Hello Fellow VJ'ers

We certainly have a very loyal group of Montreal VJ'ers on this forum and we have all tried to help one another through this stressful process...... Here is my experience and comments on this whole process.

If you've been following the Montreal thread in this forum started by Darryl, you know a little bit about my situation. Everything was uneventful until the Adam Walsh setback, which was annoying, but just a minor setback. Than the torturous wait for an interview, but after I bugged them enough, they finally scheduled an interview for me on the same day with Colin Wilson.

Petition filed early August 2006, checklist sent in late September 2006, interview notice (finally) on May 13, 2007, and interview date on June 13, 2007.

So I live in Vancouver, and since they only do the CR1/IR1 interviews in Montreal, I had to fly out to Montreal for the interview. Of course my interview was scheduled on a Wednesday, so I had to take 3 days off mid-week for the interview. I was gonna make a trip out of it! Luckily, my interview date was the week after the F1 race, because all the hotels were full the week before. I pity the poor souls who had interviews last week!!

I got into Montreal at 4:50 PM after a 4.5 hour flight plus 3 hour time change. If you're not picky about class of hotel, than I'd highly recommend La Tour Centre Ville on Rene Levesque Street. It's esentially right across the road from the consulate, literally less than a 5 minute walk. We made the mistake of taking the shuttle bus downtown. If you're travelling by yourself, than that might be OK since it's a $14 shuttle bus ride. But a cab ride is $35 flat from the airport to downtown, so it's FAR better if you're travelling with 2 or more people. La Tour Centre Ville is a 2-star hotel at best, but it's hard to beat the convenience factor, and it's really close to Old Montreal!

The consulate is at the corner of rue Saint-Alexandre and Rene Levesque, but I scoped out the location the night before just to make sure I knew where it was. Enjoyed a nice Classic French dinner in downtown the night before to relax before the big day.

Woke up the next morning at 6:30 AM to get ready to try and get to the consulate by 7:15 AM. The doors open at 7:30 AM. When I got to the consulate, Colin Wilson was already there waiting, so he was the only person ahead of me. By 7:30, 2 other people behind me had joined the lineup for immigrant visas.

The doors opened at 7:30, and we had to first pass security. They look at your passport and interview letter to allow you entrace to the consulate. You will receive a little scrap of paper with a letter on it, that indicates your place in line. Mine was letter "B". After security, I was lead downstairs to a holding room to wait for the elevator to take us upstairs. The security guard lead us upstais at 7:45 AM and they instructed us to head to Window #9 when we got upstairs.

At Window #9, a lady took our little scrap of paper and interview letter and instructed us to wait in the large waiting room. A little bit before 8:30, our name was called back to Window #9 where a gentleman looked over our documents and application. He gave us back a bunch of documents and took our new I-864 Affidavit and financial supporting documents. He asked us questions on my wife's derived income. Since she filed a return with the IRS in 2006, he asked how much of the amount was from a USA source. My wife only worked 2 months in the USA in 2006 and the remainder of the year in Canada. As mentioned by Darryl and more recently by Colin, they will only accept USA sourced income!! They will accept Canadian sourced income from the sponsor only if it will continue after the sponsor moves back to the USA. If you do not meet the income requirements, you must provide proof of liquid assets in USD at least 5 times the poverty limit for your family size.

Luckily, from the experience of Darryl, I filled out a new affidavit with our assets information and brought with us to the interview proof of our USA based savings accounts and brokerage accounts. My wife did not meet the income requirement, but luckily kept her USA based assets....... The guy took all of our stuff, gave us a slip to go pay the cashier $380 USD (Visa and Mastercard accepted), and have another sit in the waiting room for our "interview".

At 9:10 AM, we were called to room #7 where another gentleman with a really deep voice first asked me to scan my 2 indedx fingers. He then asked how we met. And lastly asked to see proof of domicile. If your USA spouse still has his/her USA Driver's license, than bring it along!! We left it at the hotel, but luckily, we brought along emails with our realtor in Texas, as well as a headhunter my wife has been using helping her land a job.

He congratulated us, our visa was approved, and he said that they'll be mailing my passport with visa packet back to us in about a week. We were finished before 9:30 AM. I was relieved!! I thought we were going to run into the same problem as Darryl, as he had dropped off all his proof of financial assets later that day. The only difference was that we had the affidavit filled out beforehand and brought the proof of assets with us. As a note, I also brought proof of work eligibility to the interview as well (I'm an orthodontist). I got licensed in the state of Texas back in January 2007.

So, if you are able to bring an offer letter from a USA company as the applicant, and obviously for the spouse sponsor, that would be beneficial. Be prepared!! Bring more than what you need, and you can always shred the extra copies later!!

My thoughts on the whole process....... It seems like they approved everything that day. All of the stuff we sent to them last September 2006 (the checklist) was untouched!!! They let us keep the immunization record and chest X-ray, another big waste. Overall, it seems pointless to travel all the way to Montreal to verify our documents and a 5-minute interview. I'm just not sure what the whole waiting period with the NVC was for......

I'm just relieved that the whole process is coming to an end. I hope to get the visa in hand by the end of next week! I wish the best of luck to all you other VJ'ers, and I wish Colin and Darryl the very best in their quest for the elusive Green Card.

Cheers,
Matt

Great review, and congrats

Congratulations Matt... The review will definately be helpful to others going through MTL.

Congrats Matt! I'm glad to hear you got approved!!!

Congratulations

Excellent review matt!
Congratulations on the visa and thanks for all the tips!!!
L&B.

Congratulations. My interview is Wednesday and I'm staying at that hotel too. It looks pretty nice on the website. lol

Matt,

Congratulations! I'm so glad you were able to bypass all the BS and get the job done! Good luck on the rest of your journey.

Darryl

Hey there,

Glad to hear you made it through, congrats. Just wanted to mention though, for anyone else reading this who is going to use assets (item 29 on the I-864):

"In order to qualify based on the value of your assets, the total value of your assets must equal at least five times the difference between your total household income and the current poverty guidelines for your household size. However,if you are a U.S. citizen and you are sponsoring your spouse or minor child, the total value of your assets must only be equal to at least three times the difference."

Cheers!

Congrats!

Just out of curiosity though, how would one prove domicile at an interview? When I immigrated to Canada, I had to relinquish my US drivers license. Would having a physical address in which we are going to be living at (if approved, of course) be enough to prove domicile ?

Hi Candy

It's too bad you had to relinquish your US Driver license. That certainly would be a big help...... Other things we brought were my wife's investment and bank accounts in the states. If you have a voting record, that helps. As well as maintaining to file US tax returns.

Other things we brought were e-mails between us and real estate agents. We also had emails between my wife and a headhunter.

Of course, if you had property in the States, or just bought a house, that would be ideal. If you have a job offer in the States, that would be gold. Immigration just wants to know that you plan on moving back and living in the States. They don't want to give out green cards to people who live abroad and apply for immigrant status just because they're married to an American.. So if you don't currently live in the USA, they want to know that you still have "ties" to the States or are planning to move back.

Good luck in your journey,
Matt