Hello all,

Just wondering if anyone has heard any news about the new Adam Walsh laws and the delays they are causing for people who filed their petitions via DCF (at the consulate) and are waiting for their Montreal interview. Just want to see if anyone has heard of any progression....

Let us know if you're in the same boat!

Darryl

hi darryl

i'm in the same boat as you and received the same letter from montreal as you. i sent all my info (DS-230, affidavit of support, etc) to the montreal consulate at the end of september 2006. our petition was originally approved in mid-August 2006. i was hoping to receive my interview notice soon up until the new Adam Walsh legislatiion.

i have since spoken to an immigration attorney and he told me that all we can do now is wait. if we were to resend a new I-130 to vermont, it would certainly take a long time (vermont is REALLY slow). i plan on re-contacting the montreal consulate soon to find out any new developments. if montreal has to send the previously approved petitions to vermont, this will certainly delay the whole process.......

i have been following this board like yourself over the past couple of weeks. i am hoping that our situtaion will be similar to the experiences of the people in chile and europe. it appears that there I-130's were re-approved rather quickly by the USCIS offices in peru, paris, or london. i am surprised that montreal does not have a USCIS office.......

i will post an update as soon as i find out any new information. likewise, i would really appreciate to hear the same from your end of things. we are all waiting, but montreal seems to be in the dark with the whole situation. hopefully something will be found out soon, so we can carry on with our lives.

PS. i tried contacting my wife's congressmen and senators in texas, and they were absolutely usless with the matter. USA immigration doesn't seem to fathom or care about the impact of new legislations and delays in immigration on the thousands of people affected. frustrating to say the least!!

cheers,
matt

I too am in the same boat. Filed I-130 in Calgary in September and have been waiting for an interview for my husband. I haven't even received a letter from Montreal saying anything has happened. I e-mailed them and got we have no instructions as of yet and sorry for the inconvience. Hopefully one of us will hear something soon.

Hi guys,

our petition was approved on Jan.11th,and now it has to be re-approved,they said they are going to send it to Vienna(our local office)-but the official word about this happening came a week later than the ones in south America and Paris.We kept on ringing the Consul Section but all they said was that they had no new instructions,and then all of a sudden,late Friday evening they put a notice on their web site that they will process all these cases.So I guess the news should be coming soon to you!Maybe this Friday...
As far as I know the petitions will be re-approved at the local CIS office-if the one for Canada is Vermont,then they will be sent there,but even then the re-approval will take much less than filing a new one!
I also feel like they have been instructed to give no information about how long time it's gonna take,so all we should do is just wait.
It's not so bad-I feel we are close to it!

Hi Matt

I just wanna make a small correction. USCIS has not re-approved any I-130s as of yet. At least not for both Sweden and Denmark who they are also responsible for. None of these embassies have even heard anything from London. Personally our I-130 was approved on Jan 5th in Denmark and sent for re-approval Feb 1st. But so far no word from anybody and London doesn't seem all that interested in writing you back when you contact them. Like I said, just a small correction. Anyway I hope things will work out for you soon. We all know what you're going through.

Tine

Well at least we're all in a similar situation and hopefully wil be out of this jam soon! I had some time yesterday so I decided to do some investigating...not the result I was hoping for...

I called the National Visa Center (NVC) - a 30 minute call for a 4 minute conversation...They have no record of our petition - I gave her my case # and she said it wasn't in their system. She said it's likely still with the Embassy and that she couldn't do much to trace it. Perfect.

Through previous correspondence with Montreal I know that they have our petition and it's not 'lost' so to speak...so I kept trying to see if it has been processed anywhere else

I called USCIS - it's great that they don't have a Canadian office and the only phone number I could find isn't available from Canada. So with the great advice of someone off this board I downloaded and installed Skype...worked like a charm (thanks!). My call success was not so great through. The first person I spoke to was very nice but had no record of our case #. She kept asking for an 'application receipt #' which to the best of our knowledge...we don't have. Does anyone else know about this application receipt #? Anyways, as I was chatting with her I explained my situation and read her the letter about the Adam Walsh act...yeah - she'd never heard anything about any of it. Again - very nice lady and not trying to ditch me, but had genuinely not heard of this huge new shakeup and the new processing procedures/influx of petitions they 'should' be receiving...nothing. So not a good sign when they have no clue that any of this is taking place. But anyways we had a nice clear (remember this for later) friendly conversation. She escalated my call to a supervisor (without me even asking) so they could check into my status and where my file might be.

I waited on hold ofr 35 minutes and finally got through to the next person...not so friendly. He kept asking me the same stupid questions over and over again and than claim that he couldn't hear me and I needed to call back...I kept telling him that if we have a bad connection (sounded perfect from my end) that I was sorry and would repeat anything he couldn't hear properly but I didn't want to have to call back and wait on hold for another 35 minutes...he complained constantly about the connection but could hear me perfectly fine when we had normal dialogue...but when he needed the answer to any question all of a sudden he couldn't hear. I was getting extremely frustrated to say the least. After about 6 minutes talking to this guy I hadn't even given him my case #...all he did was argue about the reception...drove me bonkers. Finally he says "I can't deal with this reception - have I answered all of your questions today?" I replied "no you haven't answered any of them and I'm not done" ....he hung up. I love the exceptional customer service!

So anyways, the petitions from Montreal have no tbeen sent anywhere to the best of my knowledge - or if they have, they haven't been touched.

I am going to call Montreal next week and try to see if they've heard any more news. I'll keep posting to this thread and let you all know what I find out. Hopefully we can isolate this thread to Montreal or at least Canada DCF filers waiting for the interview and we can all keep it updated.

Good luck to you all, I hope things start moving!

Darryl

Hi Darryl,

I know we filed in Europe but I just wanted to let you know you're not alone. About 1½ week ago we also tried calling USCIS in the US: They also kept asking for an application receipt number. But since we filed through DCF and getting our petion approved right on the spot (before Adam Walsh) we never received one. Which the lady claimed was not possible. And like everyone else in the US she had heard nothing about the Adam Walsh Act and told us to give USCIS in London a month to send us an application receipt number. We tried explaining to her that the embassy had told us USCIS London would just send it directly back to them. But she wouldn't hear it. It was clear she didn't know anything about anything so in the end it was just hopeless trying to talk to them. Like when we called DHS asking about the visa waiver program....they claimed EVERYONE needs a visa from the embassy to go to the US. The US embassy in Copenhagen says no. They won't give me a visa because I don't need one since Denmark is under the visa waiver program. So in the end....what can we do?

Hi, Darryl - I don't want to derail this topic, nor do I want to defend USCIS customer service in the States, but I've been using Skype for awhile now; one thing it does tend to do is sometimes give a connection to one side but not another - it will be just fine for part of a call and then suddenly one person can't hear the other well, or at all. That's just FYI: it sounds like you handled the situation just fine. Hope things work out for you soon!

The Roboinsons - Sorry to hear you had the same experience. I find it very disturbing and odd that these two services that seemingly work hand in hand have no clue of whats going on with their counterparts. The right hand has no idea what the left hand is doing...not a good situation. I am going to call Montreal in the next few days (maybe March 1st) and see if they have any news. I'll let you know if they don/don't!

Malka - Thanks for the info on Skype - I'll keep that in mind next time I use it- this was my first experience. I really don't think the reception was an issue in this case I just think this guy was a jerk and didn't want to be bothered by my call and in turn used the reception as an exit strategy. When we argued back and forth about the reception and had conversational type dialogue he could hear me fine, didn't ask me to repeat anything etc...he was quite content to argue with me in perfect communication - but when I asked him to start looking into anything --the reception was just too terrible. It was complete BS. I wish I had a job that would allow me to completely disregard the customer and be as rude as I felt like...all the while - never actually assist the person or even attempt to help (but of course make them wait on hold for 30+ minutes to get htis exceptional service). Its almost like they treat the callers as if we're the problem...guess what guys, we wouldn't be calling if there was some form of communication and precise timelines etc from their end. The only time I have to call and bug the pizza guy after I order it is when they don't show up to deliver it in a reasonable amount of time...this is no different.

arrrgghh so frustrated!

Darryl

.

Hi Matt

I just wanna make a small correction. USCIS has not re-approved any I-130s as of yet. At least not for both Sweden and Denmark who they are also responsible for. None of these embassies have even heard anything from London. Personally our I-130 was approved on Jan 5th in Denmark and sent for re-approval Feb 1st. But so far no word from anybody and London doesn't seem all that interested in writing you back when you contact them. Like I said, just a small correction. Anyway I hope things will work out for you soon. We all know what you're going through.

Tine
[/quote]


Hi Tine

i have been following several threads and came across this one:
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=54941

it seems like applicants in paris have been lucky and have already been rescheduled for their interview appointments. i guess their petitions were sent to Rome for re-adjudication. at this point in time, i already know there is a delay in my application, i (along with everybody else filed in montreal) want to know how long the delay will be, and what has been done thus far. have our petitions or entire application been sent to vermont??? people on the phone in montreal have not been very helpful thus far.

your petition from what i gather has been sent to london and i apologize, i guess you're in the same boat as us. but at least you know where your petition is. i think it's absolutely ridiculous that montreal can not and have not provided any further information to the number of us (filed after 7/26/06 but before 1/23/07) left in limbo and out of the loop!

cheers,
matt

I emailed Montreal today and this is what i got back

All of our cases that are affected by this new law are currently being processed by the USCIS, as soon as all is clear, we will then be able to book an interview for your husband. Unfortunately, we have no idea how long this will take.

Thank you for your understanding.


Don't know if this is good or bad but it sounds like to me that they have been sent to USCIS but then who knows

Tracy - thanks for the update - although no real details were given - at least they acknowledged the situation and have sent the petitions to USCIS...thats definetly a good thing. Nice to hear that they aren't just sitting on them waiting for instructions!

Darryl

thanks for the update tracy.... that is more helpful than any information i have been able to get out of montreal over the phone. i guess our fates are in the hands of USCIS vermont which from what i've read on this forum is notoriously slow. i guess we'll just all have to sit back and wait.

cheers,
matt

Hey all,

When we got the notice from montreal, we were at the stage of gathering everything for that checklist. In the next couple of weeks we will have it all. We're just waiting for his passport to come in. Do you guys think we should send the checklist back to them to wait for the next steps? Another thing that is bad is that I'm using a co-sponsor and her form is only good for 6 months.

hi seiren

i think in your case, you should e-mail or call montreal directly and ask for their guidance. i imagine you had your petition approved before jan. 23, 2007 but you are still affected by the Adam Walsh Act. since they will have to re-approve your petition, your application (even when they receive it) may be delayed.

best case scenario for you is that they will process your application (while you and montreal waits for your petition re-approval) and than your whole timeline won't be affected much at all. for your information, i had my petition originally approved in montreal in mid-august 2006, i sent the checklist back to them the third week of september 2006 and as of january 23, 2007, i still did not receive my interview notice. of course i received the devastating news that my application was delayed due to adam walsh act in early february 2007.

now i'm sitting and waiting like everybody else.

best of luck to you,
matt

Has anyone heard anything from Montreal lately? I think I'm going to call them tomorrow and see if they have any new information.

Darryl

AWESOME! ...sarcasm is key in this game...

I just called Montreal - here was the pretty close word for word conversation

ME: Hi, can you please check the status of case #.....?
MTL: There has been no change
ME: According to the letter sent back at the beginning of February - the cases were being sent to USCIS, has that happened?
MTL: The required information has been sent to USCIS however we have not received anything back from them
ME: Is there any way to track the cases from USCIS?
MTL: No
ME: Have any cases come back that were sent from Montreal?
MTL: No
ME: Has there been any time frame from USCIS as to how long it will take?
MTL: No
ME: Are these petitions given any sort of preference or are they put at the end of the list?
MTL: No idea
ME: So essentially there is no telling whether this will be a 10 day or 10 year delay?
MTL: No
ME: And there is no way to track any of the progress?
MTL: No
ME: Is there anything people can do?
MTL: Wait
ME: Thank you for your time


Awesome! I just love this process. How is it that no one seems to know anything about any of this?

thanks for the update darryl......

i can't believe how useless montreal is with this whole ordeal. i'm happy to see other people around the world getting their DCF interviews rescheduled. it seems to be only a one month delay (or less) to people in parts of europe or central/south america. we have gotten no further correspondence from montreal and no help or reassurance.

i thought DCF was the fastest way to get a green card. but if we have to go through USCIS vermont, than i might as well have driven across the border and filed in the states. so frustrating!!

AWESOME, JUST WAIT............

matt

Greetings Direct Consular Friends,

My partner and I filed for an immigrant visa for him at the Toronto consulate in August. Since then I've moved to Santa Cruz, California. When this Adam Walsh nonsense began (and, as confirmed by the rest of you, Montreal was of no help) I walked down to my Congressman's (Sam Farr) office to ask for help. I've been in contact with them over the past month. And it's become very clear that what's going on is anything but clear to almost all parties involved. What has been happening, however, is that DCF cases like ours are being cleared worldwide without having to physically ship files back to the US and wait in a giant line. The person I've been in contact with at the Congressman's office says that she had cases from Japan and Fiji clear just last week and that mine (and other Canadians) should be soon (like this week or next). She'll know more by the end of the week and I'll post again when I hear from her. I'm sorry to post with pretty much no information, but I was heartened to learn that despite the fact no one knows what they're doing, things are getting done anyway.

Hang in! And keep up the commiseration!

Martha

thanks for the update martha

i'm glad your congressman was able to find some information for you (us) regarding this matter. i hope he's right and we'll find out some more info soon. unfortunately the senators and congressmen in my wife's home state of texas were next to useless, even worse help than montreal consulate.

hang in and wait..... tick-tock, tick-tock.

cheers,
matt

Martha,

Thanks for the great post. Even though it's not definite - it's great to hear that Canadian petitions are in the works and will hopefully be started soon (and that they aren't physically getting the files sent back and forth). As nice as it is to hear about Rome, Paris, Laos, Cambodia, etc petitions getting approved and sent back...it stinks not hearing anything about the Canadian ones! This was a refreshing read.

That would be great if you could post again when you hear back next week! I'll be waiting on the edge of my seat!

Thanks

Darryl

has anyone heard anything lately?

Darryl

Saw this on line today I dont know if it applies to us !!

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=58637

Geez this is hard! I keep reading through the other DCF threads and keep hearing about all these other countries who seem to be moving forward and getting interviews scheduled - Honduras, Brazil, Korea, etc....but I have heard absolutely nothing about Canada! Too bad that places on the other seide of the world can be processed quicker than the country that borders it. It would be so encouraging just to hear one or two people getting contacted and getting some new let alone getting interviews re-scheduled.

I understand Montreal isn't at fault and their hands are tied - I just wish USCIS would be able to provide some time frames...even ballpark it.

Oh well - wait and see....

Good luck everyone

Darryl

Following recieved from Montreal Consulate ( on a e-mail request from Me)

Quote ""
We received a positive answer, your case is now awaiting an interview date. A letter advising you of the response was mailed on the 8th of March to you.

Thank you ""


It is starting to move.... Have Faith


Colin

Hi all,

I just wanted to share this fantastic letter I received today from US Consulate in Montreal...

Dear Darryl,

This office is pleased to inform you that it can proceed with the processing of your immigrant visa case. If we were forced to cancel your interview appointment because of new legal requirements, we will be contacting you to schedule a new interview date. Otherwise, please proceed with instructions previously received from our office and your case will continue to be processed as usual.

We recently contacted you to inform you that all I-130 petitions filed after July 26, 2006 at an overseas consulate would be required to undergo additional screening, which could delay the processing of these cases. This screening is a legal requirement of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act ("Adam Walsh Act"), Pub. L. No. 109-248, which was recently passed by the US Congress. We have now received clearance from the Department of Homeland Security's Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to continue processing your case.

When communicating with this office, please provide your name and case number exactly as they appear at the bottom of this letter. Of the name in your passport does not match the name listed below, please contact us by email: Montreal-IV-DV@state.gov. You may also reach us by telephone at 514-398-9695 Ext4 between the hours of 2:00 and 4:00 pm, Monday through Friday, except US and Canadian holidays.

Thank you for your patience as we work through the new regulatory requirements of the Adam Walsh Act.

Sincerely

Immigrant Visa Unit Chief
US Consulate General Montreal

So what great news eh!!! Things are back on track and we're off to the races! Now we just wait for our interview date and we're off to Montreal. I must say - kudos to the government officials involved - this could have been a huge delay of months, maybe years... - to only be delayed 5-6 weeks is not bad.

I hope everyone starts getting the same letter and interviews scheduled. Good luck

Darryl

Great news that things are moving. I'm going to e-mail Montreal tomorrow and see if i'm getting a letter too....

that's great news darryl!!

when i read your letter, iw as doing a little dance to celebrate. since i filed right after the adam walsh act, hopefully my interview date will be coming soon!! since i'm out on the west coast, my letter will probably come in another day or two (i hope). this is great great news. montreal isn't so usless after all.....

cheers,
matt

I just got that letter today too!

I'm guessing that was just a form letter pushed out to everyone who was pending just to let everyone know things were back on track and in Montreal. I'd assume everyone will be getting one within the next few days.

I have very good feelings about all this - now that the petitions are back in Montreal I would imagine Montreal will be jumping on them and wanting to get the interviews scheduled and get these petitions off their plate. This was not easy I'm sure for Montreal who was obviously stuck in the middle and was getting pelted with questions and couldn't provide answers. So just to eliminate the hassel and fired-up applicants I'd imagine Montreal will be doing all they can to get this stuff resolved as quick as possible.

Wait and see. Good luck everyone

Darryl

This was my response from Montreal today by e-mail

Yes, we have received our OK to continue processing all cases that were affected by this; your case is now awaiting scheduling, once done, we will send you an appointment letter.

Thank you

Sounds like everyone is done from Montreal

Woohoo for you Canadians! Good luck & speedy completion for all the rest of this mess!

Well the waiting game continues....

I just got an email from the Consulate in Montreal - apparently our case is complete and waiting for an interview...which will be mailed to us in the next 4-12 Weeks.

4-12 weeks????????????

So frustrating. I really thought Montreal would be on top of these petitions coming back and pumping them out like crazy...Now we're looking at 3 months to find out when an interview is...another month or so before the actual interview date...another 5-6 months possibly???

It seems like with every drop of good news comes a bucket of bad news. up and down up and down....when will this all be over!!!!

oh well... wait...wait....wait....wait....wait....wait...wait....wait....wait....wait......
..wait...wait....wait....wait....wait........wait...wait....wait....wait....wait
........wait...wait....wait....wait....wait........wait...wait....wait....wait..
..wait........wait...wait....wait....wait....wait........wait...wait....wait....
wait....wait........wait...wait....wait....wait....wait........wait...wait....wa
it....wait....wait........wait...wait....wait....wait....wait....patiently.....


I hope it's closer to 4 than to 12....fingers crossed...nails bitten off.

Darryl

For Mtl everything seems to be so slow!! Wasn't always the case, but appears thats the way now. At least your going forward now and not at a complete stand still.

Darryl,

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, rain on your parade, (insert cliche here), but I received the letter that said it would take 4-12 weeks for an interview in early-October. Even if you don't include the lost Adam Walsh weeks it's been more than 12 weeks and still no interview date. I think Tracy has been waiting even longer. While of course it's harmless to cross your fingers, you might not want to make plans or have an imaginary timeline in your head, because we're at the mercy of a slow and finicky system. Maybe we can ask fellow Canadians how long ago they filed and make a timeline. But otherwise I think immigration just sucks.

Cheers,

Martha

Yes we have been waiting since the beginning of October for our interview. I was really hoping they would give us Adam Walsh people a quick interview it is 12 weeks to our interview it will be 9 months from the time of filing. Very depressing

Interesting Article for all Canadian's Moving to US:

Canadian Tax Considerations for Canadians Moving Permanently to the United States

Link
http://www.americanlaw.com/ustxperm.html

Colin

well.... .from reading so far, i may have been waiting the longest who regularly check this forum. my petition was approved on aug. 11, 2006 and i sent the entire checklist and info to the montreal consulate in late september 2006. so i have been waiting for almost 6 months!!

reading the timelines of previous montreal filiers (prior to adam walsh), it averaged around 7 months or so from start of petition to visa in hand. since the adam walsh delay of nearly 8 weeks, i'm not expecting my interview anytime before june. but as soon as i find out, i'll of course inform the board!!

cheers,
matt

Has everyone received a letter saying they are clear? Just wondering because we have not I only have the e-mail I got back from Montreal saying we are clear but it makes me wonder when I didn't get a letter.

I think this person did not yet get a letter: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=435592
Just a guess.

We have recieved our letter, ( saying my wife is clear) but nothing yet on Interview date:
(It took a week to get letter to Calgary)

Colin

I emailed MTL last week - no response. Wonder when to email them again..... oh this waiting game!!!
Any ideas? Should I be bold enough to phone and face Ms. Nasty?????

Len and Bren,

Its up to you whether you call or not, really it's your right to inquire considering you've paid the fee...I call or email every few weeks just to stay in touch with whats going on...they don't generally make it a huge priority to let you know whats going on all the time so its not a bad idea to keep tabs on them.

If you do call, make sure you let us all know what you found out!

Darryl

Ok called Montreal today. Glad to find out they mailed my letter for Adam Walsh clearing on the 9th but i still haven't gotten it.....

I also asked about my interview and they said we will have one by May. So a couple more months I suppose but at least it was an answer

Tracy,

Thanks for the update! We are at about the exact same timeline as you are - we filed our I-130 on September 12, 2006 and Montreal received our packet 3 on October 13, 2006. So we're very close to your timing. I know by now to take anything anyone associated with immigration says with a grain of salt...but at least now the hurdle that was holding us all back (Adam Wash Act) is done with and we're back to the normal process so it looks promising.

Glad they gave you somewhat of a definitive timeframe as to when you'll get the interview as vague as "May" is it's better than "uhhh we have no idea." Everyone says Montreal is so slow but really for any communication we've had with them they've been pretty quick - quicker than we've expected when sending out the packets and stuff....so hopefully the 4-12 weeks thing is just worst case estimate to cover their butts and we'll all be nicely surprised in April with some good news.

My fingers will remain crossed...for all of us!

Thanks for posting your call information

Darryl

Yes thanks Tracy.... & Darryl

We are close to same time frame.. I have a email out requesting further on our interview date..

They will give me one, just to get rid of me Ha ha .. good luck , keep posting results thanks

Colin

Not sure about DCF'ers but for the K1'ers , k3'ers it seems to be taking awhile for MTl to assign interview dates, for 1 k3'er it was nearly a 6 month wait from time Mtl had Checklist to interview date.

Great News!!!!!!

I got an e-mail from Montral today saying they mailed my interview letter yesterday!!!! The only crappy thing is they didn't give me the damn date! Darryl and Colin you are going to get yours soon if I got mine coming!!!!! OMG i'm so releived!

This is what I love about this VJ site ( and the people) You get dayly Hope..
where are you Tracy in Calgary too? It takes 5 - 7 Days to get mail accross Canada.. but keep yes posted .

Thanks for the Update.. as they say in Calgary Yaho !!

Colin