|
|
| Montreal, Canada |  Review on September 7, 2011: |
Paul H
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
My fiancee had her interview on September 2 in Montreal. I drove up to Canada to go with her and we made a vacation out of it since it was a holiday weekend. We stayed at the Hilton Montreal Bonaventure not far from the consulate.
Thanks to VJ forums we were as prepared as we could be. We took a cab from the hotel and arrived at the consulate at 7:00am and were 5th in line. They opened the doors at 7:30. We went through the security check. They held a few things for us that weren't allowed in like an SD card that was in Jenni's purse. They gave us a ticket so that we could pick it up on the way out.
We were directed downstairs and sat in the only two wooden chairs in front of the elevator. We chatted with a few others while waiting for the elevator to be opened. One person was there for her second time. She was denied entry at the border the first time, yikes.
The guard eventually came down to open the elevator and we made our way to the back door and proceeded to the 19th floor. Jenni got in line and was give number C2. Strangely they didn't call the numbers in order. I think we were called after C8.
Once called we headed over to window 11 where we got the lady that wears a thick gold necklace with a cross and several rings on her hands. I remember her from descriptions in other VJ reviews and yes she was very impatient. Jenni was very prepared and had a nice organized folder of each original and copy for every form with tabs. Good thing because even as prepared as she was it wasn't fast enough for this lady. And when Jenni tried to give her a form before asked she was scolded. Geez.
While that was going on I went back to the cashier to pay the $350 U.S. dollars for the k-1 visa and was given a receipt. Then I went back to window 11 and gave the receipt to the lady. After all the forms and passport were collected we were told to go back and wait then someone would call us to window 8 for the interview.
While we were waiting we notice another couple were filling out some forms they forgot to do. We were surprised they were letting them do that as opposed to making them come back. They hadn't done their DS-230. ouch.
Jenni and I were then called up to window 8 and we got the lady with the dreads. I think she was having an off day since she didn't seem her friendly self like other posters described her as. She looked through our forms and ask us a few simple questions like how we met and asked Jenni where I worked. Then gave Jenni the Welcome to the United States letter and we were done.
We were out at about 9:45am. Easy Peasy. Overall an ok experience, except for the impatient lady at booth 11.
To celebrate we found a nice restaurant within walking distance of our hotel called Andiamo. Excellent food and wine. Highly recommended. Then we went back to the hotel and took a swim in the roof top heated pool. The hotel was great, but expensive. We figured we were only doing this once so we might as well make it something to remember. And it certainly was!
| |
|
Consulate / USCIS Member Review #8258