DS5535TXCAN

Should be the first thing you see when you sign in. Your screen should be green and at the bottom it will state: Applicant Name Passport Case number Status and under status you will see the tracking number. This is if you used their courier services and sent it via the courier-in-authorization certificate.

Congratulations! - at least they were a little bit competent with your case. We waited 2 months before getting a request for medical after submitting the passport. Good grief this consulate is so inconsistent. Nevertheless, CONGRATS. The end is near!

if this is an immigrant visa for CR1/IR1, on the AIS website you can view the tracking number on the first page once you sign in. Its called "Courier-In Shipping Number". We sent our passport back in August, 15, and took a month for them to reply and confirm they recieved our "documents", even though we were bugging them about any other documents (ex. medical and passport photos). Only for the consulate to request additional documents 2 months after intially requesting the passport. For reference: passport photos were submitted on Oct 13 and medical exam sent to consulate today, although completed almost 2 weeks ago . So my trust in consulate responses is not 100% as they just use templated cookie-cutter responses for all, especially if they already responded to you. Its likely your documents were delivered and just pending consular review. I would wait another week and get your congress to send an inquiry as to the status of the case and if there is any other pending items.

Did not need to provide DS-260. Medical office only wanted proof that the consulate had my passport, still brought a photocopy of my bio page as per their instruction. They also requested email proof of consulate of new medical request. Ill keep you updated on when we hear back, fingers crossed!

@EveK - any updates on progress since? Have you completed your medical and submitted your documents and did you get any status updates? In regards to updates on our case: Aug 8. Passport requested Aug 15. Passport delivered. Jump two months later: Oct 8. Medical exam and passport photos requested separately from passport (no idea why this was the case 🙃) Oct. 10. Medical was completed (thankfully found an appointment) - shout out to Dr.Lyndon's office. Oct 17. Passport photos delivered (issues with AIS website did not allow for a creation of a courier in authorization certificate, had to request help from helpdesk which took 3 BD) We are now anticipating that the panel physician will submit our medical either today or Monday, and hoping for a quick turnaround from the consulate. Will update next week if there is any new movement. For those waiting, be patient it appears there is a light at the end of this tunnel.

That happend to us. Received an email confirmation from congressmen, then were ghosted and when we finally got in touch the congresman sent it right away. The crazy part is the consulate provided two different responses the same day. The first response was to my US citizen spouse who had inquired two weeks prior and the second response was to the congressmen who inquired that same day. It seems that the consulate does not care to read our emails and just sends template responses based on previously sent emails. The reason I bring this up is because we inquired so many times on whether we needed to provide any other supporting documents such as the medical and photos, and they kept ignoring us. First response to my spouse was that the case is STILL pending consular review (its been 8 weeks since request of first document; passport). Second response was to the congressmen inquiry and that email indicated that AP is complete and they are now requesting ALL documents (passport, medical, and passport photos) mind you that they already have the passport. It seems congressmen inquiry really does push it forward, at least in our case, and I hope that you will receive your issued visa soon!

Visa issuance is around the corner. Hopefully a quick turnaround for you!

They did not request it in their initial email. Even after following up multiple times they still indicated that its pending review. What boggles my mind is we just recieved an email, literally 30 mins ago now requesting an updated medical exam and two passport photos. - like wha?!! Why not request it with the passport?? 🤬 My question now is this, I already submitted my passport, do I request AIS website to provide me another courier slip to only send the passport photos? Any assistance from the group is greatly appreciated on this.

If its unsolicited, likely means they're continually working on your case! - from others that have posted on here it appears to be a good sign. Hopefully you will be released from this AP hell soon and reunited with your spouse!

Same here - same boiler redundant response every time. 🙄

Consulate responded today to our congressional inquiry: "We acknowledge receipt of the documents you have provided. This case is currently pending review by a consular officer. As soon as the review is complete, the Visa Unit will advise of the next steps if anything else is needed to complete processing the case." In the response they state the additional blurb "... in some cases, this involves extensive consular review and administrative processing. ..." Are we in some adjacent administrative processing hell, after DS5535 has been cleared? Why request the passport at all if the intention was not to process the case. Today will be 2 months today since MTL requested the passport. What is going on...😣😡

Praying for you and your partner for a speedy IV issuance. - Keep us updated on your status and progress, especially with the second interview/re-oath and what that process entails. As far as updates on our end: Still no case updates. The last case update was 13SEP2024. However, we finally received email confirmation today from congress representative indicating that they inquired with the consulate. We're hoping we hear back from them shortly about a visa issuance or any other outstanding documents. We're annoyed at the lack of consistency with MTL😠. For example, when the consulate requested our passport back on 8AUG2024 we were only notified to provide the passport to the consulate, we emailed multiple times about providing the passport in person as well as whether a medical exam was required knowing its been more than 6 months since our previous medical and they ignored us completely. Instead, only met with breif email to submit what was requested. Any one know if the consulate(s) has ever issued a visa without a updated medical/passport photos?

Thank you for providing this information. We have not heard anything this week nor any case status updates. I am not holding my breath for tomorrow either. Something must have snagged on their end for them to stop processing or stop reviewing our case. It seems everyone so far from 2023 CR/IR has had their case processed and IV issued. Reviewing CEAC every day does not help our mental health either. We've requested our congressmen to inquire (has not even replied to our email to confirm) as well as my spouse. If nothing comes out of these, I feel like the only way to push the consulate to make a decision will be a WOM. Keep us in your prayers 🙏

@ak47 - not to be rude, however, the medical exam question has been answered by many people on this thread. You need to complete your medical exam inside Canada by an approved panel doctor. There are limited number of approved doctors across canada. So you would need to complete this inside of Canada. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Supplements/Supplements_by_Post/MTL-Montreal.html#med_exam_instructions (clearly states: Medical examination results from other physicians will not be accepted.)

I think you might want to reassess your situation if you are already in the US. You SHOULD consult with a lawyer. This is especially the case if you, yourself have been in the US for more than 6 months (Canadians can only stay in the US for a max of 6 months or otherwise risk getting banned from entering the US. This could be 10 years or more). Additionally, you need to cross the border to activate your immigrant visa (land border or at airport). So even if your father recieves your passport, you would need to come back to Canada and then cross back.

I agree with this statement above. Going on week 7 after delivery of passport to consulate. Its really frustrating. Additionally, they explicitly state to use their courier service. All other delivery methods will delay the processing and or your mail will be returned. Heres to hoping something updates for us tomorrow or by friday. 🤕

Congratulations to you both! - please keep us updated on how long it takes to get your passports back. @CarmenD - you mention substantial number of cases. Do you have an estimate # of those issued yesterday? This system is abhorhently inhumane. This uncertainty has been hard to cope with and relationships, financials and overall wellbeing is becoming straining. Passport was requested back on Aug 08, it was delivered on 15 Aug and still no sign of any updates since then other than replies and case status updates based on emails sent to the consulate. Last update for us was 13 Sep which was solicited. Feeling really discouraged at this moment and really down.

CONGRATULATIONS! This is indicative that they are ready to process your immigrant visa. Your clearance has come through and they have requested you to re-do your medical and to send in your passport. Follow any instructions that they provided you based on your consulate.

We also received this type of response on Aug 23 (Friday). after submitting the passport. Our case status updated on the same day as well. The message reads as follows: "We acknowledge receipt of the documents you have provided. This case is currently pending review by a consular officer. As soon as the review is complete, the Visa Unit will advise of the next steps if anything else is needed to complete processing the case." We then asked for estimated timeline of when this review will be completed to figure out our lives and try to plan around it, and the consulates replied on Sep 13 (Friday) as follows: "While we cannot predict when the review of your visa will be completed, please be assured that the Consulate and the State Department are aware of your concerns and will contact you as soon as the review is complete if anything else is needed to complete processing the case." It seems like we are still pending consular review. And to answer the others, it appears that the consulate reviews emails/updates statuses on Thursday/Fridays, at least based on our case. Ill be on the lookout later this week for any new updates, we've been waiting around 5 weeks now like the others here who were requested documents in early August. We also contacted our senator this weekend in the hopes of pushing things along. Fingers crossed.

I am not sure this is applicable to cases going through consular processing through NVC and the embassy. What you're referring to is the USCIS (https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/alerts/uscis-announces-new-guidance-on-form-i-693-validity-period) which is for civil surgeons that provide medical exams within the US. Whereas we all completed our medical exams with panel phyicans. I would be curious to know if there are any people in the group that had their passport requested that had their completed medical in Nov 2023 and were only requested for passports. This could shed light onto whether the decision from USCIS is trickling down to the consulate. For reference my medical was completed and sent to the consulate on 15-NOV-2023.

We received a request for just passport over a month ago after a counsular officer reviewed the case. The passport has now been in their possession for 4 weeks. We have sent multiple emails prior to sending the passport to the consulate to confirm if this was a mistake and whether there are any additional items required (i.e., medical exam). The response we got was an short email with their confirmation of receiving our passport (doucments). However, when contacting AIS (courier service) to send the passport, we asked if we should get another medical, they told us to only provide what was requested. Our last contact with the consulate, 13 sep, the email noted that the case is still pending consular officer review🤬. This likely means that our files are sitting on someone's desk waiting to be looked over and stamped. My theory here is that visa was approved and was going to be issued, but at the end of the interview and mind you the VO was very rushed and was talking to other VO, then comes back and out of nowhere tells us there was additional information required for our case and then provided DS5535. My hopeful thinking here is that in their system the visa was issued, and instead of requesting another medical, they'll issue the visa based on the previously approved one?🤔 The other theory I have and I sure hope to all things that are powerful in this universe that this is not the case. - Another delay tactic by requesting passport and medical individually. 😶‍🌫️I will keep you all updated on what happens. Did you only get a request for just your passport?

Looks like they’re taking their sweet sweet time. We also received a status update today, but still says refused. I also got an email response from them saying that it’s still pending officer review (we inquired 2 weeks ago on sept 03) thinking something was wrong. Really hoping we hear some good news next week and finally see “issued” and finally reunite with our loved ones!

It’s reassuring that many are in the same position. They really dropped the ball the past few weeks. Consulate has had passport since Aug 15 and confirmed receipt Aug 23 (case status updated) and still no status updates since then. Praying that the next week brings many of us long awaited news. Please do provide updates as it’s been really helpful to see updates in real-time.

Congratulations!! do you mind sharing how you found out your visa was issued? Was it an email from the consulate or a status update with your status updating from “refused” to “issued”?

@Superluminal We called the consulate phone number and went through the automated system one of the options is courier in additional documents. Once we got an hang of someone they walked us through this process. Feel free to give them a call if you want to feel assured. However, we were instructed to enter the documents requested by the consulate in that text box. Once completed they will send you the courier instructions. I believe you can view the same instructions via the “print instructions” link on the same site. Hope this helps!