Consulate Review: Montreal, Canada
Review Topic: K1 Visa
|
| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
January 24, 2016 |
| Embassy Review : |
Okay, this is loooooong and very detailed!
I had my interview in Montreal January 19 and stayed at the Days Inn downtown which is about a 10 to 15 minute walk to the consulate straight up Renée Levesque Boulevard. I booked a weeklong stay at the hotel because my interview was on a Tuesday and the medical was the previous Wednesday because the medical results take four days to come back.
The Medical
My medical was on Wednesday, January 13 at 10 AM. The building the medical is in is called Loto Quebec at 500 Rue Sherbrooke West on the 11th floor, when you step out of the elevator there are two doors that both say Medisys but only one is the actual visa medical location - it's the one with the paper notices on it. You wait to be called to the receptionist, give her:
- 5 passport photos
- your passport
- your confirmation print out showing the date of your interview
- package 4 letter
- all your medical files including vaccinations and current medication
She'll send you to sit down and fill out a form with five pages of medical history. Once done you give that back to her and wait to be called for your appointment. It's a very busy location with lots of people having medicals done for various visa purposes. After about 20 minutes a nurse called me in; she checked my eyesight, weighed me, took blood for syphilis, took my blood pressure. When I was done with her she sent me back to the waiting room where I sat for a moment and was almost immediately called for my x-ray; they took two chest x-rays, gave me a card and sent me back out to reception where I gave the card to the receptionist and then sat back down again. A couple minutes later the doctor came out, we went to her office and we sat and chatted about my medical history, my relationship and what visa I was applying for, then she checked my reflexes, abdomen, eyes, ears and balance. And that was it, extremely painless except for paying $340 after the visit. I was in and out of the office in an hour. I had to go back the day before my interview to pick up the results, you have to call ahead to make sure they're ready before you go. You are given two sealed envelopes which specifically say not to open them, and one folded piece of paper that are your vaccination records for your adjustment of status. In all they were very efficient, polite, and know what they're doing. Try to be early for your appointment because of the additional paperwork you have to fill out. Know the address you'll be living in the USA and have your Alien number ready (starts with MTL).
The Interview
My interview was January 19, I'd been in Montreal a week and it was by far the coldest day it had been in the city that winter at minus 16 and a stiff wind. My fiancé had driven up from Maine the Saturday before so we could spend some time in the city and was accompanying me to the interview. We woke up at 6am, got ready, and after seeing the temperature, got a taxi to the consulate at 7am (I'd typically walk but it was awful out) which cost $6(with tip). We checked the consulate, no one else was there, so we sat in Starbucks across the road for about 15 minutes, then I saw someone go to the consulate door and wait so we headed out.
It was FREEZING and we waited with that person for about 10 minutes until more people started arriving, there were about 10 but the time they opened the doors at 7:30 and the security guard told everyone to line up on the left (when you're facing the entrance) and fairly rudely told a man he had to go to Eaton Centre to leave his bag and that he should have read the instructions. We were let in one by one, I was given #1 for K1 interview and she specifically said to sit in the middle for immigrant visas, there is no need to talk to anyone. We went through security which my fiancé described as an airport security with shoes.
We then headed down a set of stairs to wait by the elevator in what amounts to a basement waiting room and it slowly filled with about 30 people. After about 15 minutes a very tall security guard came and unlocked the elevator, pushed the button and left. About 15 people crammed into the elevator and it very slowly made its way to the consulate. The doors open on the opposite side and you are in a dinghy DMV type waiting area.
We sat in the middle with about 5 other people, everyone else was instructed to make their way to the visa line on the right hand side by the windows - these are for work, travel, tourist, student etc visas. That line immediately started moving because there's a line of teller type windows and they just went up one by one, no numbers are given to them.
For the immigrant visas the numbers are not called in order at all, #3 was called first(I think she was K1 also) and she went window 3, took about 10-15 minutes, and then sat down. She was there for a minute and then was called again but to a window down the hall. Then #2 was called to window 2. I waited 40 minutes until #1 (me) was finally called to window #1. Your number tells you what to have ready:
Passport
Two passport photos
Medical information
When you get to the window he takes the white envelope for your medical (assuming you had it done at Medisys) and does not take your X-ray DVD
He then takes both hands of finger prints and then opens the medical file, compares your passport photos to the one stapled to your medical file, does some things on the computer, verifies some information like where you will be living, your current address, email etc. He also asked for:
Letter of intent
Interview confirmation
Police check
Passport copy
Birth certificate original
Birth certificate copy
Affidavit of support original
2014 tax return (he rifled through the unbelievable amount of paperwork my fiancé provided and only took the 2014 tax return, presumably because few people will have their 2015 return yet).
Then I was sent to sit down long enough for my fiancé to go to the bathroom and chat a moment about what I was asked. After about 6 minutes I was called to window 8 which is down the hall.
A nice young man was behind a window in a tiny room with two chairs - I asked if he needed my fiancé and he said no, this will only take two minutes. He said we had to do the oath, which we did, then fingerprints again (which is the equivalent of your signature for the oath) then asked the standard questions like:
- trouble at the border
- with the law
- stayed longer than 6 months in the USA
- lived anywhere other than Canada
- where my fiancé lived
- how long he'd lived there
- how we met (eharmony)
- when we met in person
- where we met in person
- how long we dated before we got engaged
- if we had any children together
- whether I'd ever been married before
- and whether he had. This is where it got complicated, because my fiancé is twice divorced, so he asked a lot about that and noticed that the divorce wasn't final until just before we met in person (divorce can take months to be finalized after a separation) but he seemed satisfied with my answers.
- he then asked about my fiancé's job and here I stuck to the number one rule: answer the question you're asked, do not offer additional information. When I was asked where does he work, I gave them the name of his company. How long had he worked there? Almost two years. What does he do there? He builds furniture. All of those answers are the truth. The additional information not asked for is that he is self-employed. His 2014 tax return shows him being employed by the company he left to start his own business (successfully, thankfully). He makes well over the limit and it wouldn't be an issue, but I didn't want to complicate things.
Then he said here's your welcome letter, told me to expect my visa and passport back in about two weeks, returned my original birth certificate and sent me on my way. We were back to the hotel by 9:10am. It was a little surreal and it still hasn't really sunk several days later.
Honestly, of the entire process this is seriously the least stressful. It was sort of anti-climactic considering what you go through to get there. Everyone is nice, pleasant and if you're prepared you won't have any issues. The consulate in Montreal has a confusing system that doesn't make sense to an outside observer, the wait was bizarre because of the number system, but once called up it seems to go very fast. I think they do a limited number of immigrant visas per day so the number you get is the window you're called to, at least that seemed to be what was happening on the day I was there. There doesn't seem to be any point in having an interview time booked other than they mark you off as present at the front door which is obviously relayed to the Consulate before you get to the 19th floor.
My best advice is answer only what you're asked, be direct, there's no need to be nervous if you're legit and prepared. It really is, despite the anxiety leading up to it, the simplest part of the whole thing. Just now waiting for my visa to arrive in Halifax and then USA!!
|
| Rating : |
Good |
|
ver 5.0