Should I apply for EI before I leave Canada or from Texas? anyone know?

there's a thread about this on the main canada page
and the answer is it's better to do it straight from the usa

Getting excited...
20 days or
496 hours or
29782 minutes

until the interview

Well, made my first call to the DOS, lol. She said that an interview has not been scheduled (duh, hehe) and that the date they received the packet was September 26th. Since it was delivered to the Embassy on the 17th, I take that to mean it's the date they actually opened the packet and entered into the system.

So, do you all think that calling once a week is too much?

I haven't heard of them ever complaining that someone has called too much. For all the hoops they make us jump through I think answering the phone is the least they can do.

1 week away!!!!!! So who wants to split on a room? lol I read too many reviews of the bug as the one hotel that was mentioned on here so I'm gonna stay at the Days Inn again. I liked it there. Wish there were hotels with pools near by though.

Luckily she has family to stay with about 3km from the consulate.

Different interview day, October 17th, but still close to yours

Good luck!

I can't sleep. :| This is bad. lol Gonna head to the hotel tommorrow. Still haven't decided which one. I just know I don't wanna go to La tour centre ville. So many bad reviews about people gettng eaten by bugs in the beds. I'll check out the Days Inn first. Anyone getting together for dinner tommorrow night in Montreal?

My interview is only on Friday but I wanted to wish you all a good interview tomorrow. I'm sending you lots of good vibes!

Hey Pandora, Danielle's interview is on Friday as well. Go figure

I'm anxious that our travel plans have us leaving the 28th, so I'm hoping that CanadaPost doesn't muck things up and just sends the
envelope right away. That's assuming the consulate Montreal doesn't muck up things either. I suppose we could express it couldn't we?

Is her interview in the morning? Mine is.

I don't know if you can have it expressed but asking probably wouldn't hurt. Just explain your situation to the interviewing officer and who knows, it might get treated faster.

If I remember correctly, I think that under normal processing visas are issued and received within a week. Don't quote me on that one though. I've looked at so many timelines and stuff that I might be mixing them all up!

Crap!!! Why does this have to be done on a long weekend. I was going to wait till I got to Montreal to buy the shipping envelope! Now it's too late. Thanksgiving is not my friend

You might still be able to get one. If you can find a convenience store which also has a post office outlet, those should be open today.

ChasingAmy, I can't do the search for you because I don't know where you currently are but you can do a search here to find a place that is opened today. When you click on the individual search results, it will tell you if that outlet is opened or closed today. Hope that helps!

Her's is morning as well, she's planning on arriving to the consulate around 7:00am I believe.

I guess asking couldn't hurt and maybe they'll get it finished and mailed out Friday before closing
time so that its at least "in the works" and not sitting in the Montreal consulate all weekend.

it was all closed..i hope they will let me drop off the envelope after the interview.

Cool! I'm planning to be there around 7 a.m. as well so we'll probably get the chance to chat while waiting

Happy to report that Mary got approved. She said it was pretty fast and easy. She's driving back home now and I should have a review from her to post in the embassy reviews later tonight.

Next milestone: I fly up there and we drive to California. In November! Hope the weather holds out...

Congratulations! Woohoo! Another one is approved!

I wish you all the best for the drive back to CA.

Our plan is for her to head to Montreal Thursday mid-day and get to the interview Friday morning. She'll come back Monday (cheaper) and then
I fly up on the 25th and help her pack and we fly back together to sunny south florida.

Its almost 20F difference in temperature these last few days between West Palm Beach and Halifax. Wonder what that'll be like on her health.

If she's like me she'll be sick for a week and then get over it. It's normal for us Canadians to get sick twice a year and that just happens to coincide with the drastic weather changes. I'm heading down to Texas next month and expect to use the first week to get situated...get accustomed to the change in envorionment and then start looking for clients so I can make some money I miss Amy and the kids...I am soooo happy that I got approved.

Congrats to everyone getting approved this week!!

Still waiting for my interview letter here, making my third call to the DOS tomorrow, hoping they have good news this time! Take care everyone.

Anyone else still in this thread that's waiting?. Made my 4th call to the DOS, it's officially been 4 weeks since they "qualified" my case and still no date =(

I'm starting to lose hope that we'll have a November interview....

Seems that when people's hopes are slowing declining, they bring good news. So here is to hoping for an interview date!

Thanks for the hope...and GOD I hope you're right!

I'm always right......according to the voices in my head

Updated the spreadsheet!!! sorry guys!
Thanks for being so patient!!

I'll have to tweek it a little once I get home....

^^ Thanks Liz - I was actually goingto email you to see if you wanted me to help update that chart. There are a few more on there that are approved as well. Let me know if you need help

Not much action in this thread lately.

Just thought I'd drop a line to say that we're here waiting with those of you who have yet to receive Packet 4.

So wake up and start posting. Misery loves company

Well, just wanted to let you all know that we finally have our interview date, but unfortunately it's February 25th. Can't believe we still have so long to wait!!!

Geez, I was hoping for somethign in February, but I bet I'll get March.

Did you get a letter, or call them?

February?.....


Wow, I think I died a little bit on the inside...That means we will probably know ours if we call tomorrow..

wow....

Called DoS...


no date set....

*sigh*....not so happy right now

Actually if you look at the K1 tracking chart out of Montreal, it seems consistent with last year - there were very little interviews in Dec/Jan and then it picked up again in February.

Isn't it awful?. Yeah, I called...so probably wont be getting the actual letter for who knows how long from now. But yeah, I just couldn't believe it when he said February...I'm still in disbelief. =(

Sucks, but thats when the govt workers take their time off! My wife works for the Federal govt (nothing to do with immigration) and when it comes to the end of the yr, its use it, or lose it time (they can only carry over soo many days)!! So they use it! As well the rumor is that since this is Bush's last yr (last few days, he haww) he is going to give dec 26 off for all federal employees.

So... is that for K1 visas or any visa interview? Do you know?

So does that mean things are generally slow on all fronts through Dec & Jan?

Hi,

Montreal received my stuff in September and I got a letter from them the first week of November, with a scheduled interview date of November 19th.

I went to the interview and it went sooo well and my visa was APPROVED! SO even though the letter says that they could take 4 to 6 months to schedule an interview, they acutally seem to work a lot faster than that. Hope this helps!

That is awesome ... congrats!

Just a word of caution, if you're expecting your appointment in the near future, keep calling. I amoung a few others have never to this day never received our appointment letters. we learned of our dates by calling often. I had less than a two day notice having called on August 7th and found out the appointment was on the 9th.

We just received our packet with our case number! I feel like this is coming together. Hoping to get all the items together so we can mail them ASAP!