The dreaded DS-5535 thread for Montreal Only. Post here and support each other (PART 3)

[Ontarkie 14,205]

7 hours ago, JamesTan said:

The DS-260 only asks for the times I've entered the United States. I don't believe it asked me to list the countries I've traveled to in the last 5 years.

 

Renewing passports that are about to expire within a few years is likely a common practice before immigrating to the United States. Not sure if immigration officers or the system think you're trying to conceal your travel history by doing so. Most likely someone just wants to avoid the hassle of renewing their passports in a new country and having to reapply to get their visa stamped into their new passport again in a few years.

Your travel history is connected to your passports. It will not matter if you get a new passport, they are all linked.  Get a new passport if you are allowed as many countries will not renew a passport that has more than 6 months validity to it.

Please stop discussing ways to hide your travel history. Any further discussion on this needs to stop. It is clear intent to commit fraud which is a TOS Violation. -Condone or instruct, either directly or indirectly, others on how to commit fraudulent or illegal immigration activities in any way, shape, manner or method.

 

Any further posts on this topic will result in Admin action

Ontarkie

Lead Moderator 

Edited February 28 by Ontarkie

[Leo The Great 138]

My parents were interviewed at Montreal consulate  last year. Consulate issued visa to mom but served DS-5535 to dad. His case is still in processing. We contacted MTL regarding case status recently asking them if dad visa could be issued before medical expiry.  MTL advised us that my mom should enter US before visa expiry to activate her green card and she can return to Canada while my dad case is in processing.

 

My mom is crossing border by road via Niagara Falls soon. Dad will be driving her to US and will return to Canada next day. 

 

Is it OK to accompany her for green card activation while his(dad)  case is in AP?

 

What sort of proof my dad need to carry with him to show his ties to Canada? 

He has a full time job in Canada.

Edited February 28 by Leo The Great

[Hawk Riders 814]

oh how disheartening to find this topic has remained a hot property...

 

best wishes to all in this purgatory. 

[Inveigh 69]

11 hours ago, Leo The Great said:

My parents were interviewed at Montreal consulate  last year. Consulate issued visa to mom but served DS-5535 to dad. His case is still in processing. We contacted MTL regarding case status recently asking them if dad visa could be issued before medical expiry.  MTL advised us that my mom should enter US before visa expiry to activate her green card and she can return to Canada while my dad case is in processing.

 

My mom is crossing border by road via Niagara Falls soon. Dad will be driving her to US and will return to Canada next day. 

 

Is it OK to accompany her for green card activation while his(dad)  case is in AP?

 

What sort of proof my dad need to carry with him to show his ties to Canada? 

He has a full time job in Canada.

How long has he been in AP. I've noticed you dont have a timeline on the Spreadsheet.

[Leo The Great 138]

1 hour ago, Inveigh said:

How long has he been in AP. I've noticed you dont have a timeline on the Spreadsheet.

Approx 5 months. Timelines are in spreadsheet. Someone filtered the spreadsheet on IR1 and CR1 categories so other visa type were disappeared. Now reverted it back

Edited February 29 by Leo The Great

[CarmenD 150]

20 hours ago, Leo The Great said:

Is it OK to accompany her for green card activation while his(dad)  case is in AP?

 

What sort of proof my dad need to carry with him to show his ties to Canada? 

He has a full time job in Canada.

It is acceptable for your Dad to accompany Mom across the border with his valid Canadian passport while AP is pending.  Perhaps a recently dated letter detailing Dad’s full time job situation on his employer’s letterhead would serve as proof of his intended return to Canada.  If they were to be taking a flight together into the US his return flight information would be good proof. 

[Canucklehead 102]

Just curious, has anyone received an email from montreal-IV-DV@state.gov in the past 2 months that is not just the standard auto-reply?  I have sent 3 emails since November 2023 and have received nothing but auto replies.

 

Also looking at the spreadsheet - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jV7rzX2eCRVoEDRhOtN9a6hDoHRLNEf1P3ZGZbQ0_Dc/edit#gid=0 it seems that we are officially taking longer than it was before. It's almost as if they're not doing anything to do with immigrant visas at Montreal at all....

Edited February 29 by Canucklehead

[Daft_Cat 136]

33 minutes ago, Canucklehead said:

Just curious, has anyone received an email from montreal-IV-DV@state.gov in the past 2 months that is not just the standard auto-reply?  I have sent 3 emails since November 2023 and have received nothing but auto replies.

 

Also looking at the spreadsheet - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jV7rzX2eCRVoEDRhOtN9a6hDoHRLNEf1P3ZGZbQ0_Dc/edit#gid=0 it seems that we are officially taking longer than it was before. It's almost as if they're not doing anything to do with immigrant visas at Montreal at all....

Sent one email last month, have had a few updates since then but no communication from them yet. They’ve definitely slowed down. I imagine the lack of communication is reflective of limited capacity- they’re probably getting absolutely blasted with angry emails and genuinely can’t respond to all of them.

Edited March 1 by Daft_Cat

[MTLaffectee 45]

23 minutes ago, Daft_Cat said:

Sent one email last month, have had a few updates since then but no communication from them yet. They’ve definitely slowed down. I imagine the lack of communication is reflective of limited capacity- they’re probably getting absolutely blasted with angry emails and genuinely can’t respond to all of them.

Do you all think we can engage multiple senators to get Montreal to answer for the high numbers of AP and 5535 (40% cases when the normal average is 17% in other consulates)? Like why are they issuing so many APs? Is it because of the movie "The Proposal"? 😔

 

Synopsis of the movie: Faced with deportation to her native Canada, high-powered book editor Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) says she's engaged to marry Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds), her hapless assistant. Andrew agrees to the charade but imposes a few conditions of his own, including flying to Alaska to meet his eccentric family. With a suspicious immigration official always lurking nearby, Margaret and Andrew must stick to their wedding plan despite numerous mishaps.

Edited March 1 by MTLaffectee

[cala2023 70]

2 hours ago, Canucklehead said:

Just curious, has anyone received an email from montreal-IV-DV@state.gov in the past 2 months that is not just the standard auto-reply?  I have sent 3 emails since November 2023 and have received nothing but auto replies.

 

Also looking at the spreadsheet - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jV7rzX2eCRVoEDRhOtN9a6hDoHRLNEf1P3ZGZbQ0_Dc/edit#gid=0 it seems that we are officially taking longer than it was before. It's almost as if they're not doing anything to do with immigrant visas at Montreal at all....

I got an actual response on January 23 which was about 11 days after I sent them an email.

[Pending DS5535 21]

37 minutes ago, cala2023 said:

I got an actual response on January 23 which was about 11 days after I sent them an email.

Biden visited US Mexico boarder in Texas area and reported asked questions about IV visa backlog, below are few lines copy pasted from today’s post.

One of the steps, if we look at the H-1B visa process, we have taken action to improve that and the process and backlog for lawful permanent residents (green card) who are eligible to become US citizens," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at her daily news conference on Wednesday. She was responding to questions about the feeling among a section of Indian Americans that the president is not putting as much effort on addressing the woes of legal immigrants as he is doing for illegal immigrants.

[APRIL2023 59]

6 hours ago, Canucklehead said:

Just curious, has anyone received an email from montreal-IV-DV@state.gov in the past 2 months that is not just the standard auto-reply?  I have sent 3 emails since November 2023 and have received nothing but auto replies.

 

Also looking at the spreadsheet - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jV7rzX2eCRVoEDRhOtN9a6hDoHRLNEf1P3ZGZbQ0_Dc/edit#gid=0 it seems that we are officially taking longer than it was before. It's almost as if they're not doing anything to do with immigrant visas at Montreal at all....

I mailed in my proper RCMP document to Montreal. The document arrived Feb 8. I emailed them to request for receipt confirmation on Feb 9. They responded Feb 22 with mainly template response (eg “we realize the extended time causes frustrations… we are doing what we can blah blah” ) BUT NEVER DID THEY CONFIRM RECEIPT OF DOCUMENT. Stupid. Status was updated Feb 22 which I assume corresponded with the email. 
 

Got another “unsolicited” status update Feb 27. I assume that’s when someone finally opened the mail and added the document to my file. 
 

Many assumptions can be made in this situation. What I gather is that they move at snail speed. SMH 

[dj222 1]

19 hours ago, MTLaffectee said:

Do you all think we can engage multiple senators to get Montreal to answer for the high numbers of AP and 5535 (40% cases when the normal average is 17% in other consulates)? Like why are they issuing so many APs? Is it because of the movie "The Proposal"? 😔

 

Synopsis of the movie: Faced with deportation to her native Canada, high-powered book editor Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) says she's engaged to marry Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds), her hapless assistant. Andrew agrees to the charade but imposes a few conditions of his own, including flying to Alaska to meet his eccentric family. With a suspicious immigration official always lurking nearby, Margaret and Andrew must stick to their wedding plan despite numerous mishaps.

Where are you getting the 40% vs 17% statistic? So 40% of all interviews end with a AP or 5535? Thats pretty shocking.

Edited March 1 by dj222

[Daft_Cat 136]

2 hours ago, dj222 said:

Where are you getting the 40% vs 17% statistic? So 40% of all interviews end with a AP or 5535? Thats pretty shocking.

That was somewhere in the last thread. Numbers may be off somewhat but it was something egregious like that.

 

Also, for those keeping count: 4th update in the last month and a half came through this morning.

[Leo The Great 138]

On 2/29/2024 at 2:57 PM, CarmenD said:

It is acceptable for your Dad to accompany Mom across the border with his valid Canadian passport while AP is pending.  Perhaps a recently dated letter detailing Dad’s full time job situation on his employer’s letterhead would serve as proof of his intended return to Canada.  If they were to be taking a flight together into the US his return flight information would be good proof. 

Thanks - Mom and dad entered U.S via Niagara Falls this weekend. They were asked to go to secondary area for mom's green card activation.  CBP officer asked mom why your spouse is not  immigrating with you. She told the officer that his visa is still in processing. Whole process took 15 minutes

Edited March 3 by Leo The Great