Had my IR-1 interview yesterday. It was a success!
It was so easy like most have said. I landed in Montreal from Vancouver on thursday morning. Took the aerobus from the airport to the bus station for 13 dollars. At the bus station waited for a free shuttle bus to the hotel. ( I wouldn't have known about that if it wasn't for information I found from other Canadian posters so thank you!) Stayed at La tour centre ville. The first thing I did after finding my hotel was to look for the consulate and was able to find it right away. It is basically across the street from the hotel.
Anyways on the day of my interview I was so nervous. I got there at abnout 7:20 am. There were two people waiting already. We quickly formed a line and soon more people started to come. When the guard opened the door showed my appointment letter and passport. Then showed appointment letter again to women doing security check. She kept my purse because it had a calculator attached to it so I had to empty out all it's contents and put them in my file folders. Went downstairs to wait for the elevator. The guard opened it about 5 mins to 8. Took it to the 19th floor and turned left to window 14. I was second in line and waited for it to open. Showed cashier my appointment letter and was given the C-2 ticket. Then sat and waited for my number to show up on the screen. When my number came up it said to go to window 6. Gave the woman my interview letter, passport, medical report, express mail envelope and copy of husbands 2005 tax return. It was all so fast. She flipped through paper work checked off stuff. Gave me photocopies of my documents. And said that she didn't need the x-ray and gave me an elastic band so I could roll it up and said I could give it to my family doctor in the US. After that I was told to sit down again and wait for the formal interview. So I waited C-1 got called then for some reason C-4 got called and then me C-2. Went to room to be interviewed and had the slim man with brown hair. He is so nice! Asked me when I was married and said wow that's almost 10 yrs. Asked me where I lived, parent's names. If I had any other residencies, Asked about my husband being retired from the military. Asked how we met. Asked me about where I plan to live in the US and what I thought about New Jersey. I told him I didn't like it much and we are hoping to move to Washington state when we can. The interviewer said yeah the West coast is nicer. I was so surprised that he didn't ask me anything about financial stuff. Well after those few questions the interviewer said that he didn't see any reason to keep me here. That we have been married for 10 years and he mostly sees people who are married a year or less. He scanned my fingerprints and told me that the visa will be mailed to me and I should receive it by Wednesday. My interview lasted under 5 minutes and was out of the consulate by 9:30. Thanks to everyone for sharing your experiences and info. This is such a wonderful site!
Can't wait to get passport back with visa in my hand.
Good luck to those with interviews coming up soon!