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| Montreal, Canada |  Review on May 9, 2008: |
Pari
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
Well, I think this will read pretty much like every other review of interviews conducted in Montreal.
We checked into the Tour Centre-Ville Montreal on May 5th and made a practice run to the embassy that night to time our commute in the morning. After walking around some, we decided Montreal is really beautiful and ... French! I loved being able to use my grade 10 French on people and they thought we were a cute little family. That night, I didn't sleep much and our son woke us up bright and early (5 am sound horrendous to you? It was...)
We got dressed and carried all our files, baby stuff and of course, the baby to the Consulate at 6:50. We were the first in line and it started to drizzle a tad and so I took my son to the Cultures cafe inside the SNC Lavalin building. He played with all their furniture and earned a KitKat candy bar for his troubles (the lady at the counter thought he was "le Cute, eh?". Yes, he is le Cute! Thank you!) I took my time because I thought we had a good 40 minutes to burn; I chatted with the ladies at the cafe - when I went out, my husband looked frazzled and had left the line to look for me. We were now fifth in line! (They open the doors at 7:30am for the early birds, so it pays to get their by 7:00.)
That's okay, we were the third immigrant visa's of the day, so no real loss. We were thoroughly examined in case our diaper bags, lotions or baby had any explosive elements. Everything was A-OK, but the guards kept the musical cards my mother-in-law sent me (which I was going to use as proof of relationship). I had so many correspondences/proof from so many people, I wasn't terribly disappointed that they kept it with security. Finally, we were allowed into the building, at the expense of having the security guard use us to train a new guard... I hate being a trainers "prop". Ah, me. All the interviewees were then herded in front of the elevators in the basement and given instructions like we were robots... the guards were very nice, but I just wanted to get upstairs to the interview room!
Then we got to the fabled 19th floor. Very nice. Very clean! And tres organized! Our "numbers" which were actually letters were taken from us. We took seats and waited for them to call us (several times) into the "Windows 6-12" room. First call: the lady made sure all our stuff was in order, went through the forms that needed signatures, stamps, explanations, then asked about how long we've been married (and wrote "CR1" on the application). We were told to take a seat. The suspense was killing me!! I was tres nervous and my son was starting to act up. Second call: fix up some financial data and correct others stuff... all a blur now! Third call: got my finger-prints taken, chose which of the MULTITUDES of pictures they had of me I wanted to appear on the Visa. (I thought, I guess you don't need the ones I took a week ago, huh?!) Fine, have a seat.
Then things got good! People were being called into "room 8"!!! Dun-dun-duuuuuuun!!! That's right! Interviews were going on! Yippity skippity!
Okay, so our turn came. We walked into the room (standing room only) and watched a guy behind 2-inch-thick bullet-proof glass pull out our file. He asked us how we met, how long married, and let on that it was pretty much a done deal since we had a kid together. He was the nicest guy we've ever met, made us feel super comfortable (but still not TOO comfortable). Finally, he said he would approve us and, if we had plans to travel sometime soon, we could come the next day to pick the visa up!!! Wow, a year and a half of torturous waiting culminating to 10 minutes of joking, light-hearted gaiety, and an approval. Isn't life ironic?
We thanked him a number of times and took our stuff back to the hotel. Montreal seemed even prettier, brighter and more radiant than before. I was so happy and all the bad feelings of the past year and a half just fell off! The pressure was gone and we could just live life! We toured several tres chic parts of town, ate out a lot and slept peacefully. We picked up our visa the next morning and some Montreal bagels and started the long drive home.
So, that was the short version of our trip! We are planning to go the Sacto in five days, God willing.
We wish everyone waiting for their visas all the best, advise them to just be patient and be grateful for everything you have now. Take care of yourselves,
Pari. 
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #2848