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

[aurmorr 270]

On 2/12/2021 at 4:15 PM, Emilini said:

Hey anyone have to reschedule lately?  What are timelines like?

A few people had to reschedule last month and it took about a week to reschedule on average.

[aurmorr 270]

15 hours ago, DGF said:

Yes the request still has to be reviewed but I believe either the NVC will reach out to Montreal for their decision or they might have you contact Montreal directly. Either way it is not the NVC that decides. Montreal doesn't approve expedites with much regularity even when they are clearly warranted so I wouldn't consider it approved yet. Hopefully you'll hear back with their decision soon!

Ugh sorry for the double post but this is correct. NVC essentially screens the expedition requests for validity and will send them to the consulate for approval. Montreal has a notoriously low acceptance rate- like what 2 people lost year? I have been trying to get my case expedited for health reasons and unstable housing situation due to being a frontline worker for COVID and was denied twice. I don’t even think the consulate is reading the full petitions- maybe like the first paragraph/summary and then deciding. 
 

i also have two chains of emails asking for clarity and the consulate will say that NVC decides and NVC will say the consulate decides- emailing the consulate is useless because they just say they don’t have it NVC has it. MVC will say they got our request and approved it bjt never sent it. It is wild.

Edited February 15, 2021 by aurmorr

[Meghan.brooke 60]

My husbands flight from the US to Canada is cancelled as of this morning! They are cancelling flights till april 30th so wth do I do? Hes stuck here or what?? My due date for our baby is May 1st so I guess he could stay, but he'll he reaching his 6 months in June! I just dont want an issue at the interview about his long stay because it wasn't our fault they're cancelling flights to the US and all right around my due date 😭. We're estimating his interview to be either in April or May so I just feel stuck. Is anyone else's spouse in this situation being stuck in the US right now??

[State and Maine 190]

20 minutes ago, Meghan.brooke said:

My husbands flight from the US to Canada is cancelled as of this morning! They are cancelling flights till april 30th so wth do I do? Hes stuck here or what?? My due date for our baby is May 1st so I guess he could stay, but he'll he reaching his 6 months in June! I just dont want an issue at the interview about his long stay because it wasn't our fault they're cancelling flights to the US and all right around my due date 😭. We're estimating his interview to be either in April or May so I just feel stuck. Is anyone else's spouse in this situation being stuck in the US right now??

As of right now there is only 4 airports in Canada accepting international flights (Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal) if your husband had a flight to a different airport I suspect it would be cancelled. And starting feb 22 there will be mandatory quarantine in those 4 city’s at your expense which is roughly $2000. I would suggest flying to one of those airports before the 22nd

[jackanddeona 310]

26 minutes ago, Meghan.brooke said:

My husbands flight from the US to Canada is cancelled as of this morning! They are cancelling flights till april 30th so wth do I do? Hes stuck here or what?? My due date for our baby is May 1st so I guess he could stay, but he'll he reaching his 6 months in June! I just dont want an issue at the interview about his long stay because it wasn't our fault they're cancelling flights to the US and all right around my due date 😭. We're estimating his interview to be either in April or May so I just feel stuck. Is anyone else's spouse in this situation being stuck in the US right now??

I am seeing flights to different Canadian cities from different American cities all over the place. He might not have a direct flight but they aren't cancelling all flights. You might just need to call an airline and figure out how to get him where he needs to go.

 

Edited February 15, 2021 by jackanddeona

[Meghan.brooke 60]

1 minute ago, State and Maine said:

As of right now there is only 4 airports in Canada accepting international flights (Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal) if your husband had a flight to a different airport I suspect it would be cancelled. And starting feb 22 there will be mandatory quarantine in those 4 city’s at your expense which is roughly $2000. I would suggest flying to one of those airports before the 22nd

His flight was into Toronto!

[VIR CHAMP 25]

On 2/8/2021 at 10:31 PM, Ptitchou said:

Is it the old laminated birth certificate from Ontario? If so, it won't be correct. You need the long form birth certificate that has both parents' names on it. 

 

If it's from somewhere else, not sure, but it definitely needs to have both birth parents on it. 

It is from India and the municipality office gave it laminated only. Its very common there.

Anyways, I have arranged to get a new one without lamination.
Now they have change the format of the certificate. If I bring the new one to the interview, it wont be "exact" match with what I have uploaded along with my DS-260.
What to do in this condition?

On 2/8/2021 at 10:49 PM, mizzem said:

This one will not be accepted, it has to be a long form birth certificate. We had to order one online.

Did you upload the new one along with DS-260?

[Jay&Sid 211]

49 minutes ago, Meghan.brooke said:

My husbands flight from the US to Canada is cancelled as of this morning! They are cancelling flights till april 30th so wth do I do? Hes stuck here or what?? My due date for our baby is May 1st so I guess he could stay, but he'll he reaching his 6 months in June! I just dont want an issue at the interview 

 

There will be no issue if he wants to stay there until his visa permits. But flights to Canada from US are available. He can speak to airline and reschedule. I recently traveled to US and Air Canada cancelled my flight two times. At the same time they give me several options to rebook.

[darth vader 133]

34 minutes ago, Meghan.brooke said:

His flight was into Toronto!

I suggest taking a flight to Buffalo and then taking a taxi in to Canada. Worst case he can walk to Canada on the Rainbow bridge.

[Jay&Sid 211]

 

My and my younger child’ case were DQed on 18th August. Whereas my older child’ case who is now 16 yrs old was DQed on 5th September. We also have submitted a letter requesting scheduling of the interview at the same time.

 

Should we expect IL based on 18th Aug or 5th Sep?

 

@DGF, @Hawk Riders do you know anyone dealt with similar situation ?

[Hawk Riders 814]

Just now, Jay&Sid said:

 

My and my younger child’ case were DQed on 18th August. Whereas my older child’ case who is now 16 yrs old was DQed on 5th September. We also have submitted a letter requesting scheduling of the interview at the same time.

 

Should we expect IL based on 18th Aug or 5th Sep?

 

@DGF, @Hawk Riders do you know anyone dealt with similar situation ?

This is a topic for @mam521 & @SeriaRisa11

[VIR CHAMP 25]

On 2/11/2021 at 12:25 AM, JACHA said:

Alright Folks, here it goes....

 

APPROVED!!!!!

 

Interview: Wednesday, Feb 10, 2021 @ 7:45am 

 

All I could think of while walking to the consulate and waiting in the room was how accurate everyone's experience was and was trying to make mental notes so that I could come back here and share my experience! haha

 

So here's my experience (If you don't want to read it, in summary, it was like everyone else's experience) 

- Stayed at the Sheraton Hotel. Literally a 2 minute straight walk down the road.

- Got to the line about 5-10 minutes before my interview time. There we 2 people ahead of me. 

- Security Guard asked to see my passport, interview confirmation letter and asked me 3 Covid screening questions

- Allowed me inside to where I had to go through a metal detector and put my stuff through a scanner (Same as TSA at the Airport)

- A small locker thats perfect just to fit your phone was available. Put it in, take the key, and return it on your way out.

- Went upstairs and was asked to go to Window 7 to drop my passport off. Side note - in my head I pictured this waiting room as some old dimly lit type office, however it was very new, clean and fairly big- very similar to a new medical office.

 

The interview

- Called up and the associate asked for the required documents - Birth Certificate (Long-Form), Marriage Certificate, Police Record, 1 Passport Photo

- He verified my address and my spouses address. Her's did change and he manually recorded it. I also had uploaded an updated I-864EZ with the new address. He also had me take my finger prints (4 left, 4 right, 2 thumbs). FYI - They don't wipe these down.

- Then he gave me the domestic violence pamphlet and told me to sit back down. 

- I got called up one more time to me with a different individual. This is where I had to take the Oath.

- Here's a summary of questions he asked - Verify your name and date of birth. Who is your Petitioner? When did you meet and When did you get married? Where did you get married? Who was at your wedding? Who were the witnesses? What does your spouse do? What do you do? Are you planning on applying for jobs when you move to the states? Where are you going to live? Who else lives there? Do the other people who live there work? Did you get this pamphlet (Domestic Violence)? Did you read it? In one or two lines can you explain to me what it talks about? 

- Then the associate gave me back my documents from before (Marriage certificate, Birth Certificate, etc.) and handed me the "Welcome to USA" Letter. And advised me that my passport should be mailed back within 3-4 weeks. (Even though I paid for courier service). I think this is a generic timeline they give. 

- I did ask him when he thinks I could expect my physical green card and Social Security Number but he said he's not sure, it's a different department that handles that. 

- Then made my way out, down the elevator and go my phone from the locker. 

- I finished and was out by 8:49am . So total time was about an hour. I expect this to be a little longer if your interview if it's in the afternoon. I was in the first batch of interviews so by the time i was getting out the room became way more full.

 

Here is the BIGGEST PRO TIP (and I think it should be added to the FAQ)  - UPLOAD ALL YOUR DOCUMENTS TO CEAC BEFORE YOUR INTERVIEW!

- A friend of mine who did his interview 2 weeks ago told me he had uploaded all his docs prior to coming and the lady behind the desk said "Thank you so much, not a lot of people upload there documents, this helps alot".

- Most the time they spend is scanning all our docs if its not in the system already. So you can speed up the process if you upload and label everything correctly. 

- Some things I uploaded that helped  were

      - IRS Tax Transcript 

      - IRS Wages and Earnings

      - W2's

      - 1040's

      - My Passport photo

      - Wifes Passport and Birth Certificate 

     - My Passport

     - Revised I864EZ

     - DS260 Confirmation Page

 

^ All this is on top of what you had already submitted initially. And don't worry about the documents being "Accepted" . It's okay to have them in the "Submitted" state. The goal is we're trying to save them from doing more work of scanning documents. If you save them time, they'll save you time!

 

All in all, I owe VisaJourney and people like @Hawk Riders a lot for this thread as well as the Google Sheets Tracker and FAQ. Honestly, unless your case is complex, you do not need a lawyer. This thread had everything you need to get approved and was my guiding light the last 6-8 months when we didn't know what was going on during the pandemic. I encourage everyone to keep this thread going and the tracker going forward for those after us - Pay it forward!

 

Now I look forward to getting my passport back, getting my physical green card and my SSN. I hope they automatically send me the SSN and I don't need to set-up an appointment with the SSN office.

 

Open to answer any questions you may have. Remember the Pro Tip above! 

Where to upload all these document ? I don't see any option/place to upload any additional document.

[JACHA 42]

4 minutes ago, VIR CHAMP said:

Where to upload all these document ? I don't see any option/place to upload any additional document.

There is an option to "Add a Document" under either your "Civil Documents" or under your petitioners "Affidavit of Supporting Documents & Financial Evidence"

 

 

[VIR CHAMP 25]

4 minutes ago, JACHA said:

There is an option to "Add a Document" under either your "Civil Documents" or under your petitioners "Affidavit of Supporting Documents & Financial Evidence"

 

 

@JACHA thank you so much. Really appreciate.

[ns84 0]

I am a US and Canadian citizen, I sponsored my husband for canada and  the US-he got his canadian PR last Nov and I have been here with him since  (in Toronto.) We finally got our interview date for March 8 in Montreal. We have one child (2 yrs old), I am a teacher but am just doing supply teaching, my father who we will be living with when we move is an Household member who I added since i dont make enough income. 

I just want to make sure we are prepared for the interview and am a bit nervous as only my husband can go in and not me and my son. 

Is there anything else we need to bring in or upload to CEAC before the interview? I am still waiting for my 2019 tax transcripts, i have received my fathers and uploaded those. I have also uploaded my sons birth cert, he was born in the US. Do i still need to upload whats app messages and pictures.

We have a joint account here in Canada, do we need to show proof of that? or paystubs? Any other tips/advice would be much appreciated! Thank you