Hi all,
My wife had her interview this morning.
Appointment time was at 9:30am. We arrived at 9am but there was a line and they made us wait outside. Waited until 10:25am before they let my wife into the building while others were still waiting outside. Seemed like a particularly busy day with many cases involving family of 3-4 people. They were also trying to prioritize American citizenship and passport renewal services. Recommend you check weather before hand and bring warm clothes as you might have to wait outside for quite some time.
Once inside, someone will check your passport to verify your appointment. Afterwards comes the security screen. You are not allowed to bring any backpack with you so suggest you bring all your documents in a folder when arriving. They will also ask you to turn off your phone and put it in a locker past security clearance.
Once through security, you will go up to the first floor and wait in the waiting area until your number is called. You will then be called to the first counter where they will collect your original documents including birth certificates, marriage certificate and police certificate(s). The person at the first counter was friendly and just asked questions about who the petitioner was, petitioner's address and legal status in the US. Because my wife used to work in the US after her graduation, she got a Social Security Number (SSN) and they asked her for that information as well. She did not have the physical copy of the SSN but they were ok with her writing it down.
My wife was then asked to have a seat and wait to be called to the second counter. The wait was fairly long as it was busy, ~30 min wait before she proceeded to the 2nd counter. There they had her take the oath promising she would answer everything truthfully. The second person at the counter was very chop-chop and business-like. He asked again who the petitioner was and whether my wife had read the pamphlet. She was not sure which pamphlet they were referring to so they gave her a pamphlet about domestic violence and told her to read it as it was an important document. He then proceeded by asking where and how we met, where I lived, if this was our first marriage, if my wife had committed any crime or if she had at any point in the past overstayed in the US. In between the questions, the officer was just busy typing away into the system. At the end, he said: "It looks like your visa has been approved" and gave my wife a piece of information with instructions about checking documents' status and passport delivery options. The officer also said they would contact if they have any further questions.
My wife got out of the building at 11:50am.
We immediately went onto https://ais.usvisa-info.com/en-ca/iv and https://ceac.state.gov/CEACStatTracker/Status.aspx to check for the status but it seems it has yet to be updated yet. We checked again just now at 3:00pm and the status still shows the below:
Based on people's past experience, how long after your interview does the status tracker reflect that your visa has been issued and when you will see the tracking number? Also how long should we expect to receive our passport back. My wife lives in Toronto and we select the premium delivery service.
Thank you very much and good luck to those who are still waiting and scheduled to take the interview.
