IR-1/CR-1 Montreal DQ'd private message group goes public part 3

[annierob 194]

21 minutes ago, HD_BIRDS said:

I agree fully with @Kai (CanadaDude). But look into AOS timelines. Since I am already in the US working, I have considered changing many times to AOS since my I-130 was approved. However, the timelines to receive an advance parole for travel outside the US and a work visa are also backlogged. The travel parole and work visa used to take 3 - 4 months to receive. For some service centers, it is currently 8 months. The I-485 is also long, with some service centers indicating up to 17 months. My lawyer indicated it would be much quicker to stay the current course. Granted, I thought I would have an IL by now. If you don't need to travel or work outside the US for 6 - 8 months, and are aware the process will likely add significant time to your application if you are already DQ'd, then it could be an option for you.

It’s a definitely a lot to think about. I’m DQ’ed Oct 20, which is not that far off given how on our group spreadsheet, the last people to get ILs were on Sept 5.

 

But now, who even knows? Oct 20 would have been in July or August if the normal rate of ILs continued. My B2 expires July 3, so there’s a lot to hammer down this weekend since we’re going to cutting close for any form we decide to go with.

 

So do we pay again that fee for an AoS, which we reversed last June 2020 due to a USCIS error (yup we got granted one instead of consular processing - we wanted to do the “right” way)...or do we just hope we’ll get an IL?

 

It’s scary to me to think going through this AoS will take less time than getting an IL when I was DQ’ed in Oct... 😓

[annierob 194]

On 5/21/2021 at 9:57 AM, aurmorr said:

 

 

So I won't show you the conspiracy theorist level connect-the-dots-with-red-tape sort of chaos I have here but, thus far in 2021, every holiday that has resulted in a shorter work week has correlated with the Montreal Consulate not scheduling anyone in our (CR-1/IR-1) for that entire week. This pattern also existed in 2020 when interviews started rescheduling and is mostly true on the 'Historical Data' in the spreadsheet. The one exception was the back-to-back short work weeks thanks to easter where they did a day on March 29 and then they didn't hold interviews again until April 7, just over a week off in total instead of two full work weeks. But still, a week. So I think my theory holds tight given this longstanding history.

 

With this in mind, I would expect the following:

Week of May 24 (Victoria Day) - no scheduled interviews

Week of May 31 (Patriots Day) - no scheduled interviews

Week of June 21 (St. Jean Baptiste Day) - no scheduled interviews

Week of June 28 (Canada Day) - no scheduled interviews

 

Week of July 5 (Independance Day) - unsure due to the holiday falling on a Sunday, but if it were a Canadian holiday they would get the Monday off. The internet seems to be calling the 5th the national holiday, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were closed on the Monday and we didn't see any interviews this week

Week of August 2 (Civic Holiday) - I'm pretty sure this isn't a national holiday on either end, but for some reason everything is closed the first monday in August as a bank holiday. Unsure if this will affect the consulate but again, not surprised if it does happen

 

That means, in the 14 weeks between now and the end of August the consulate will likely only be scheduling 8-10/14 weeks. This doesn't take into consideration any adjustments to staffing that need to be taken into consideration as people take their summer vacations or the fact that we don't see any IR-1 or CR-1 scheduled for June. If this stays true, we are looking at the consulate only doing interviews in our category roughly 6/14 weeks between now and summer.

 

I think we are in for a VERY bumpy ride and i'm really trying to mentally prepare myself but even writing this out made me feel sick. 

I don’t know why I didn’t click when I first read this, and not sure how much this response does, but fête des patriotes is always on Victoria Day, so it’s this weekend and there is no Civic Holiday in Quebec on Aug 2 (unlike the rest of Canada) I’m born and raised in Montreal, so at least I can confirm that.

Edited May 22, 2021 by annierob

[Minnesota 30]

I will be needing a medical soon and am wondering what folks have done about the chicken pox vaccine? I have had chicken pox but will they take a verbal on It? If this has answered elsewhere please tell me where!

Edited May 22, 2021 by Minnesota

[pooj97 89]

I'm a K1 but I've been following both CR1/IR1 and K1 cases. The same thing happened to us from Dec 2020-Feb 2021 where they did not schedule any K1 interviews. I don't know why they keep pausing one or the other. They should do both simultaneously but maybe limited in each so they get through both backlogs. It's not fair to either category with what they're currently doing because it looks like they're just taking turns. Another thing is that in both May and now June there were only 2 dates scheduled for K1's, which is insane! They had at least 15 other business days to schedule either K1 or spousal interviews and they didn't..

 

I also wish the consulate would be more transparent with their procedure and let us know exactly what's going on. When there are holidays like the previous commentator said, do they not do interviews for the whole rest of the week? Are they taking turns for some reason with K1 and CR1? Transparency would give a lot of us some relief.

[Hawk Riders 814]

24 minutes ago, Minnesota said:

If this has answered elsewhere please tell me where!

it has been, yes: in the previous discussion thread. 

[HAB 23]

42 minutes ago, Minnesota said:

I will be needing a medical soon and am wondering what folks have done about the chicken pox vaccine? I have had chicken pox but will they take a verbal on It? If this has answered elsewhere please tell me where!

You have to do a blood test for the titers, and if you have immunity, you don't need a vaccine. this is the same for MMR, Varicella. 

[Minnesota 30]

11 minutes ago, HAB said:

You have to do a blood test for the titers, and if you have immunity, you don't need a vaccine. this is the same for MMR, Varicella. 

I have my medical record for the mmr and tdap. It’s just the chicken pox I had it when I was younger but no record; I want to make sure no stone is unturned! Thank you

[Kai G. Llewellyn 837]

1 minute ago, Minnesota said:

I have my medical record for the mmr and tdap. It’s just the chicken pox I had it when I was younger but no record; I want to make sure no stone is unturned! Thank you

A verbal declaration of having chicken pox is acceptable proof for the Medical Exam.

[Minnesota 30]

32 minutes ago, Hawk Riders said:

it has been, yes: in the previous discussion thread. 

Thank you and I checked the previous thread as well as checking health first medical site and they will take a verbal on chicken pox. 

[JacobP 185]

7 hours ago, HD_BIRDS said:

I agree fully with @Kai (CanadaDude). But look into AOS timelines. Since I am already in the US working, I have considered changing many times to AOS since my I-130 was approved. However, the timelines to receive an advance parole for travel outside the US and a work visa are also backlogged. The travel parole and work visa used to take 3 - 4 months to receive. For some service centers, it is currently 8 months. The I-485 is also long, with some service centers indicating up to 17 months. My lawyer indicated it would be much quicker to stay the current course. Granted, I thought I would have an IL by now. If you don't need to travel or work outside the US for 6 - 8 months, and are aware the process will likely add significant time to your application if you are already DQ'd, then it could be an option for you.

Can confirm, doing AOS after K1 and we haven't even had the biometrics appointmentment needed to receive the EAD after 4 months, that step used to take ~1 month, and the 485 is slated to be finished maybe next April if things don't go even more off course.

[Riversong 420]

1 hour ago, pooj97 said:

I'm a K1 but I've been following both CR1/IR1 and K1 cases. The same thing happened to us from Dec 2020-Feb 2021 where they did not schedule any K1 interviews. I don't know why they keep pausing one or the other. They should do both simultaneously but maybe limited in each so they get through both backlogs. It's not fair to either category with what they're currently doing because it looks like they're just taking turns. Another thing is that in both May and now June there were only 2 dates scheduled for K1's, which is insane! They had at least 15 other business days to schedule either K1 or spousal interviews and they didn't..

 

I also wish the consulate would be more transparent with their procedure and let us know exactly what's going on. When there are holidays like the previous commentator said, do they not do interviews for the whole rest of the week? Are they taking turns for some reason with K1 and CR1? Transparency would give a lot of us some relief.

Going by the visas issued statistics they have been scheduling K1s each month since August, a few months are less than 10, but still, they never stopped. This may be the case with the IR1/CR1s this month, but from what someone has said in here, after speaking with NVC,  it sounds like they are not scheduling any IR1/CR1s for June. If the Consulate would communicate and deny or confirm this, that would be great. We all know that will never happen, so we are going off of what was said by NVC

[Slytherin 1]

Hi everyone, so my spouse came to visit me for 5 months in 2020, left early 2021, while we await our interview. I was wondering if it was possible for them to fly out here again to spend some time with me while we await our IL? Or is that not allowed since it hits close to the 6 month mark for visit limits? 

 

Also, can they skip the hotel quarantine  if they drive through the borders?

[Shumai84 157]

1 hour ago, pooj97 said:

I'm a K1 but I've been following both CR1/IR1 and K1 cases. The same thing happened to us from Dec 2020-Feb 2021 where they did not schedule any K1 interviews. I don't know why they keep pausing one or the other. They should do both simultaneously but maybe limited in each so they get through both backlogs. It's not fair to either category with what they're currently doing because it looks like they're just taking turns. Another thing is that in both May and now June there were only 2 dates scheduled for K1's, which is insane! They had at least 15 other business days to schedule either K1 or spousal interviews and they didn't..

 

I also wish the consulate would be more transparent with their procedure and let us know exactly what's going on. When there are holidays like the previous commentator said, do they not do interviews for the whole rest of the week? Are they taking turns for some reason with K1 and CR1? Transparency would give a lot of us some relief.

If they are interviewing only K1 for just 4 business days in June and July, I have to wonder where the rest of their resource is really spent. 

There are 40+ business days in June and July, and they are only processing immigrant visas and they are prioritizing on our categories... yet they only spend 4 days? Come on... they have to book the rest of the days for SOMETHING!

 

K1 being skipped for Dec 2020-Feb 2021 was unfortunate, but at least it was clear they were spending their resource in processing more CR1/IR1 instead. This time, they don't seem to be booking many interviews for K1 either. 

[MadKittyCat 63]

6 minutes ago, Slytherin said:

Hi everyone, so my spouse came to visit me for 5 months in 2020, left early 2021, while we await our interview. I was wondering if it was possible for them to fly out here again to spend some time with me while we await our IL? Or is that not allowed since it hits close to the 6 month mark for visit limits? 

 

Also, can they skip the hotel quarantine  if they drive through the borders?

I can’t answer the first part but yes they can skip the hotel quarantine if they drive. My husband drove here in April, but he needed a negative test upon entry, then they made him take another test. Then he quarantined with us and was free once he took another test on day 10 and got a negative result. This was in Alberta.

[aurmorr 270]

1 hour ago, annierob said:

I don’t know why I didn’t click when I first read this, and not sure how much this response does, but fête des patriotes is always on Victoria Day, so it’s this weekend and there is no Civic Holiday in Quebec on Aug 2 (unlike the rest of Canada) I’m born and raised in Montreal, so at least I can confirm that.

Sorry that was my mistake- I thought patriots day/memorial day were the same thing. They are not. Patriots Day is QC and Memorial Day (US) are different, and normally Memorial Day falls on the Victoria/Patriots Day weekend, but it's on the 31st.