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

[From_CAN_2_US 1,100]

8 hours ago, ice-qube said:

I feel cheated at this point, I am like the longest-serving member of this thread, and no sign yet that anything is changing for me, even after the expense of filing the suit. 

 

Best case scenario, it looks like I will spend *at least* several more months in limbo, after 3.5 years of process already. Ladies and gentlemen and whoever else, I am tired and getting low on money at this point.. I hope none of you will have such an embittering, absurd situation with this process as I have had, I would be reluctant to wish this on my worst enemy.

Truer words have not been spoken.

 

It was your DS-5535 issuance that lead to the conception of this thread. It is heartbreaking to see people come and go, while you have been kept waiting…

 

I too hope December will bring you your approval and you can reunite with your spouse…

[PZibran325 112]

16 hours ago, BatmanFlow said:

cant even imagine the anguish you are going through. staying away from your spouse for that long, pretty much putting your life on hold. These people are literally toying with people's lives here.

i really hope movement in your case this coming month

I so agree they are toying with people's lives. I'm all for vetting people, and doing background checks. But this is too much. How much are you going to accomplish by so deeply vetting someone who can cross the border so easily with their Canadian passport without ever applying for immigration?

 

If someone with a Canadian passport had nefarious intentions, I highly doubt they'd go through the long and arduous process of finding a US citizen spouse just so they can apply for immigration and enter the US to carry out whatever evil plans they had.

 

Wouldn't they be able to do the same just by "visiting" the US? It's laughable that you'd allow these evil Canadians to cross the border without a visa or a background check for a visit, but god forbid they want to marry someone from the States they'll get treated as if the immigration is some unique treasure they are after to escape their third-world problems in Canada or to carry out some evil intentions.

 

It is beyond me what immigration is hoping to accomplish by putting people (who can otherwise cross the border so easily) in AP after they have already gone through background checks and provided police certificates. The only thing they're doing is keeping families from reuniting, and causing unnecessary financial and emotional hardship.  

Edited November 29, 2022 by PZibran325

[ice-qube 648]

11 hours ago, PZibran325 said:

I so agree they are toying with people's lives. I'm all for vetting people, and doing background checks. But this is too much. How much are you going to accomplish by so deeply vetting someone who can cross the border so easily with their Canadian passport without ever applying for immigration?

 

If someone with a Canadian passport had nefarious intentions, I highly doubt they'd go through the long and arduous process of finding a US citizen spouse just so they can apply for immigration and enter the US to carry out whatever evil plans they had.

 

Wouldn't they be able to do the same just by "visiting" the US? It's laughable that you'd allow these evil Canadians to cross the border without a visa or a background check for a visit, but god forbid they want to marry someone from the States they'll get treated as if the immigration is some unique treasure they are after to escape their third-world problems in Canada or to carry out some evil intentions.

 

It is beyond me what immigration is hoping to accomplish by putting people (who can otherwise cross the border so easily) in AP after they have already gone through background checks and provided police certificates. The only thing they're doing is keeping families from reuniting, and causing unnecessary financial and emotional hardship.  

The idea that they legit need 3-4 years to vet me, or anyone else on this thread, is beyond a joke. It is theatre of the absurd now. I am disgusted. I see even the people who filed WOM suits facing second extensions even, as the government now figured out how to delay people that way, too. I am very, very disenchanted, and am just looking for something to restore my faith in this process. I see none. 

[ice-qube 648]

22 hours ago, From_CAN_2_US said:

Truer words have not been spoken.

 

It was your DS-5535 issuance that lead to the conception of this thread. It is heartbreaking to see people come and go, while you have been kept waiting…

 

I too hope December will bring you your approval and you can reunite with your spouse…

Even doing what i didn't want to do, filing WOM, this has not produced anything for me yet, and the way some cases are going, I think they are becoming more adept at the tricks to delay even after filing the suit, asking for-- and being granted--multiple 60-day extensions. They are pulling out whatever they can to mitigate the increased number of WOM suits they are facing. 

[PZibran325 112]

11 hours ago, ice-qube said:

The idea that they legit need 3-4 years to vet me, or anyone else on this thread, is beyond a joke. It is theatre of the absurd now. I am disgusted. I see even the people who filed WOM suits facing second extensions even, as the government now figured out how to delay people that way, too. I am very, very disenchanted, and am just looking for something to restore my faith in this process. I see none. 

I'm not sure if I understand the thought process behind  extreme vetting (which is what DS 5535 is ) of Canadian passport holders who can easily cross the border without ever going through the immigration process. Regular background checks and clearances should in general be enough. I don't think it is a process that should be used as frequently as it seems to be used by the Montreal consulate.

 

I know many have disagreed with you in the past when you have suggested they are using it to clear their interviewing queues, but I'm inclined to consider that is probably the reason for putting so many through AP. Especially since During the course of my research, I have read that The U.S. consular officer decides on the day of the visa interview which applicants must complete the DS-5535. So it would seem that It is gross ineptitude and inefficiencies on their part that has lead to such alarmingly increasing numbers of AP with DS 5535 .  Other than this possibility, putting Canadian passport holders through this process seems to defy logic regardless of whether it takes months or years to clear. 

 

As for the WOM, I understand it is being delayed for you have you seen it being delayed for others?

Edited November 30, 2022 by PZibran325

[emergence 47]

36 minutes ago, PZibran325 said:

I'm not sure if I understand the thought process behind  extreme vetting (which is what DS 5535 is ) of Canadian passport holders who can easily cross the border without ever going through the immigration process. Regular background checks and clearances should in general be enough. I don't think it is a process that should be used as frequently as it seems to be used by the Montreal consulate.

 

I know many have disagreed with you in the past when you have suggested they are using it to clear their interviewing queues, but I'm inclined to consider that is probably the reason for putting so many through AP. Especially since During the course of my research, I have read that The U.S. consular officer decides on the day of the visa interview which applicants must complete the DS-5535. So it would seem that It is gross ineptitude and inefficiencies on their part that has lead to such alarmingly increasing numbers of AP with DS 5535 .  Other than this possibility, putting Canadian passport holders through this process seems to defy logic regardless of whether it takes months or years to clear. 

 

As for the WOM, I understand it is being delayed for you have you seen it being delayed for others?

How would this realistically help them close interviewing queues? Approvals mean they don’t have to see the applicant ever again. DS-5535 keeps people in the system longer - the opposite of what should, logically, be their objective.

[PZibran325 112]

8 minutes ago, emergence said:

How would this realistically help them close interviewing queues? Approvals mean they don’t have to see the applicant ever again. DS-5535 keeps people in the system longer - the opposite of what should, logically, be their objective.

It helps them clear the interview queue. They have a backlog of interviews from covid times during which they were working under limited operations so they were not scheduling many interviews during that time they had an appropriate excuse for not being able to scheudle interviews in a timely manner. Now that that "emergency" is over and they are back to full operations there is pressure to schedule interviews in a timely manner. There's not much of an excuse they can give to delay interviews, so they have been scheduling those in a timely manner however that may have resulted in them not having the time to perform additional checks on the documents they have received from the NVC which they would have under normal circumstances. So while they have scheduled interviews in a timely manner, they haven't necessarily been able to perform second checks on the interviewees documents etc. So some of us believe this is why they put applicants under AP and push that part down the line. Because with AP they can keep saying there is not time limit for that process but for setting interviews they cannot say that. It's circular and convoluted and only pushes the bucket down the line, but I hope that clears up why some of us think that way. Also do note that once the case it is not necessarily the consulates job to perform checks, so they clear their own queue but pass the buck to someone else.

[PZibran325 112]

12 minutes ago, PZibran325 said:

It helps them clear the interview queue. They have a backlog of interviews from covid times during which they were working under limited operations so they were not scheduling many interviews during that time they had an appropriate excuse for not being able to scheudle interviews in a timely manner. Now that that "emergency" is over and they are back to full operations there is pressure to schedule interviews in a timely manner. There's not much of an excuse they can give to delay interviews, so they have been scheduling those in a timely manner however that may have resulted in them not having the time to perform additional checks on the documents they have received from the NVC which they would have under normal circumstances. So while they have scheduled interviews in a timely manner, they haven't necessarily been able to perform second checks on the interviewees documents etc. So some of us believe this is why they put applicants under AP and push that part down the line. Because with AP they can keep saying there is not time limit for that process but for setting interviews they cannot say that. It's circular and convoluted and only pushes the bucket down the line, but I hope that clears up why some of us think that way. Also do note that once the case it is not necessarily the consulates job to perform checks, so they clear their own queue but pass the buck to someone else.

* the last line was supposed to be "Also do note that once the case is in AP it is not necessarily the consulates job to perform checks, so they clear their own queue but pass the buck to someone else." *sigh*

Edited November 30, 2022 by PZibran325

[emergence 47]

1 hour ago, PZibran325 said:

It helps them clear the interview queue. They have a backlog of interviews from covid times during which they were working under limited operations so they were not scheduling many interviews during that time they had an appropriate excuse for not being able to scheudle interviews in a timely manner. Now that that "emergency" is over and they are back to full operations there is pressure to schedule interviews in a timely manner. There's not much of an excuse they can give to delay interviews, so they have been scheduling those in a timely manner however that may have resulted in them not having the time to perform additional checks on the documents they have received from the NVC which they would have under normal circumstances. So while they have scheduled interviews in a timely manner, they haven't necessarily been able to perform second checks on the interviewees documents etc. So some of us believe this is why they put applicants under AP and push that part down the line. Because with AP they can keep saying there is not time limit for that process but for setting interviews they cannot say that. It's circular and convoluted and only pushes the bucket down the line, but I hope that clears up why some of us think that way. Also do note that once the case it is not necessarily the consulates job to perform checks, so they clear their own queue but pass the buck to someone else.

Interesting. I still somewhat doubt this based on how some officers explain the DS-5535 - “The system flagged you”, more or less. It was clear from how the officer interacted with my fiancé that he had been flagged beforehand and that the interview was more or less a formality at that point. He barely asked any questions. 
 

I would love to get in touch with the higher ups at the state department to get some answers, but I’m sure that’s functionally impossible.

[PZibran325 112]

5 minutes ago, emergence said:

Interesting. I still somewhat doubt this based on how some officers explain the DS-5535 - “The system flagged you”, more or less. It was clear from how the officer interacted with my fiancé that he had been flagged beforehand and that the interview was more or less a formality at that point. He barely asked any questions. 
 

I would love to get in touch with the higher ups at the state department to get some answers, but I’m sure that’s functionally impossible.

That might be true they might have something in the system that says they haven’t yet had time to go over documents prior to the interview and so the interviewee gets flagged. However, I have also read in my research elsewhere that the U.S. consular officer decides on the day of the visa interview which applicants must complete the DS-5535 and “the system flagged you” maybe a standard thing they say as opposed to saying I’ve decided we need to vet you further. It could also be a combination where you can get flagged by the system but even if the system doesn’t flag you the Co may decide it is necessary. 
 

regardless at the end of the day or still seems absurd from the outside looking in to be putting Canadian passport holders through extreme vetting 

Edited November 30, 2022 by PZibran325

[ice-qube 648]

4 hours ago, PZibran325 said:

I'm not sure if I understand the thought process behind  extreme vetting (which is what DS 5535 is ) of Canadian passport holders who can easily cross the border without ever going through the immigration process. Regular background checks and clearances should in general be enough. I don't think it is a process that should be used as frequently as it seems to be used by the Montreal consulate.

 

I know many have disagreed with you in the past when you have suggested they are using it to clear their interviewing queues, but I'm inclined to consider that is probably the reason for putting so many through AP. Especially since During the course of my research, I have read that The U.S. consular officer decides on the day of the visa interview which applicants must complete the DS-5535. So it would seem that It is gross ineptitude and inefficiencies on their part that has lead to such alarmingly increasing numbers of AP with DS 5535 .  Other than this possibility, putting Canadian passport holders through this process seems to defy logic regardless of whether it takes months or years to clear. 

 

As for the WOM, I understand it is being delayed for you have you seen it being delayed for others?

I have seen at least a couple of people, ahead of me as far as doing WOM, who are approaching or have passed their second deadline, and court grants another day. Only time will tell what happens to me, but observing the trend I do not like the odds.

[kryptonite 43]

On 11/28/2022 at 8:33 PM, Tiabeanie said:

Have you tried reaching out to the embassy via email to inquire about your status? 

 

Same thing happened to me I had my interview on Oct 31 and I was put into 221g and told they didn't need additional documents. I emailed them to inquire about my status 2 weeks after my interview and they responded to my email a week later and told me I need to send another police certificate. I'll be honest I'm irritated this wasn't communicated to me earlier. Pretty incompetent on their part. If I didn't email them I would've been still waiting.

Hi, what email did you use to reach out to them? Also have you sent your police certificate yet?

[Tiabeanie 39]

2 hours ago, kryptonite said:

Hi, what email did you use to reach out to them? Also have you sent your police certificate yet?

Hi there I used this email to reach the embassy: montreal-iv-dv@state.gov

They will reply back within 6-7 days.

 

I haven't sent out my police certificate yet, I'm still waiting for the RCMP to mail it to me. I did my fingerprints last Tuesday. I'm hoping to receive it soon.

Edited December 1, 2022 by Tiabeanie

[Gha 15]

Hi @Tiabeanie it takes min one month to get the police record .

[Tiabeanie 39]

1 hour ago, Gha said:

Hi @Tiabeanie it takes min one month to get the police record 

That might be dependent on where you live because in my spouse's case it only took them 2.5 weeks to receive their police record from the RCMP.