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| Montreal, Canada |  Review on November 4, 2010: |
lulupunx
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
My son (IR2 Visa) and I had our interview on October 28th, 2010. We did arrive early (0630) and there were 3 people in front of us. By the time they opened the doors at about 0730 the line had grown to about 20 people...not too bad, I expected many more to be in line. Security reviewed our documents and passports and we went through the normal routine of emptying pockets and walking through the scanner. I had only brought my Jeep key and my paperwork but I did see others with magazines and small hand bags. In my opinion less is more, though. Security gave us a tag with an upper case D on it, I am guessing because we were 4th in line. We waited in the hold room for about 10 minutes. In this room there is a photo-booth if you need pictures taken...it is $10 for 3 so bring money!!! A security guard came in and called groups A through D, and we went on the lift with him...he took our paperwork and passports at that point, and we were then ushered into a large waiting room with a great view of Montreal. Before long we were called up to window 12 where a very kind lady reviewed all of our documents and gave us back our birth certificates and other personal paper work. She asked me to review everything to ensure it was correct (remember to check your DOB as my son and I both had birthdays since we submitted these documents to te NVC). She sent us back to the waiting room for about 15 minutes and then called me back to take my Biometrics. Back to the waiting room...30 minutes later we were called to an interview room (room 7 - which is less a room and more a place to stand with bullet proof glass between us and the officer). The officer that interviewed us was kind and polite. She was a multi-tasking wiz, asking us questions, entering information, reading documents...she asked me a few questions about my marriage, but we have been married for 6 years and my husband was a PR in Canada forover 3 years so there was not much to validate. She asked my son about moving, and if he liked Illinois...I guess she was satisfied with what we told her because she said "Welcome to the United States" and handed me some information about POE, SSN and other things.
At this point I explained that my husband was getting the keys to our new house the next day, and that Montreal is a lot closer to Chicago than it is to Edmonton, Alberta...and I asked if there was any way for us to pick up the passports. She said the official answer is 'no', but she would see what we could do. She came back with an orange paper that said we could return the next day at 3pm to pick up our visas. Amazing. A side note, the day we interviewed was the same day the office was having their Halloween party and most people were dressed up in costumes. It was very funny to see these people be so official and be in costume at the same time.
All in all, I found everyone at the Consulate to be polite and friendly...they are obviously serious about their work and I appreciate that. It was a pleasing experience and I now know that likely I could have slept the night before after all. I expected it to be a lot more intense than it was.
All the best to anyone that is waiting for their interview...just relax and be honest...everything will be fine.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #6821