My letter to Lee McClenny

[lgg 2]

Dear Mr. Lee McClenny,

I am a Canadian citizen being petitioned by my American spouse for a CR1 visa. We have gone through every stage so far and have since completed the NVC August 12, 2009. We are waiting for an interview date.

I have since found out that there is a HUGE backlog of cases at the Montreal consulate. The only Consulate in Canada that processes our particular type of visa. I would like to ask, why is this? Why is this the case when Canada is such a huge, sprawling county with a consulate in every major city? Does this not strike you as absurd?  Now we’re all waiting because Montreal has slowed down. Did everyone quit?  Did the budget get cut?  Oh right, there’s nothing you can do now as Montreal is the only consulate that processes CR1 visas. I know, it’s a little silly, right? 

I find this unacceptable to say the least. Not just for me, but for all of us Canadians who are waiting to be with our spouses and for those waiting for their K1s, in order to get married. I do realize, Mr. McClenny that immigration is a privilege and not a right – I do know this but it’s so insulting and frustrating to see high-fraud consulates pushing 100s and 100s of spousal visas through a month whereas Canada is at a complete standstill.

I need to ask you – could you not look into this? Could you not perhaps see if there is a solution? Our lives are on hold here and it seems so unfair. Some cases have been waiting 5-6 months even to be scheduled for an interview. I’m writing to you out of frustration and anger. We have no indication as to when we’ll interview thus, we cannot plan to give notice at our jobs and lodgings and other things we can’t plan for now. Would you be able to get his all done faster if Canada were a high-fraud country? This speaks poorly of us if we cannot process things like this when the majority are easy, concise and legitimate.

Anger is easy when we see most other consulates accomplishing all of the above with apparent ease and in a timely fashion.

We are tax payers. We are voters. We are upstanding citizens of the USA and of Canada. We are potential American citizens. You have a family, Mr. McClenny, how would you feel if bureaucratic red tape kept you apart, kept you from planning and moving ahead? I doubt very much that you would enjoy it at all.

Please look into what’s going on in Montreal and make some progress with our case and with all the other cases that are awaiting an interview.

Sincerely and I do thank you. Please also forgive my frustration but this system warrants some repair.

This is the letter I would like to send. Please advise or post your own and perhaps we can come up with some sort of concise template?

I tend to the emotional the verbose so.... I'd be happy with some constructive critique as well.

I'd like to mail this letter today.

Edited October 14, 2009 by lgg

[Peachey 10]

Hi Lgg,

I hope you take no offense to this but I don't like your letter. It sounds very accusatory and emotional (like you said). It might not be right to compare to "high fraud" countries since we are not one.

It's a good start, something to work on

[lgg 2]

Yep... this is what i'm looking for...

It was hard to write because I was/am emotional...

[Peachey 10]

Yep... this is what i'm looking for...

It was hard to write because I was/am emotional...

Varba and I are working on one ourselves! You're not alone!

[bowflex 0]

Yep... this is what i'm looking for...

It was hard to write because I was/am emotional...

Hey Lgg,

Yep unfortunately I agree with Peachey as well. When I wrote the letters to my Senator after our case fell way out of the timelines I actually had to rewrite it about 30 times to get all of the emotion out of it. In the end I'm glad I did because a copy of that letter can be viewed at the border whenever we cross. We often have border guards reading it back to us as we're waiting the usual 45 minutes to get over

I'd just stick to the facts, maybe post the exact turn times that are being given by Montreal now and even post how the customer support service isn't very helpful. I researched a ton of facts about the current conditions from where my wife was born and included them along with a paragraph towards the end that was more personal and told of our troubled times not being together.

I definitely wish you all the good luck in the world!

[lgg 2]

It is SO hard to write something that is totally logistical and based on pragmatism as it's something so close to me.... This is exactly what I was looking for -- in my line of work there is no room for hurt feelings and constructive feedback -- if I'm going to send it, I want it to be good and not overly weepy which is what I can't help write at the moment...

Thank you guys...

[trailmix 77]

Yep... this is what i'm looking for...

It was hard to write because I was/am emotional...

Hi lgg,

It's a good letter but like they said a bit too accusatory and angry (just my opinion) and I absolutely understand where that frustration is coming from.

I think most of your letter is really good, you hit on all the points that need to be made, which is great. The bulk of it is spot on, you probably just need to remove some things to make it less confrontational.

I don't know about you but I have found when writing such things that it's usually that sentence at the end of a paragraph that goes too far. Kind of like, I can understand how it must also be difficult for you to run the consulate - but a tad of common sense would really help - you know what I mean - if you remove the 'tad of common sense' comment - it's not so bad.

I hope that everyone just writes from the heart, in a clear manner so that maybe the consul will actually READ what is sent to him, rather than just skimming.

Here in a nutshell are the points I made:

- Wait times between completion at NVC and interview in Montreal

- Lack of consulates that interview for both CR1/IR1 and K visas in Canada - in a country of this size

- Lack of panel physicians in Canada

[lgg 2]

Hi Trailmix...

Yep, I agree with you and everyone. I also do think that it should be a nice mix of coming from the heart/personal experience as well as the facts.

You're comment about the end part of the paragraph is perfect and I'm going to tweak the anger/accusatory tone out of that sucker.

Thanks TM...

you rock.

[Carlawarla 1]

Kudo's for wanting to write a letter. It's a balancing act. It might be good to not be "emotional" when writing, but heck, this IS an emotional time! I guess its trying to balance things. Angry is okay too and to not be emotional or angry might just not come off as strong enough either. I'm certainly no writer, but I agree, keeping to the points that trailmix pointed out would really help. Some of your comments sounded maybe snarky or sarcastic? That's how I read them and that's the flavour that I wouldn't want to go into the letter. Just my opinion.

Ooops, just another comment. trailmix hit the nail on the head about "writing from the heart"!!

You start your letter by using "I" statements...I think that should continue. At the end of your letter, you start to use "we". Unless you meant you and your partner? I took it to mean "Canadians", or "voters". Again, just my opinion.

Edited October 14, 2009 by Carlawarla

[Peachey 10]

We're almost done ours Lgg, I'll post it soon.

I'm putting my business writing skills to use! YAY!

[lgg 2]

You know what? I am actually a very sarcastic person IRL... it's my brand of LGG humour.

Not in a mean or cutting way but in a slight jabbing, easy going taunting way. But no place for Mr. McClenny!

In which case, I'm going to swipe your more concise style with some of my emotive, k? Not plagiarizing just using yours as a template!

We're almost done ours Lgg, I'll post it soon.

I'm putting my business writing skills to use! YAY!

[Peachey 10]

Ok Lgg, here you go! (You'll all know my first name now LOL)

This letter is going to be from Varba:

Dear Mr. McClenny,

I am writing to you today for two reasons. First, to inform you of a situation that exists, and second to ask for assistance.

I am a US citizen petitioning for my fiancee, Lisa(case ##########) for her K-1 visa. We sent our I-129F package to the Vermont Service Center on February 9, 2009 and received our Notice of Action 1 on February 13, 2009. We then received our Notice of Action 2 on June 6, 2009. Lisa received her packet 3 from your consulate on June 24, 2009 and she returned the checklist and required forms via Expresspost on July 14, 2009 (received at the consulate according to our tracking number on July 17, 2009). We have been waiting patiently since this time for an interview date.

Lisa and I belong to an online community of US citizens and their foreign fiance(e)s/spouses who are trying to immigrate to the United States through legal channels. This community has members from across the world. This community also helps track timelines for key events during the immigration process. Because of this, we knew to expect several months before having our interview.

We projected that given the current trends in Montreal it was a fair assumption that we would hit our goal of having Lisa immigrate at the end of December. This allowed for five full months for the interview to be scheduled and occur

On Friday October 7, 2009 I called the Department of State to find out if the consulate had assigned an interview for Lisa. I was very pleased to find out that the consulate had indeed scheduled us an interview, however the agent could not see the date and asked me to call back the week after to get the exact date. Lisa and I were very excited for this news.

We called back on Tuesday morning and were devistated to find out that there was an error in the system (the Department of State told us the consulate in Montreal made the error) and she did not have an interview scheduled and we were told not to expect an interview until at least January. The Department of State also told me that Lisa's checklist and forms were not logged into the system until August 14, 2009.

During the three months we have waited for a scheduled interview, we have had to put our lives on hold. We can not plan to visit each other or family. We can not take advantage of travel deals, or plan our holidays. We can not be sure when to give notice for housing or jobs.

This is an unavoidable part of the process, but the process is not intended to drag on for this amount of time! It took almost a month for the consulate to review the forms and input her eligability for an interview into the system. Eighty-seven days after we submited our third packet, the false “interview” was nearly a disaster as we had planned to give notice to Lisa's landlord. This is unacceptable.

The online community of fellow immigrants is very supportive in this process, and we have been in touch with many people in our exact situation. Because of the diversity of the members we are able see timelines from different consulates. I think it's fair to state that we see consistent examples of other consulates having sub 30 day turnarounds on interviews. The Department of State informed us on several occasions of the staffing issues that have occured at the Montreal Consulate. We understand that this will cause delays in the processing of immigrant cases, but do not understand why the delay has been continually increased.

I ask your assistance in this matter because Lisa and I have been waiting over three months to find out an interview date. We would like for Lisa to be able to move at the begning of January so we can start our new life together. If there is anything you can do to help us we would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you for your time in this matter.

Best Regards,

Varba

[lgg 2]

I LOVE it!

This is a great letter -- concise, informative and with heart

Good job, Peachy and Varba...

I actually have pared mine down too but will now commence to add some of points you guys mention (CR1 applicable of course) to the letter I will send.

Good letter.

Thanks a lot for posting it.

LGG

[Malrothien 6]

Peachy/Varba, I'd say to change the wording in your second to last paragraph to say, "Continually allowed to happen".

Just my two cents, though.

[Varba 0]

Peachy/Varba, I'd say to change the wording in your second to last paragraph to say, "Continually allowed to happen".

Just my two cents, though.

Thank you sister Mal.