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

[State and Maine 190]

4 minutes ago, irisheyes123 said:

does anyone else frantically refresh this page once it turns 10:05am every morning to see if people get their IL's? I guess it will be this Friday. It BETTER be this Friday. 

Glad I’m not the only one!! I refresh this page at least 25 times a day and I swear I’m going to have a permanent line down the middle of my screen from refreshing my emails no less than 100 times a day. My name is Nick and I have a problem! 😂

[Nikasalts 10]

17 hours ago, Kai (CanadaDude) said:

Yeah, I heard that they used to do it in Vancouver...whoever thought that closing the IV unit there deserves a right kick up the backside! xD

 

But yeah, seriously...these waittimes suck, no one should be having to wait this long, I really feel for the people in the other categories that are in limbo. Especially for the DV applicants who won the lottery but lost/losing their immigrant visa opportunity through no fault of their own. That should absolutely be addressed. x.x

Is there a website where I could check the stats of particular consulate on visa issuance? Time frames for CR1 I'm mostly interested in. I totally would switch my interview to Europe if the process there is faster. 

[Nikasalts 10]

17 hours ago, Kai (CanadaDude) said:

 

Like seriously, what are they going to do? These backlogs are not sustainable, they don't have the staff to even prevent them growing even further let alone a plan to reduce them. Something has to give.

Something has to give.....I'm afraid it's the prospect immigrants choosing their US partners have to give. It's not an easy and fast route for a reason 😕 

[Nikasalts 10]

22 hours ago, Ontarkie said:

Just during Flu season. 

Not optional but only needed during flu season.

Is there a way of not getting the shots? I never took a flu shot and I haven't had a flu for the last 20 years at least. 

[State and Maine 190]

22 minutes ago, Nikasalts said:

Is there a website where I could check the stats of particular consulate on visa issuance? Time frames for CR1 I'm mostly interested in. I totally would switch my interview to Europe if the process there is faster. 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-statistics/immigrant-visa-statistics/monthly-immigrant-visa-issuances.html

[Ontarkie 14,221]

43 minutes ago, Nikasalts said:

Is there a way of not getting the shots? I never took a flu shot and I haven't had a flu for the last 20 years at least. 

Just by doing the medical when it is no longer flu season.

Or are you talking about all shots. I've never seen a waiver for them in Canada. Not a single person has ever come back to update if it worked. 

Other then the waiver the medical won't make it to Montreal. They hold it until all shots are up to date. 

[Nikasalts 10]

4 minutes ago, Ontarkie said:

Just by doing the medical when it is no longer flu season.

Or are you talking about all shots. I've never seen a waiver for them in Canada. Not a single person has ever come back to update if it worked. 

Other then the waiver the medical won't make it to Montreal. They hold it until all shots are up to date. 

I have all the other shots, but never wanted the flu one. My interview will likely happen in the fall/winter time 😕

[Shumai84 157]

53 minutes ago, Nikasalts said:

Is there a way of not getting the shots? I never took a flu shot and I haven't had a flu for the last 20 years at least. 

It's already May, so a flu shot is not required. It's only for Nov-Mar only. 

[State and Maine 190]

57 minutes ago, Nikasalts said:

Is there a way of not getting the shots? I never took a flu shot and I haven't had a flu for the last 20 years at least. 

Well with covid they couldn’t even declare a flu season this year and from stats Canada there was only 120 or so confirmed flu cases. Laughable I know

[Ontarkie 14,221]

5 minutes ago, Nikasalts said:

I have all the other shots, but never wanted the flu one. My interview will likely happen in the fall/winter time 😕

Then you are good to go. I couldn't remember the dates for the Flu shot. Nikasalts got that part

 

[DGF 730]

19 hours ago, Kai (CanadaDude) said:

I wonder if it's down to a shear volume of applicants. Naturally because of the close relationship between the US and Canada there's likely to be a heck of a lot more Canadians/Americans dating/married than any other pairs of nationality. Also if I recall, the previous administration did cut back on Consular staff which has amplified the issue. Other consulates with fewer IR/CR applicants probably built up their backlogs slower than Montreal where it was a literal waterfall getting backed up.

 

It's kinda like an airport. A small airport having the runway out of commission will impact a few flights, but it won't take them long to get back up to speed. If that happens at Heathrow you have a massive cascading effect and in those cases you can cancel flights....can't do that with visa applications...so you have to play catch up....which you can't do if you're already at capacity.

 

Pure and simple the Department of State needs to hire a *lot* more Consular staff in Canada. And the whole issue of one consulate per country doing immigrant visas needs to go...I should not have to fly 5 hours for a 15 minute interview when there is a perfectly good Consulate in Vancouver. What would be really nice is if Canadians with approved I-130 petitions were allowed to enter the US with a special status granted on entry that permitted them to adjust status. It is far easier for the Government to hire USCIS caseworkers than to get Consular Officers into foreign posts. But for now, they should be retraining the Non-Immigrant Visa ConOffs to also be able to process IV applications too.

Nah, it used to be 2-3 months for an interview from DQ and then Montreal stopped doing any (that's a lie, they did about 15 a month but none from VJ) CR1/IR1 interviews for a few months in 2019 (which is why this group and spreadsheet were created in the first place). They weren't able to catch up on the resulting backlog before covid hit, which just made it worse. The actual numbers and issuance statistics didn't change, only that mysterious interview halt that no one knows the reason for (and trust me, we've speculated). 

 

14 hours ago, LomLomLom said:

In my application D260, to the question: Have you ever been refused a U.S. Visa, been refused admission to the United States, or withdrawn your application for admission at the port of entry? I had answered “yes”, the reason was I had crossed the border way too many times in a year. It was only one time I got turned around.

Now, reading through some old posts, I had learnt that the correct answer should be “ No”. It wasn’t a refusal of entry but a withdrawal. I can’t go back and change it now, and I am getting nervous that I might be denied at the interview because of this. Please give me some advice on this matter as it’s haunting me days and nights, as my interview date is looming. 

Thank you, 

The question asks if you've ever withdrawn your application for entry. You've done that so "yes" is the correct answer. You won't be denied over this, but you will likely be asked about it so I'd come prepared with any documentation they gave you when you were turned away. 

 

1 hour ago, Nikasalts said:

Is there a website where I could check the stats of particular consulate on visa issuance? Time frames for CR1 I'm mostly interested in. I totally would switch my interview to Europe if the process there is faster. 

For timelines, https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/irstats.php?cfl= (scroll to the last table). 
For actual numbers, https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-statistics/immigrant-visa-statistics/monthly-immigrant-visa-issuances.html (but this doesn't really tell you about timelines). 

 

1 hour ago, Nikasalts said:

Is there a way of not getting the shots? I never took a flu shot and I haven't had a flu for the last 20 years at least. 

https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-9-part-d-chapter-3

[Kai G. Llewellyn 837]

13 minutes ago, DGF said:

Nah, it used to be 2-3 months for an interview from DQ and then Montreal stopped doing any (that's a lie, they did about 15 a month but none from VJ) CR1/IR1 interviews for a few months in 2019 (which is why this group and spreadsheet were created in the first place). They weren't able to catch up on the resulting backlog before covid hit, which just made it worse. The actual numbers and issuance statistics didn't change, only that mysterious interview halt that no one knows the reason for (and trust me, we've speculated).

Yeah, that's what I was getting at...because Montreal processes a lot, it doesn't take much for an enormous backlog to be created by, like you said, a few months of not processing apps, that caused delays spanning over a year pre-covid. And of course, if the issuance numbers don't change, they will *never* catch up.

 

My guess is that they really don't have many people who do the IV applications, from what it feels like they may have only 3-5 members on staff that do them. That doesn't give them much capacity if someone resigns/reassigned/long-term sick. You could probably get an idea of what the number of staff is by working out the days they do IV interviews, factor IV monthly issuance, estimate refusal rate and an estimated time to process each case. It would be a vague estimation, but one nonetheless. I wonder if I could FOI the DoS to ask how many IV ConOffs they have in MTL? xD

 

---

 

Unrelated note, I know you can't get the other shots near getting the Covid vaccination, but if you know you're good on the required shots, can they still carry out the medical if you've recently had the Covid shot?

 

Edited May 12, 2021 by Kai (CanadaDude)

[Magnolian 47]

4 hours ago, Tofu said:

Dr Cheema is the only Doctor in Western Canada unfortunately. It’s Surrey or Ontario / Quebec. 
 

Apparently there used to be one in Calgary but he retired. 

Hi Thanks for letting me know. I appreciate it.

[Magnolian 47]

13 hours ago, Riversong said:

They probably do the, however they also probably charge for them (the one in Montreal charges $50 i think). I got mine done at the end of April through the health clinic in Fort St John at no cost. As long as you have BC Care card it wont cost you anything. As for any other Dr, you can only use the ones on their list

Hi Thanks for your reply. I appreciate it.

[Magnolian 47]

Hi guys, I have another question.

I am planning to take the titer test this week. I have 2 year old and no babysitter or prospect of

finding one. I have no family in this entire country and my husband is currently in US working.

 

I need to take 2 trips at least (one to medical clinic and one to lab) to get the titer test done, and

I need to bring my kid my kid with me. We will probably get a taxi to the lab.

 

I have been wondering if it would be easier for me to get the titer test done during the medical 

and avoid the  trouble of going to clinic and lab with my toddler. Does any of you have

experience of getiing titer test done at Dr. Cheema's office? Would it make the process slower?

Can anyone comment on this?

 

Would getting test done earlier  be worth of the trouble? Or should I just wait? (I am kicking myself

for not doing this in Feb when my husband was here) Thank you all so much again!