Montreal - still waiting

[PsychoKat 0]

I was doing some reading today thinking of the backlog and found a couple of things that might be having an impact on things.

From January this year:

To decrease the wait time for visa appointments for travelers, and building on best practices at several posts, all American embassies and consulates have now established procedures to expedite the processing of business visas and are working closely with local American Chambers of Commerce in over 100 countries to expedite the visa process for bona fide business travelers.

source

Also From January, but since the number of student visa greatly increaes between June - August this probably is having a major impact.

The assistant secretary outlined a number of steps the State Department has taken to expedite the processing of student visa applications, including:

• Adding more than 500 new consular positions since September 2001;

• Negotiating extended reciprocity agreements so that students are not required to apply for visas as frequently, or for renewals; and

• Directing its embassies and consulates to put student and exchange visitors at the head of the queue when scheduling visa interviews

“We do not want to lose a single student and we don’t want them to miss the beginning of school,” she said, adding the State Department has “made processing of student and exchange visitor visas a priority at every post.”

source

With business visas being expedited, and student visa's being placed ahead of all others and expedited, we're kind of left behind

Edited May 7, 2006 by PsychoKat

[Fuzzness 2]

as usual, money is the most important thing

[PsychoKat 0]

Additionally in regards to expediting student visa's in the past students were not allowed to arrive until 30 days prior to the beginning of classes, that has been increased to 120 days. That's 3 months and if you figure classes to start around the end of August or beginning of September that 120 days prior is right about now.

Edited because I found that information

Students allowed to arrive 120 days prior to classes

It does seem they are REALLY expediting them also

Harty said that almost all visa applications -- some 97.5 percent -- are processed within two days, and that the screening process for the 2.5 percent of visa applicants subject to special screening requirements for security reasons has been streamlined, typically taking one week to two weeks.

Also from one of the pages linked in my previous post

Edited May 7, 2006 by PsychoKat

[lucyw_524 0]

scott i dont know what else you could do. you cant actually complain. dont want them to hate you. but it's bullsh!t what they are doing, and being rude and stuff. they've got to start moving. geez.

Hi, Can I ask you something, How much time did Montreal Consultant give you to prepare your interview to Montreal after notification letter? Thanks a lot.

[Flames9_RN 358]

Looking at the time lines Lucy, you are going to have a bit of a wait.

[Cassie 8]

Believe Ziggy made a good point. Since the addition of DCF, it has really slowed down MTL. Would be nice if Vancouver took some of that backlog. And one has to take in to consideration how many others applying for K1, k3 cr-1 use VJ. I had not heard of VJ til lright near the end of my cr1 experience. Hopefully you get some good news soon.

Aye. gsmaclean, you guys seem like a really nice couple, but you are driving yourselves to an early grave! Pull your fingers away from the telephone and stop torturing yourselves with a bi-weekly run-in with the Montreal operators! And just use the statistics you find here on VJ as a guideline, not as gospel. I completely realize that you have had the longish end of the estimated waits, and how frustrating that can be, but I don't want to see you enter the US with a bleeding ulcer, you know??

I sincerely hope you hear about your appointment date soon!

[Movin on New Life 3]

we too are waiting... but I am a bit confused... We filed the I130 Sept 2, 2005 and then the I129F March 10, 2006 ( didnt know we could file that and he would be here waiting for the I130 processing instead of Montreal UGH!) I thought it was the K3 Visa was what we applied for but our paperwork from the NVC says CR1.. We sent DS-230 and waiting rersponse for an interview as well.. Does NVC set up our interview? I have been stressed about the 2-4 month waiting period for Montreal. My husband and I were married last August but have our formal family and friends wedding this August 19th.... Lots of deposits to be lost with delays... I would very much like to get into more conversations with all the great people here but it seems whenever I post I don't get too much feedback..am I doing someting wrong? Everyone's postings come to my regular email but mine never show either. Lastly I cannot figure how to get my timeline to show on this blog like others.. it has been 8 months and 5 days...

Thank you very much

Well if nothing else, at least SOMETHING has happened at Montreal: Harding got an interview date of June 8 for her CR-1:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12146

Of course, that's for a CR-1, and the interview date for those is assigned by NVC, not by Montreal. I'd be happy just to see ANY K-1 person get a Montreal date at this point.

[happyimmigrant 0]

Looking at the time lines Lucy, you are going to have a bit of a wait.

The way Montreal works, she may get her interview date next week.

Believe Ziggy made a good point. Since the addition of DCF, it has really slowed down MTL. Would be nice if Vancouver took some of that backlog. And one has to take in to consideration how many others applying for K1, k3 cr-1 use VJ. I had not heard of VJ til lright near the end of my cr1 experience. Hopefully you get some good news soon.

Aye. gsmaclean, you guys seem like a really nice couple, but you are driving yourselves to an early grave! Pull your fingers away from the telephone and stop torturing yourselves with a bi-weekly run-in with the Montreal operators! And just use the statistics you find here on VJ as a guideline, not as gospel. I completely realize that you have had the longish end of the estimated waits, and how frustrating that can be, but I don't want to see you enter the US with a bleeding ulcer, you know??

I sincerely hope you hear about your appointment date soon!

The problem is, there ARE no recent statistics here on VJ. The most recent statistics show that we should have already had our interview. But obviously Montreal has slowed down considerably since then. So until they do start actually issuing some dates, we have no way of knowing just how long it will be.

What you may not realize is yes, we're at the longish end of the K-1 wait, but we have actually been dealing with USCIS on a visa for me now for 17 months. That's how long we have been waiting since our original submission. So you can understand that when we get to the final interview stage and they just keep telling you "check back next week" week after week...you think it's SO close, and then the months continue to tick away - we were told "two to four weeks" eight weeks ago. Eight weeks ago, we thought we were just a few weeks away, ending this 17 month nightmare. So you can imagine what it's like waiting for those last few weeks that never seem to come, and they continue to just dangle this carrot out in front of us, but not actually ever letting us know when it might finally end.

[Flames9_RN 358]

If it has been 17 months, time for the USA citizen to contact her congress person!! Phoning Mtl and gettig upset is pointless!! I'm sure the staff thier are doing their best, but most likely swamped!! As i stated earlier, get the USA citizen to contact the congress rep!! Squeaky wheel gets the grease! best of luck

[Elunia28 0]

I know. We waited a lot longer than most people here going through Nebraska at the same time for our NOA2. When we finally got the NOA2 back in the beginning of February, we thought; "well, now that THAT is overwith, at least we're past the slow part of this process!" Looking at the speed Montreal was working back then, we figured we'd be be done and together sometime in mid to late April. Little did we know that the consulate part of the process was going to take even longer than the original petition process!

We figured it would take 6-7 months for the entire process, from initial submission to POE crossing, because that's what most people from Canada were experiencing. Assuming we get an interview date in July, it will be 10 months.

hey

same here

btw, I don't know if u remember me mentioning that my fiance in Chicago got a letter saying that the interview date is coming to me(Toronto)...... so he finally checked who it was from: Department of Homeland Security....... that was random I guess, because how the hell would they know that I would/wouldn't get the appointment(last week)??? Just to clarify I DIDN'T GET anything yet - the norm, what else is new? this waiting process SUCKS!

take care

Peace

Elunia28

[zyggy 9]

Additionally in regards to expediting student visa's in the past students were not allowed to arrive until 30 days prior to the beginning of classes, that has been increased to 120 days. That's 3 months and if you figure classes to start around the end of August or beginning of September that 120 days prior is right about now.

Edited because I found that information

Students allowed to arrive 120 days prior to classes

It does seem they are REALLY expediting them also

Harty said that almost all visa applications -- some 97.5 percent -- are processed within two days, and that the screening process for the 2.5 percent of visa applicants subject to special screening requirements for security reasons has been streamlined, typically taking one week to two weeks.

Also from one of the pages linked in my previous post

This would make sense... except.. the Non-Immigrant Visa Units and the Immigrant Visa Units are totally seperate entities. They do not rob Peter to pay Paul in this sense. Immigrant Visa Units only process Immigrant Visas.. They do not deal with business, student or any other type of non-immigrant visas with the exception of K visas.

[happyimmigrant 0]

I know. We waited a lot longer than most people here going through Nebraska at the same time for our NOA2. When we finally got the NOA2 back in the beginning of February, we thought; "well, now that THAT is overwith, at least we're past the slow part of this process!" Looking at the speed Montreal was working back then, we figured we'd be be done and together sometime in mid to late April. Little did we know that the consulate part of the process was going to take even longer than the original petition process!

We figured it would take 6-7 months for the entire process, from initial submission to POE crossing, because that's what most people from Canada were experiencing. Assuming we get an interview date in July, it will be 10 months.

hey

same here

btw, I don't know if u remember me mentioning that my fiance in Chicago got a letter saying that the interview date is coming to me(Toronto)...... so he finally checked who it was from: Department of Homeland Security....... that was random I guess, because how the hell would they know that I would/wouldn't get the appointment(last week)??? Just to clarify I DIDN'T GET anything yet - the norm, what else is new? this waiting process SUCKS!

take care

Peace

Elunia28

I do remember - that's really odd, because I haven't heard of that happening with anyone else. How strange that he got a letter from DHS - I wonder if that means you were having some sort of security check done by DHS?

[Cygnet 0]

Does NVC set up our interview?

Lastly I cannot figure how to get my timeline to show on this blog like others.. it has been 8 months and 5 days...

NVC sets up the date for CR-1 interviews.

Montreal does the K-3 interviews.

To set up your timeline:

Go to Immigration Timelines above. On the left side, you'll see add/edit my timeline. Click on this and just enter your info.

Good luck!

Edit: I just noticed you just did that. Please ignore this post.

Edited May 8, 2006 by Cygnet

[Jen&Joe 0]

I had my fiance contact the Montreal consulate a couple of weeks ago since we've been waiting for an interview for what seems like forever now (the consulate website says that Montreal's interview waiting period is 43 days as of 5/3/06. Somehow I don't think that's very accurate). Anyways, the man on the phone told him that he already called 2 weeks ago and to stop calling because there was nothing else he could do. My fiance was in the middle of saying "Ok, well thank you for your time" when the man hung up on him!

What is the matter with these people???!!!

I'm sure the consulate is tired of hearing people call in and ask about when their interview date is going to be, but maybe all of these people wouldn't need to keep calling if Montreal could actually speed things up a bit.

When we started this process back in January, we were only expecting a 25 day interview wait period (as stated on the consulate website). But Montreal has had our Packet 3 information for about 56 days now and still no word...

This is just getting more and more depressing as each day goes on. I'm trying to stay optimistic but then I read forums like this where people have been waiting for an interview for even longer than I have. I'll keep telling myself that maybe our interview letter will come in the mail tomorrow....

Edited May 9, 2006 by Jen&Joe

[happyimmigrant 0]

I had my fiance contact the Montreal consulate a couple of weeks ago since we've been waiting for an interview for what seems like forever now (the consulate website says that Montreal's interview waiting period is 43 days as of 5/3/06. Somehow I don't think that's very accurate). Anyways, the man on the phone told him that he already called 2 weeks ago and to stop calling because there was nothing else he could do. My fiance was in the middle of saying "Ok, well thank you for your time" when the man hung up on him!

What is the matter with these people???!!!

I'm sure the consulate is tired of hearing people call in and ask about when their interview date is going to be, but maybe all of these people wouldn't need to keep calling if Montreal could actually speed things up a bit.

When we started this process back in January, we were only expecting a 25 day interview wait period (as stated on the consulate website). But Montreal has had our Packet 3 information for about 56 days now and still no word...

This is just getting more and more depressing as each day goes on. I'm trying to stay optimistic but then I read forums like this where people have been waiting for an interview for even longer than I have. I'll keep telling myself that maybe our interview letter will come in the mail tomorrow....

I know exactly what you are talking about. We're at 51 days now, right behind you. I was hung up on last Friday when I called them. We started this K-1 process six months ago exactly as of today, and all along we thought the consulate portion would be the quick part at the very end. The way it's going right now, the consulate/interview part of the process is going to have taken even longer than the original petition approval - and that took long enough in itself!