Spirit_In_Red

To my knowledge, no, you don't need the Packet 3 letter itself. Just the items you checked off on the checklist. That said, there's no harm in bringing something if you're not 100% sure. I'm making a folder of the very specific "You Must Bring X" stuff but also gonna have a second folder of anything else I've gotten just to be absolutely sure that I didn't overlook or misread anything.

Disregard, I'm just dumb and the initial link took me to the info/help part of the site, and not the interview/account register part. Made an interview appointment for May 24th!

Got my Packet 4 email (also got my Packet 3 in the physical mail.) Little confused as the Packet 4 email gives a link for scheduling the interview but there doesn't seem to be any actual option to do so on the website it links to. Do you have to call to do so or is there an online scheduling option?

Sent Packet 3 as suggested, I guess we'll see. Interesting that my actual inquiry email got no automated response but my Packet 3 email did.

I've been checking via the CEAC website at https://ceac.state.gov/CEACStatTracker/Status.aspx?App=IV You need your Case Number (the one that starts with MTL) and have to select Immigrant Visa and then it should give you a pop up with the case status. For me, it says my case was created Feb 15th and was last updated Mar 29th. It's currently Ready but the status was updated to that a few weeks ago but has evidently been "updated" a couple times since then.

We've also been waiting on Ready for a few weeks now, it's been Last Updated with the Ready status at 3 different points, I assume those being "received digitally", "received physically", and I'm hoping the 3rd update means "sent out packet 3" but have yet to get anything and that last update was on March 29th. Also have my fiance in the US checking her email/mail on the off chance it gets sent to her as I saw that happen to someone else. Don't know if they're just really backed up or what, also sent an email inquiry to the consulate to no response and that was on March 26th.

Our case is now Ready. "Your case is ready for you to schedule an interview at the U.S. Consulate General in Montreal." To my understanding, I'm waiting for a packet to fill out and then send back before I can schedule an interview, correct?

We also got notice that they've sent our case to the embassy. I've seen some conflicting info but, do I (the beneficiary) wait until I get a letter from the embassy to start planning my medical exam, background check, etc?

We got our NOA2 on Jan 12th, from what I can tell it'll likely be end of March/start of April before we can do much. Question about the petition expiry date, is this something I should keep in mind to avoid catastrophe or is it essentially just the latest the NVC can send our case to the embassy? Also, read conflicting info about what the notice I'll get in the mail will contain when the NVC sends our case to the embassy, some sources say the notice will have the time and date of the interview and some say I'll only get the interview date *after* filing my form/medical/background check. Does anyone know which it is?