my spouse does 
- What do I do
- Where I will be living in USA and my plans there ( I said I'll be looking for a job)
- What was the longest I stayed in US ( I said about 3 months - explained to officer that we have been flying back and forth and trying to make sure neither myself or spouse overstay at either country)
- When did you came to Canada 
- Countries visited in last 5 years

- How old are the kids (the kids were in the waiting area reading away until they were called)

Then we got into a friendly chat about our kids and also where the officer was from.

Officer was on the computer here and there, got to my birth certificate and told me I have the wrong version. I said.. this is the long version. He replied they need the version with my parent's names on it. He gave me 221(g) and so my application is now refused until I send in another birth cert (Birth Cert story to be continued end of this writeup.). He wanted to keep my passport but I asked him if I can have it back because my son has orthodontist appointment end of April and I would to fly him down there, come back and submit my documents then.  Long story short, received my passport back but will need to send it in when I send in my birth cert. I had also explained to officer, when I ordered my birth cert back in the summer it look a LONG time to get my birth cert, it was not a quick turn around. He showed understanding of long process in covid era.

 

Then we called the kids - kids had their questions:

- How old are you

- What grade are you

- Which subject do you like

-Then somehow they end up talking about online school

 

The kids are approved, we checked on CEAC and it says approved. Interview was Monday, Thursday now and haven't received any other update.

Whole process was about 90 min.

 

I got back to hotel and went into panic mode to realized I don't have instructions how to mail in my birth cert in - officer only provided instructions how to obtain birth cert from Manitoba. I had emailed the Montreal Consulate and received auto reply so I knew at least the email got to them. By Wed, no reply so I called the call center from this page: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Supplements/Supplements_by_Post/MTL-Montreal.html#pre_interview_checklist. The lady looked up my file and send me and email with subject line "US Visa Personal Courier-In Instructions". After I got off the call with her I got another email with same subject line with same instructions so I'm not sure if it was lady on the phone that sent it twice to me or the second one was a response to my email.

 

Now the fun part of my story. My newly ordered birth cert with my parents names on it HAS AN ERROR. omg. Here is an example of the error with names I made up.  Our surname is repeated as middle name in both my parents names. On top of that I never new my dad's name was "Henry".

Jackson, Vi Henry Jackson

Chow, Jen Li Jackson

 

Contacted vital status agency and they said I had to fill out inquiry form, send my parents immigration paper work (I said they don't have it anymore, it's been over 40 years, they have their citizen card and passport, lady told me to send those in for now) and they will review this situation and mentioned something that it will take a long process etc etc.

 

My mom went to security box to look for some documents and voila! She found my dad's name change documentation and voila! she found my old birth cert with their names on it and it was spelled correctly. So I emailed the lady at vital status and basically told her in a nice way that the new birth cert they sent me doesn't even match my original one and sent in absolutely all documentation including my dad's name change. I'm still waiting to hear back from vital stats now.

 

So I'm in a dilemma..  anyone with any thoughts what I can do right now? Do I went for vital stats to fix my birth cert? Do I submit my original birth cert, new birth cert with letter to consulate explaining what is happening in hopes they will review my case with the documents I have? 

 

Thanks so much!

Edited March 18, 2021 by B&Grr
error in document name

[B&Grr 17]

On 3/15/2021 at 8:21 PM, darth vader said:

Due to COVID social distancing rules - are spouses allowed at the interview in Montreal or not?

spouses are not allowed at interview in Montreal

[Hawk Riders 814]

15 minutes ago, B&Grr said:

So I'm in a dilemma..  anyone with any thoughts what I can do right now? Do I went for vital stats to fix my birth cert? Do I submit my original birth cert, new birth cert with letter to consulate explaining what is happening in hopes they will review my case with the documents I have? 

If your original birth certificate features all the required information, why wouldn't you send that one? Did your dad change his name after you were born?

[B&Grr 17]

4 minutes ago, Hawk Riders said:

If your original birth certificate features all the required information, why wouldn't you send that one? Did your dad change his name after you were born?

Hello Hawk Riders,

The original birth certificate doesn't match the requirements shown on the US VISA document requirements website... so I'm not sure if I can risk it?

my dad changed name after I was born, I'm not too worried about that part because we have the legal paper work to show that

Thanks 

[Hawk Riders 814]

Just now, B&Grr said:

Hello Hawk Riders,

The original birth certificate doesn't match the requirements shown on the US VISA document requirements website... so I'm not sure if I can risk it?

my dad changed name after I was born, I'm not too worried about that part because we have the legal paper work to show that

Thanks 

Ah. Thanks for clarifying. Sounds like you're now stuck awaiting Manitoba's updates and reissuance so everything lines up correctly for the CO.