How to Conquer the Montreal Consulate Backlog

[Jeremy&Kathy 4]

I am starting this topic to share our story of how we managed to speed our way through the Montreal Consulate's backlog and get our IR-1 visas issued in a timely manner. The Montreal Consulate is notoriously slow and should you find yourself in the position of having to mail documents to Montreal post-interview, then read on. This topic applies to you.

At our interview on November 12, 2010, we were missing my wife Kathy's medical exam results from Dr. Sieden's office in Toronto. Our medical exam was on Monday November 8th, only 4 days before the interview. Kathy's chest x-ray showed a possible nodule that would need to be further analyzed and this delayed our results. Kathy had no previous x-rays to show that the nodule was there previously and not growing, so Dr. Sieden wanted a CT scan. It was very stressful finding out about this at the last minute. We were fortunate to find a walk-in clinic doctor who was very helpful. She had her assistant call all the local medical imaging labs, and was able to find a lab that could do the CT scan the same day. This was VERY lucky... CT scans can take weeks to schedule! Unfortunately the CT scan results weren't available in time for Dr. Sieden to see them and give us our results before the interview. We did get the CT scan results the following Monday and Kathy was fine (phew!).

ADVICE #1: Schedule your medical exam as far in advance of the interview as you possibly can. If our medical exam was only 1 or 2 days earlier we would have had time to deal with everything in time for the interview.

ADVICE #2: Get a chest X-ray from your family doctor months in advance of your interview. It doesn't hurt (figuratively or literally), and if there is a nodule that is questionable, then you can get a CT scan and deal with it long in advance.

The man at the consulate who was collecting our documents told us that we would need to send the medical exam results DHL courier as soon as we have them, and that they have a backlog of mail so it will be another few weeks of waiting before the visa is issued. He pointed to a large stack of documents on top of the cabinet behind him and said "that's mail that arrived over a month ago". We begged him for any information on how we could get our mail processed quicker. He told us to address our correspondence to "IV Unit Supervisor". This was the secret ingredient that ended up saving our butts.

ADVICE #3: Make sure that you are not missing ANYTHING at your interview. It will delay getting your visa by weeks.

Our actual interview went well and the officer said that our case looked great. As soon as the medical results were recieved, he couldn't see us having any problem getting the visas issued.

On November 18th, Kathy got her medical results from Dr. Sieden's office and immediately shipped them DHL to the Montreal Consulate. Through the dhl.ca tracking we could see that it was delivered on November 19th in the morning. We learned later that the Montreal Consulate screens all their mail for anthrax and other bad things, so it did not arrive upstairs at the IV Unit until November 23rd.

ADVICE #4: Don't assume they have your mail as soon as DHL says so. Add an extra 3 business days.

Not only did we address the DHL package directly to the IV Unit Supervisor, we also faxed the Montreal Consulate as well at two different fax numbers we tracked down: 514-398-0973 and 514-398-9748. The fax/email was a single page with large bold letters "PLEASE PRIORITIZE: URGENT: TRAVEL PENDING" addressed to the IV Unit Supervior. In the one-page fax, I briefly explained our situation that we are now separated and my wife is stuck in Toronto staying with friends, and we have paid our son's school fees and he is missing classes. I creatively begged and pleaded in various ways and asked them to do their best to prioritize our case, which was missing only the medical results and was otherwise approved.

Two hours after I sent the faxes to these two numbers, I got a call from a 514 number. It was the IV Unit Supervisor named Scott Foswell (sp?) with a french Canadian accent. He was very irate with me and asking why he has this letter on his desk with the huge bold font. I may have went a bit overboard, thinking that they probably ignore most stuff like this, but I was wrong. After a 10 minute conversation with Scott (who I presume was the IV Unit Supervisor), he was reassuring me that he would do his best to get our case processed quickly. I had told him that we had flights booked for December 7th, so that was a goal he could aim for.

ADVICE #5: If you DO get stuck in the Montreal Consulate's mail backlog, Send a fax to 514-398-0973 and 514-398-9748, and address it to "IV Unit Supervisor".

The things that really helped convince him to help us were:

- Our son was missing classes at school in the U.S. that we had paid his registration for

- We had a flight booked

- My son was 2 years old and I was missing weeks of his childhood

- The holidays were approaching and we desperately wanted to be together

He asked me why I paid for my son's school when there are no guarantees of when a visa will be issued. I told him that we had no choice because one of the pieces of evidence they specifically ask for is proof that children are registered for school. When I said this, his demeanor changed significantly. It really helped.

ADVICE #6: If you do fax the consulate, present good reasons why your situation is especially difficult and why you deserve to be processed quickly.

Scott offered no guarantees but did say he'd do his best. We left it at that and began waiting. At first, we were following these instructions to check whether our visa had been issued. Then we were told by another VJ member that this was basically useless because it didn't show any information until AFTER the visa had arrived at their DHL location. So then we began checking at dhl.ca using our "reference number" obtained through the CSC website.

ADVICE #7: Don't rely on the CSC website to tell you if your visa has been issued. Use the reference number obtained there to check the tracking status at dhl.ca.

On December 2, 2010, almost 2 weeks after the first fax I sent when the IV Unit Supervisor Scott Foswell (sp) called me, I faxed the consulate again. This time I did away with the crazy bold font and huge text across the top, not wanting to annoy him. I re-stated our situation and apologized for the interruption to his day, and issued a gentle reminder of our situation and of the fact that our scheduled flights were only 5 days away.

I got another call from Scott that afternoon after he received my fax. He said that he couldn't guarantee anything but would do his best. He said that he had located our file and would process it himself immediately. It would then be submitted for FBI name/fingerprint screening and if all goes well our visas would be printed THE NEXT DAY!! I couldn't believe our luck at getting his support like this. I have read stories on VJ of people waiting over 2 months and getting their congressmen involved. For what it's worth, the "secret technique" that seemed to do the trick was to fax the Montreal Consulate and address it to "IV Unit Supervisor".

Well, now anyone on VJ who reads this knows the secret technique that worked for me. I hope that it helps others avoid what can be a nightmarishly long wait.

Edited December 3, 2010 by Jeremy&Kathy

[OBX 51]

Excellent post! I'm sure this will be a great help to others that find themselves waiting for Montreal to process post-interview paperwork .

Perhaps you could cross-post this in the Canada forum.

[Jeremy&Kathy 4]

As of this morning, dhl.ca shows that our visas have been shipped! THANK YOU MR. SCOTT F. THE IV UNIT SUPERVISOR!!

[OBX 51]

As of this morning, dhl.ca shows that our visas have been shipped! THANK YOU MR. SCOTT F. THE IV UNIT SUPERVISOR!!

Great news! Congratulations.

[CanuckChick 7]

Congratulations and good luck for your future!

[tauruslady 0]

HI,

I'd been in long waiting and waiting endlessly since March just to get an interview schedule and after my interview, the Officer was not convinced of my financial docs I-864 and required me to submit a co-sponsor (NO CHECK ON THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROCESSING BOX). My interview was 2 weeks ahead of Jeremy&Kathy.

One week after the interview, we complied and submitted these documents together with our passports and I called to check with DOS notes and the agent told me that Montreal received it and is looking into our documents. I asked him if there are other documents required of us or some negative notes on my file, but he said none.

It says in the Refusal Letter issued to me during the interview that it will take 6-8 weeks to process and I respect that. That is why I am hesitant to call, fax or bother them as it may give them a negative impression and instead of approving us it will turn against us.

So, if I count my calendar it is already 6 weeks today and I have to wait for 2 more weeks ( to complete the 8 weeks) and that is by the end of December before bothering them.

Is it a good plan, what do you think?

[Jeremy&Kathy 4]

HI,

I'd been in long waiting and waiting endlessly since March just to get an interview schedule and after my interview, the Officer was not convinced of my financial docs I-864 and required me to submit a co-sponsor (NO CHECK ON THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROCESSING BOX). My interview was 2 weeks ahead of Jeremy&Kathy.

One week after the interview, we complied and submitted these documents together with our passports and I called to check with DOS notes and the agent told me that Montreal received it and is looking into our documents. I asked him if there are other documents required of us or some negative notes on my file, but he said none.

It says in the Refusal Letter issued to me during the interview that it will take 6-8 weeks to process and I respect that. That is why I am hesitant to call, fax or bother them as it may give them a negative impression and instead of approving us it will turn against us.

So, if I count my calendar it is already 6 weeks today and I have to wait for 2 more weeks ( to complete the 8 weeks) and that is by the end of December before bothering them.

Is it a good plan, what do you think?

If you are not desperate because you are separated for the holidays, or otherwise in dire circumstances as a result of the delays, then I think you are doing the right thing by waiting. When we sent the fax and got a call from the supervisor, he was tough on me and needed to be convinced that we deserved special treatment.

[GeorgeE 0]

Removed

Edited December 16, 2010 by GeorgeE

[tauruslady 0]

If you are not desperate because you are separated for the holidays, or otherwise in dire circumstances as a result of the delays, then I think you are doing the right thing by waiting. When we sent the fax and got a call from the supervisor, he was tough on me and needed to be convinced that we deserved special treatment.

I am in a tight timing nowadays, My Medical

exam will expire in weeks,( Jan 4, 2011), if I dont get my Visa, I feared it will delay even more.

I don't have my Visa yet and I am sure what will happen, if after January 4 my visa is not received.

i can POE anytime before Jan 4 if my visa arrives...

Do you think Its time to contact Supervisor Scott?

[tauruslady 0]

I am starting this topic to share our story of how we managed to speed our way through the Montreal Consulate's backlog and get our IR-1 visas issued in a timely manner. The Montreal Consulate is notoriously slow and should you find yourself in the position of having to mail documents to Montreal post-interview, then read on. This topic applies to you.

At our interview on November 12, 2010, we were missing my wife Kathy's medical exam results from Dr. Sieden's office in Toronto. Our medical exam was on Monday November 8th, only 4 days before the interview. Kathy's chest x-ray showed a possible nodule that would need to be further analyzed and this delayed our results. Kathy had no previous x-rays to show that the nodule was there previously and not growing, so Dr. Sieden wanted a CT scan. It was very stressful finding out about this at the last minute. We were fortunate to find a walk-in clinic doctor who was very helpful. She had her assistant call all the local medical imaging labs, and was able to find a lab that could do the CT scan the same day. This was VERY lucky... CT scans can take weeks to schedule! Unfortunately the CT scan results weren't available in time for Dr. Sieden to see them and give us our results before the interview. We did get the CT scan results the following Monday and Kathy was fine (phew!).

ADVICE #1: Schedule your medical exam as far in advance of the interview as you possibly can. If our medical exam was only 1 or 2 days earlier we would have had time to deal with everything in time for the interview.

ADVICE #2: Get a chest X-ray from your family doctor months in advance of your interview. It doesn't hurt (figuratively or literally), and if there is a nodule that is questionable, then you can get a CT scan and deal with it long in advance.

The man at the consulate who was collecting our documents told us that we would need to send the medical exam results DHL courier as soon as we have them, and that they have a backlog of mail so it will be another few weeks of waiting before the visa is issued. He pointed to a large stack of documents on top of the cabinet behind him and said "that's mail that arrived over a month ago". We begged him for any information on how we could get our mail processed quicker. He told us to address our correspondence to "IV Unit Supervisor". This was the secret ingredient that ended up saving our butts.

ADVICE #3: Make sure that you are not missing ANYTHING at your interview. It will delay getting your visa by weeks.

Our actual interview went well and the officer said that our case looked great. As soon as the medical results were recieved, he couldn't see us having any problem getting the visas issued.

On November 18th, Kathy got her medical results from Dr. Sieden's office and immediately shipped them DHL to the Montreal Consulate. Through the dhl.ca tracking we could see that it was delivered on November 19th in the morning. We learned later that the Montreal Consulate screens all their mail for anthrax and other bad things, so it did not arrive upstairs at the IV Unit until November 23rd.

ADVICE #4: Don't assume they have your mail as soon as DHL says so. Add an extra 3 business days.

Not only did we address the DHL package directly to the IV Unit Supervisor, we also faxed the Montreal Consulate as well at two different fax numbers we tracked down: 514-398-0973 and 514-398-9748. The fax/email was a single page with large bold letters "PLEASE PRIORITIZE: URGENT: TRAVEL PENDING" addressed to the IV Unit Supervior. In the one-page fax, I briefly explained our situation that we are now separated and my wife is stuck in Toronto staying with friends, and we have paid our son's school fees and he is missing classes. I creatively begged and pleaded in various ways and asked them to do their best to prioritize our case, which was missing only the medical results and was otherwise approved.

Two hours after I sent the faxes to these two numbers, I got a call from a 514 number. It was the IV Unit Supervisor named Scott Foswell (sp?) with a french Canadian accent. He was very irate with me and asking why he has this letter on his desk with the huge bold font. I may have went a bit overboard, thinking that they probably ignore most stuff like this, but I was wrong. After a 10 minute conversation with Scott (who I presume was the IV Unit Supervisor), he was reassuring me that he would do his best to get our case processed quickly. I had told him that we had flights booked for December 7th, so that was a goal he could aim for.

ADVICE #5: If you DO get stuck in the Montreal Consulate's mail backlog, Send a fax to 514-398-0973 and 514-398-9748, and address it to "IV Unit Supervisor".

The things that really helped convince him to help us were:

- Our son was missing classes at school in the U.S. that we had paid his registration for

- We had a flight booked

- My son was 2 years old and I was missing weeks of his childhood

- The holidays were approaching and we desperately wanted to be together

He asked me why I paid for my son's school when there are no guarantees of when a visa will be issued. I told him that we had no choice because one of the pieces of evidence they specifically ask for is proof that children are registered for school. When I said this, his demeanor changed significantly. It really helped.

ADVICE #6: If you do fax the consulate, present good reasons why your situation is especially difficult and why you deserve to be processed quickly.

Scott offered no guarantees but did say he'd do his best. We left it at that and began waiting. At first, we were following these instructions to check whether our visa had been issued. Then we were told by another VJ member that this was basically useless because it didn't show any information until AFTER the visa had arrived at their DHL location. So then we began checking at dhl.ca using our "reference number" obtained through the CSC website.

ADVICE #7: Don't rely on the CSC website to tell you if your visa has been issued. Use the reference number obtained there to check the tracking status at dhl.ca.

On December 2, 2010, almost 2 weeks after the first fax I sent when the IV Unit Supervisor Scott Foswell (sp) called me, I faxed the consulate again. This time I did away with the crazy bold font and huge text across the top, not wanting to annoy him. I re-stated our situation and apologized for the interruption to his day, and issued a gentle reminder of our situation and of the fact that our scheduled flights were only 5 days away.

I got another call from Scott that afternoon after he received my fax. He said that he couldn't guarantee anything but would do his best. He said that he had located our file and would process it himself immediately. It would then be submitted for FBI name/fingerprint screening and if all goes well our visas would be printed THE NEXT DAY!! I couldn't believe our luck at getting his support like this. I have read stories on VJ of people waiting over 2 months and getting their congressmen involved. For what it's worth, the "secret technique" that seemed to do the trick was to fax the Montreal Consulate and address it to "IV Unit Supervisor".

Well, now anyone on VJ who reads this knows the secret technique that worked for me. I hope that it helps others avoid what can be a nightmarishly long wait.

=========

Scott Foswell ....Is this the correct spelling of the IV Supervisor?

Is he the only supervisor, what if he is on vacation already?

Can I just say TO: IV Unit Supervisor instead of TO: IV Unit Supervisor Scott Foswell

[OBX 51]

=========

Scott Foswell ....Is this the correct spelling of the IV Supervisor?

Is he the only supervisor, what if he is on vacation already?

Can I just say TO: IV Unit Supervisor instead of TO: IV Unit Supervisor Scott Foswell

I think it's is definitely time to contact them.

If you are unsure of the correct name I would send it addressed to IV Unit Supervisor. (From Jeremey's initial post : Send a fax to 514-398-0973 and 514-398-9748, and address it to "IV Unit Supervisor" )

Be prepared with all of your information so that if they do call you can explain your situation and hopefully they will speed things along since your medical is due to expire. Good luck and keep us updated.

Edited December 21, 2010 by OBX

[tauruslady 0]

I did closed my eyes and crossed fingers and sent fax to IV Supervisor today.

Hopefully, he will get to it and Lord I am at work and if he calls me I have to find a place where I can talk to him privately.

[Jeremy&Kathy 4]

I did closed my eyes and crossed fingers and sent fax to IV Supervisor today.

Hopefully, he will get to it and Lord I am at work and if he calls me I have to find a place where I can talk to him privately.

Hi Tauruslady,

I wish you the best of luck with this... I don't know the correct spelling of Scott's last name. Foswell was my guess based on our phone conversation. I don't know if he is the only supervisor. Best to address it to "IV Unit Supervisor" but it sounds like that's what you did.

I'll be crossing my fingers and hoping for you. It will be informative to us all to find out what happens for you today.

[tauruslady 0]

...nothing happens today, nobody called no update

[GeorgeE 0]

Jeremy&Kathy, you said "ADVICE #7: Don't rely on the CSC website to tell you if your visa has been issued. Use the reference number obtained there to check the tracking status at dhl.ca." Are you saying there is a web site that tells you your visa status (hovewer unreliable that is)? How does this work? Thanks