Some advice for those immigrating from Canada

[Ryan17 2]

Good evening, and congratulations for finding your partner in the US!  I wanted to give you a heads-up as to how our immigration process has gone… When we did our research we saw that the “average” processing time was 10-12 months. Our initial application was received by USCIS June 23, 2022 - yes, well over 2 years ago.  At about the 14 month mark, we found out (by looking at the website) that we fell into the RFE category.  Had to wait about 30 days waiting on a letter of what we were missing.  It never showed up.  Followed the procedure to find out what document we were missing and got a canned response of they (USCIS) have 30 days to acknowledge the email, and an additional 60 to process it.  So we waited the time and still no response.  At that time we reached out to a Congressman who assigned one of his staff to make an inquirey.  Within 24 hours the staff member sent me an email showing literally they needed the last page of my divorce decree that states “this page left intentionally blank.”  I sent it off the same day, and we wait again… Finally we see that the application had been forwarded to the National Visa Center.  They show this is a 60 day process.  After about 75 days, we reached out to the Congressman, and again, within 24 hours it was headed to the next step.  My fiancee found out that the only approved doctor for the medical exam was on the far west coast, then her interview was on the far east coast.  At her interview (January 23, 2024) she was told she was approved and would receive her passport back with the Visa in about 7 days.  February 14, 2024 she received an email requesting her to fill out the attached form, now known as the “Dreaded DS-5535”. We are still baffled by why they requested this, but many immigrating from Canada are sent into this rabbit hole.  There is a whole thread on here about that.  She has been able to travel to the US with just the usual secondary inspection in customs due to us filing the K-1 Visa Application.  According to the tread on here, the DS-5535 average approval time is 15-16 additional months (since the date she sent the email). So now we wait again.  We reached out to a Senator this time (due to the previous politican going out of office) with a response of “If we don’t hear anything by October 8, 2024 to contact his office again.  We are hopeful, but skeptical, so we shall see.  Sorry for the long read, but just wanted to provide some information as to what you could potentially be up against during your immigration.  Please feel free to ask me questions, or provide any advise you might have!

[Lemonslice 4,835]

I am sorry you experienced all these delays and hurdles; hopefully things will be smoother from now on. 

However, I would like to clarify that there are a few doctors in different regions of Canada that are able to conduct the medical exam.  Since Canada is a large country, still not perfect, but there is more than just a doctor on the West Coast (and some applicants have stayed a few extra days in Montreal to do the medical exam and interview in the same trip). 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Supplements/Supplements_by_Post/MTL-Montreal.html#med_exam_instructions

[powerpuff 6,697]

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