CR-1 Review

[SomberCat 0]

For starters, we went to dinner with Holliday the evening before the interview and had an AWESOME time. She's a great person - lots of fun, very conversational and easy to get to know. I can't wait to meet her husband one day. I think there will be a road trip from Indiana to Oklahoma coming.

The next morning, we showed up at the embassy at 7:00 to find Holliday and one other man there. People started showing up shortly after that and it was quite the line by the time they opened the doors at 7:30. As stated by others, they were prompt with the 7:30 door opening and 7:45 elevator arrival. I have to admit that I loved walking in the elevator and knowing which way to face since the door opens on the other side. Later on, this became a source of entertainment for my husband and I, but I'll get to that in a minute. We received the letter C.

Letter A and Holliday (letter B) were called back to windows and had both returned before we were called back. I wasn't nervous at all but my husband was shaking in his boots and when Holliday came back with her b1tchy lady story, I have to admit I think my blood presure went up a bit. However, we were called back and had a wonderful lady. She basically confirmed every single piece of information on the DS-230 and unlike the woman that Holliday had, she read the info directly to us and just asked us to confirm it was still correct. She also did the fingerprinting at the same time which letter A guy and Holliday went back later to do. We were done with all of that around 8:25 and went back to await the interview. This is when the real fun started. Note the sarcasm.

There were two people doing interviews - a man and a woman. Holliday was called back first and was done before anyone else was called back. We had been talking to letter A guy and wondering why he hadn't been called back, but he finally was called around 9:30 by the woman. About that time, the man started calling more people and one after another after another after another went in and came out approved while we continued to sit. It was a shade after 10 and my husband, who was already stressing, started to freak a little. I kept talking him off the ledge and saying that we were probably scheduled to go into the woman after the letter A but since his was taking so long, I was sure we'd be up next in the same room. Little did I know that I was wrong - kind of.

After letter A guy came out, we continued to sit as more people were called into the woman for interviews. A few of these people were there first thing in the morning, but then it went on so long, people were called in before us that we watched arrive around 9:00. Needless to say, my husband's freaking level went sky high and I started to get concerned also. By 11:00 we had been waiting just short of three hours and decided we should try to find out what was going on. They had gone through 19 interviews by this time and there were only three couples still waiting. The problem - how in the world do you ask someone a question? When I would stroll back to the windows, they were always with someone and if they weren't, then they wouldn't be sitting in their windows. So until 11:30, we tried to figure out who to ask. We decided to try the security guard but I have to admit that I was nervous about raising an issue since these people were holding our future in their hands.

After multiple trips back to find someone at an empty window, my husband went to the security guard. He said he noticed how long we had been there and would check into it. Ten minutes later we were called in. The story we got was that we were originally second in the queue for an interview with the woman (just like I had thought) when her computer went down. When it came back up, somehow we dropped out of the queue and they had completely forgotten about us. #######? How does THAT happen? And even if we did drop out of the queue on the computer, did anyone happen to notice our inch thick file sitting there? Geez! I have to admit I was totally shocked that they just admitted they forgot us, but I did appreciate the way she apologized forwards and backwards. She only asked us how we met, how he proposed and if he would have medical insurance and we were out of there. I don't think we were even there for five minutes after waiting almost four hours.

We had visions of a nice kiss after the approval, I figured I would probably get teary eyed and then we were going out for a celebration lunch but none of that happened. We were 100% mentally exhausted. We had started snapping at each other a little during the long wait (out of frustration), started hating the beautiful view of Montreal out the windows and were starving. The only thing that kept us partially sane was the Wunderbar Holliday bought me (my first one - YUM!) and continually watching the elevator doors open with people facing the wrong way. That was hilarious. So we went back to the room, called/texted our friends and family, ate some lunch and promptly fell asleep. I know it sounds a little dramatic, but we truly were exhausted. For all of those hours we were wondering what was wrong with our case and trying to keep the other one calm and we were just beat - totally brain dead.

We made up for it the next day though as once we had a lot of sleep and general down time, we felt great on Thursday and spent the whole time in Old Montreal. All in all, it's hard to b1tch about it since we were approved with no problem, but we definitely felt like they sucked the joy out of it. We never really got to enjoy the approval until the next day. I simply cannot understand how someone can be forgotten. Oh well, we got what we wanted and are ready to move as soon as the visa shows up, so all is good.

Thanks SO much to everyone on VJ. Whether we asked you a question directly or found answers in your previous posts, we appreciate each and every one of you. There's no way we could have done it without you.

[canadian_wife 1,791]

Excellent review! Congrats!

[trailmix 77]

I can completely understand how you guys were exhausted! Sitting there for that length of time while being so nervous is terrible! I too don't understand how they forgot you when they had your file.

Anyway, glad to hear you now have the visa

[Krikit 1,163]

Well, that sux that they forgot about you. I would have been a basket-case by then. Your poor husband. At least you didn't get the nasty lady!

[JillA 2]

It does suck how you had to wait, but mistakes happen at any job I suppose, even the consulate At least it all worked out, congrats!!

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Congratulations on your approval - and yeah, it sucks that they put you through all of that unnecessarily. I'm glad you enjoyed Old Montreal - it really is beautiful, isn't it!

[illnevergetthis 5]

Congratulations on your approval.

I would have been completely freaked out. Glad everything worked out.

[Hugglebuggles 60]

Congrats on the approval! You definitely earned it!

The elevator thing is hilarious isn't it? We actually saw a guy get to the top, was facing the wrong way, and then started freaking out but never bothered to turn around and look behind him. The doors closed and he was sent back down to the bottom floor

[meowmeowmeow 0]

congrats!!!

[AbbynSheryl 0]

congrats

abby n sheryl

[Krikit 1,163]

The elevator thing is hilarious isn't it? We actually saw a guy get to the top, was facing the wrong way, and then started freaking out but never bothered to turn around and look behind him. The doors closed and he was sent back down to the bottom floor

[SomberCat 0]

The elevator thing is hilarious isn't it? We actually saw a guy get to the top, was facing the wrong way, and then started freaking out but never bothered to turn around and look behind him. The doors closed and he was sent back down to the bottom floor

I love it! We saw a similar thing happen. There was a guy who got to the top, the doors opened, he sloooowwwwly looked over his shoulder to see the room full of people and then freaked a little, pushed the button really fast and went back down. My husband laughed and said he would be back in a minute and a few minutes later, there he was. I'm not sure I could have gotten off the elevator the second time out of shear embarassment/stupidity.

[Holliday 4]

For starters, we went to dinner with Holliday the evening before the interview and had an AWESOME time. She's a great person - lots of fun, very conversational and easy to get to know. I can't wait to meet her husband one day. I think there will be a road trip from Indiana to Oklahoma coming.

Awww!! That's so sweet! I would LOVE it if you road tripped down to Oklahoma! That would be so great! My husband looks forward to meeting you guys too. I know he was so glad to hear that we had such a lovely time and that you guys are such awesome people. You are totally welcome to come visit us whenever you want.

And wow! What an ordeal you guys had. After hearing what you went through, and reading CanAm's 'Die Hard' story, I'm thinking I had it REALLY easy just dealing with the devil woman at window #10. My whole thing was nothing in comparison to your experiences. I think I woulda died if I had to wait as long as you guys did. And I'm glad you got to spend the next day enjoying Old Montreal and relaxing!

Are you able to track your envelope with Canada Post yet?

Congrats on the approval! You definitely earned it!

The elevator thing is hilarious isn't it? We actually saw a guy get to the top, was facing the wrong way, and then started freaking out but never bothered to turn around and look behind him. The doors closed and he was sent back down to the bottom floor

Heheh that made me giggle. I totally should've paid more attention to the elevator.

[Carlawarla 1]

Congratulations on your successful interview! Sorry you had such a rough time waiting! Glad they apologized.

[Krikit 1,163]

I love it! We saw a similar thing happen. There was a guy who got to the top, the doors opened, he sloooowwwwly looked over his shoulder to see the room full of people and then freaked a little, pushed the button really fast and went back down. My husband laughed and said he would be back in a minute and a few minutes later, there he was. I'm not sure I could have gotten off the elevator the second time out of shear embarassment/stupidity.

Off to try to find CanAm's Die Hard story now.