IR1 - DS 260 supporting civil docs for Quebec expats - NVC made a mistake ! (?)

[randy1randerson 15]

I thought I'd share my experience for the Quebec-born visa seekers, as I found very little info on the matter -

 

I completed my NVC doc for IR1 visa on Sept 25th and got a reply at the end of December; my birth certificate and marriage certificate were rejected with the following somehwat imprecise message:

 

Please replace this with an acceptable marriage certificate from a correct issuing authority. Please use our Document Finder at https://nvc.state.gov/find for acceptable documents guidelines.

 

As per the link, Quebec folks need to submit a "Certified copy of an act" from the Directeur de l'État Civil, which is what I had provided. Because the NVC msg is so imprecise, there's no way to know what was the issue with the docs, or if it's a NVC mistake.

I called the NVC line and after two hours of hold, the gentleman said he could not see any issue with the docs, and that I needed to resubmit the exact same docs with a explanatory note.

 

The docs are then put at the back of the NVC queue, which means that they will not be reviewed for another 3 months.

 

I escalated to his superior and sent an email using "Ask NVC", but the response delays are about 6 weeks for both.

 

All that to say, if NVC makes an error on those QC docs - which seems to be the case here - applicants seem to have no recourse. Applicants just go back to the end of the line. Especially frustrating if there is indeed something wrong with the docs, which would mean I'd have to wait 3 months to get that feedback and another 3 months to correct, for a total of *drumroll* 9 months in the NVC queue.

 

Seems extremely unproductive for both NVC and applicants, but hey, wouldn't be the first odd process in all this madness.

[randy1randerson 15]

In the hopes that this ever helps someone in the same situation who'd be querying Visajourney -

 

NVC made a mistake in our case by rejecting civil documents.

 

We reuploaded the same documents to CEAC, and the processing was set back at the end of the queue. We added comments on CEAC that the documents submitted were exactly what was required by the State Department, and that they should have been accepted.

 

The very same documents that had been rejected at first were finally approved when our turn came, after an additional three months of waiting in our case.

 

So if you are in the same situation as we are, where NVC made a mistake, there's nothing you can do. You just have to resubmit the same documents and wait your turn. There doesn't seem to be anything else you can do, despite how frustrating it is.

 

A few notes:

 

1- The first phone contact we had said they would escalate our situation and that we'd get a call back. We never did. Perhaps that was a ruse to get rid of our call.

2 - We wrote in using the AskNVC tool. The reponse was that our documents would be reviewed "soon". Unhelpful as well.

3 - Our congressman's office said they'd enquire on our behalf and let us know what was wrong with the docs, and to plan 4-6 weeks to get a reply. We never got such a reply.