Montreal embassy EB-2 interview wait time-Part 2

[monk_yatso 15]

1 hour ago, AnnaSalu said:

There is someone in the tracker sheet by the ID "longtimelurker". I don't seem to be able to tag them here, but looks like they would have had their interview yesterday (Oct 21st). Would you be able to please share your experience and outcome if you see this?

Longtimeluker’s PD typed as 23-March-2023 in that case his/her eb2 PD isn’t current yet 😱

1 hour ago, AnnaSalu said:

There is someone in the tracker sheet by the ID "longtimelurker". I don't seem to be able to tag them here, but looks like they would have had their interview yesterday (Oct 21st). Would you be able to please share your experience and outcome if you see this?

Longtimeluker’s PD typed as 23-March-2023 in that case his/her eb2 PD isn’t current yet 😱

[AnnaSalu 19]

54 minutes ago, monk_yatso said:

Longtimeluker’s PD typed as 23-March-2023 in that case his/her eb2 PD isn’t current yet 😱

Longtimeluker’s PD typed as 23-March-2023 in that case his/her eb2 PD isn’t current yet 😱

 

so how does he / she have an interview scheduled?

[monk_yatso 15]

6 minutes ago, AnnaSalu said:

 

so how does he / she have an interview scheduled?

No idea

[appleblossom 2,471]

3 hours ago, AnnaSalu said:

There is someone in the tracker sheet by the ID "longtimelurker". I don't seem to be able to tag them here, but looks like they would have had their interview yesterday (Oct 21st). Would you be able to please share your experience and outcome if you see this?

 

@longtimelurker There you go. 😊

[Froozion 168]

Hello! Yes we crossed the border on Friday. The visa stamp is in your passport and this is valid to cross the border for up to a year or until you get your green card. You can cross with your passport and stamp as many times as you want. 

 

The border guards just asked what we do for work and where we were going. Nothing much else. 

 

We are still awaiting our ssn's, we tried going to a ssa today to get a copy of the number to start with drivers licenses and bank accounts but they are still not issued. We will try again later this week! 

 

Anyone that has crossed the border recently. How long did the ssn take? 

[longtimelurker 4]

1 hour ago, AnnaSalu said:

There is someone in the tracker sheet by the ID "longtimelurker". I don't seem to be able to tag them here, but looks like they would have had their interview yesterday (Oct 21st). Would you be able to please share your experience and outcome if you see this?

Hi there, you wouldn't have been able to tag me because I've only been lurking this forum for months/a year but have never actually had an account. Regardless, I've tried to do my part by updating the tracker. I was going to wait until I had further updates before doubling back and providing one big update but will provide all the details I can while they're still fresh. 

I arrived in Montreal the day before my appointment (Oct 20th) and stayed at a hotel about two blocks/a 5 minute walk from the consulate. The day before I made sure to stroll by the area just to familiarize myself with it. The consulate is right next to the Shoppers Drug Mart and across from the Michael Kors. My appointment was for 7:45am and I arrived for 7:30am and there was already a lineup outside that included 2 families and another person. They ask you for your passport and cross reference it with a list of appointments they have for the day. I didn't bring my phone, only an accordion folder with my documents in it. I did notice they were fairly lax with the bag restriction as the woman in front of me had a medium sized tote bag and brought it in. 

Once you enter, they ask for your name again and then give you two papers with the same number on it (i.e. #304) and a small laminated paper that outlines which documents to have ready for when you head upstairs. The documents are the same as the pre interview checklist. After that you go through security (place everything in a bin and walk through the metal detector). I accidentally brought a small pair of headphones in my pocket and they had me put it in the small lockers they have. It looks like they have about two dozen lockers so if you have an earlier appointment definitely feel free to bring your phone- they will have space for you to store it.

Once you go through security you head up to floor #1. Eventually they'll call you up to a window. This is the document check list. You're going to hand over your piece of paper with a number and docs (I brought photocopies but they never asked for them) and they will just ensure everything they have is correct. They will also verify your phone number and US address. They had my lawyers info here but I had them update everything to the address where I'll be living and my phone number for simplicity. I just handed them over a piece of paper with this info. The girl at the desk commented about how when there are so few documents like in my case, she always thinks she's missing something so guess it was all straight forward. 

After that I took a seat and a short while later they called me up to another window for fingerprinting. Simple as that and then I sat down again. A short while later I got called up for the third and final time to another window. 

He asked me to raise my hand and confirm that everything that I was saying was true. After that he asked me questions very specific to my case around where I was born (ROW), citizenship, the sort of work that I do. Overall, it felt like he wanted to ask me MORE questions but things were so straightforward that there really wasn't much left to say. He took my fingerprints one more time and then told me he plans to approve me later today or later in the week. He was nice and overall, there's no reason to be nervous. I did check my status and it looks like as of yet there hasn't been any movement (my account status still says: appointment). It took WAY less time than I thought. I had even asked my hotel to extend my checkout to 1pm but I was out of there just before 9am. 

A few tips:
- HAVE YOUR DOCUMENTS IN ORDER. When I arrived there was a family scrambling frantically. It seemed like they were looking for a document they couldn't find. I think this is especially important if there's multiple people (i.e. kids, spouse) to have all your ducks in a row. If you're EB2 NIW, don't feel the need to bring every single document. I last minute decided against bringing my original degrees with me because they're oversized and I was concerned about folding them. In the end, they have your entire file with copies of everything in it.
- When you're in the seated area make sure you sit in a seat where you can actually see the screens. It turns out they had been calling my number up for 5 minutes for my interview but I had no idea because I couldn't actually see a screen. 

 

[longtimelurker 4]

3 hours ago, monk_yatso said:

Longtimeluker’s PD typed as 23-March-2023 in that case his/her eb2 PD isn’t current yet 😱

Longtimeluker’s PD typed as 23-March-2023 in that case his/her eb2 PD isn’t current yet 😱

 

This was an error- updated now  

[monk_yatso 15]

Just now, longtimelurker said:

 

This was an error- updated now  

Congrats and thanks a lot for sharing everything. Good luck for the upcoming endeavours 😊 

[AnnaSalu 19]

4 hours ago, longtimelurker said:

Hi there, you wouldn't have been able to tag me because I've only been lurking this forum for months/a year but have never actually had an account. Regardless, I've tried to do my part by updating the tracker. I was going to wait until I had further updates before doubling back and providing one big update but will provide all the details I can while they're still fresh. 

I arrived in Montreal the day before my appointment (Oct 20th) and stayed at a hotel about two blocks/a 5 minute walk from the consulate. The day before I made sure to stroll by the area just to familiarize myself with it. The consulate is right next to the Shoppers Drug Mart and across from the Michael Kors. My appointment was for 7:45am and I arrived for 7:30am and there was already a lineup outside that included 2 families and another person. They ask you for your passport and cross reference it with a list of appointments they have for the day. I didn't bring my phone, only an accordion folder with my documents in it. I did notice they were fairly lax with the bag restriction as the woman in front of me had a medium sized tote bag and brought it in. 

Once you enter, they ask for your name again and then give you two papers with the same number on it (i.e. #304) and a small laminated paper that outlines which documents to have ready for when you head upstairs. The documents are the same as the pre interview checklist. After that you go through security (place everything in a bin and walk through the metal detector). I accidentally brought a small pair of headphones in my pocket and they had me put it in the small lockers they have. It looks like they have about two dozen lockers so if you have an earlier appointment definitely feel free to bring your phone- they will have space for you to store it.

Once you go through security you head up to floor #1. Eventually they'll call you up to a window. This is the document check list. You're going to hand over your piece of paper with a number and docs (I brought photocopies but they never asked for them) and they will just ensure everything they have is correct. They will also verify your phone number and US address. They had my lawyers info here but I had them update everything to the address where I'll be living and my phone number for simplicity. I just handed them over a piece of paper with this info. The girl at the desk commented about how when there are so few documents like in my case, she always thinks she's missing something so guess it was all straight forward. 

After that I took a seat and a short while later they called me up to another window for fingerprinting. Simple as that and then I sat down again. A short while later I got called up for the third and final time to another window. 

He asked me to raise my hand and confirm that everything that I was saying was true. After that he asked me questions very specific to my case around where I was born (ROW), citizenship, the sort of work that I do. Overall, it felt like he wanted to ask me MORE questions but things were so straightforward that there really wasn't much left to say. He took my fingerprints one more time and then told me he plans to approve me later today or later in the week. He was nice and overall, there's no reason to be nervous. I did check my status and it looks like as of yet there hasn't been any movement (my account status still says: appointment). It took WAY less time than I thought. I had even asked my hotel to extend my checkout to 1pm but I was out of there just before 9am. 

A few tips:
- HAVE YOUR DOCUMENTS IN ORDER. When I arrived there was a family scrambling frantically. It seemed like they were looking for a document they couldn't find. I think this is especially important if there's multiple people (i.e. kids, spouse) to have all your ducks in a row. If you're EB2 NIW, don't feel the need to bring every single document. I last minute decided against bringing my original degrees with me because they're oversized and I was concerned about folding them. In the end, they have your entire file with copies of everything in it.
- When you're in the seated area make sure you sit in a seat where you can actually see the screens. It turns out they had been calling my number up for 5 minutes for my interview but I had no idea because I couldn't actually see a screen. 

 

 

Amazing! Congratulations on the positive outcome and thanks very much for sharing all the details!

 

Question I have for you and the rest of the folks here: why would the officer say he "plans to approve later that day or that week"? Isn't the approval instant? Wouldn't he say "I have approved your visa"?

[Panda_ 0]

Hello,

Can you contact the Montreal Embassy via phone and talk to a live person about your immigration case? 

 

Thanks

[ghp2019 1]

Does anyone know whether there were cases in the past that people got AP after they got approved on the spot during the interview?

[Froozion 168]

5 hours ago, Panda_ said:

Hello,

Can you contact the Montreal Embassy via phone and talk to a live person about your immigration case? 

 

Thanks

Nope. You can email. But the response time is slow. 

2 hours ago, ghp2019 said:

Does anyone know whether there were cases in the past that people got AP after they got approved on the spot during the interview?

Yes. After the interview they can do further security checks. If anything comes up you can go into AP until you have crossed the border. 

[rzchen 0]

21 hours ago, Froozion said:

Hello! Yes we crossed the border on Friday. The visa stamp is in your passport and this is valid to cross the border for up to a year or until you get your green card. You can cross with your passport and stamp as many times as you want. 

 

The border guards just asked what we do for work and where we were going. Nothing much else. 

 

We are still awaiting our ssn's, we tried going to a ssa today to get a copy of the number to start with drivers licenses and bank accounts but they are still not issued. We will try again later this week! 

 

Anyone that has crossed the border recently. How long did the ssn take? 

How did you apply for a US SSN in Canada? Thanks

[longtimelurker 4]

19 hours ago, AnnaSalu said:

 

Amazing! Congratulations on the positive outcome and thanks very much for sharing all the details!

 

Question I have for you and the rest of the folks here: why would the officer say he "plans to approve later that day or that week"? Isn't the approval instant? Wouldn't he say "I have approved your visa"?

Thank you! In my case, he told me he was waiting on a few things on his end (that required nothing of me) and he would approve me later in the day or week once he was able to. He kept my passport so the intention to approve me once possible is obviously there.

[Froozion 168]

4 hours ago, rzchen said:

How did you apply for a US SSN in Canada? Thanks

We ticked the 'we want a SSN box' when filling out the ds260. 

 

If you didn't do that you can request one when your green card arrives.