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

[CarmenD 150]

6 minutes ago, LYV said:

I have never had a problem crossing by land and have done many times but  my husband and I are immigrating together to the US. I would think it would stir up more questions if the person immigrating was going to visit their spouse/fiancé. 

 

7 minutes ago, LYV said:

I have never had a problem crossing by land and have done many times but  my husband and I are immigrating together to the US. I would think it would stir up more questions if the person immigrating was going to visit their spouse/fiancé. 

Same with us.  Traveled by plane and crossed the border by land (Ontario/NY) more than a few times since filing for immigration visa without incident.  We also live together in Canada as well.  He’ll be immigrating, I’ll be going back as a US Citizen.

[Lindsay901 1]

3 hours ago, Daft_Cat said:

I was in a similar situation to your husband - extensive travel to the US due to the time I spent living there as an international student.  Others can correct me if I'm wrong, but I do not believe US travel is exempt (or, if you're living in the US on a Visa, trips back home to Canada). Or at least it was never indicated to me either on the form, by the immigration officer, or by my immigration attorney. In my case, that meant dozens of entries describing, to the best of my ability, the times I traveled from the US to Canada and vice versa (with the starting point being whichever country I was currently living). 

Two general rules for your husband, assuming he gets it: 

 

1) Answer to the best of your ability. 15 years is a long time, and he may not have exact dates for all his trips (unless he keeps amazing records). General time frames (e.g. month or approximate day) are ok in instances where it's impossible to be specific. In my case, the tail end of that that 15-year stretch extended into my teenage years. I had a couple family trips in there that were impossible to narrow down to specific dates (I don't keep my old passports, and my parents don't keep emails / paper records going back that far). In cases like that, there's really nothing you can do. Remember that they're looking specifically for red flags - travel between the US and Canada when your husband was a student is unlikely to raise eyebrows. 

2) It's better to provide too much detail rather than not enough. This goes without saying, but when in doubt, it's better to include additional details / context within your responses. Don't leave room for misinterpretation. The good news is that I don't really think the substance of our responses are all that important at the end of the day (an opinion backed up by my attorney), but you still don't want to leave room for someone to misinterpret one of your answers in bad faith. 

 

I hope he doesn't get one, but not the end of the world if he does. Just stay positive!

Thank you so much for your detailed response! We appreciate it! 

2 hours ago, CarmenD said:

Travel to the US is certainly NOT exempt from inclusion when answering the dreaded DS-5535.  I just learned about this resource (I-94 website) which might help with travel records.  

“View Travel History 

I-94 travel history includes up to 100 arrivals and departures spanning the last ten years”

Beware though, I searched travel history for my Canadian husband, and some of the “locations” were totally off the mark (incorrect)

https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov

 

Thank you! This is very helpful! 

[SEP-27-DS_5535 33]

1 hour ago, Lindsay901 said:

Thank you so much for your detailed response! We appreciate it! 

Thank you! This is very helpful! 

Does anyone help me out with the “Case Last Updated Date”. I have an an email to Montreal consulate on Feb 7th, 2023, I didn’t receive any response back from Montreal consulate. But my case last date was updated on Feb 20th, 2023. Is it related to my email inquiry? For which I didn’t receive any response or is it because someone is looking/working 👀 on my application?

[Leo The Great 137]

2 minutes ago, SEP-27-DS_5535 said:

Does anyone help me out with the “Case Last Updated Date”. I have an an email to Montreal consulate on Feb 7th, 2023, I didn’t receive any response back from Montreal consulate. But my case last date was updated on Feb 20th, 2023. Is it related to my email inquiry? For which I didn’t receive any response or is it because someone is looking/working 👀 on my application?

 My guess is consulate attach your email and consulate reply to your case for record and this trigger an update.

[SEP-27-DS_5535 33]

16 minutes ago, Leo The Great said:

 My guess is consulate attach your email and consulate reply to your case for record and this trigger an update.

But consulate didn’t reply to my email…

[APRIL2023 59]

1 hour ago, SEP-27-DS_5535 said:

But consulate didn’t reply to my email…

It’s very hard to speculate anything. I know that peeps here have identified some patterns to status updates, but ultimately no one is for certain why updates happen. 
 

 

Edited February 22 by APRIL2023

[APRIL2023 59]

3 hours ago, CarmenD said:

 

Same with us.  Traveled by plane and crossed the border by land (Ontario/NY) more than a few times since filing for immigration visa without incident.  We also live together in Canada as well.  He’ll be immigrating, I’ll be going back as a US Citizen.

I was once pulled into secondary at the airport. I was able to clarify my intent for temporary travel and my plan to return to Canada and have no issues entering into the states. Ultimately the boarder patrol wants to deter all intensions of travelers who plan to enter the states and NOT LEAVE. Make sure u have a return flight booked or date for re-entry back to Canada. 

Edited February 22 by APRIL2023

[CarmenD 150]

1 hour ago, APRIL2023 said:

It’s very hard to speculate anything. I know that peeps here have identified some patterns to status updates, but ultimately no one is for certain why updates happen. 
 

 

The only two updates for our case occurred right after Congressional Inquiries.  First in September, 2023, the other just early this month.  

[Daft_Cat 136]

15 hours ago, SEP-27-DS_5535 said:

But consulate didn’t reply to my email…

As Leo said, the act of attaching it to your file will trigger an update, regardless of if they respond or not. 

I've had 3 things happen to me upon sending an email:

1) An update followed by a response
2) An update but no response
3) Crickets (no update, no response)

 

Usually you'll get scenario 1 unless they've replied recently, in which case you'll get 2. I experienced 3 a couple of times as well - my guess is it just has to do with how busy they are. I'm sure the consulate gets hundreds of emails from applicants per day.

[Leo The Great 137]

1 hour ago, Daft_Cat said:

As Leo said, the act of attaching it to your file will trigger an update, regardless of if they respond or not. 

I've had 3 things happen to me upon sending an email:

1) An update followed by a response
2) An update but no response
3) Crickets (no update, no response)

 

Usually you'll get scenario 1 unless they've replied recently, in which case you'll get 2. I experienced 3 a couple of times as well - my guess is it just has to do with how busy they are. I'm sure the consulate gets hundreds of emails from applicants per day.

if you file a WOM, do updates also happen at different stages?

Edited February 22 by Leo The Great

[Daft_Cat 136]

Just now, Leo The Great said:

if you file a WOM, do updates also happen?

Nope. Unless the lawsuit prompts them to prioritize your case. For me, my last update was July 28th (response to an email), followed by my WOM in September. Had no updates at all throughout two extension requests and a motion to dismiss. First update since then happened around the end of Jan, but a confounding factor there is that I sent an email about a week or two prior. Can't say if the email or the ongoing WOM is the cause (we're fighting the MtD, so it's possible the consulate is still being pressured by the US attorney). I've had two updates since - each at two week intervals. 

3 possible scenarios here:

 

1) My WOM is working, albeit on a slower timeline than it would've earlier.

2) My email towards the end of Jan (in which I stressed that I was now approaching a year in AP) ended up in front of the right immigration officer and my case was escalated accordingly

3) Neither my email nor the WOM has directly contributed to the recent updates, and I've simply reached the front of the queue

I suppose there's a 4th scenario as well, which would be some combination of the above. 

[Superluminal 146]

3 minutes ago, Daft_Cat said:

Nope. Unless the lawsuit prompts them to prioritize your case. For me, my last update was July 28th (response to an email), followed by my WOM in September. Had no updates at all throughout two extension requests and a motion to dismiss. First update since then happened around the end of Jan, but a confounding factor there is that I sent an email about a week or two prior. Can't say if the email or the ongoing WOM is the cause (we're fighting the MtD, so it's possible the consulate is still being pressured by the US attorney). I've had two updates since - each at two week intervals. 

3 possible scenarios here:

 

1) My WOM is working, albeit on a slower timeline than it would've earlier.

2) My email towards the end of Jan (in which I stressed that I was now approaching a year in AP) ended up in front of the right immigration officer and my case was escalated accordingly

3) Neither my email nor the WOM has directly contributed to the recent updates, and I've simply reached the front of the queue

I suppose there's a 4th scenario as well, which would be some combination of the above. 

I had a couple of updates that were WOM related. One shortly after the consulate received news of the WOM, and the 2nd shortly before we got a Motion to Dismiss. My guess is it had something to do with them pulling information from my file. Crickets since then as I've never asked them for an update directly.

[Daft_Cat 136]

31 minutes ago, Superluminal said:

I had a couple of updates that were WOM related. One shortly after the consulate received news of the WOM, and the 2nd shortly before we got a Motion to Dismiss. My guess is it had something to do with them pulling information from my file. Crickets since then as I've never asked them for an update directly.

That's interesting and points away from theory #1 (that my WOM is proving useful). 

Given that you filed a bit earlier than I, perhaps the difference in our experience is indicative of the real-time shift in the State Department's approach. 

 

To provide additional context, about a month after I filed, the State Department signaled that they would be filing a Motion to Dismiss. Fortunately (or so I thought at the time), we were able to dissuade the US attorney by highlighting the amount of time I had been waiting. We essentially convinced her that there was a good shot the MtD wouldn't hold up. The result was that the US attorney asked for an extension instead and said she work with her clients to speed things up. 

 

Unfortunately, all that followed was a second extension request, which came through right around Christmas (probably due to vacation schedules), and a MtD, which arrived in mid-Jan. The US attorney implied that her hand was being forced. 

Throughout all of this, there were no case updates. My case was never touched. 

 

To me, this implies that the State Department's current strategy is to dismiss pretty much all WOMs, regardless of time waited or underlying circumstances. At least as far as Montreal is concerned. It seems possible that the State Department isn't even reaching out to the consulate to inform them of the suit. Otherwise you'd expect that there would've been at least a couple of updates triggered by the opening of my case. 

 

At the same time, we've signaled our intention to fight the MtD, so it's possible the consulate is now aware and is processing my application as a result. Seems unlikely though. 

Edited February 22 by Daft_Cat

[Superluminal 146]

41 minutes ago, Daft_Cat said:

That's interesting and points away from theory #1 (that my WOM is proving useful). 

Given that you filed a bit earlier than I, perhaps the difference in our experience is indicative of the real-time shift in the State Department's approach. 

 

To provide additional context, about a month after I filed, the State Department signaled that they would be filing a Motion to Dismiss. Fortunately (or so I thought at the time), we were able to dissuade the US attorney by highlighting the amount of time I had been waiting. We essentially convinced her that there was a good shot the MtD wouldn't hold up. The result was that the US attorney asked for an extension instead and said she work with her clients to speed things up. 

 

Unfortunately, all that followed was a second extension request, which came through right around Christmas (probably due to vacation schedules), and a MtD, which arrived in mid-Jan. The US attorney implied that her hand was being forced. 

Throughout all of this, there were no case updates. My case was never touched. 

 

To me, this implies that the State Department's current strategy is to dismiss pretty much all WOMs, regardless of time waited or underlying circumstances. At least as far as Montreal is concerned. It seems possible that the State Department isn't even reaching out to the consulate to inform them of the suit. Otherwise you'd expect that there would've been at least a couple of updates triggered by the opening of my case. 

 

At the same time, we've signaled our intention to fight the MtD, so it's possible the consulate is now aware and is processing my application as a result. Seems unlikely though. 

Given the steady frequency of updates and you're next in line on our tracker based on when you submitted the DS-5535, we all can only hope they are actively processing your case.

[SEP-27-DS_5535 33]

2 minutes ago, Superluminal said:

Given the steady frequency of updates and you're next in line on our tracker based on when you submitted the DS-5535, we all can only hope they are actively processing your case.

My understanding is once the DS-5535 is submitted the consulate will prepare our file and send it for SAO. And the VO can’t open your file until the case is resolved by DOS.