Montreal embassy EB-2 interview wait time-Part 2

[canadian85 29]

Any experiences of border crossing to activate the green card? How much time does it usually take? How much time should we account for?

 

I am planning to go to the Niagara border and do the process once I get my passports and come back to Canada to wrap up stuff here.  I believe you get a stamp for 1 yr on the passport to exit /enter multiple times till you get the green card? Can someone confirm. 

 

Anything else I should keep in mind for the border process?

[Wincity 16]

On 11/2/2024 at 12:00 PM, JBG123 said:

We had our interview yesterday in Montreal. IL came on September 30. We were approved at the end 

 

We did our Medicals with Dr. Zatzman and he was great. 
 

Interviewing officer was very nice. Our appt time was 7:30am which was the first for the day so we were in and out in about an hour and a half. Most of that time was just signing in and waiting around. Actual interview was about 10 minutes 
 

Any questions just ask! Still waiting for our case status to change to Issued. 

What was the content of your employment letter?

I have a short letter with :

• date my I-140 was approved
• my job title
• salary
• petitioner wishing to continue to employ me upon approved Immigrant Visa

should the letter also include:

• job description/duties
• intended worksite
• anything else?  

[AlAlp 5]

23 hours ago, bbusadream said:

Even in morning speech Trump reiterate the same he wants people to come through legal immigration pathway.

Of course he's not going to halt legal immigration altogether but his impact may result in more frequent and longer administrative processing for applicants, at least for certain countries.

[appleblossom 2,803]

On 11/6/2024 at 1:58 PM, JesusisLord24 said:

No, republicans have no problem with legal migration and green card applications. It's illegal migration they are concerned about. 

 

His actions last time don't speak to that. He severely restricted employment based immigration. https://www.nytimes.com/trump-work-visas

 

If he does the same again, it could absolutely have an impact. 

Edited November 7 by appleblossom

[JBG123 4]

20 minutes ago, Wincity said:

What was the content of your employment letter?

I have a short letter with :

• date my I-140 was approved
• my job title
• salary
• petitioner wishing to continue to employ me upon approved Immigrant Visa

should the letter also include:

• job description/duties
• intended worksite
• anything else?  

That’s all mine had on it. 
 
We received our passports back today by courier. 
 

Going to cross the border in a few hours

[dt12 2]

Has anyone here self-petitioned (e.g., NIW) and settled in the US still around? If so, did you find better job opportunities right away? How does your quality of life compare to living in Canada?

[canadian85 29]

1 hour ago, Wincity said:

What was the content of your employment letter?

I have a short letter with :

• date my I-140 was approved
• my job title
• salary
• petitioner wishing to continue to employ me upon approved Immigrant Visa

should the letter also include:

• job description/duties
• intended worksite
• anything else?  

My letter had the first set of bullet points you mentioned. Did not include worksite or job duties. It was accepted.

1 hour ago, JBG123 said:

That’s all mine had on it. 
 
We received our passports back today by courier. 
 

Going to cross the border in a few hours

Let us know how it goes. All the best

Edited November 7 by canadian85

[Wincity 16]

21 minutes ago, canadian85 said:

My letter had the first set of bullet points you mentioned. Did not include worksite or job duties. It was accepted.

Let us know how it goes. All the best

Thanks @canadian85 and @JBG123!

Good luck at the border!

[a7medfx 0]

4 hours ago, Canadian24 said:

It's more than a year wait. They are at DQ September 2023 right now. EB-1 doesn't go faster than any other EB. We are all in the same line once you DQ. Nothing to do but wait!

 

On 11/6/2024 at 2:17 PM, monk_yatso said:

Whats your DQ date? Currently montreal calling people DQ’d in September-2023

 

My DQ is March or April 2024. It is disheartening. I thought EB-1's would get priority specially with the high premium processing fee 

[monk_yatso 26]

2 minutes ago, a7medfx said:

 

 

My DQ is March or April 2024. It is disheartening. I thought EB-1's would get priority specially with the high premium processing fee 

EB1 has sheer advantage in terms of priority date being current. Otherwise, according to Montreal’s progress so far, you can expect IL by April 2025. 

[AndrewsN 46]

4 minutes ago, a7medfx said:

 

 

My DQ is March or April 2024. It is disheartening. I thought EB-1's would get priority specially with the high premium processing fee 

I’m EB1a, I can confirm there was no priority given in terms of interview timelines. You’re waiting the rest of the employment cue. The only time your priority helps is if other category visa numbers run out or their priority dates shift further back than EB1.

 

I thought and was hopeful for the same thing you were hopeful for. It’s not the way it works. 

[JesusisLord24 8]

4 hours ago, appleblossom said:

 

His actions last time don't speak to that. He severely restricted employment based immigration. https://www.nytimes.com/trump-work-visas

 

If he does the same again, it could absolutely have an impact. 

This is different though. The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa. And if I remember correctly this was during Covid and the rationale was to ensure American citizens had enough jobs available as the pandemic restrictions were being lifted 

[appleblossom 2,803]

42 minutes ago, JesusisLord24 said:

This is different though. The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa. And if I remember correctly this was during Covid and the rationale was to ensure American citizens had enough jobs available as the pandemic restrictions were being lifted 

 

Some restrictions and longer processing times were in place well before Covid. He just tightened them up further in 2020, my own application was caught up in that (was supposed to be moving in 2021, but couldn't submit the application) and my move ended up being delayed by 2 years.

 

My point is the people he restricted last time were also legal immigrants, and so we can't assume that he'll only go after illegals this time, particularly when he's said he's going to scrap legal migration programs. We just have to wait and see. 

 

 

Edited November 7 by appleblossom

[appleblossom 2,803]

3 hours ago, a7medfx said:

 

 

My DQ is March or April 2024. It is disheartening. I thought EB-1's would get priority specially with the high premium processing fee 

 

EB-2 and EB-3 applicants have priority processing available to them too. But that's only for the USCIS part of it, it isn't relevant to the visa side of things. 

Edited November 7 by appleblossom

[visazhdun 6]

Had my interview at Montreal today and wanted to share my experience. Came 5 min early and had to wait for ~20 min outside since there was a line to get in. 

As others said it started from a security check: small bags were allowed, no backpacks. There were plenty of lockers available to leave your phone there. It's not that tiny actually - fits 2 wallets and 2 phones easily. After that we were given a yellow card with the list of documents to keep ready and a ticket with the number in line. Had to wait for an hour to get called for documents check. 

 

To those asking about the employment letter - mine did not have a wet ink signature or stamp and it was all good. My employer sent it to me by email so I just printed it out and there were no questions asked. 

Someone here mentioned that they do ask for a passport with US visa if you had any. I had US tourist visa in an old expired passport and was asked to show it.

 

After that waited for another ~30 min to get called for fingerprints and 40 more min for the interview. Interview took about 15-20 min total and they did not ask for any additional documents in my case. I'm EB-3 and was asked to describe my job responsibilities, where I am planning to work in US (my employer has several locations in US). Also questions like if I've been to US before, how long we've been married, if either of us had any problems with visas in the past, etc.

Was approved by the officer and told to wait for 2 weeks to get our passports back.

The whole thing took 2,5 hours.