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Daft_Cat

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  1. Daft_Cat
    Not to go too far down that particular rabbit hole, but real estate in Canada's major cities (compared to income) as well as the state of our underfunded health care system (1 year+ for specialist referrals and medical scans) leave little to be desired. I'm Canadian-born and bred, but no country is perfect, and complacency in recent decades has resulted in major systemic issues that will take a generation to fix. That's not to say the US doesn't have some deep issues as well (fringe politics entering the mainstream, huge coverage gaps for working class individuals, inflated education costs, etc.), but the value prop for immigrating down south has become pretty strong for most working professionals in Canada who already earn a decent wage and are less likely to end up uninsured or what have you.
  2. Daft_Cat
    It hasn’t, don’t worry. You’re just in the same void that all of us are. Our responses don’t even matter, and despite the back and forth, they did eventually confirm receipt when you sent in your answers. Any documents they’re truly missing once you clear AP will be requested. I forget if you’ve filed a WoM yet, but if you do go down that road, make sure your attorney calls attention to the haphazard way they’ve handled your AP. It further cements the failure to make good on the duty owed.
  3. Daft_Cat
    Heh. Honestly, I hate to say it, but the best way to get through AP is to just accept that it’s not happening on any reasonable timeline and to simply put aside whatever plans you had. Stop checking your status and counting down the days - just lay out whatever your strategy is going to be (WoM after a certain amount of time or whatever you opt for) and move on. I know that sounds defeatist and is easier said than done for many of us (myself included) to varying degrees, but the alternative is to sit on your hands & obsess while waiting in anguish for months or even years. It sucks, it’s unlucky, and it reflects a dysfunctional, broken system. But none of that will change the outcome. Nor does it mean the consulate has legitimate suspicions that you’re a criminal or that you’re somehow a less worthy applicant. Plan to wait for a year minimum, and if the visa comes in the meantime, then great. Better to be pleasantly surprised than disappointed. This attitude is what has kept me mostly sane.
  4. Daft_Cat
    I’ve seen anywhere from weeks to a couple months reported in prior iterations of these threads.
  5. Daft_Cat
    Got a case update today. Sent an email about 2 weeks ago, so it seemingly lines up with that. Having said that, in the past, case updates brought on by inquiries have lined up 1:1 with their canned responses, only this time they haven't responded. Curious to see if I get any more unsolicited updates over the next week or two... ... though I probably just jinxed it by verbalizing it.
  6. Daft_Cat
    Once more unto the breach...
  7. Daft_Cat
    Yeah, this just looks like a variant of the exact same thing we all get. My form said additional questions would be sent to me by email, but that was a year ago. The only difference is I was told to send my passport after, and not before. Not sure what that means - either you'll be processed faster, or, as I mentioned earlier, it may be an attempt by the consulate to streamline the back-end of the process so that they have your passport on hand already when you're approved.
  8. Daft_Cat
    A few other posters in this thread have mentioned a portal for filling out the responses. It's definitely a newer thing, but you're not alone @MRJ9987
  9. Daft_Cat
    The fact that they're asking some people for their passport after they submit their responses seems to be a relatively new trend. It may mark a change in how they're processing new cases, or it may be an attempt to expedite the back-end so that approval of the DS-5535 and the stamping of the passport can be done as a single step. Until recently, these two steps have been done separately, which has led to even longer delays for some applicants and probably doesn't help with resourcing issues (assuming that is part of the root cause). Personally, as someone who flies semi-regularly (and knowing what I know about AP processing times), I'd be nervous about sending the consulate my passport before they approved my visa. But then again, they asked you to do it, so your choices may be limited. Have you discussed with an immigration attorney? I believe you can always request your passport back if you're in a pinch, but obviously not ideal. As for visiting Montreal: I'd advise against that. I doubt they'll even let you upstairs without an appointment, and if by some miracle they do, the wait will likely be incredibly long just for an officer to tell you they can't do diddly-squat.
  10. Daft_Cat
    I feel we’re pretty representative unfortunately. At least for Montreal. Multiple attorneys have told me that extended waits are the norm and not the exception. I’d hazard an educated guess that most of the members in this thread began posting (or lurking) shortly after receiving the DS5535 - as you have. There’s no evidence to the contrary (e.g. that we’re some special sub-group that’s stuck in a black hole while everyone else clears in a few weeks). It’s nonsensical, but it is what it is. You’ll get through it, but I’d stay flexible with your plans (I learned this the hard way).
  11. Daft_Cat
    Your case sounds identical to mine and I’ve been waiting a year. I was sent questions by email that lined up 1:1 with the DS-5535, but was never given a form labeled DS-5535. Consulate officer also told me it “hopefully” wouldn’t take too long. Edit: I wasn’t asked to mail my passport after submitting though, so maybe you’ll be processed quicker.
  12. Daft_Cat
    I filed through an attorney, still got the DS5535. I’m about as “ancestrally Canadian” as you can get without being full on indigenous. My family has been here for at least a century if not longer. Before that it’s all English and Scottish. My wife was born in Russia but immigrated to the states when she was less than a year old (around the end of the Cold War). She isn’t a citizen of the Russia that exists today (nor has she ever visited) and both her parents have been US citizens for decades. I guess that could have triggered something, but it feels like a stretch.
  13. Daft_Cat
    I decided to fight the motion to dismiss, though I’m pretty confident my number will come up before the process gets that far. I just felt it was prudent to keep the legal door open, especially since the judge in my case is typically pretty friendly to the cause. This is an election year and the border has been in the news for the wrong reasons - theoretically things could get worse and it seemed safer to push on until the request for my passport is in my inbox.
  14. Daft_Cat
    If I recall correctly the story about the baby was second hand information. Probably a poster that heard about it anecdotally from an attorney or through their own network. My memory is hazy, but it must've been at least 6 months ago.
  15. Daft_Cat
    Same here. Canada born and bred. No suspicious travel. I lived in the States a decade ago on a student visa, but otherwise my history is unremarkable. Was also told it was random. I'm sure the truth is somewhere in the middle. There's no doubt that they're handing out DS-5535s at random as part of a delay tactic, but having a profile that's aligned to the form's original intent (additional scrutiny for those with ties to specific countries / regions) probably doesn't help.
  16. Daft_Cat
    The only difference I can think of is that the DS-5535 was originally introduced to apply more scrutiny to applicants with certain flags in their profile (specifically tied to certain countries). In Canada, it's being applied seemingly at random and disproportionately compared to other consulates. The source from earlier mentioned a backlog of 66k, with 37 advisors tasked with clearing it. But if a disproportionate number of those are coming from Montreal (and I believe other posts in this thread have found evidence of that from various sources), it's possible the Montreal-specific backlog is being cleared at a slower rate so as not to congest the more "legitimate" DS-5535s coming from other consulates. That's just speculation on my part, but something has to be going on with Montreal specifically.
  17. Daft_Cat
    Yeah - I think there's also a distinction between DS-5535s issued by Montreal vs. other consulates. I can't point to a particular source, but I think Montreal is more broadly seen to be abusing the process and using it as a delay tactic. When I was shopping around for law firms to assist with the WoM, I kept hearing again and again that Montreal is one of the most inefficient, dysfunctional consulates in the world. In other countries - particularly overseas - I imagine the DS-5535 is used in a way that's similar to an SAO and results in more sensible processing times. Just a theory though.
  18. Daft_Cat
    Hope fading. That 75% figure feels off. Maybe it's dated.
  19. Daft_Cat
    I went with PIC Law. They've been great, and they are more than willing (and eager) to fight it. It's just disappointing that it came to this after multiple extension requests. You're right that it's common - though it's become a lot more common in the past few months. A year ago (before WoMs caught on), those waiting more than 6 months or so we're typically cleared after an initial extension request.
  20. Daft_Cat
    I agree. My attorney actually brought this case up specifically as well as several of the points you mentioned. I'm likely going to continue on with it just to keep a foot in the door, legally speaking (anything beats the black void of dealing with the consulate directly). My attorney is of the position that the State Department will do just about anything to avoid the discovery process, so continuing to apply pressure is the right way forward.
  21. Daft_Cat
    So after two extension requests, we received a motion to dismiss. The reasons were the usual - lack of jurisdiction, no claim, etc. Apparently the state attorney's hand was forced by the state department. There's nothing in our profile that would prompt a legitimate DS-5535, so our lawyer just sees this as a continuation of the emerging trend to not budge as a means of deterring future WoMs. I haven't figured out what to do yet. On the one hand, given that people in January have begun to receive requests for their passport, my gut tells me I may receive good news sooner rather than later by simply doing nothing (my interview was in Feb 23). Then again, that assumes some semblance of linearity, which is not necessarily a fair assumption. Likewise, if I do withdraw the complaint, I risk losing that means of continued pressure on the consulate, which may prove helpful if what we're seeing now is the beginning of a more extreme slow-down in the consulate's pace. We have a judge that's relatively friendly to the cause, so fighting the motion to dismiss may bear fruit - if only by continuing to make it easier for the consulate to simply issue the visa. When it comes to others who may be considering the WoM route, I would just reinforce that a motion to dismiss seems to be the rule and not the exception. Even for long-standing cases. Take that extra cost into account up front, and keep in mind that the odds of a significant acceleration in pace appear to be slim (as I mentioned, I'm seemingly at the point where I'm close to the front of the line regardless, despite having filed the WoM 4-5 months ago).
  22. Daft_Cat
    It's frustrating, but the reason for this is very likely the intent behind the DS-5535. In the countries you mentioned, the DS-5535 is probably being applied in a way that's consistent with its original intention - as a security check against individuals with certain flags in their profiles (whether you agree or disagree with the necessity of this additional layer of scrutiny likely comes down to your political views). In Canada, it's being used as a bottleneck to ease capacity constraints. The purpose is not to perform legitimate background checks triggered by specific criteria, but rather to punt a certain number of applicants down the road by removing processing timelines. At least this is the prevailing theory.
  23. Daft_Cat
    I have no idea, but I wouldn't over-think it. I would assume your interview date and the date you submitted your responses are the key determining factor. I also wouldn't get hung up on the number of individuals on the list that the other poster mentioned. This forum is a small sub-section of the folks moving through the Montreal consulate, and Montreal is notoriously inefficient compared to other consulates. The reason the writs are being thrown out now is because there are so many of them. My charitable read would be that the consulate staff is probably pretty eager to fix this issue.
  24. Daft_Cat
    My interview was Feb and haven't received a request for my passport yet, so a year or longer feels about right (but anyone's guess is as good as mine). The prevailing theory seems to be that it's an operational issue. Covid created an applicant backlog, which they tried to band-aid by opening Pandora's box and leveraging the DS-5535 outside of its original scope (thus removing timeline constraints for issuing visas). That may have worked in the short-term, but it's resulted in a perpetually growing backlog without addressing the underlying resourcing bottleneck. Now you almost have two distinct workstreams: processing new applicants, and clearing those sent to AP. I think there was a request for additional funding last fall, so clearly there's some momentum to fix the issue. As for the writ, we filed 7-8 months after our interview - it wasn't dismissed outright, but we seem to be stuck in a cycle of extension requests and I have a feeling a motion to dismiss may be imminent.
  25. Daft_Cat
    Not yet. The extension the state department requested is close to expiring - though the US attorney has apparently been pretty receptive / cooperative in the past. Working with my lawyer now to figure out next steps - whether it’ll be signing off on another extension or fighting a motion to dismiss (whichever we ultimately end up with). I suppose there’s a possibility I miraculously hear from the consulate over the next week but not holding my breath.
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