Consulate Review: Montreal, Canada
Review Topic: K1 Visa
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| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
April 26, 2017 |
| Embassy Review : |
So this is my first active post on VJ though I've been prowling the forums for months and months. Now pertaining to the Montreal Consulate...
My experience here was swift and simple. I have a lot of anxiety on a performance and social level, so I have been worried sick about the whole interview process for weeks leading up to it.
I came to the front door at 8:30am for an 8:45am interview, and was surprised and a little off put that there was no line up. Regardless, the signage is pretty blatantly for the consulate so I walked in and the lady in the red vest checked me in using my passport information. She also gave me the laminated checklist.
After this, I got instructed to wait at the door to be let in by security. Again, there was no line (I was under the impression the place was usually busy but it was dead). The security officer let me in, had me take off my jacket and watch, and all standard airport security things. I left my phone with my family in Starbucks and only had a small purse and wallet so there wasn't much to be looked at by the security. They were very polite (much more polite than an airport!).
When I got through, I gathered my belongings and they directed me down some stairs and into the basement. There's only 1 elevator so its easy enough to find, and like others have said before, there's only 1 floor button (floor 19). That's where we go.
When I got to the top I sat down to wait for.... anything, and the greeter caught up with me and sent me directly to booth 2 to have my documents dealt with. I stood there for about 20 minutes before anyone showed up, a couple came and left before I got attention. I'm not sure if I was forgotten or if they were busy, but they came around eventually. It gave me a private space to sort out my unusually organized file folder in the order they requested (I probably had 40 paper clips and 20 sticky notes in there!!).
They didn't ask for the order that was listed, I was trying to keep the limited table space clear as we went and ended up fishing things back out that I thought he just no longer cared about (like asking for my passport, then doing 3 other documents, then asking for my passport copy way later). Overall, they asked for my appointment letter as proof of payment, my passport and copy, my long form birth certificate and copy, my medical envelope (they gave back the CD for the xrays), the letter of intent (gave back my copy but kept my petitioner's), and collected the I134 sponsor form for my fiance and co-sponsoring parents. They asked for the tax return of both sponsors which I had. I had the entire tax return for both of them but they only kept the 1040 form specifically. They didn't want the banking or employment information that the form actually asks to include, even when I offered it to them. The girl beside me had her fiance with her as a sponsor and he didnt include his tax return, but I still think they got approved because she seemed pleasant after the whole thing.
I read in previous people's experiences that they asked for photo ID for a co-sponsor so I included a driver's license. It seems obvious as an after thought but when I gave it to them they asked if I had anything like a birth certificate or passport, presumably because it indicates citizenship, whereas the license doesn't. Regardless, they kept the license and the whole thing didn't impact my results.
After they collected my documents, they asked me to sit back down and wait to be called. About 5 minutes later, I got called to room 8. The man there was friendly. He said he was going to ask me a few questions and then send me on my way.
He started with "Tell me about your future husband" or something of the sort and I launched into our whole backstory and love and blah blah blah. I did a bullet point timeline of how we got to where we were. He asked "any wedding plans yet?" and I said yes, and told him a bit about the location and venue, as well as when it was (June 10th, which was another reason this interview was scary.... lots of wishful thinking in the wedding plan process!). Then he did a couple small questions about "what my fiance was doing" (no income on his own, hence the co-sponsor) and I told them he was in school for his bachelor's degree. He asked where I was living when I moved there, particularly if it was student housing (HECK. NO.).
After he was satisfied with my answers he said "well, your visa has been approved" and I started internally screaming. He double checked I was arranged with courier (I was). It was pretty apparent that their shipping process is fast because when he misunderstood me that I hadn't, he told me to make it rush priority, by phone, before leaving the area. Hopefully I get it soon!
Which sort of is my last and final part of the experience, also unfortunately the only bad thing really. Going into the interview I knew my petition had expired just due to document collection and such. I had read here on VJ that most places renew and re-validate petitions all the time and automatically, particularly if it's before your interview (mine expired in February). I had asked in emails about it and they told me that my interviewing officer could do it, if he so chose to, but wouldn't affirm a renewal via message or mail. Anyway I had a typed up request to give him if he wanted it when I asked, but in the excitement of the approval I blanked out about it. In the 30 seconds it took me to go from booth to elevator and back he was gone. I asked the greeter if there was any way I could ask him my urgent question and she said no. I enforced that it was imperative (I travelled 7 hours by car and knew they wouldn't address the answer any other way), so she went into the booth where I had been and said he was gone, and there was nothing she could do. I could SEE him through someone else's booth in the back of the office but I couldn't disrupt other people's business and the greeter apparently had 0 control over anything. After I continued to bug her she just kind of left to some back room, perhaps to get rid of me.
So I left the consulate excited about approval but more anxious about the whole petition expiry issue, which I've read all about in other people's experiences on here. There are a lot of mixed messages on the issues, so I felt pretty bogged down about it for the first hour or so. Now all I can do is wait for my visa in the mail and hope it was automated, and address anything else accordingly thereafter, I guess.
Overall, got in at 8:30 and out in about 50 minutes. Lots of people compliment friendly booth workers, mine were pretty to the point, but it could be because I'm shy and not very chatty myself. Not a lot of friendly chit chat, but the job got done without a lot of tension.
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| Rating : |
Good |
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ver 5.0