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| Ottowa, Canada |  Review on May 5, 2009: |
elsoar
Rating:  | Review Topic: Direct Consular Filing
Filed for DCF through the Ottawa Embassy. Took a while to figure out how to get an appointment - first we emailed, then we were instructed to phone and left a voicemail with the American Citizen Services Office, then we were redirected to the Consular Section. Brian from the Consular Section knew what to do and gave us an appointment to file the I-130. First he emailed us a checklist which we had to return by email to indicate we were ready to file the I-130 (had our support documents) and then he emailed us back with a appointment date and time. We were told appointments for the I-130 normally take place on Tuesday or Thursday at 2pm and it takes 1-2 weeks to get an appointment.
At the day/time of the appointment you show up at the Embassy and go through the security screening, like an airport. (We were told in advance: You will enter on the Sussex side of the building through the main entrance – but do not bring any large bags with you, as security will not let you enter. Just bring your docs, and a small wallet.) Then you go to a waiting room with windows like they have for bank tellers or train station agents. You meet with an agent through the window who reviews all documents submitted, viewing your originals and intialing your copies to indicate she has done so, and pay the fee (credit cards accepted). Ottawa then forwards your I-130 to Montreal for processing and gives you a yellow sheet with a bit of info about the process. At this point we were told the whole DCF process would take between 6-12 months. For the I-130, we had all our paperwork together Jan 20 and started trying to make an appointment that day - ended up with a Feb 3 appointment to file. Our IV (final) interview in Montreal is scheduled for June so the DCF will (hopefully) have taken us a bit under 5 months from start to finish.
Experience at the Embassy itself was great, but I took a point off the rating for the difficulty we had in figuring out how to get an appointment!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #4332