Fiancee had her K-1 visa interview in Montreal a couple of weeks. She was told to apply for a I-601 for misrepresentation in 1997.
She and a couple of girls tried to cross border near Watertown, NY. She never crossed over, there was no arrest and was turned around.

Would it have been better for me to file the I-601 waiver for her in USA instead of her sending it into Montreal?
I read Canada has a long wait time for this waiver?

Anyone know more about the I-601 they can share? How long does it take? Should I hire an attorney? If so, one from USA or Canada?
Who approves this waiver, USCIS or NVC?

This is very frustrating as it took almost a year just to get the interview, then this!?!?

I'm sorry to hear about your denial.

You cannot do an in-country waiver since she is not here. (They are also harder to get an approval). You will need to file the waiver in Montreal.

You do not need to hire an attorney, there have been cases of approvals without. My personal opinion is to hire one. It is hard to write an unemotional letter that states the facts and is convincing. Misrep also has extremely low approval rates.

Please visit immigration2us.net ... they specialize in waivers.

This is all that I can add for your information, it was recieved from Montreal.
Your cheque was cashed March 10, 2008 and the file was indeed sent to Vermont Service Center. Please be advised that

a waiver can take anywhere from 8 months to 1 year. Once it is approved you will be advised by mail and then the file will

be returned to our office.

Thank you

Operator 6

P.S. Our check was cashed one month after they received it and our file was transfered to Vermont one month after that in April.
Best of luck to you and don't lose hope
Ron

Once you have submitted the waiver there is not much reason to hire an attorney, unless you feel like the waiver package was not thorough enough. If you do decide to hire one, it would be better to hire one in the U.S. who is very experienced in waivers.

If you don't feel like your waiver was thorough enough, there is still time to submit more evidence since waivers that go through Montreal/Vermont are taking (it seems, on average) 12 or 13 months.

Do check out immigrate2us.net for some examples of approved waiver letters and supplemental evidence ideas.

Thank you all for the replies.

This process is just ridiculous. It took a year just to get the K-1 interview, now anoter year for this?
I dont get it.

I wrote a letter to attach to the I-601 but I dont think it explained any extreme hardship. Since "mere seperation" isnt hardship.

This is just unbelievable in my opinion.

If it doesn't show hardship then don't waste your money. I think you need to take a deep breath, search the immigrate2us forum for examples of hardship letters and seriously think about what you could put in there.

They take these waivers very seriously. It's not just a "oh here's our paperwork so give us our approval now" type of situation.

Your only other alternative is to move to Canada. This is a lifetime ban that can't be "waited out"

The I-601 form is a miniscule part of the waiver package and is not what is going to get your waiver approved. Also, it is more of a hardship package than it is a letter. Your hardships must be documented. You must provide evidence to prove your hardships. As suggested, go to immigrate2us.net and start researching. You want to make your argument strong, convincing and well documented.

Remember that you won't have to pay a new fee, you can just submit the supplemental documentation, just make sure that your case number is all over it and that you document their receipt of the new evidence.

Montreal is also notoriously difficult to deal with, so make sure to keep up with them too.

Good luck!

I responded to the same thread in the Canada forum. See my response there. Ridiculous? She used fake ID to try and cross an international border. That is not a ridiculous consequence to a very very serious action. The consequences are a lifetime ban. I hope you can work really hard on this waiver and hardship letter. You're going to need it. Please check out immigrate2us.net.

I agree with spookturtle... the hardship package is VERY important! I can not express enough, please do NOT take the preparation of this package for your 601 waiver lightly!!! It will imply make it that much easier and quicker to receive a denial!! yes immigrate2us is a very good resource.. You must take your time and present as much documentation as possible!! We went thru Montreal as well and the waiver was forwarded on to Vermont Service center ( I just hope the Montreal officer submitted his recommendation with it because he was very nice and understanding! (It is my understanding they can submit their recommendation along with the waiver) Regarding timeline... we submitted or waiver package to Montreal Embassy in October 2007, our file was touched Feb 2008, and we received RFE (request for evidence) April 2008... however they only allowed us 60 days to supply this, stating there would be no extension of time allowed to sumit it... kind of rough I think! so we scrambled....am submitting the RFE Monday. (Then... if i drank I would be washing down some Chicken Alfredo with a big bottle of wine!!!! LOL)
My friend, I do hope you are able to get past your frustrations with the system process (being ridiculous) and be able to research and submit a decent waiver package. It would also be strongly advisable(and well worth the expense) to have consultation with an attorney particularly because fraud and/or misrepresentation is involved. Truely this is not taken lightly by US Immigartaion. Additionally..through all my researching... as well as the immigrate2us forum and visa journey forum, I have found this resource Board of Immigration Appeals precedent table extremely helpful by referring to many cases decisions made.
Lastly, take a breath, get plenty of sleep, maybe take some vitiams, seek much needed patience somehow and dig down to do some very tedious and serious research and gathering of documents to support your waiver.
God Bless and Good Luck to you

P.S. sorry about the typos, I am exhausted and very wilted
Oh geesh.... I should and have to update my timeline and info here...sorry guys will get to it soon,,, just doubt I can do it today Thanks and great weekend to everyone... Felicia

Oh MY GOSH!!! what a mess I am... I forgot to add the link sorry have not been to bed yet... up since yesterday 6am finishing our package!!!! Sorry here it is http://justice.gov/eoir/vll/intdec/chart/b...edent_table.pdf

Pls can you post if you recived the waiver response as I have submitted in July/2008 was told will take 3 Months never happened. And now they do the posting on there web site (uscis) saying 601 takes 4 Months. Its is a Year Now hopefully someone could find the answer as the Montreal Consulate Office do not response to email efficently. Take Care

We recieved the approval in February of 2009, first, we got an e-mail Febuary 17 from CRIS (Vermont) then a few days later Feb. 23 a Notice of Action to make it official then shortly after before the end of the month I got the package from Montreal.
Our I-601 was issued in August 2007, we filed is Feb. 2008, we were approved in Feb. 2009, Packet returned to Montreal on July 3, 2009, no reply as yet.

Your love for each other is the one and only thing that will carry you through this whole mess. If you think it is too much of a price to pay, it very well may be. The way we dealt with this is do what was asked, build on our strengths and strengthen our weaknesses.
P.S. Be frustrated with the system not each other.

Maybe Canadians think they are special (- my Canadian grandparents waited 8 years to immigrate legally)

No, I don't think Canadians think they're special at all. Why would you say that?

Thank Goodness and congratulations for your waiver approval. It took montreal a year to transfere my file to NVC.
( can not belive this)now finally NVC has my file. Just received the notice .hopefully there is not much delay.

The sad part is that in our case NVC took a complete year to do thier thing.
You do need a new medical and Police certificate but this time only a name check or better known as CPIC, you should also be sure that your passport has ample time left on it preferably a few years.
You will get a list from Montreal of things needed once the waiver is approved. Don't have either one done to soon.

One thing I'm not to sure about is thier asking for a notarized letter of intent from the fianceé and a form called DS-221. The letter of intent was obviously two pronged, first to see if the fianceé new of my charge and conviction and second whether she was still willing to marry me.
The DS-221 is something new to me and is not available on the internet, it is a 4 page form with a one page guide, this form according Laurel Scott is an internal form, I told that to the operator but was sent the form and told to fill it in and send it back and they will send it off to Vermont.
I hope the DS-221 is not becoming a new thing because it is nothing but a time consuming waste to prolong the agony.
Ron
P.S. the DS-221 is nothing more than short version of a bio.

My Husband and I filed our waiver in December and we recieved our receipt number in Jan. The USCIS website has said ERROR up until this month now it says pending. their processing times in Vermont state 4 months for I-601 Waivers and it has been 8 months. Still waiting...................We are frustrated because the Montreal Consulate also told us 2-3 months when we had our interview in November.

Hi......I am going through the same situation in terms of waited a year for my interview in Montreal only to find out we needed to file a waiver. It has been 8 months since our waiver was filed and I have no updates. Ugh! What a process.

Hi everbody:

If you are interested in checking status of your file check this link out
http://deimmigration.blogspot.com/2009/08/...-inquiries.html
thanks and pls pray and remember everyone in your prayers.

Has anyone heard any news?