Well, after three long years, we finally have been approved. We owe a big thank you to VJ for the moments of glee when the first batch of EB people received interview letters post-covid and for providing some idea of timing expectations. The sense of community/camaraderie to moan and groan over the years (I suppose misery loves company) provided comfort through this long process. While my husband has been a GC holder for 3-years, we could have never expected my follow-to-join process to take so long. It only feels right that we give back to the community by consolidating everything we learned/experienced to assist all the folks who just received their interview letters and the many more who hopefully receive theirs soon!
While our process was specific to follow-to-join, there will likely be many similarities for non-F2J interviews.
Post-Interview Letter
This felt like "crunch time"; we had 53 days between the interview letter and the interview. The biggest priorities at this time were to get an updated police certificate (as ours was going to be a week expired by the interview), get the medical processed, update passport photos, and consolidate our documentation.
Updated Police Certificate
When we first got our police certificate as part of the application we visited the local Vancouver police department. Following the guidelines online, we received the police certificate within 2-weeks.
This time to get an updated certificate, on Dec 17th, we made an appointment to get fingerprints done at the Vancouver police department. They submitted the request to the RCMP in Ottawa as specified on the website "Certified Criminal Record Check – Type of Criminal Record Check for Personal Use: Other / RCMP National Repository Entire Holdings."
Within a week, we got a call from the police department that the RCMP rejected the request because they couldn't use the type "Other"? The reasoning seemed very vague; the representative at the local police department also seemed very unsure about the whole process. She tried submitting again under another category she thought they'd accept.
As an insurance policy, we decided to visit the Commissionaires in downtown Vancouver to start a second request. They were awesome, knew precisely what we needed, and gave us a printout to follow up with the RCMP if we had yet to receive it by a specific date. We were glad to pay the fee and felt more confident that this would be successful.
The second Commissionaires report came within a week, and the original request from the Vancouver Police department still hasn't arrived. I suggest paying for one accredited agency; they should be much more familiar with the process.
https://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/private-fingerprinting-companies-accredited-by-the-RCMP
Medical Exam
As soon as we got the interview letter, we reached out to Dr. Cheema's office within a couple of days to schedule our appointment for the following week. They were very responsive and prioritized our appointment; Dr. Cheema confirmed during our appointment that they understand the timeline that applicants are under and prioritize their appointments. Feel comfortable asking them for a day/time that works for you, even if it's a week or a few days out.
The vaccine requirements weren't fully up to date on Dr. Cheema's website, but their staff knew what was needed. I wanted to ensure that we met all of the requirements and found this list which shows the official CDC vaccine requirements:
https://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/panel-physicians/vaccinations.html#tbl1
For Td/Tdap- we confirmed that you need at least one dose of Tdap and then a Td booster within the last ten years. Or a dose of Tdap within the last ten years.
Thankfully I already met most of the vaccine requirements and could use the BC Services app and the Health Gateway to get my vaccine history which already covered most of the requirements. I was not up to date with a Td Booster or this year's flu shot, so I visited a walk-in clinic to get those done before visiting Dr. Cheema. I provided proof of the vaccines I already had in the email with Dr. Cheema's staff and verified the ones I didn't know I would be getting before the appointment. As requested, I made sure to bring all of the copies of the vaccine requirements along with the interview letter to the medical appointment.
The process with Dr. Cheema was straightforward; they no longer required any passport photos and instead took a photo on-site. That photo was included in the e-medical report, which was submitted to the consulate along with the medical information electronically.
After doing a weigh-in, Dr. Cheema came in to do the evaluation. He was very friendly and tried to connect with his patients more personally. He asked many health-related questions, including about DUIs and marijuana use. Two questions he seemed to sneak in to catch patients off guard. Then we visited two nearby locations for a blood draw and chest x-ray, and both of those locations got me in immediately!
Our appointment with Dr. Cheema was at 10am, and I was finished at all 3 locations by noon.
About three days after my appointment, I received an email confirmation from Dr. Cheema's office that the medical report had been submitted to the consulate. We printed out the e-medical vaccine record they attached to the email to include in our paperwork and brought that to the consulate just in case (although I was never asked for it).
Passport Photos
From what we can tell, this photo is the photo that will be printed onto the Green Card. We originally had passport photos taken at a AAA in the US, but they came out poorly. There are a lot of really great online tools for taking your own passport photos. I suggest this for anyone who may care how the photo on their ID card will look.
We took a photo with an iPhone in good lighting with a plain background that met the US Passport photo requirements (no glasses, neutral face, etc.) and then used an online tool for $3 to create an optimal digital version of the photo. (Resized, positioned the face in the correct area/dimensions, and ensured the background was white).
Then we took the 4x6 output image with 6x 2" by 2" passport photos and got them printed at London Drugs for a few dollars.
The result: a high-quality photo that we could retake/make perfect! They were accepted at the interview with no issues.
Documentation Preparation
Our mentality for documentation was two-fold.
First: there was the obvious stuff we knew they'd want right away, so we had those organized together at the front of the binders with copies already made for them.
- My passport
- My birth certificate
- Our marriage certificate
- Police certificate
- Passport photos
Second: have anything and everything else that we could think of in case of the "what ifs" that they may ask or want proof of. In our binder, we included the following
- Evidence of my husband's domicile in US (lease, bills, etc.)
- Evidence of my domicile in Canada (lease, bills, etc.)
- Updated financial documents (our joint USA tax returns, my ITIN approval documents, my husband's W-2s from the prior three years, an IRS tax transcript from the previous year, previous three pay stubs)
- Originals and copies of my husbands' documents (birth certificate, passport, green card, etc.)
- Application documentation up to this point (DS-260 confirmation, DS-260 fees sheet, DS-260 application)
- My travel history (my most recent I-94, an updated list of all countries visited in the last 5 years, all my recent entrances-exits to the US as exported from the I-94 travel history site, documented dates of all US travel to show my longest stay in the US)
- Proof of vaccines (original documents and e-medical printout from Dr. Cheema)
While we weren't sure what direction any question or conversation would go, we were trying to minimize the chance that anything they wanted we were ready for. As it turns out, we were glad we came over prepared!
Montreal Preparation
I won't go into too much detail here, but I do suggest, as others have said before, to get in early and give yourself time to be in Montreal before the interview. We flew in on Sunday for our Tuesday morning interview. Not only if there were any flight delays or issues, we had some buffer, but also being there allowed us to scope out the consulate and relax a bit before the interview.
We stayed at a hotel a few blocks from the consulate, which helped alleviate stress, knowing we didn't have far to go to get to the consulate in the morning.
The day before, to have an idea of what to expect, we walked over and saw others waiting outside for their appointment time.
We chatted with the friendly security guard, who said they let people in 15 minutes before their scheduled interview time. Otherwise, you line up outside until 15 minutes before your interview.
No electronics are allowed upstairs, so while you can bring your phone or Apple Watch in, you'll have to check them into a locker at security before heading upstairs. Leave them in the hotel to streamline your experience if you can avoid it.
Interview Day
While we felt confident in our preparation and had nothing to worry about, I don't think my husband or I slept well the night before – with so much time waiting leading up to this moment!
My interview was at 8:15, so we planned to leave the hotel at 7:45 and arrive in line 5 minutes before I'd be let in at 8:00.
When we arrived at the consulate at 7:55am, no one else was in line, so we waited outside the door where we saw others lining up the day before. 5 minutes later, right at 8am, the security guard came out and let me in. My husband wished me luck and went to Spouse Purgatory across the road at Second Cup.
By 8:05, I had gone through the metal detectors. Having no electronics, I skipped by the lockers, got in the elevator, and went upstairs. Right away, when entering, security asked for my passport. They applied a sticker on my passport (for tracking purposes) and filed a piece of paper with my number in it.
By 8:10, my number was displayed on the monitor, and I went up to the window for the first part of the two-part interview. The man was very pleasant, and seemed a little confused about my application before he realized it was a follow-to-join application. He then said he would want the original documents today and took the originals of my birth certificate, marriage license, and two passport photos. He asked about my husband's status in the US, I shared he was a permanent resident, and he asked for a copy of his Green Card (which, thankfully, I had in the binder).
He asked a few confirmation questions like phone number, Canadian address for document return, US address of my husband, and if that's where I'd be living. He took my fingerprints and then had me sit back down. This first portion was about 7-8 minutes in total.
By 8:25 I was called up for the second time, this time to a woman who also was very pleasant and felt very approachable. She had me take an oath and then had an inquisitive conversation. Lots of questions asking, but in a very noninterrogative manner. From memory, these are thing things that she asked/touched on (in no particular order):
- Ever lived in a different country?
- Ever been denied entry or had any issues at the border?
- What does your husband do for work?
- What was your longest stay in the US?
- What countries have you visited in the last five-years?
- How did you and your husband meet?
- Where did your husband adjust status?
- If I had kids?
She was happy and content with 1-2 word answers, yes/no, or "through mutual friends" for the meeting my husband. Even stating my longest stay in the US was 3 months didn't raise eyebrows or prompt any follow-up questions.
Then she told me that I would be approved, and that was it!
I was picking up my husband from purgatory by 8:40, where practically everyone else inside was prepping for their interview or waiting for someone who was over at the consulate.
Post Interview
We registered for courier service to receive my passport back; I was religiously checking my case status since the interview. Although we saw case updates on each of the following days after the interview, the status remained "Ready". Finally, three days after the interview on Feb 3rd, the status changed to Issued. The status on ais.usvisa-info.com still shows "Current Status: Appointment," and there is no tracking number posted yet. Hoping that it will be posted by Monday!
I hope everyone about to attend their interview or who gets an interview letter soon has a very smooth process, and this helps to alleviate any worries! I'm happy to answer any questions I can!
