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

[ashleyt93 5]

Just now, ice-qube said:

Ha, yes I did. They gave me the same form email everyone has gotten. Non-informative bureaucratese.

Dang, so on average, people on here have been waiting for over 2 months with no response?

[ice-qube 648]

1 minute ago, ashleyt93 said:

Did you email them since it's out of processing time? I'm sure you did, but curious what their answer was. 

Like, stuff takes time, we feel your pain, blah blah blah, non-answer answer, you get me?

[ashleyt93 5]

1 minute ago, ice-qube said:

Like, stuff takes time, we feel your pain, blah blah blah, non-answer answer, you get me?

Do you happen to know why you were given a 221g? Not sure if that helps in this situation

[ice-qube 648]

Just now, ashleyt93 said:

Dang, so on average, people on here have been waiting for over 2 months with no response?

Yes I think there are some waiting over 3 months with no response. Only a handful of people in this forum have been approved. Not that this is comprehensive representation, but in this sample of this thread on this forum.

[ice-qube 648]

Just now, ashleyt93 said:

Do you happen to know why you were given a 221g? Not sure if that helps in this situation

Well, a DS-5535 is the form that the State Dept. uses for "extreme vetting" of people for security risks. Yes, this is the form they contrived under Trump admin as a way of doing this said extreme vetting, and now it appears with the new guy in charge they are using it even more than they used to.

[ice-qube 648]

2 minutes ago, ashleyt93 said:

Do you happen to know why you were given a 221g? Not sure if that helps in this situation

The reason? I have no idea of the actual reason *why* that I was put in this process, as I have no criminal record or arrests, was born in Canada, and have been married to my wife for near to 8 years. I have none of the usual red flags. But, it happened to me.

[DrJanko10 101]

29 minutes ago, ashleyt93 said:

Hey everyone,

 

I'm unfortunately in the same situation as all of you except this just happened to me and my fiancé today as he was handed a 221g after his interview. It's extremely disheartening to find out that after all of this time waiting that they still need additional information. Just for a little background, we applied for the K-1 visa and initially applied in July 2020. We've been together for 10 years (we met in college in 2011) and have been in a long distance relationship since we graduated in 2015. The only reason why I think he received a 221g is that he was refused once at the border back in December 2020 due to the border patrol agent saying that he didn't have enough strong ties back to Canada. Because we were nervous that this would interfere with our visa, he didn't attempt to cross the border since. 

 

The interview went well and at the end, when he was handed the 221g, they also gave him a paper with instructions on how to send his passport back once the visa is approved and to expect to receive questions via email in 2-3 days. I'm aware that we have to fill out the DS-5535 form and send it back, but I was just wondering how long all of you have been waiting? I haven't seen my fiancé since September and am unable to visit him due to my current job, so we're just really discouraged about this whole situation. I'd love to hear about your experience with this. We also have booked a wedding venue for the end of October, and am really hoping he'd be able to have his visa approved by then so we can still have our wedding. We booked it out far in advance as we figured the process would be long, but we didn't think it would take this long. 

I'm sorry to hear about that Ashley. You've come to the right place for support. 

 

Here is a spreadsheet that will give you an idea of how long we've all been waiting:

 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L8T4Yp7oWm0imRrEOEES_28QicBY1DsKKvMmEGMVPd4/edit#gid=0

 

Sadly it's just a waiting game now. I'm nearing 3 months since my interview and I've only received generic replies to my emails. All you can do is keep emailing them once a month to remind them that you still exist, and if you're still waiting after 60 days (like most of us are), then enlisting the help of your local congressperson or senator is a good next step. Lastly, there is something called the Writ of Mandamus, which is a lawsuit against the state department/consulate. It forces them to resolve your case within 60 days, if everything goes well when filling. But that's your last option. It is costly and doesn't guarantee a positive outcome, and you shouldn't consider it until at least 6 months post interview, unless you have a really good reason to file sooner. If it gets to that point though, I would recommend hiring a lawyer for that.

Fingers crossed it doesn't come to that!

 

[Frankphoto 51]

1 hour ago, ashleyt93 said:

Do you happen to know why you were given a 221g? Not sure if that helps in this situation

best if you start from scratch and read through all 40 pages of this forum; it is very informative and will help paint the picture best for you and answer all questions (well as much as can be answered, many of us are just as much in the dark about it). Bottomline, submit the DS5535 asap- do not hesitate. 

[From_CAN_2_US 1,106]

1 hour ago, ashleyt93 said:

Hey everyone,

 

I'm unfortunately in the same situation as all of you except this just happened to me and my fiancé today as he was handed a 221g after his interview. It's extremely disheartening to find out that after all of this time waiting that they still need additional information. Just for a little background, we applied for the K-1 visa and initially applied in July 2020. We've been together for 10 years (we met in college in 2011) and have been in a long distance relationship since we graduated in 2015. The only reason why I think he received a 221g is that he was refused once at the border back in December 2020 due to the border patrol agent saying that he didn't have enough strong ties back to Canada. Because we were nervous that this would interfere with our visa, he didn't attempt to cross the border since. 

 

The interview went well and at the end, when he was handed the 221g, they also gave him a paper with instructions on how to send his passport back once the visa is approved and to expect to receive questions via email in 2-3 days. I'm aware that we have to fill out the DS-5535 form and send it back, but I was just wondering how long all of you have been waiting? I haven't seen my fiancé since September and am unable to visit him due to my current job, so we're just really discouraged about this whole situation. I'd love to hear about your experience with this. We also have booked a wedding venue for the end of October, and am really hoping he'd be able to have his visa approved by then so we can still have our wedding. We booked it out far in advance as we figured the process would be long, but we didn't think it would take this long. 

So sorry to hear. It really is heartbreaking to read these stories.

 

If you have gone through this thread, you would know, we are all puzzled by why MTL has been issuing these DS-5535, seemingly almost at random. The refusal at the border does lead to a 221G, but not supplementary questions. It looks like the DS-5535 was triggered due to other reasons. My own personal belief is that it is due to match of personal particulars with their database of people suspected of crime and terrorism.

 

As for time for approval, no one knows how long it will take and it really is different for each person. That being said, I would be really surprised if your fiance did not have his visa in time for the planned wedding. I really do believe that since MTL has cleared their backlog with tier 2 cases, they will be focusing on resolving the pending cases from the months prior.

[ashleyt93 5]

3 hours ago, From_CAN_2_US said:

So sorry to hear. It really is heartbreaking to read these stories.

 

If you have gone through this thread, you would know, we are all puzzled by why MTL has been issuing these DS-5535, seemingly almost at random. The refusal at the border does lead to a 221G, but not supplementary questions. It looks like the DS-5535 was triggered due to other reasons. My own personal belief is that it is due to match of personal particulars with their database of people suspected of crime and terrorism.

 

As for time for approval, no one knows how long it will take and it really is different for each person. That being said, I would be really surprised if your fiance did not have his visa in time for the planned wedding. I really do believe that since MTL has cleared their backlog with tier 2 cases, they will be focusing on resolving the pending cases from the months prior.

Hmm, so is there a chance they won’t have us fill out the DS-5335? I just assumed it was because she said he’d get an email in 2-3 days with questions. 
 

Ok, thank you that’s reassuring. Just worries it’ll take like 6-8 months or something like with everything else. I really hope that’s not the case. Does it seem like things are kind of picking up? 

[ashleyt93 5]

7 hours ago, From_CAN_2_US said:

So sorry to hear. It really is heartbreaking to read these stories.

 

If you have gone through this thread, you would know, we are all puzzled by why MTL has been issuing these DS-5535, seemingly almost at random. The refusal at the border does lead to a 221G, but not supplementary questions. It looks like the DS-5535 was triggered due to other reasons. My own personal belief is that it is due to match of personal particulars with their database of people suspected of crime and terrorism.

 

As for time for approval, no one knows how long it will take and it really is different for each person. That being said, I would be really surprised if your fiance did not have his visa in time for the planned wedding. I really do believe that since MTL has cleared their backlog with tier 2 cases, they will be focusing on resolving the pending cases from the months prior.

Also was just thinking about what could’ve flagged my fiancé for a DS-5535, he had a Europe (Germany, UK, Czech Republic) trip with a couple of our friends from college and he only went for a total of 10 days. Do you think they could just want additional information on his travels there? He hasn’t gone to any other country besides visiting me in the US and he spent 4 years at university in the US with me. As far as his employment history, he is a programmer but hasn’t been employed since the beginning of the pandemic but did work for GardaWorld which is a security firm, but it’s a Canadian security firm so I can’t imagine that would be an issue from the US perspective because there are definitely GardaWorld locations in the US. Just trying to think of what could’ve possibly flagged him. 

[Frankphoto 51]

6 hours ago, ashleyt93 said:

Also was just thinking about what could’ve flagged my fiancé for a DS-5535, he had a Europe (Germany, UK, Czech Republic) trip with a couple of our friends from college and he only went for a total of 10 days. Do you think they could just want additional information on his travels there? He hasn’t gone to any other country besides visiting me in the US and he spent 4 years at university in the US with me. As far as his employment history, he is a programmer but hasn’t been employed since the beginning of the pandemic but did work for GardaWorld which is a security firm, but it’s a Canadian security firm so I can’t imagine that would be an issue from the US perspective because there are definitely GardaWorld locations in the US. Just trying to think of what could’ve possibly flagged him. 

You can read through all of our various theories, but they are just theories. We don't really know what triggers DS5535.

[ice-qube 648]

6 hours ago, ashleyt93 said:

Also was just thinking about what could’ve flagged my fiancé for a DS-5535, he had a Europe (Germany, UK, Czech Republic) trip with a couple of our friends from college and he only went for a total of 10 days. Do you think they could just want additional information on his travels there? He hasn’t gone to any other country besides visiting me in the US and he spent 4 years at university in the US with me. As far as his employment history, he is a programmer but hasn’t been employed since the beginning of the pandemic but did work for GardaWorld which is a security firm, but it’s a Canadian security firm so I can’t imagine that would be an issue from the US perspective because there are definitely GardaWorld locations in the US. Just trying to think of what could’ve possibly flagged him. 

Well, anything is possible. I had one two week trip to Ireland and UK. I don't see how it should be a flag, but none of us know really. Unless he has a criminal record or arrests or connections to problematic countries, it is very difficult to guess.

[From_CAN_2_US 1,106]

11 hours ago, ashleyt93 said:

Hmm, so is there a chance they won’t have us fill out the DS-5335? I just assumed it was because she said he’d get an email in 2-3 days with questions. 
 

Ok, thank you that’s reassuring. Just worries it’ll take like 6-8 months or something like with everything else. I really hope that’s not the case. Does it seem like things are kind of picking up? 

I’m afraid if they have said they will be sending supplementary questions by email, that is almost certainly a DS-5535.

 

What I meant was that the refusal at border did not lead to DS-5535, as that is not usually the reason they are issued.

 

The 221G was issued for two reasons:

1. Refusal at border

2. DS-5535 (extreme vetting)

 

1 and 2 are separate issues. 1 is relatively easy to sort out. Some even get approved within a few hours (although for others it has taken up to 1.5 months). 2 is the one for which which could take anywhere from 2 weeks to 4 years to clear.

 

Now, general literature online (from law firm websites etc) say most cases are resolved within 6 months. Also for people with no links to any countries besides Canada and US, it is said to take less than 60 days (although some in that situation here are approaching 80 day mark now, but that could be due to the holidays). The ones for whom it takes multiple years, from what I have noticed, do not hail from Canada. 
 

Things are uncertain for sure, but if I were you, I would be optimistic about your case getting approved within 2-6 months.

 

Read this thread for more information about how you can get your state senator/ congressman involved to help push your case along.

 

About whether things are picking up, I don’t have concrete evidence of it yet, but it is a hunch, based on the fact that the backlog is cleared for tier 2.

Edited January 7, 2022 by From_CAN_2_US

[From_CAN_2_US 1,106]

6 hours ago, ashleyt93 said:

Also was just thinking about what could’ve flagged my fiancé for a DS-5535, he had a Europe (Germany, UK, Czech Republic) trip with a couple of our friends from college and he only went for a total of 10 days. Do you think they could just want additional information on his travels there? He hasn’t gone to any other country besides visiting me in the US and he spent 4 years at university in the US with me. As far as his employment history, he is a programmer but hasn’t been employed since the beginning of the pandemic but did work for GardaWorld which is a security firm, but it’s a Canadian security firm so I can’t imagine that would be an issue from the US perspective because there are definitely GardaWorld locations in the US. Just trying to think of what could’ve possibly flagged him. 

I think his links to the security firm is more likely to have triggered the DS-5535 than the trip to Europe.