Why is Montreal such a tough consulate?

[Rocio0010 5,562]

Hi everyone! I have a question that’s been bugging me for a while now. If Canada is not a high fraud country, why is Montreal a tough consulate? 

Mind you, I am not from Canada, and I have never done consular processing. But in all my years in VJ, I have been reading about tough consulates, such as Lagos, Mumbai, Islamabad… those I can understand. But why Montreal?

[canadian_wife 1,791]

Montreal is not a high fraud consulate. 

 

Montreal is extremely strict regarding the domicile requirement of the USC. 

 

Good luck

[Rocio0010 5,562]

8 minutes ago, canadian_wife said:

Montreal is extremely strict regarding the domicile requirement of the USC. 

That answers my question. Thanks!

[Mike E 11,723]

1 hour ago, canadian_wife said:

Montreal is extremely strict regarding the domicile requirement of the USC. 

That just raises the next  question: why is it strict on domicile? 
 

I speculate it is because of the relative ease US citizens and LPRs have traveling between the two countries. 

[nastra30 1,984]

Canada is not a high fraud in terms the process, documentation, the system, etc when it comes to obtaining legal entry into the US.

However, not related to immigrant visas but in general and in terms of number, Canadians are usually in top category of people who enter the US legally but overstay beyond their allowed stay. Basically, end up being illegally in the US. So in terms of people coming to the US in the non-immigrant category and choosing to stay Canada is no different than those from India or Nigeria or the others. 

[Rocio0010 5,562]

14 minutes ago, nastra30 said:

However, not related to immigrant visas but in general and in terms of number, Canadians are usually in top category of people who enter the US legally but overstay beyond their allowed stay

This is so unexpected!! Thank you for sharing. 

I guess in my (ignorant) mind I was thinking of tough consulate= high fraud country. Your explanation makes total sense.

[Crazy Cat 39,227]

56 minutes ago, Mike E said:

That just raises the next  question: why is it strict on domicile? 
 

I speculate it is because of the relative ease US citizens and LPRs have traveling between the two countries. 

Exactly my opinion, too......

[carmel34 3,531]

A few thoughts about this question.  As a dual US/Canadian citizen (from birth), I have lived in both countries, back and forth for many years, always doing things the strict legal way for US immigration for my immediate family members, which takes time, especially these days.  Given the long history of bilateral cooperation, economically and socially, many Canadians (and Americans too by the way) don't really consider crossing back and forth from one country to the other as a big deal.  They do it all the time for tourism, to visit family, conduct business, etc., pre-pandemic.  Many retired Canadians live in the US (Arizona, Florida, etc.) in the winter for five months (snowbirds).  Many own property, vacation homes, and so forth in the other country, shop on weekends, or even work across the border.  This is a deeply-ingrained cultural thing, since both countries are so similar and a large number of families are "cross-border."  Visas and such are not required for most of these trips, so when it comes to immigrating from Canada to the US, it is seen as an unnecessary hassle.  There are so many people going back and forth, that quite a few abuse these privileges and even lie when they cross the border.  Domicile has become a big deal for immigrant visa interviews at the Montreal Consulate because of this ease of travel between the two countries.  Spousal visas are abused all the time because it is easier to get away with it.  I have seen multiple examples of this in my extended family where the rules are not followed.  In my opinion, Montreal became more strict with domicile because of this.

[Ontarkie 13,916]

It used to be Canadian visitors entered (unless otherwise told) with an automatic D/S so no they didn't  get hit with an overstay. They would only have issues a immigration Judge found that they overstayed. Not so recently someone on here mentioned that changed and is no longer the case. 

 

Montreal is not only hard with domicile, but vaccines also. Any other country a K1 does not need to get their vaccines to complete the medical but in Canada you will not complete the medical without having all the vaccines. They will not even send it to Montreal they hold onto it, until you fax them proof you got the vaccines. Most clinics for the medical also do not offer any vaccines so you must go to your own doctor or health unit/clinic to get them. 

 

My own thoughts on why, is because there is no reason at all to not be up to date on vaccines if you're in Canada. They are free and given in school and the doctors office. (I'm not counting those who object to vaccines in this)

As for Domicile we have seen more then a few cases where they get the visa and then  the couple doesn't bother to move for one reason or another, some will even live in both countries under the radar so to speak. The consulate is aware of these situations and wants to make sure they are serious and since it's so easy to make belief they are set up in the US, but truly still living in Canada. 

This past year though Montreal has not been anywhere near as strict as they have been in the past. But I also noticed a few cases where the USC was not totally up front about living in Canada and were never asked about domicile. I think this was just part of them being more lax lately. 

[mam521 1,723]

2 hours ago, Ontarkie said:

As for Domicile we have seen more then a few cases where they get the visa and then  the couple doesn't bother to move for one reason or another, some will even live in both countries under the radar so to speak. The consulate is aware of these situations and wants to make sure they are serious and since it's so easy to make belief they are set up in the US, but truly still living in Canada. . 

This is so very true.  The majority of the Canadian population lives within 150mi of the US border.  There are also circumstances where Canadians work in the US but live in Canada and commute back and forth daily (and vice versa - Americans working in Canada, live in the US and commute).  There were some covid exceptions for these people when the borders were closed. 

 

Around 93,000 Canadians enter legally but overstay.  It's like 1% of US overstays or less, but it is a wishy washy kind of circumstance and honestly, if you go through the entire PR process, just make the decision and commit.  Otherwise, you've wasted everyone else's time who are ready to commit.  

[Rlewis 73]

This thread is very interesting to me as a CA to USA kinda gal too. Fascinating, thanks for asking this question!

[From_CAN_2_US 1,097]

I never thought of Montreal as being a tough consulate. People applying for immigrant visas there don’t have high rejection rates (yet to hear of one actually) or difficult interviews. We don’t need to even bring relationship proof to the interview. I do, however, have the impression of it being one of the more inefficient consulates in the world.

 

1. The backlog has been atrocious at least all through 2020 and 2021. It remains that way for EB category even today, but yeah it has improved a LOT for IR categories.

 

2. If for whatever reason you have a document (eg: medicals) missing at the interview, it often leads to delays in the order of several months… even if it is sent to the consulate only a few hours after the interview.

 

3. MTL is super strict in approving expedite requests, rejecting reasons which are normally accepted by other consulates; probably because of their backlog.

 

4. We have seen MTL applicants being skipped and not necessarily interviewed in proper sequence of DQs, sometimes over multiple rounds of interviews (not sure if this is an NVC or MTL problem).

 

A more recent issue with MTL candidates, is that the consulate has been issuing more DS-5535s compared to other non-MENA. No one knows the reason for this, and there is a lot of speculation about why this is happening. Personally, I am guessing US has some intelligence information of a national security threat originating from Canada and being extra vigilant with candidates from Canada.

Edited May 24, 2022 by From_CAN_2_US

[SalishSea 16,770]

57 minutes ago, From_CAN_2_US said:

I never thought of Montreal as being a tough consulate. People applying for immigrant visas there don’t have high rejection rates (yet to hear of one actually) or difficult interviews. We don’t need to even bring relationship proof to the interview. I do, however, have the impression of it being one of the more inefficient consulates in the world.

 

1. The backlog has been atrocious at least all through 2020 and 2021. It remains that way for EB category even today, but yeah it has improved a LOT for IR categories.

 

2. If for whatever reason you have a document (eg: medicals) missing at the interview, it often leads to delays in the order of several months… even if it is sent to the consulate only a few hours after the interview.

 

3. MTL is super strict in approving expedite requests, rejecting reasons which are normally accepted by other consulates; probably because of their backlog.

 

4. We have seen MTL applicants being skipped and not necessarily interviewed in proper sequence of DQs, sometimes over multiple rounds of interviews (not sure if this is an NVC or MTL problem).

 

A more recent issue with MTL candidates, is that the consulate has been issuing more DS-5535s compared to other non-MENA. No one knows the reason for this, and there is a lot of speculation about why this is happening. Personally, I am guessing US has some intelligence information of a national security threat originating from Canada and being extra vigilant with candidates from Canada.

Funny, I suggested this months ago on the Montreal DS-5535 thread, and that idea was swiftly shot down.  As was my suggestion (also mentioned by others in this thread), that the abuse of visas with overstays by citizens of certain countries make it harder for others from same countries to get visas.....

[Redro 4,599]

21 hours ago, carmel34 said:

A few thoughts about this question.  As a dual US/Canadian citizen (from birth), I have lived in both countries, back and forth for many years, always doing things the strict legal way for US immigration for my immediate family members, which takes time, especially these days.  Given the long history of bilateral cooperation, economically and socially, many Canadians (and Americans too by the way) don't really consider crossing back and forth from one country to the other as a big deal.  They do it all the time for tourism, to visit family, conduct business, etc., pre-pandemic.  Many retired Canadians live in the US (Arizona, Florida, etc.) in the winter for five months (snowbirds).  Many own property, vacation homes, and so forth in the other country, shop on weekends, or even work across the border.  This is a deeply-ingrained cultural thing, since both countries are so similar and a large number of families are "cross-border."  Visas and such are not required for most of these trips, so when it comes to immigrating from Canada to the US, it is seen as an unnecessary hassle.  There are so many people going back and forth, that quite a few abuse these privileges and even lie when they cross the border.  Domicile has become a big deal for immigrant visa interviews at the Montreal Consulate because of this ease of travel between the two countries.  Spousal visas are abused all the time because it is easier to get away with it.  I have seen multiple examples of this in my extended family where the rules are not followed.  In my opinion, Montreal became more strict with domicile because of this.

I'm thinking this is why the Canadian woman (who posted on VJ and called into Hacking) was denied entry when she tried to activate her IV... she was stamped in as a tourist... 

Everyone thought it was really strange and unfair at the time. But, it made sense to me. 

They had no home in the USA. They were renting in Canada and I believe they hadn't moved anything from Canada to the US because the sons were going to live in the renta. 

AND the Canadian had not quit her job yet... even though her visa was set to expire in a month. 

With more questions it seemed they applied for the immigrant visa just in case they wanted to move to the US on a whim. 

When entry was refused... the OP and his wife basically said it was NBD. 

 

Anyone have the link? 

Edited May 25, 2022 by ROK2USA

[Mike E 11,723]

@ROK2USA