After stalking this thread for months I've found it helpful to compare my timeline with others and noticed a lot of ppl have questions that overlap so I thought I'd share my experience too.
Married 2+years, been together for 10. Filed I130 in Jan 2021. Interview Nov 2022 - at the end of the interview I was told I'd be put in AP and he asked me if I was okay to leave my passport behind. I have a nexus card so I chose to leave my passport behind in case it was processed quickly so I wouldn't have to deal with sending it back and forth. Was given "usually within 4 weeks" as a timeline but obviously this didn't stick.
Sent DS-5535 form back within a week of the interview and have seen very little updates to my case file since.
We tried to wait a few months to give them a chance but ultimatedly decided it would be worth filing a WOM after seeing all the ppl on here waiting months to years for their approval. Filed a lawsuit with Hacking on March 17, summonses sent March 20, last defendant served April 3 - now they have until June 2 to respond.
Since the interview, I've travelled back and forth to the states with just my Nexus card in hand 5+ times and have had no issues. Sometimes airline employees who don't know that nexus is a replacement for passports will give you a little grief but I've never been stopped at customs for not having my passport.
Since filing I still haven't seen any updates to my case online but I've been told by the people at Hacking that this is normal and they will generally wait until closer to the deadline to start moving things along. My medical's expiring this week so looks like they'll be able to use that as another hurdle to get through before issuing anything.
Hope this is somewhat helpful!
Chancy reacted to a post in a topic:
The dreaded DS-5535 thread for Montreal. Post here and support each other (PART 2)