My CR-1 interview review

[Rustbelt 0]

Reminds me of the time my wife flew back from the UK via Philadelphia. She had flown out of Buffalo, NY because the airport there is a whole lot closer to where she lives than Toronto. Anyway, so at Philadelphia, they asked her where she was going ("to Buffalo") and that caused a whole long line of questioning about where she lived which went something like:

Customs guy: "So you live in Buffalo?"

Wife: "No, I live in XXX (Canadian town)"

Customs guy: "So you'll be heading back to Buffalo?

Wife: "Yes, and then back to XXX"

Customs guy: "So how long have you lived in Buffalo?"

Wife: "I don't, I live in XXX"

This went on for a couple of minutes. They were for sure hoping to catch her out in a lie.

[SonoranSongbird 3]

There is a waiting period for getting married in Quebec (I think it's 25 days) from the time you get your license so that wasn't going to work. We rented the biggest van I have ever seen in my life, all piled in and drove across the border to Ontario. We all had cell phones so while driving, we planned a wedding. We bought our marriage license exactly one minute before the door closed at the municipal government office in Nepean and were married in my brother's living room three hours later. We then got back in the van and drove back to Montreal in a driving rain.

Awww, that part is actually quite romantic.

And yes, although she probably couldn't just go ahead and give you the visa without checking to be sure you were not the same person whose number you had, she should have been polite about it and tried to find a solution. Obviously everyone else there was able to figure out what the problem was rather quickly, so she has absolutely no excuse!

[Holliday 4]

Thanks again for all the congrats! Oooohh, and I got an email tonight that my envelope is on the move! It was accepted by the post office in Montreal at 9:44am, so I guess there's a possibility that I may receive it tomorrow. That would be terrific!

Oops did I crash a Canadian forum??? I just found this through the "recent posts!" Oh well...I'm only 2 1/2 hours from Canada!

No way! There is no crashing the Canadian forum. You are quite welcome here!

The doctor that did my medical was like your lady. I told my mom this lady had a horrible memory since she asked some things like 5 times, but my mom said that she might be trying to catch you in a lie. Maybe that's what this lady was doing?

That occurred to me too, but her confusion seemed to lie in the information on all the official documents. That was the weird(est) part to me. Ah well.

Woot! Congratulations, Holliday!

About his little twin babies not being hockey fans yet because they are only 5 months old: It's never too early to start!! I love looking at Blues baby gear on line.

Heheh yeah if I ever were to have kids, I would totally dress them in Canucks gear, but I don't think that'll ever happen. I'll just have to brainwash other people's kids instead.

Well #######! Man, if that had happened to me I think I would've had a total meltdown. I'm so sorry you went through that! Sounds like I had it easy in comparison. What did that woman look like? And if you have the time to write it, I would like to read your long story.

The woman was early to mid-thirties, about 5'4", average build, chin length dark hair, glasses, no makeup.....sound familiar?

I said I would never write this story on the forum because I don't want to frighten people so if anyone scares easily, stop reading now! If you decide to forge ahead, just know that I truly, truly believe my story is an anomaly. In fact, the Consul said it had never happened before.

OK, here goes....I met my husband online and after a year of traveling back and forth we decided to go for a K-1 visa and I would move to Charlotte, NC. Neither of us has ever been in trouble with the law AND we had not received any RFE's during the K-1 process. These are important points in the story. We waited nine months for the interview at the Consulate in Montreal. My family lives all over Canada and some of them had not met my fiance so we decided we would ALL make our way to Montreal and have a little family reunion in conjunction with this interview. At this point, I was considering the interview a veritable rubber stamp and I forsaw no problems getting my visa. Boy, was I wrong!

On the morning of the interview, Gordie (my fiance) and I got up early and walked a block past the Consulate. We sat in the Tim Hortons on Rene Levesque Blvd. and suddenly I had a terrible feeling of foreboding. I remember saying that I had a really, really bad feeling and I didn't think it was nerves.

We made our way to the Consulate, went in and waited. (It's been almost three years but if memory serves me correctly I think we had to pay a fee at another window first.) After over an hour, I was finally called to an interview room. The woman asked me a few questions and then hit me with "Have you ever lived in the United States?" followed by "Have you ever applied for a visa before?" I responded that I hadn't but I could tell she wasn't buying it. She kept repeating the same questions over and over and over. I finally asked where this was going because there was obviously something that was concerning her. She wouldn't answer my question. I then asked for my fiance to be brought into the room. Honestly folks, at this point the room was starting to spin. She made me swear again that I was telling the truth about never having lived in the U.S. before. She asked a few of the same questions again and then asked my fiance to leave the room for a minute. Once he left she asked, "Is there something you want to tell me that you don't want your fiance to know?" I was hiding nothing and had no clue what she was driving at. Finally she allowed my fiance back in and announced that I was denied the visa and that was that. She wouldn't tell me why and the interview was over.

To this day I feel bad that I walked out of that room ashen, tears streaming down my face, leaning on my fiance, and probably scaring the s*** out of everyone in that crowded waiting room!

We went back to the hotel, gave the bad news to my very supportive family and started to brainstorm. My Dad suggested that being an American citizen, Gordie probably would not be turned away from the Consulate if he demanded to see someone. So the next day Gordie showed up as the doors opened, said he was an American and asked to speak to the Consul. When the security guard asked what it was in regards to, he said, "It's a matter of Homeland Security and I don't feel comfortable talking about it here in this lobby." (That's my Gordie!) He was whisked in and that's where it gets interesting.

The truth finally came out at this meeting. Apparently my alien # was a recycled number. The previous "owner" was a woman who had illegally tried to bring other people into the U.S. on the back of her visa. This all happened in 1996. That is all the information we were ever supplied. All of this begs the question why I was never asked for more information through an RFE. I could have supplied income tax returns, letters from employers, letters from landlords, any number of things that would have shown that I lived in Canada during the time in question. Also, my fingerprints would not have matched those of the other woman. Anyway, the Consul told Gordie to come back the next day and hopefully he would figure out a way around this mess. By this time, he and many of his staff believed that Homeland Security had made an error.

We tried to relax and enjoy the sites of Montreal but honestly, all I could do was pace, wring my hands, and pray to the immigration gods. When the next day came, off Gordie went to the Consulate where they presented him with a rather surprising proposition. They gave him a list of things to do and said if we were able to get them all done in the next twenty-four hours, they would give me a CR-1 visa the next morning. The list included things like: pay the entire fee for the CR-1 visa in US cash, get more passport-style photos, fill out a mountain of paperwork and oh yeah, get married!

There is a waiting period for getting married in Quebec (I think it's 25 days) from the time you get your license so that wasn't going to work. We rented the biggest van I have ever seen in my life, all piled in and drove across the border to Ontario. We all had cell phones so while driving, we planned a wedding. We bought our marriage license exactly one minute before the door closed at the municipal government office in Nepean and were married in my brother's living room three hours later. We then got back in the van and drove back to Montreal in a driving rain.

We spent the night (my wedding night!) filling out forms. The amazing front desk at our hotel had ALL of its fax machines tied up with our stuff for hours. (We had to get my fiance's CPA to fax us several years of income tax returns.) Gordie went to Western Union at 6:30am to pick up a load of US cash for the CR-1 fee. At the appointed time, we walked to the Consulate, took passport photos in the basement, waited an agonizing hour and then were ushered into a little room where we met with the Manager of Immigration. To be perfectly honest, I really don't think the people at the Consulate thought we would pull it off, especially the getting married part! Several staff came and went into the room and were shocked at what we had accomplished. They gave me my CR-1 visa, no more questions asked. Obviously I was only able to supply them with the bottom portion of the marriage license (where the officiant signs off) and they really wanted the marriage certificate but considering what we had endured, they looked the other way on that particular detail. They did repeatedly insist that we get the official marriage certificate asap which I did. We were also promised a refund for the K-1 fees we had paid nine months earlier but after three letters and a couple of phone calls to the Consulate, I eventually let it drop.

Sorry for the length of this post but trust me, this is the short version! There were a few more funny hiccups along the way but they are not integral to the story. I think if anything can be learned from this, it's that if possible, have your American fiance with you at the interview. In my case, If Gordie had not flown up to Montreal, I can't imagine how things would have proceeded. I suspect an immigration lawyer would have been involved and it might have been another year or so before things got straightened out.

As for that nasty woman who interviewed me, I dare say any of the interviewers would probably have denied me given the information they had BUT she didn't have to be so miserable about it.

Wow! Just WOW! That is absolutely CRAZY!! I can't believe you had to actually go through all that! It sounds like the Consular version of Die Hard With A Vengeance! Instead of completing a series of ridiculous tasks in a short amount of time so a terrorist won't kill people to avenge the death of his brother, you had to get married and fill out a whack of forms just to be given the opportunity to be allowed to start your life with the man you love. Just wow! Good for you guys for pulling it off though! Thank you for sharing your story! It really is quite incredible!

And you know what? I don't even think it was the same lady... unless she has aged VERY poorly over the past few years. Mine was more like between 40-50 years old I think. The rest of the description is pretty similar though, so who knows? She seemed short-ish, I guess. She was definitely quite a bit shorter than me, and I'm 5'7". Her hair was long and brown but had quite a bit of grey in it. It was tied back, but it looked like if it was loose it would've been pretty frizzy. I also remember she had round glasses. Hmmm... If it WAS in fact the same woman that you dealt with, perhaps you can have a teeny bit of consolation in knowing that she has not aged well. Heh.

[CanAmCharlotte 0]

Wow! Just WOW! That is absolutely CRAZY!! I can't believe you had to actually go through all that! It sounds like the Consular version of Die Hard With A Vengeance! Instead of completing a series of ridiculous tasks in a short amount of time so a terrorist won't kill people to avenge the death of his brother, you had to get married and fill out a whack of forms just to be given the opportunity to be allowed to start your life with the man you love. Just wow! Good for you guys for pulling it off though! Thank you for sharing your story! It really is quite incredible!

And you know what? I don't even think it was the same lady... unless she has aged VERY poorly over the past few years. Mine was more like between 40-50 years old I think. The rest of the description is pretty similar though, so who knows? She seemed short-ish, I guess. She was definitely quite a bit shorter than me, and I'm 5'7". Her hair was long and brown but had quite a bit of grey in it. It was tied back, but it looked like if it was loose it would've been pretty frizzy. I also remember she had round glasses. Hmmm... If it WAS in fact the same woman that you dealt with, perhaps you can have a teeny bit of consolation in knowing that she has not aged well. Heh.

It will be three years on Sept. 26 that this whole nightmare went down in Montreal and we're thinking of going back for our anniversary. (I was born in Montreal.) I told my husband if we do, I need to go back to the Consulate and just stand outside for a few minutes. I don't know why exactly. In a some ways, I guess I haven't completely gotten over what happened to us there. Maybe I still need a bit of closure. I certainly didn't get married in the manner I wanted to. Two good things did come out of it though: my entire family got to see me get married which never would have happened had I done it almost any other way AND I ended up with a "better" kind of visa. (The staff at the Consulate actually said the CR-1 is a "better" visa. Better I guess because you don't have to adjust your status once you get to the US).

BTW, loved your analogy to 'Die Hard with a Venegeance'. Must tell hubby!

Cheers!

[Carlawarla 1]

Congratulations! I'm very happy that people have had happy endings to their Consulate visits, just so horrible what some of you have had to go through.

Edited August 21, 2009 by Carlawarla

[JillA 2]

Oh my god CanAm, that's the worst story I've ever heard! A true horror immigration story if I've ever heard one, and I don't blame you for posting it before. I'm just happy it worked out for you, but seriously I would have had a nervous breakdown if that were me. Good for your husband to go back to the Consulate, who knows what would have happened otherwise.

[SomberCat 0]

Thanks for the address Trailmix. I think I'm going to be using it to complain after our move is over. I'll write my review of the BS tomorrow as I'm really sleepy right now (just got home from Montreal a few minutes ago), but I'm still irritated over what happened with our case.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Wow - these stories from the Consulate are rather incredible - kudos to the both of you for what you endured! And SomberCat - again, it sounds like your 'adventure' was less than gratifying as well.

Holliday, it seems to be something about Texas documents that USCIS doesn't like . . . when I had my K-1 visa interview I had my husband's original divorce decree from his last marriage but he had to send away for his divorce papers from his first marriage and divorce in Texas. He was sent a registration of divorce signed and sealed by the official registrar stating his name, his ex-wife's name, the date of their marriage and the date of their divorce and the fact that the divorce was originally registered in such and such a register. The divorce had taken place nearly 40 years earlier. Well, the Immigration official didn't want to accept that document at first and hemmed and hawed about it and asked didn't I have the original divorce papers - which my husband hadn't had for years. I told him that was all we had and it was what was sent when he requested the original proof. I even had brought his signed request document that he had faxed to Texas requesting the divorce document. The officer said he had never seen anything like that before and finally said he had to discuss this with his colleagues and went away for about 10 minutes. When he came back he said one of his colleagues had seen something similar once and agreed that this is what Texas issued, so they decided that it was real and they would accept it! Yipes - I was that close to being denied even though we had the necessary document but because they didn't like what it looked like I could have been denied. The fact that my husband had remarried after that and divorced again seemed to hold no weight.

Edited August 23, 2009 by Kathryn41

[Krikit 1,163]

I said I would never write this story on the forum because I don't want to frighten people so if anyone scares easily, stop reading now! If you decide to forge ahead, just know that I truly, truly believe my story is an anomaly. In fact, the Consul said it had never happened before.

[snip]

Holy ######!

I had to go and look at your timeline to see if you'd entered the application and approval dates! And then I saw that you had a hard time at the POE too. Poor you. You deserve a medal. I laughed out loud when I got to the part of everyone piling into a rental van and driving

across the border planning a wedding. Wow. That's some wedding story. OMG, I'm still laughing. Sorry.

[Abby62 23]

This may be the longest review ever. I apologize for that. I am many things, but 'concise' is not one of them.

I am new here and just read this as i'm interested in the whole interview process, I have to say thank you for being so detailed in your experience and well...it brought tears to my eyes..a huge congrats to you both!!!