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| Montreal, Canada |  Review on March 16, 2010: |
CObound
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
When I had originally got my interview letter in January, I had emailed the embassy querrying the possibility of another interview date due to being stuck at work. I got no responsed up to the 2 week mark before my interview date of March 15, 2010, so I called the embassy and I was transferred from the phone tree to an operator. I explained that I had asked for an alternate date but recieved no confirmation so I was unclear as to what date I was to arrive in Montreal. She agreed that process would be expensive if I arrived for an interview that had indeed been scheduled for an alternate date, so she took my information and said she would pass it along. The next day a lady from the consulate called my cell and confirmed my interview date.
Our interview was for March 15, 2010 at 8am. I had a connection at the Fairmont hotel, so we got a great deal on a room for a couple of nights, and the walk to the consulate was only 3 blocks away. Thank God for friends.
We arrived at 630am and were by ourselves for about 20min, so I went to Tim's and got some breakfast for us. It's up the hill on Rene Levesque 1 block from the consulate. By the time the doors opened it was 735am and about 12 people were in line, 4 for immigrant visas and the rest I assume were non-immigrant. We left all our electronic stuff in the hotel which made the security screening fast. If you do have restricted items, such as makeup powder, cellphones, lotions, etc, they will store the items in the security area and give you a tag to retrieve them later. Done with security and downstairs to wait for the elevator, which arrives like clockwork at 745am, then up to the 19th floor to wait in the US citizen waiting area.
About 8am they called us, "letter A", and we went to window 11 which is down a hall and into a back room (read the signs hanging from the ceiling). A really nice lady asked for all our documents, one at a time, and our expresspost envelope, which we had. This is the only place were we found information on the requirement and the size of the envelope (12x15, the largest national one), so everyone following us knows. Due to the time change the employees were locked out of their computers so we had to sit down for a while to wait for the computers. Then it was back to window 11 for finger print scan, which took a whole 50 seconds.
About 845am they called us by name to window 8, which is a small room you enter and close the door behind you. Put all your stuff and coats on the chair or hooks because you will have to raise your hand and take an oath swearing the information you provided is correct. The interviewer was a really nice fellow who seemed sincerely interested in getting to know the petitioner with well thought out questions:
-So, how did you guys actually meet?
-Do you remember the date you met in person for the first time? (I actually got the date correct which got a "Holy cow you remembered", from my wife) The interviewer thought that was pretty funny.
-So where are you working now?
-(to my wife) What do you do for a living? How long have you been doing that?
-a few other questions that you might ask if you were meeting someone for the first time, but that was about it.
After that he excused himself for a couple of minutes and came back in the room and said "We can issue you a visa, so you are all done". He gave us an information sheet explaning the next process and asked when I was moving. I said it won't be for a couple of months because I need to sell the house, etc. He just reinforced the fact that the Visa stamp in my passport is only valid for 6 months. I asked how long it takes to get the passport back, and he said as long as all the background checks work out (FBI, ect) they usually mail out the passport the next day. So I should have my passport back the same week.
I can say all the people we met in the embassy were really nice, and if you try to help them do their job (all your information organized, listen and answer their questions directly), they try to make the process go smoothly for you.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #5803