The dreaded DS-5535 thread for Montreal. Post here and support each other (split)

[Hamlet 122]

9 minutes ago, Danii said:

I'm so sorry   Someone definitely made an error while handling your case. After hearing another users story about how Montreal delayed their visa because their fingerprints didn't save properly, I'm convinced that Montreal needs to re-train a lot of their officers. This sort of negligence is so wrong. 

Thanks

 

i wonder if my wife gets a hold of her congressman it will help. My case is most likely in DOS’s hands undergoing AP at this time. I honestly don’t even know where it could be now. 
 

I had a bad dream a earlier this week where I opened the package and flipped through my passport to find DENIED stamped inside with red ink.

[DS5535 135]

5 minutes ago, Hamlet said:

Thanks

 

i wonder if my wife gets a hold of her congressman it will help. My case is most likely in DOS’s hands undergoing AP at this time. I honestly don’t even know where it could be now. 
 

I had a bad dream a earlier this week where I opened the package and flipped through my passport to find DENIED stamped inside with red ink.

 

If you have a dream about me can you let me know?

[Randomwalk 20]

On 10/25/2021 at 3:42 PM, Ontarkie said:

Just grasping at straws here,  but here are the few things that place ppl in AP longer then others. 

 

Not  Canadian born or first generation Canadian

Education (physics is one) but they do usually ask for transcripts and resume.

Name matches someone else ( if this is the case you don't want them to rush it) 

New IO and needs supervisor review (can take longer if there is a stack on the desk)

and RFE's they can slow things down significantly 

And from your comment possible random AP's to check boxes  

 

Good luck and hopefully it's over soon

 

 

What is RFE’s? Please 

[Ontarkie 14,192]

7 minutes ago, Randomwalk said:

What is RFE’s? Please 

When they ask for more evidence. 

[Rosinasaur 58]

My case updated date on the CEAC website just got updated today. It still says "Refused" like it did before, but it says today's date. It said November 1st for a month and half. My interview was on October 4th and I submitted my DS 5535 on October 10th... It's not much, but it's progress.

 

[Sharma Ali 36]

Hello everyone, 

I hope you’re all doing good and managing well this dreaded 5535 black hole. It’s really been draining me so bad and have had constant nightmares about it. They sent me this email today and we’re trying to contact our congress representative and see what she can do. Had the interview on December 6th. 

[Krisara 29]

Hi Everyone,  I just joined as I too, was denied my visa after my interview this past Monday (Dec 12) in Montreal.  We are devastated as we have been waiting since filing in March 2020.  Here is a little backstory:  My partner (the US petitioner) and I lived together here in Toronto since 2013, together since 2011 and have a child together.  Never got married because we never wanted to and are considered common law in Canada. 

2 years ago we decided we wanted to move to the US for a change of pace, so applied the K-1 route.  We did get a RFE, which was also shocking since we more than proved we lived together, take vacations together, had a child together and have joint finances.  Anyhow, finally made it to interview stage and denied.  I am a white Canadian born female, aged 46 and with Canadian born parents, attended University in the US.   I would say I am an avid traveller so that could have potentially been it??  They had my medical and my police check.

I had a CO who has only been in Montreal for 3 months.  It was a woman and I didn't get her name but she is from South Carolina.  We had great banter and I thought all was going very well until she presented me with the 221(g) and gave me back my passport.  I asked if there was something missing - she said "No, everything is here".  I then asked if I didn't answer her correctly or to satisfaction, and she said "No, you answered everything perfectly", I then said, so why am I not getting approval?  She stammered and started to say "a certain number of cases have this happen", too which I said, "so this is random"?  She said, "well...no, I can't answer that."  She then tried to reassure me that the process for the 5535 is not that long and that I should hear something soon and as long as I answer quickly and completely, it should be ok.  Clearly she has no clue that this process is the most inefficient process known to humankind.  

 

FIRST,  why not just require all the information in the 5535 to be included in the DS160 for EVERYONE, so that this doesn't need to happen.  What a waste of time this is for not only the applicants, but also for the consulates.

SECOND, they should have to tell you why you are being issued the 221(g) to spare all of us this agony.  

THIRD, if this is in fact a CO training exercise, as some have suggested that is just all kinds of wrong.  

 

And just to let everyone know that there is a member of a Facebook group I am in who also got the 221g and he received his visa on the 55th day. This was just recently. 

I am thankful to have found this group, and will be intently following the updates.  I hope everyone who has posted so far comes back to update when they are eventually approved!  Good luck to everyone and thank you for letting me vent.  This has been a long arduous journey.

  

[DS5535 135]

59 minutes ago, Krisara said:

Hi Everyone,  I just joined as I too, was denied my visa after my interview this past Monday (Dec 12) in Montreal.  We are devastated as we have been waiting since filing in March 2020.  Here is a little backstory:  My partner (the US petitioner) and I lived together here in Toronto since 2013, together since 2011 and have a child together.  Never got married because we never wanted to and are considered common law in Canada. 

2 years ago we decided we wanted to move to the US for a change of pace, so applied the K-1 route.  We did get a RFE, which was also shocking since we more than proved we lived together, take vacations together, had a child together and have joint finances.  Anyhow, finally made it to interview stage and denied.  I am a white Canadian born female, aged 46 and with Canadian born parents, attended University in the US.   I would say I am an avid traveller so that could have potentially been it??  They had my medical and my police check.

I had a CO who has only been in Montreal for 3 months.  It was a woman and I didn't get her name but she is from South Carolina.  We had great banter and I thought all was going very well until she presented me with the 221(g) and gave me back my passport.  I asked if there was something missing - she said "No, everything is here".  I then asked if I didn't answer her correctly or to satisfaction, and she said "No, you answered everything perfectly", I then said, so why am I not getting approval?  She stammered and started to say "a certain number of cases have this happen", too which I said, "so this is random"?  She said, "well...no, I can't answer that."  She then tried to reassure me that the process for the 5535 is not that long and that I should hear something soon and as long as I answer quickly and completely, it should be ok.  Clearly she has no clue that this process is the most inefficient process known to humankind.  

 

FIRST,  why not just require all the information in the 5535 to be included in the DS160 for EVERYONE, so that this doesn't need to happen.  What a waste of time this is for not only the applicants, but also for the consulates.

SECOND, they should have to tell you why you are being issued the 221(g) to spare all of us this agony.  

THIRD, if this is in fact a CO training exercise, as some have suggested that is just all kinds of wrong.  

 

And just to let everyone know that there is a member of a Facebook group I am in who also got the 221g and he received his visa on the 55th day. This was just recently. 

I am thankful to have found this group, and will be intently following the updates.  I hope everyone who has posted so far comes back to update when they are eventually approved!  Good luck to everyone and thank you for letting me vent.  This has been a long arduous journey.

  

There are alot of us on day 40. So if this luck befalls this group, we will have a number of us with positive news soon.

[Krisara 29]

I hope that is the case!

Here is the Montreal FB group if anyone would like to join:  (removed)

 

Edited December 19, 2021 by Ontarkie
removed FB link

[Rosinasaur 58]

2 hours ago, DS5535 said:

There are alot of us on day 40. So if this luck befalls this group, we will have a number of us with positive news soon.

I'm on day 68...  My case "last updated" date changed, but that's it. I seem to be at the head of the pack. I plan on sending a follow up email next week if nothing else changes. 

[ice-qube 648]

5 hours ago, Rosinasaur said:

I'm on day 68...  My case "last updated" date changed, but that's it. I seem to be at the head of the pack. I plan on sending a follow up email next week if nothing else changes. 

Yesterday was Day 50 for me (Friday Dec 17), and it was the first time since I submitted DS-5535 that I saw a change to "last updated". Don't know if that should spur optimism or not, but it was the first change since... 

 

What an absolute pain.

[ice-qube 648]

8 hours ago, Krisara said:

FIRST,  why not just require all the information in the 5535 to be included in the DS160 for EVERYONE, so that this doesn't need to happen.  What a waste of time this is for not only the applicants, but also for the consulates.

SECOND, they should have to tell you why you are being issued the 221(g) to spare all of us this agony.  

THIRD, if this is in fact a CO training exercise, as some have suggested that is just all kinds of wrong.  

I echo your points. However, just for two cents re. the third point, I am pretty skeptical that it is explained by a CO training exercise. I think the hypothesis *most convincing* from my point of view is that this is a form of bureaucratic sleight of hand, wherein they upped the number of interviews being held in order to start clearing out the queue some and hit performance targets, and then, in compensation, also widened the use of AP and DS-5535 so that they could do more thorough security checks. I can't recall who to credit with coming up with that hypothesis earlier on this thread, but it sounds most convincing--it sounds exactly how a bureaucratic manager might think about approaching a problem. 

[Federico 147]

2 hours ago, ice-qube said:

I echo your points. However, just for two cents re. the third point, I am pretty skeptical that it is explained by a CO training exercise. I think the hypothesis *most convincing* from my point of view is that this is a form of bureaucratic sleight of hand, wherein they upped the number of interviews being held in order to start clearing out the queue some and hit performance targets, and then, in compensation, also widened the use of AP and DS-5535 so that they could do more thorough security checks. I can't recall who to credit with coming up with that hypothesis earlier on this thread, but it sounds most convincing--it sounds exactly how a bureaucratic manager might think about approaching a problem. 

I don’t think it’s to reduce the queue I am almost sure that it’s an algorithm out of control because some cases the CO approved and the DS come after, in my case the interview was really smooth and the CO told me “you are required to summit this form trough mail and hand me a copy of the DS”  I am almost sure the CO wasn’t who decided that I need the form. What I think it’s that they have an algorithm that evaluate many things and decide who required or not, mostly of us here share some things in common like, STEM career, previously trips to the US, some have traveled to the Middle East or country that are not considered friendly towards the US, strong financial sponsor or high income. I think mostly of us have been previously in the US, I said an algorithm out of control because that should be a plus instead of something negative.

[Danii 312]

5 hours ago, ice-qube said:

Yesterday was Day 50 for me (Friday Dec 17), and it was the first time since I submitted DS-5535 that I saw a change to "last updated". Don't know if that should spur optimism or not, but it was the first change since... 

 

What an absolute pain.

It was the first time I saw a date change in a while too! Seems like quite a few of us got updates. They may be done with interviews for the month due to the holidays, hopefully our cases are being prioritized for now? 

[Federico 147]

53 minutes ago, Danii said:

It was the first time I saw a date change in a while too! Seems like quite a few of us got updates. They may be done with interviews for the month due to the holidays, hopefully our cases are being prioritized for now? 

Mine was updated this week too (dec 15) , maybe we get some good news next week.