The dreaded DS-5535 thread for Montreal. Post here and support each other (PART 2)

[Superluminal 119]

5 minutes ago, ak47 said:

Which month was your interview ?

April

[Darkknight574 1]

22 minutes ago, Superluminal said:

This is sadly not true. I filed a WoM at 3 months like many others in the past, and it got a motion to dismiss. In the dismissal motion, it said that waiting up to 3 years would not be considered an unreasonable time to wait. There have been cases this summer where a judge threw out a WoM case since the plaintiff had ONLY waited 16 or 17 months.

 

We have to take into consideration that the WoM cases have been growing at a rapid rate in the last couple of years. Several months back I had looked on PACER and found that WoM cases for AP were being filed at a rate of 2 - 4 per month in 2020 and 2021 and in early 2023 they were being filed at a rate of 30 - 50 per month. I imagine the State department is sick of these and will fight tooth and nail to stop the WoM lawsuits from being the cultural norm. The traditional wisdom for the WoM being effective was that a filing a WoM would give the state department the option to either (i) fight your WoM, or (ii) just process your case. Since fighting the WoM would be harder, they would just accelerate your case and be done with you. However now, likely because to the large number of filings happening, they are actually investing the effort in fighting the WoMs.

 

One final note on the WoM, is that none of us actually expected it to get to the point where a judge will issue a WoM. The costs for preparing the lawsuit only covers the filing, not actually fighting the case and hoping a judge will rule in our favour. This is why the motions to dismiss sting. You then have to pay your lawyer to respond, and each time there is a roadblock, it costs $$$$$.

 

All that being said, filing a WoM is totally up to you and you may have different luck given you waited a bit longer to file.

@Superluminal who was your lawyer? My interview was in July and I had a chat with Goldstein team recently. They strong recommended me to file a WoM as in their opinion my chance of success is close to 100%. Obviously they have financial motivation and I can’t accept it in face value. So wanted to see how genuine they are in offering these recommendations? Tnx 

[Superluminal 119]

1 minute ago, Darkknight574 said:

@Superluminal who was your lawyer? My interview was in July and I had a chat with Goldstein team recently. They strong recommended me to file a WoM as in their opinion my chance of success is close to 100%. Obviously they have financial motivation and I can’t accept it in face value. So wanted to see how genuine they are in offering these recommendations? Tnx 

I used PIC, and they had many recommendations from folks on this forum in the past. I was asked directly their success rate and was given a figure greater than 95%. 

 

If I were filing a WoM today, I would be asking directly to any lawyer about the recent actions by the state department to file dismissal motions on WoMs lawsuits. I would really question their ability to deliver if they don't have a concrete answer to that and how that wouldn't impact my case.

[throwitaway 189]

1 hour ago, Superluminal said:

This is sadly not true. I filed a WoM at 3 months like many others in the past, and it got a motion to dismiss. In the dismissal motion, it said that waiting up to 3 years would not be considered an unreasonable time to wait. There have been cases this summer where a judge threw out a WoM case since the plaintiff had ONLY waited 16 or 17 months.

 

We have to take into consideration that the WoM cases have been growing at a rapid rate in the last couple of years. Several months back I had looked on PACER and found that WoM cases for AP were being filed at a rate of 2 - 4 per month in 2020 and 2021 and in early 2023 they were being filed at a rate of 30 - 50 per month. I imagine the State department is sick of these and will fight tooth and nail to stop the WoM lawsuits from being the cultural norm. The traditional wisdom for the WoM being effective was that a filing a WoM would give the state department the option to either (i) fight your WoM, or (ii) just process your case. Since fighting the WoM would be harder, they would just accelerate your case and be done with you. However now, likely because to the large number of filings happening, they are actually investing the effort in fighting the WoMs.

 

One final note on the WoM, is that none of us actually expected it to get to the point where a judge will issue a WoM. The costs for preparing the lawsuit only covers the filing, not actually fighting the case and hoping a judge will rule in our favour. This is why the motions to dismiss sting. You then have to pay your lawyer to respond, and each time there is a roadblock, it costs $$$$$.

 

All that being said, filing a WoM is totally up to you and you may have different luck given you waited a bit longer to file.

You withdrew?

[Ontarkie 14,115]

~~Two posts have been removed. Please remember this thread is geared to Montreal only. If you would like to make a more general spreadsheet please go to the Waivers and 221G forum as there are already threads there about the DS5535.~~

[Superluminal 119]

1 hour ago, throwitaway said:

You withdrew?

We did

[northface 30]

4 hours ago, throwitaway said:

They do this all the time, when DS-5535 was introduced they did it as well, it’s a part of how they make changes in the budget.

For positive side, looks like they are aware of delays of DS -5535, asking more budget to clear those rather than dealing with WoMs, so after November 21,2023, if nobody against it ,the budget  be approved, the Ds-5535 process should be resume quickly.🤔

[shara9c 0]

Hello Folks: 

I have a quick Question, Please advise.

I attended EB2 Interview at Montreal consulate with my wife and son in July 2023. Somehow consulate put my wife's case under administrative processing and issued visas to me and our Son. since July 2023 my wife's case is still under processing.

Recently my wife delivered another baby in Canada, What should be the way forward for the newborn while mother's visa is under administrative processing. (Keep in mind father & elder brother of the baby had Green Card status).

It's a tricky scenario but please advise the best way forward if anyone knows..?

Much Appreciated. 

[ak47 30]

2 hours ago, northface said:

For positive side, looks like they are aware of delays of DS -5535, asking more budget to clear those rather than dealing with WoMs, so after November 21,2023, if nobody against it ,the budget  be approved, the Ds-5535 process should be resume quickly.🤔

It may not happen in the next few months even if the budget is approved because the whole process of hiring after approval can take a long time.

 

Hope for the best.

[throwitaway 189]

6 hours ago, northface said:

For positive side, looks like they are aware of delays of DS -5535, asking more budget to clear those rather than dealing with WoMs, so after November 21,2023, if nobody against it ,the budget  be approved, the Ds-5535 process should be resume quickly.🤔

I mean, I’d love if they just got rid of it.

6 hours ago, Superluminal said:

We did

Sigh. That sucks. I’m sorry. 

[Inveigh 69]

On 11/16/2023 at 8:31 AM, Ahmad0606 said:

Here’s the link for the 2021/2022 sheet.
 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1L8T4Yp7oWm0imRrEOEES_28QicBY1DsKKvMmEGMVPd4/htmlview?pli=1#gid=0

Am I tripping ? Or does that there are people in AP / DS 5535  waiting 700 days?! 

[Leo The Great 131]

16 minutes ago, Inveigh said:

Am I tripping ? Or does that there are people in AP / DS 5535  waiting 700 days?! 

This old sheet is not updated. Some people are already cleared from AP like ice-qube (via WOM after 13 months), BatmanFlow etc.

Edited November 18, 2023 by Leo The Great

[Irish89 44]

18 minutes ago, Inveigh said:

Am I tripping ? Or does that there are people in AP / DS 5535  waiting 700 days?! 

It sure does. Although not everyone has updated there status on this spreadsheet for sure. Rosinasaur and Ice-qube have both been approved and their timelines are on another spreadsheet on Page 142 of this topic. It would be nice if people updated their status for us on here.

[EternalWait 77]

Hey Everyone,

I wanted to bring your attention to the following 

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DOS-2023-0028-0001

The government posts its regulations for comments and feedbacks from the public and stakeholders. This time , they are asking about DS-5535, and the deadline to submit comments is Nov 21 , i.e. in three days!!

Go to the website above and click on comment as shown below. Try to express your opinion involving your unique experience and argue that this process has less pros than cons.

You can post your comment anonymously or share your first and last name , which would be of course better to make the comment look more from an actual person. Note you do not need to be living in the US to submit your comment.

To be clear, this is probably not gonna be effective in the end, but it's the least that people waiting behind AP can do.

Best of luck.

 

Edited November 19, 2023 by immishok

[northface 30]

13 hours ago, immishok said:

Hey Everyone,

I wanted to bring your attention to the following 

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DOS-2023-0028-0001

The government posts its regulations for comments and feedbacks from the public and stakeholders. This time , they are asking about DS-5535, and the deadline to submit comments is Nov 21 , i.e. in three days!!

Go to the website above and click on comment as shown below. Try to express your opinion involving your unique experience and argue that this process has less pros than cons.

You can post your comment anonymously or share your first and last name , which would be of course better to make the comment look more from an actual person. Note you do not need to be living in the US to submit your comment.

To be clear, this is probably not gonna be effective in the end, but it's the least that people waiting behind AP can do.

Best of luck.

 

     Totally agree 👍, the DS-5535 & AP gave us lots frustration, trip interruption, long waiting, extra cost etc. The intensive process should be left to USCIS,CBP,FBI due to the consulate limited resources.

      For instance, 15-year travel history check, there is a huge work to get data from different countries such India,  China ,MDEN etc, need to group a batch of cases to send out monthly or quarterly somehow. My guess that is not real time on call one by one at least 

    They should get rid of DS-5535 process, instead let the immigration visa applicants submit finger print to FBI or DOS to clear first as internal USCIS does. That should be not an issue since we have visa waiver to US or lived in US.