Hello fellow DS-5535 club members,
I had my interview on May 17 2024 and got the DS-5535. I have been reading and observing everyone's experience throughout our case since we applied for i-130 in 2022. I had mistakenly thought our case would be simple so I didn't sign up until now. We have been married nearly 8 years and 7 of those, my spouse lived with me in Toronto (we did a permanent residence application with Canada Immigration). I knew Montreal might be a challenge but was naive and thought I wouldn't be selected.
I'm a Canadian born citizen. I have one parent who was born in Canada. My other parent was naturalized long ago, and born in a country that may be considered a problem by US immigration. They are both deceased. I have mixed ethnicity and ambiguous appearance but am generally white passing.
All my travel history is to the US and neither my partner nor I have done a TAL job. Montreal embassy did not ask for a resume, but they did ask for my job history with descriptions in the DS-5535. They did not ask for my spouse's.
During my interview, I got the impression that it was going very smoothly. The first officer commented that it was "good" I had uploaded all my documents including updated tax transcripts and proof of assets.
The second officer asked standard relationship questions and was somewhat casual and joked a little bit. He asked me how long my spouse lived in the US since returning from Canada and when I answered, he said something along the lines of "good, that will make this process go faster." I was confused because I thought the process was nearly done. When he gave me the 221g requesting DS-5535, he commented that it says "refused" but that I shouldn't be alarmed. He commented that there was nothing I could have done ahead of time to prevent this outcome.
My main suspicion for why I got selected is either it was random, or my parent's place of birth is a red flag. The country is listed on my birth certificate and our marriage certificate.
I submitted my DS-5535 on May 20 and my case was updated the next day. Since then, my case has been updated May 24 and May 31 which is every friday since my interview, which was also on a friday. I emailed today to update my phone number. I will be updating again in a month because I am renewing my passport.
Anyway that's my info dump. Thank you to everyone for updating in this thread, it was very helpful when we were first researching this outcome. And thank you to @Superluminal for maintaining the spreadsheet. I will keep updating the thread as things happen.