SomberCat's US Immigration Timeline

Petitioner's Name: Jill Beneficiary's Name: Wayne VJ Member: SomberCat Country: Canada Last Updated: 2012-10-07 Add Comment to Timeline Register or log in to follow this timeline

Immigration Checklist for Jill & Wayne:

USCIS I-130 Petition:       Dept of State IR-1/CR-1 Visa:     USCIS I-751 Petition:   USCIS N-400 Petition:

IR-1/CR-1 Visa Event Date Service Center : California Service Center Transferred? No Consulate : Montreal, Canada Marriage (if applicable): 2009-02-13 I-130 Sent : 2009-02-23 I-130 NOA1 : 2009-03-05 I-130 RFE : I-130 RFE Sent : I-130 Approved : 2009-03-25 NVC Received : 2009-04-10 Received DS-261 / AOS Bill : 2009-04-15 Pay AOS Bill : 2009-04-15 Receive I-864 Package : Send AOS Package : 2009-04-17 Submit DS-261 : 2009-04-16 Receive IV Bill : 2009-04-20 Pay IV Bill : 2009-04-20 Send IV Package : Receive Instruction and Interview appointment letter : 2009-04-22 Case Completed at NVC : 2009-05-20 NVC Left : Consulate Received : Packet 3 Received : Packet 3 Sent : Packet 4 Received : 2009-06-23 Interview Date : 2009-08-19 Interview Result : Approved Second Interview (If Required): Second Interview Result: Visa Received : 2009-08-28 US Entry : 2009-08-30 Comments : POE at Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron was a piece of cake. It took less than an hour. Processing Estimates/Stats : Your I-130 was approved in 20 days from your NOA1 date. Your interview took 167 days from your I-130 NOA1 date.

Lifting Conditions Event Date CIS Office : California Service Center Date Filed : 2011-06-01 NOA Date : 2011-06-02 RFE(s) : Bio. Appt. : 2011-07-08 Interview Date : Approval / Denial Date : 2011-12-08 Approved : Yes Got I551 Stamp : Green Card Received : 2011-12-14 Comments :

Citizenship Event Date Service Center : Phoenix AZ Lockbox CIS Office : Indianapolis IN Date Filed : 2012-06-01 NOA Date : 2012-06-05 Bio. Appt. : 2012-06-15 Interview Date : 2012-09-06 Approved : Yes Oath Ceremony : 2012-10-19 Comments :

Member Reviews:

Consulate Review: Montreal, Canada Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa Event Description Review Date : August 23, 2009 Embassy Review : For starters, we went to dinner with Holliday the evening before the interview and had an AWESOME time. She's a great person - lots of fun, very conversational and easy to get to know. I can't wait to meet her husband one day. I think there will be a road trip from Indiana to Oklahoma coming. The next morning, we showed up at the embassy at 7:00 to find Holliday and one other man there. People started showing up shortly after that and it was quite the line by the time they opened the doors at 7:30. As stated by others, they were prompt with the 7:30 door opening and 7:45 elevator arrival. I have to admit that I loved walking in the elevator and knowing which way to face since the door opens on the other side. Later on, this became a source of entertainment for my husband and I, but I'll get to that in a minute. We received the letter C. Letter A and Holliday (letter were called back to windows and had both returned before we were called back. I wasn't nervous at all but my husband was shaking in his boots and when Holliday came back with her b1tchy lady story, I have to admit I think my blood presure went up a bit. However, we were called back and had a wonderful lady. She basically confirmed every single piece of information on the DS-230 and unlike the woman that Holliday had, she read the info directly to us and just asked us to confirm it was still correct. She also did the fingerprinting at the same time which letter A guy and Holliday went back later to do. We were done with all of that around 8:25 and went back to await the interview. This is when the real fun started. Note the sarcasm. There were two people doing interviews - a man and a woman. Holliday was called back first and was done before anyone else was called back. We had been talking to letter A guy and wondering why he hadn't been called back, but he finally was called around 9:30 by the woman. About that time, the man started calling more people and one after another after another after another went in and came out approved while we continued to sit. It was a shade after 10 and my husband, who was already stressing, started to freak a little. I kept talking him off the ledge and saying that we were probably scheduled to go into the woman after the letter A but since his was taking so long, I was sure we'd be up next in the same room. Little did I know that I was wrong - kind of. After letter A guy came out, we continued to sit as more people were called into the woman for interviews. A few of these people were there first thing in the morning, but then it went on so long, people were called in before us that we watched arrive around 9:00. Needless to say, my husband's freaking level went sky high and I started to get concerned also. By 11:00 we had been waiting just short of three hours and decided we should try to find out what was going on. They had gone through 19 interviews by this time and there were only three couples still waiting. The problem - how in the world do you ask someone a question? When I would stroll back to the windows, they were always with someone and if they weren't, then they wouldn't be sitting in their windows. So until 11:30, we tried to figure out who to ask. We decided to try the security guard but I have to admit that I was nervous about raising an issue since these people were holding our future in their hands. After multiple trips back to find someone at an empty window, my husband went to the security guard. He said he noticed how long we had been there and would check into it. Ten minutes later we were called in. The story we got was that we were originally second in the queue for an interview with the woman (just like I had thought) when her computer went down. When it came back up, somehow we dropped out of the queue and they had completely forgotten about us. WTF? How does THAT happen? And even if we did drop out of the queue on the computer, did anyone happen to notice our inch thick file sitting there? Geez! I have to admit I was totally shocked that they just admitted they forgot us, but I did appreciate the way she apologized forwards and backwards. She only asked us how we met, how he proposed and if he would have medical insurance and we were out of there. I don't think we were even there for five minutes after waiting almost four hours. We had visions of a nice kiss after the approval, I figured I would probably get teary eyed and then we were going out for a celebration lunch but none of that happened. We were 100% mentally exhausted. We had started snapping at each other a little during the long wait (out of frustration), started hating the beautiful view of Montreal out the windows and were starving. The only thing that kept us partially sane was the Wunderbar Holliday bought me (my first one - YUM!) and continually watching the elevator doors open with people facing the wrong way. That was hilarious. So we went back to the room, called/texted our friends and family, ate some lunch and promptly fell asleep. I know it sounds a little dramatic, but we truly were exhausted. For all of those hours we were wondering what was wrong with our case and trying to keep the other one calm and we were just beat - totally brain dead. We made up for it the next day though as once we had a lot of sleep and general down time, we felt great on Thursday and spent the whole time in Old Montreal. All in all, it's hard to b1tch about it since we were approved with no problem, but we definitely felt like they sucked the joy out of it. We never really got to enjoy the approval until the next day. I simply cannot understand how someone can be forgotten. Oh well, we got what we wanted and are ready to move as soon as the visa shows up, so all is good. Thanks SO much to everyone on VJ. Whether we asked you a question directly or found answers in your previous posts, we appreciate each and every one of you. There's no way we could have done it without you. Rating : Moderate

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