I am a US citizen and am sponsoring my mother's green card application.

Her I-130 was approved in April 2007, and I am still waiting for green card interview in Montreal.

Does anybody know how long I/we can expect to wait before she will have her interview?

Is there any way for us to make things move along more quickly? Can we petition our member of congress or take any other action to speed things up?

Thanks for your help!

Mark

Looks like I'm not the only IR5 going through Montreal!!! Suddenly I don't feel so alone Montreal has become a a real crap shoot! Before your dear mother can get to the interview she needs to go through the NVC which handles the processing for the consulate at Montreal. Montreal is the most backlogged consulate in the world! They are short staffed since they are the only consulate in Canada that handles all visas and they won't have an increase in personnel until October 2007. Personnel were shunted to the handle the backlog of passport applications apparently. My parents cases were complete as of July 27, 2007, I expect them to interview in January 2008. Where are you in the application process? Have you completed DS230 yet? I-864? DS3032? Is your file complete? Are your mother's vaccinations up-to-date? Where is your mother located? OHIP covers all the required vaccinations for senior citizens. Do the blood tests and get chest X-rays if she might have been exposed to TB or been vaccinated against it. The medical needs to be done by a panel physician but your family doctor can do most of the tests. Unfortunately blood tests and x-rays will need to be done again by the panel physician but if you get them done by the family doctor then you will have no surprises. Family doctor should give your mother HIV and Syphillis tests, Mantoux test (skin prick) for TB but only if she has never been exposed to TB or had the BCG vaccine and blood tests for MMR and Td resistance if vaccination record is incomplete. Medical examination is good for one year so wait until file is complete before scheduling an appointment. Do you have a number that begins with MTL yet? Panel Physicians charge for vaccinations but OHIP doctors do not. Just don't tell them it is for US immigration (OHIP won't cover it) unless you really know the doctor well and can trust him or her. The faster you get the file completed the faster your interview will be scheduled. It will take about 90 days to get your file to the complete stage. Then it might take 6 months to get an interview date.

Speeding things up? Nine months is not that long, look at the fourth preference category for family visas (brother or sister of US citizen) the wait is 15 to 17 years unless the person is coming from the Philipines, then the wait is over 20 years.

Wow. It is awesome finding somebody else going through this experience...especially somebody who has sooo much more information on what is going on than I do.

My mother has the NVC case number with MTL at the start of it...in fact my mother's case with the NVC was completed in April '07. And so we are just waiting for the interview date at this point. At this point the case has been closed and we have been waiting 4 months.

How have you been able to get so much information about CP in Montreal and their status? My lawyer appears to be completely in the dark and unable to provide any additional feedback beyond precisely what the NVC is telling...which is we need to keep waiting. Do you know somebody at the Montreal consulate? Or is your lawyer just far far more informed than mine?

Also...you seem to be expecting to wait 6 months between your parents completed status and getting the interview, should I be expecting that wait as well?

Thank you very for taking the time to reply. Your information has been very helpful

cali_mark

p.s. are you open to exchanging email addresses?

I sent you a personal message. Let's move this to the IR5 forum under the regional discussion area for Canada.