The dreaded DS-5535 thread for Montreal. Post here and support each other (PART 2)

[jandeep7519 0]

19 hours ago, BatmanFlow said:

Oh wow

 

i think your guys case is the only one that moved from October without a WOM being filed 

Yes, looks like it. No idea what the reasoning is, as with the rest of this process! 

17 hours ago, jgauthi242 said:

In terms of what you should do, it's always just an opinion, but I would say: (1) have the US citizen email them on your behalf, (2) tell them you sent the passport back on X using their preferred courier, it was delivered on Y (include screenshot), and tell them to confirm that they've received your passport (even better if you can get signature confirmation from courier), (3) remind them that your police certificate is expiring on Z (i.e., a polite way to tell them to do their *!@#*$# job), and (4) ask them to confirm that they don't need anything else from you.

 

Assume the worst, which is that they won't issue the visa by the time the police certificate expires and request another one. That way, when they fail to do their job for the Nth time, you already have the new document ready. And, if you don't end up needing it, even better.

 

16 hours ago, BatmanFlow said:

not that i have heard anything for my mom's case yet, but seeing that its taking 2-4 weeks to get new police certs, i have asked my sister to get that done for my mom proactively. this way we will have one less thing that will delay us once we get the email to send in all the information they request

Thank you for your insight! Yes, we requested a new Police Clearance Certificate from the RCMP early September, so we should get that in soon, hopefully! Wish we could just send it in proactively as well, so they have it instead of losing another 2-3 weeks or possibily more.  

Edited October 6, 2022 by jandeep7519

[jujubemom 0]

1 hour ago, roshakky said:

Did they keep the passport at the interview or did you send  it in? My husband and I are in the same situation. They requested resume and we were issued DS5535. They requested the passport pin September 15…but no updates yet. 

They kept my passport, otherwise the status cannot be "issued" if they don't have my passport.
Your status should be changed to issued soon since our interview dates are close. Now my guess is that my clearance comes on Sep 9 and yours Sep 15, so give it another week.
Maybe try to contact them to remind them the case.

[jujubemom 0]

On 9/28/2022 at 4:13 PM, Siarg said:

Hey everyone, good news! We FINALLY got our issuance and crossed the border last night to get the visa stamped. I will give a rundown here because VJ doesn't have a category for Diversity Visa on the timeline. I also understand that many people have been waiting longer than us, but please realize that Diversity Visas are only able to be issued until September 30th for each year, after that you are unable to obtain the visa and have to enter the lottery again. We entered for the 2022 DV in 2020, so we have been waiting 2 years for this.

 

Interview: June 9th 2022, Principal applicant was issued, beneficiary (Canadian citizen spouse) was Refused/221g/AP/DS-5535.

 

There was no obvious reason for why the "extreme vetting" was required, as with many people in this forum. No criminal history, no TAL degree or job, no travel history. It is possible there was a name check match as they have a common spanish last name.

 

We realized through this group that DS5535 can take an unlimited amount of time, and even worse: Montreal had a 50-60% AP refusal rate per interview. Yes, that's right, for every DV interview montreal did, there was a 50% chance of being placed on AP. We figured this out from the CEAC data collected for DV by consulate on xarthisius' website. Anecdotally in Montreal DV group chats, every person we spoke to except for 1 had been given the DS535. Many are Canadian citizens.

 

We hired a cheap lawyer (do not reccomend) and filed a Writ of Mandamus in July, thinking it would be a backup if they delayed until September to get us an issuance before the cutoff time. That first case was a mess, was transferred between courts and largely ignored by the government. It literally just showed up in a new district yesterday. Through this whole time we got the standard template emails of "We cant tell you anything just wait" when we tried to contact Montreal. The only variation we received was a recommendation that I activate my visa without my spouse. I don't think they understand how emotionally devastating this process is, and the lack of transparency could make anyone go insane.

 

We had spent the last 4 months heavily researching everything we could about 9FAM, 5535, lawsuits, INA sections etc and had talked to other lawyers about our options. Every lawyer we spoke to in the group chats/forums were quoting us up to 15k USD to do a last-minute lawsuit. I truly believe some of them are preying on people's desperation the closer it gets to the DV deadline. One even quoted us 6k USD, then a week later said "now it is 12k USD".

 

We made the decision to try to find a lawyer that would help us for the original quote of 6k USD. We went on pacermonitor and searched through all of the WoM lawsuits that were filed in DC recently and emailed around 20 with our story, and our budget. We got a few replies, but the fastest to reply was Christopher Casazza from PIC Law. We had a consulatation with him and he agreed to file our Temporary Restraining Order/Writ of Mandamus for us. Please be aware that a TRO is not always applicable, but in our unique circumstance, it was. We had all of our correct documents, one of us was approved, the candian refused and in AP for 4 months, the only requirements to DV eligibility outside of coutnry is high school graduation. If anyone is looking for a lawyer outside of the standard reccomended lawyers, I would really, really, really strongly reccomend this lawfirm (PIC Law). Many of the other lawyers (Goldstein, Hacking, Nimer, Murthy, Raju) seem to be WoM churn firms. No judgement on that, but having filed with Raju, then filing with Chris Casazza, there is a HUGE difference when you pick an attorney that actually cares about your case. If you're like me, I want to be able to talk about the lawsuit, not just file it and forget. PIC Law is a genuine immigration lawfirm and not a WoM churn farm trawling forums for desperate people.

 

Long story short, we filed the lawsuit, and a week later we had the visa approved. The "CLEARANCE RECEIVED" date is September 20th, CEAC updated to issued on September 21st, and on the physical visa it was printed on September 22nd. DOS contacted Montreal and then asked us to dismiss the lawsuit because it was issued. These lawsuits really seem to be what everyone thinks, the case is just sitting there and the lawsuit prioritzes your clearance. 

Once we received the passport in the mail, we went straight to Niagara and crossed to stamp the visa. After 4 months of fried nerves, it is finally over and we can't believe it. Looking at the Montreal issuance rates, with 1 day left (because they're taking a vacation on Sept 30th), it really seems to me that this lawsuit was 100% responsible for us getting our visa approved in time. There are 149 DV Cases issued (249 visas) and 27 cases on 221G/5535 (49 visas). It is very possible that 49 people lose their chance of getting a green card because of Montreal's high 5535 rate. They sped up towards the end of the year, but wow. It is horrific what they are doing, and apparently mostly to Canadian citizens.

 

Once more, I can't thank Christopher Casazza enough. I can't post a link here, but Chris, Alex Isbel (two name partners) and Caitlin Costello all helped with our visa at the lawfirm PIC Law (Philadelphia Immigration Lawyers).

So it took about a week from getting issued to get the passport?

[Siarg 72]

Yeah, they mailed in on a Thursday, then it was held over the weekend (delivered to the wrong post office apparently) then delivered Tuesday. 
 

it was actually delivered Monday but the post office wouldn’t give it to us because they hadn’t processed it yet. 

Edited October 6, 2022 by Siarg

[Mmk2112 34]

15 hours ago, jujubemom said:

The status turned to ISSUED this morning (Oct. 05)! My guess of these dates are: on Sept.9 or Sept.21 the final clearance came, but my case was not attended promptly. 
My husband contacted the congressman and their office sent an inquiry on Sept. 30th, that might helped. 

Good luck to all of you!

Congratulations. Could you please share which congressman you contacted

[jujubemom 0]

21 minutes ago, Mmk2112 said:

Congratulations. Could you please share which congressman you contacted

Hi, my husband contacted the congressman who represents the area where we live.
I think if you don't live in that area, the congressman will not take the case...

You can find the congressman who is in charge of your residence area here: https://www.house.gov/representatives#:~:text=Also referred to as a,population of the 50 states. 

2 hours ago, Siarg said:

Yeah, they mailed in on a Thursday, then it was held over the weekend (delivered to the wrong post office apparently) then delivered Tuesday. 
 

it was actually delivered Monday but the post office wouldn’t give it to us because they hadn’t processed it yet. 

That's very good news! Thank you for the prompt reply!

[herecomestherain 77]

Last week I got updates almost every day in the CEAC tracker and this week I’ve gotten nothing. I really thought I was going to get an email this week telling me to go redo my medical

 

For the people who have been asked to to their medical again and are about to be approved: before they emailed you did you get spurts of activity and then no update on CEAC? Or did everything just happen in the same week?

[herecomestherain 77]

On 10/6/2022 at 12:20 AM, ice-qube said:

Why? Yes I have my reasons: annoyance just on the principle of the thing, and the extreme amount of money involved. That's it.

One person on this thread wrote a letter directly to the main players at the consulate and DOS and they got approved. Maybe you could try that first.

[ohmygod 60]

On 10/6/2022 at 1:16 PM, jujubemom said:

So it took about a week from getting issued to get the passport?

Did you move? Or you went for a visit and come back to do the full move?

 

[ConsistentCut 17]

After a couple days to cool down and read through all 230 pages of this thread I've accepted the situation. Seems like people either get approved in the first 4 months or are waiting for a year or more.

 

My case has been updated both days since the interview, but I dunno how much that really means. As far as the "previous passports" thing all my research has confirmed my opinion that this question is referring to passports with other countries you may hold that have been used to travel. Your Canadian passport has machine readable lettering on the bottom of your bio page that directly refers to any previously expired canadian passport you've ever held, so the US government already has access to your expired passports. It also makes no sense to tell someone to submit a questionnaire that "takes 60 minutes" the same day if they require you to dig up 40+ years of expired passport history. If I'm wrong, I guess I'll find out eventually.

 

The fact they are giving the DS5535 in concert with missing document requests as well as giving it to kids and babies virtually guarantees it is a (badly) automated procedure outside of the consulates control. I really feel like I was dinged before I even handed my documents over. Just a general intuition I guess. There is absolutely no legitimate reason at all why this was required of me. I am squeaky clean legally, have no suspect history of any kind, have a very uncommon english name that until a few years ago wasn't even Google-able, have only travelled outside north america once, and that was to western europe where I met my wife in 2015. Prior to that my last international travel was a trip to seattle in 2004.

 

I pray for everyone in this thread on AP due to the DS that their cases will clear asap and without having to sue. After this long a road and so many hiccups in the way, we don't, unfortunately, expect anything but the worst case scenario regarding this and will not be waiting much longer than 90 days before taking legal action. Hopefully it gets approved naturally before then.

 

I chalk it up to Covid. With all the supply chain issues our societies are experiencing it only makes sense there are major issues with the immigration chain too. It's appalling and frustrating, but "it is what it is." All the best.

Edited October 7, 2022 by ConsistentCut

[EB2-NIW 1]

Hi, I have a question for those who applied for write of Mandamus and already cleared and got their visa. What was your visa expiry date? was it valid till the end of your medical (6 month after the medical exam) or the the clearance does have an expiry date and visa is valid till clearance expiry. If the latter, how long is the clearance typically valid for? thanks

[Siarg 72]

2 hours ago, ohmygod said:

Did you move? Or you went for a visit and come back to do the full move?

 

I’m not sure if this question was for me, but I just crossed to activate, moving next year. Still have to wrap things up in Canada (couldn’t prepare to close down business and leave the apartment while we were waiting and now it’s winter and I have a warm seasonal business). 
 

If it was resolved when we interviewed we probably would be there!

[throwitaway 189]

Just now, EB2-NIW said:

Hi, I have a question for those who applied for write of Mandamus and already cleared and got their visa. What was your visa expiry date? was it valid till the end of your medical (6 month after the medical exam) or the the clearance does have an expiry date and visa is valid till clearance expiry. If the latter, how long is the clearance typically valid for? thanks

The visa expires 6 months post medical. As far as their internal clearance for AP goes, the validity of the clearance is based on its type, and ranges between three and 48 months. Given that they don’t reveal what type of clearance they’ve requested for you, it’s difficult to determine where you fall on that time range. The only way you know it’s expired is the next time you apply for a visa you’re put into AP again.

[ohmygod 60]

4 minutes ago, Siarg said:

I’m not sure if this question was for me, but I just crossed to activate, moving next year. Still have to wrap things up in Canada (couldn’t prepare to close down business and leave the apartment while we were waiting and now it’s winter and I have a warm seasonal business). 
 

If it was resolved when we interviewed we probably would be there!

Yes, the question is for you. Thanks for clarifying 

[ice-qube 648]

2 hours ago, ConsistentCut said:

My case has been updated both days since the interview, but I dunno how much that really means.

Not much, amigo, if the rest of our experiences have any predictive value.

Quote

 I really feel like I was dinged before I even handed my documents over.

Yes i believe that you are likely right. If this was the case, they made us go to the consulate on false pretences, essentially. 

 

2 hours ago, ConsistentCut said:

After this long a road and so many hiccups in the way, we don't, unfortunately, expect anything but the worst case scenario regarding this and will not be waiting much longer than 90 days before taking legal action.

This is debatable. If the case actually got to court, it might lose on the prospect of it only having been 90 days (according to all I have read, the rule of thumb--there is no statutory definition--is that any time within six months for a decision is "reasonable"). However, it seems to me these cases are never even getting to litigation now. The US attorneys obviously know these are not legit national security holds, which is exactly why, shortly after receiving the summons for the WOM suit, they seem to just tell the consulate go ahead and get processing again. In that light, perhaps if you find a lawyer willing to take it on earlier, it might be fine, because it will never likely see a court. 

 

I am still dithering on WOM, just because it sticks in my craw so much, but it sure seems like there is no other way now. And that really just makes me even more disenchanted with this.