The dreaded DS-5535 thread for Montreal. Post here and support each other (split)

[ice-qube 648]

1 hour ago, jercanuck said:

Sorry to hear about that, is there any wrinkle in your situation which you might believe caused them to send to additional processing?  Please keep us updated for what they additional processing requires.  

 

 

Honestly, I am at a loss to pick out anything that would red flag me. Interviews seemed perfectly good. No missing documentation. I have never had arrests or anything like that. I asked about what the reason for this was and officer had no actual information as to why it would be. Bureaucratic answer of following protocol of US govt, erc. Ok. Disappointing, and bewildering.

[From_CAN_2_US 1,097]

26 minutes ago, ice-qube said:

Honestly, I am at a loss to pick out anything that would red flag me. Interviews seemed perfectly good. No missing documentation. I have never had arrests or anything like that. I asked about what the reason for this was and officer had no actual information as to why it would be. Bureaucratic answer of following protocol of US govt, erc. Ok. Disappointing, and bewildering.

Have you ever lived in any other country? Do you have any previous visas with the US?
 

Do you have a name that is very common in a country that usually falls under high scrutiny?

 

This must be so frustrating! At the very least, they should give you a reason. Sorry you are experiencing this, and I hope it gets sorted out soon.

Edited October 25, 2021 by From_CAN_2_US

[Ontarkie 13,915]

28 minutes ago, ice-qube said:

Honestly, I am at a loss to pick out anything that would red flag me. Interviews seemed perfectly good. No missing documentation. I have never had arrests or anything like that. I asked about what the reason for this was and officer had no actual information as to why it would be. Bureaucratic answer of following protocol of US govt, erc. Ok. Disappointing, and bewildering.

Just grasping at straws here,  but here are the few things that place ppl in AP longer then others. 

 

Not  Canadian born or first generation Canadian

Education (physics is one) but they do usually ask for transcripts and resume.

Name matches someone else ( if this is the case you don't want them to rush it) 

New IO and needs supervisor review (can take longer if there is a stack on the desk)

and RFE's they can slow things down significantly 

And from your comment possible random AP's to check boxes  

 

Good luck and hopefully it's over soon

 

 

Edited October 25, 2021 by Ontarkie

[ice-qube 648]

1 minute ago, From_CAN_2_US said:

Have you ever lived in any other country? Do you have any previous visas with the US?
 

Do you have a name that is very common in a country that usually falls under high scrutiny?

 

This must be so frustrating! At the very least, they should give you a reason. Sorry you are experiencing this, and I hope it gets sorted out soon.

Absolutely nothing. Born in Canada. Never lived in any other country. Never even been to any countries of concern. Never have been in the US on any other visa other than the one every Canadian who crosses the border gets implicitly (B-2, I think). Have never been there longer than I should have, not even close. It is very upsetting, and I know I am whining, but I did not expect that my case would end up like this when I came to Montreal.

[From_CAN_2_US 1,097]

2 minutes ago, ice-qube said:

Absolutely nothing. Born in Canada. Never lived in any other country. Never even been to any countries of concern. Never have been in the US on any other visa other than the one every Canadian who crosses the border gets implicitly (B-2, I think). Have never been there longer than I should have, not even close. It is very upsetting, and I know I am whining, but I did not expect that my case would end up like this when I came to Montreal.

Oh no, I would be whining and upset too. Scary, that this can happen to anyone…

 

Do let us know how it goes… everyone gets approved in the end. Hopefully won’t take longer than a few days to get all sorted out.

[ice-qube 648]

4 minutes ago, Ontarkie said:

Just grasping at straws here,  but here are the few things that place ppl in AP longer then others. 

 

Not  Canadian born or first generation Canadian

Education (physics is one) but they do usually ask for transcripts and resume.

Name matches someone else ( if this is the case you don't want them to rush it) 

New IO and needs supervisor review (can take longer if there is a stack on the desk)

and RFE's they can slow things down significantly 

And from your comment possible random AP's to check boxes  

 

Good luck and hopefully it's over soon

 

 

I was born in Canada and both my parents were, as well. Education, I don’t know, maybe they will ask me for some documentation? I didn’t claim anything like i have a masters or PhD or a medical degree or something. They told me they will be sending out a questionnaire or something like this that I should send back to them, but not any hint about what its content might be.

[Ontarkie 13,915]

34 minutes ago, ice-qube said:

I was born in Canada and both my parents were, as well. Education, I don’t know, maybe they will ask me for some documentation? I didn’t claim anything like i have a masters or PhD or a medical degree or something. They told me they will be sending out a questionnaire or something like this that I should send back to them, but not any hint about what its content might be.

Ok so looks like they are waiting for you to fill out something. If they were supposed to send you a questionnaire email them asking about it. If you know what form you need go ahead (might be listed on your 221G) and fill it out and send it back. Sadly your case will not go forward without that questionnaire being completed. 

[ice-qube 648]

1 hour ago, Ontarkie said:

Ok so looks like they are waiting for you to fill out something. If they were supposed to send you a questionnaire email them asking about it. If you know what form you need go ahead (might be listed on your 221G) and fill it out and send it back. Sadly your case will not go forward without that questionnaire being completed. 

Yes. They have not sent me this questionnaire as of yet. I don’t know when they plan to send that. Nor have they indicated what it actually consists of.

[Ontarkie 13,915]

3 minutes ago, ice-qube said:

Yes. They have not sent me this questionnaire as of yet. I don’t know when they plan to send that. Nor have they indicated what it actually consists of.

I would contact them. Make your subject line something flashy. Like Urgent Questionnaire issues. I'm sure you can come up with something better then I can. Usually something flashy gets sent up the ranks faster then just a plain inquiry. 

Edited October 25, 2021 by Ontarkie

[German Canadian 1]

5 hours ago, ice-qube said:

Absolutely nothing. Born in Canada. Never lived in any other country. Never even been to any countries of concern. Never have been in the US on any other visa other than the one every Canadian who crosses the border gets implicitly (B-2, I think). Have never been there longer than I should have, not even close. It is very upsetting, and I know I am whining, but I did not expect that my case would end up like this when I came to Montreal.

Sorry to hear. We had an issue with proving domicile and were asked to send in more info. 

Interview on October 20, sent in the documents that day. Have not heard back yet, but they said I should have my visa in 2-4 weeks if I sent the stuff in quick. Hoping she was right! Keep us updated if they get back to you. 

 

[ice-qube 648]

5 minutes ago, German Canadian said:

Sorry to hear. We had an issue with proving domicile and were asked to send in more info. 

Interview on October 20, sent in the documents that day. Have not heard back yet, but they said I should have my visa in 2-4 weeks if I sent the stuff in quick. Hoping she was right! Keep us updated if they get back to you. 

 

Interesting that they gave you a timeline. The officer told me that there was no specific timeline for this administrative processing, only that in general the more detail in answers I give and sooner I get the questionnaire back to them, the sooner it is likely to be processed. Which of course is bureaucratese for “we don’t have a timeline for service”.

[German Canadian 1]

46 minutes ago, ice-qube said:

Interesting that they gave you a timeline. The officer told me that there was no specific timeline for this administrative processing, only that in general the more detail in answers I give and sooner I get the questionnaire back to them, the sooner it is likely to be processed. Which of course is bureaucratese for “we don’t have a timeline for service”.

They kept my pasport so I think maybe that helped her make it a bit more exact? Not sure. Really hoping to hear back this week.. going crazy over here. 

[ice-qube 648]

48 minutes ago, German Canadian said:

They kept my pasport so I think maybe that helped her make it a bit more exact? Not sure. Really hoping to hear back this week.. going crazy over here. 

See that is what makes your situation different--they kept your passport and so it seems to me they intend to approve yours soon.  I was actually shocked that they gave me back my passport. Once I heard this and saw they were giving it back, I thought, well this is not good. I am not even sure I have read about anyone on here that ever had a similar situation as mine and were sent for administrative processing like that. Like after a whole day of thinking about what could have been that made them deny me the visa today, I am not a single bit closer than I was at that moment to figuring it out.

Edited October 26, 2021 by ice-qube
grammar

[ice-qube 648]

50 minutes ago, German Canadian said:

They kept my pasport so I think maybe that helped her make it a bit more exact? Not sure. Really hoping to hear back this week.. going crazy over here. 

Generally speaking, I think it seems pretty likely they will be approving yours soon. I have no idea what happened on my side today, still bewildered.

[deep2ca 77]

9 hours ago, ice-qube said:

Just came out of my Montreal consulate interview. Everything seemed good until the very end when the officer informed me that they were sending me to administrative processing. No particular reason, but the paper say not in compliance with 221(g) or something to that effect. I have no idea why that would be. Very bummed out now. It’s a very disappointed feeling i have right now.

I also had my interview this morning in Montreal and had similar results. My application is for IR-1. I also thought it went well until the end when they issued me a 221(g) refusal. I had all the required documents, answered all the questions confidently. The officer told me they will be emailing me additional questions in the next 24-48 hours. The 221(g) is a white form, additional processing required is check marked on it, and he also wrote on it "supplemental questions to be emailed". However, they did hold onto my passport. 

 

I hope they actually do email me within 24-48 hours, dying to know what these "supplemental questions" are. Reading online is getting me worried, people have posted that the consulate told them it would take a week or two and they end up waiting months or longer to rectify a 221(g) 

 

 

 

Edited October 26, 2021 by deep2ca