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| Montreal, Canada |  Review on June 14, 2012: |
bbz
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
Interview was on June 11, 2012. We stayed at Hyatt Regency because everything else was fully booked thanks to the Grand Prix and all the festivity in town. Would NOT recommend for visa purpose because it was way pricey, but it was only 2 blocks from the consulate. We took a walk to the consulate as soon as we arrived the night before, less than 5-min walk.
We got to the consulate at 5:55am. Way too early. Strolled around the block for a bit and probably started waiting at 6:10am. Not sure of the exact time cus the only thing we forgot to bring on the trip was a watch! We left our cell phones and Moments later another person showed up and left, saying the line probably won't get that long. A family of 4 showed up at around 6:30am. The father was on the phone and the mother had a recyclable bag. We referred them to the chart on the door so they dropped the phone and bag back in their car. Very soon 2 other ladies showed up, a mother accompanying her daughter going for F1. The mom was SO nice she got me a much needed coffee! There were probably 15-20 groups waiting by the time the door opened. The first security guard that came out told us the line actually should be on the LEFT side of the entrance away from the main street, so the whole line switched to the other side.
We were the first ones in  Person checked my name off the list, asked for passport, NVC letter and Loomis confirmation. Took off jacket and belt for the screening. We only brought paperwork with us in a clear folder so security screening was a breeze. Security guards were very nice, better than trying to get to the States at the airport.
Then we were directed downstairs to wait by the elevator. Took the seats closest to the elevator. Chatted with the lady who was 3rd in line, probably a fellow VJ'er cus she came prepared as well Her huge pile of paperwork made me nervous though, because my stack was not even 1/2 of hers! It probably took 20-25 minutes or so for enough people to gather for a full elevator ride, because when we were up on the 19th floor the time was 8:05am. We also stood right against the back door in the elevator as per everyone else's advice
A nice lady checked the NVC letter again and gave us a C1 ticket! C4 was called first to window 3 or 4 but we were called to window 1 within a minute. Another nice lady at the window checked my passport again and took out a long brown folder labelled with my name, case number, etc. Then she verified our addresses, asked for original birth cert, marriage cert, police certs, medical envelope, i-864ez and 2 photos. She scanned the photos with a digital camera. After taking my finger prints, she gave back the birth cert and marriage cert right away. She gave back the original pay stub and tax transcript but kept the photocopies of them. She also gave back the X-ray CD and the chart that came with the medical envelope. She said to bring the CD to my new family doctor in the States when I get there (guessing I'm gonna be there already!). I was so glad my husband came along for this, because he helped organizing everything given back to us. I was handing the lady all the papers she asked for, and handing to my husband all the papers she returned. Having stickies on each original and photocopy documents also helped, so I knew exactly where everything was when she asked for it. Very efficient This took about 10 minutes then she asked us to take a seat and wait to be called.
We only sat down for a few minutes before we were called to window 10. At first we weren't sure where to find the window, but the lady who gave us the ticket pointed it out. It was down the hallway past the washroom, which was a bit separated from the waiting area.
We met another nice lady at window 10, who gave us a friendly greeting and told us she is looking at our file for the first time. She looked at the computer screen and spoke to a coworker at the same time. They were saying something about the scanner is not working. She turned to us and said it is very important that before we leave here, approved or not, I have to get finger-printed again as verification. Then she asked me how long we were married for. She asked me when and how we met. When I told her it was through an online game, she wrote down the name of the game and said she likes to check out different multi-player online games. At this point we got interrupted because her coworker set up the fingerprinting scanner at the next window. I went there and got fingerprinted again. Meanwhile the lady asked my husband what he does for a living, what his job entails and where is the company located. My husband described everything in detail for a few minutes. I corrected him on the city where his company is located when he gave the city of the company's old address, and explained that the company recently moved in March  Then the lady asked me if I ever got stopped while crossing the border and why, which were the questions we dreaded about, because I got stopped twice while trying to visit my husband. When I told her exactly what happened, she first said wow, and then said but that's their job at the border. I agreed, and told her we understand and the officers at the border were very nice about it. She nodded and said that's good. Then she looked at the computer screen for a bit. Then she said congratulations you're approved, your passport will probably take about 5-10 days, and now I'll just grab some info sheet for you. Then I got the welcome letter !
We got back to the hotel at around 8:40am. Overall everyone was very nice, and the interview was so much easier than expected! More like general verification of what we already submitted. And by the way, when we came out from the building, there weren't many people AT ALL waiting to be called. We're still glad to get it over with early in the day though
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #9835