I sent an email to the Consulate in Montreal today and received a generic email back. My last email to them re: interview date was on Oct. 1/07. In your opinion, will I get an interview date before the beginning of December? it's hard to plan anything - i'm selling my condo and want to choose a closing date.
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Good Morning Montreal Consulate,

Would you be able to provide an update as to when I might receive the notice of my interview date? Any information would be helpful.

Thank you for your time.
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Reply:


Thank you for your inquiry. If your inquiry concerns a case where the I-130 petition was filed at a U.S. Consulate in Canada, please be aware that there is a high volume of cases waiting to be scheduled for appointments. Resource shortages may delay processing for 4-5 months after we receive notification that you have all of your required documents. Thank you for your patience.
In order to serve applicants faster, we do not respond to inquiries requesting confirmation of receipt of documents or faxes, nor will we be able to answer multiple inquiries about the same issue. Some applicants call on the phone, send an e-mail and a fax to ask the same question or a variation of the question. We have a small number of employees who respond to all the inquiries. It only delays the service we can provide if you make multiple inquiries. We will not respond to multiple e-mail inquiries asking a duplicate question.

If NVC sent you a letter stating that your file is complete and it has been sent to Montreal for scheduling, the file has NOT actually been sent to Montreal but it is waiting at NVC until an appointment can be scheduled. We currently have a 4-5 month wait for scheduling appointments after receipt of the OF-230 part 1. You will receive an appointment letter in the mail when your appointment has been scheduled by NVC. You can expect to receive this appointment letter several weeks before your appointments. Please remember to bring ORIGINAL documents of birth, marriage, divorce certificates, etc.

If your inquiry is regarding processing of an immigrant visa for a case where the petition was filed in the U.S. and it has not been scheduled for an appointment, please send your inquiry directly to the National Visa Center (NVC). To contact NVC, please forward your inquiries by email to: NVCInquiry@state.gov. If you have been informed by USCIS that your petition has been approved and forwarded to the Department of State, please contact NVC directly.

If you are inquiring about a new family member whom you wish to add on to an approved petition stored at NVC, please contact NVC in writing providing petitioner and beneficiary's names and dates of birth, case number, receipt number, and copy of birth certificate. To contact NVC by phone, you must call between 8:00 am-8:45 pm, Monday-Friday, Eastern Standard Time (EST). It may be easier to reach NVC during the morning. Follow the prompts to speak with an operator. Telephone: 603-334-0700. You may also inquire via facsimile - Fax: 603-334-0791.
You can learn more about immigrant visas, in general, and the National Visa Center, in particular, at
http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/ty...types_1309.html.
Thank you.
IV Unit Montreal

holy cr@p!

Yeah! I think that is the longest reply anyone has ever received. I hope it doesn't mean there is a 'canned' answer ready and waiting for all emails about interviews now.

Normally it's more like:

Unfortunately we cannot tell you as your case is with the National Visa Center.
You may call them at 603-334-0700. Once they schedule your interview they will then
transfer your file to our office.
Thank you.

I know what you mean though, it is very hard to make moving plans etc when you don't know if your interview is in 2 months or 6 months.

Exactly - it's hard to plan anything... when to give notice at work, when to sell your place, car, furniture, etc. Hopefully we will all get good news very soon!

I didn't know that MTL actually sent replys back that long. Well hopefully you'll hear something before the 4-6 month wait like a lot of us had to do.

HOly crap


But I do agree about what they say about people calling, e-mailing and writting letters all for the same matter. I do believe it delays a lot.


Still quite shocking that they have that one premade now

I agree there is no point in calling, emailing and writing - all at the same time - about 1 topic.

However, it's amazing that those 'nasty' clients call on the phone since MTL no longer has a number to call.

Manager:

We have been getting complaints from people that they are not getting answers to their questions.

People who respond to queries:

Those people are calling us on our invisible phones, emailing us and writing to us asking about their interview and are wasting our time - there are only a few of us here and they are duplicating our work!! We will come up with a standard response, this will make it faster for us and will cover all the bases.

Manager:

Ok sounds good!

You know, all this could be solved by connecting their information system to a website. Just like the USCIS website. This simple login could tell you when the office received your stuff, the approximate waiting times, your interview date, checklist, and it could also tell you not to call or email questions that are already answered by the site. It would save time, people power and a lot of worrying and frustration... I'm more ticked off that they dont have this service than the fact that they make us wait so long.

That is something I've thought about myself. I don't understand why they don't institute such a system.

It's the government. For me to program such a system would take a few days at the most and 2 grand. But for the government to do it they need a thinktank, a 100 person consulting firm to find the firm to program it, 9 weeks of planning and development, 2 months of development, 4 weeks of testing and then the budget to get cut and the project to get scrapped.

It's bloat bloat and inefficiency... but hey it's our tax dollars (or spouses anyway) at work.

Hallelujah on that! In today's world, it never ceases to amaze me when I come across a website that doesn't allow some sort of online communication....especially when USCIS and US Consulates are U.S.[size="3"][/size]!

Got the same message. Looks like they just have an autoresponder now. It's appalling, esp. if one has a legitimate question.

- Krazykraut

So sorry to hear about your response T.O./NY...and Trailmix, that was funny. It's great to keep a sense of humour so we don't want to kill people. Ha!

In this day and age, and all the technology that's available, it is a sorry state of affairs to have filers (a good filing system and bar codes to locate whereabouts of said files) not be able to be told exactly how long the wait is.

Do you mean you asked them a question other than - when do I get an interview - and you got the canned answer??

Yep. I emailed to ask if they had sent off my request for a police check to the U.S. Consulate in New Zealand and got the autoresponse. We'll see if they then take the time to actually send a response to my question...

It looks like Montreal will still read your emails after they've sent the auto response and if your question is not interview scheduling related, will actually reply. Thank god for the little miracles!

Yes, asked whether the documentation regarding my legal status is Canada was sufficient. I haven't even received Packet 3, and it has been two months since the I-130 was approved.

- Krazykraut

Holy cow indeed.... it's a long response that doesn't really say much.... hmmmmm

From experience, they tend to send incorrect information, so double check....and you're lucky that they answered you. All they do for me is repeatedly send a "Read Receipt" from my Outlook email.....