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

[Bestbest7 9]

Hi Leo,

since after Covid I guess nothing is normal as far as I know.

 

Cala2023,

I did also send in another second medical which was requested together with my second medical. I almost spent $5k to file for WOM but thank Jesus things came at the right time.

Plan is for my wife to go pick up my package so I can exit the U.S. and return to activate my green card.

 

patience patience everything will work out.

[Ontarkie 13,957]

40 minutes ago, APRIL2023 said:

Thanks for answering all the questions!! I am just getting excited to see movements at all! Perhaps there are more ppl like u!
 

I’m in the same situation. Wrong police check (require an RCMP clearance) and placed on AP/DS5535. My interview was in April 2023. Interesting that u were contacted to do a second medical so soon. Mine expired in October 2023. I specially asked if I should repeat it proactively and was told to hold off until I hear back from them. Same with sending in my RCMP clearance. Aside from passport, did they ask for the rcmp clearance? Or did u send earlier?

 

did u file a WOM? 

 

ur plan sounded solid. I don’t see why you can’t stay in US and have ur wife handle the mailing. As long as you wouldn’t be needing the passport to enter into the country. Good to know that I can use only your citizenship card and driver license to enter Canada. 

When you got the 221G for the PC you should have sent that in as soon as you got the correct one. The paper they gave you is for that, they will not ask for the police check again. If you haven't sent that in get it mailed to them asap. That alone will hold things up.

[LYV 42]

56 minutes ago, Bestbest7 said:

Hi Leo,

since after Covid I guess nothing is normal as far as I know.

 

Cala2023,

I did also send in another second medical which was requested together with my second medical. I almost spent $5k to file for WOM but thank Jesus things came at the right time.

Plan is for my wife to go pick up my package so I can exit the U.S. and return to activate my green card.

 

patience patience everything will work out.

 

HI @Bestbest7 Congrats! It must feel amazing to see the end of the tunnel! Can you please add your information to our tracking spreadsheet? It will help others determine what their wait time might look like. 

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jV7rzX2eCRVoEDRhOtN9a6hDoHRLNEf1P3ZGZbQ0_Dc/edit#gid=0

[Bestbest7 9]

Totally 💯.

[dmitrych 14]

8 hours ago, ShawnK said:

What exactly is their method? I'm curious what they said regarding MTD.

 

Basically, you can respond to a MTD, government responds back...then you wait for the judge, and the judge can take as long as he/she wants. 

 

 

On the meeting with their salesperson I asked them whether they see more difficulties recently in handling Motions to Extend or Motions to Dismiss, and they responded no, and added that Joshua Goldstein has a good persuasive response to MTD. They also said the government can request a MTE with a duration anywhere between 60-120 days, but Joshua doesn't like to agree to 120 days and tries to negotiate shorter durations (I don't recall their exact wording, but that's the general idea).

 

That's all I know.

I'm still looking for someone to refer to them for the 10% discount, so if you'd like to ask them directly, please let me know.

[LYV 42]

1 hour ago, Bestbest7 said:

Totally 💯.

 

Thank you!

[APRIL2023 48]

12 hours ago, Ontarkie said:

When you got the 221G for the PC you should have sent that in as soon as you got the correct one. The paper they gave you is for that, they will not ask for the police check again. If you haven't sent that in get it mailed to them asap. That alone will hold things up.

Now I’m confused because I emailed them specifically about this and I was told NOT to send this in. Can anyone else confirm this as well??

[AP_since_May2023 37]

18 hours ago, Bestbest7 said:

Hi everyone and happy New Year,

 

Montreal office requested for my passport after being on AP for 10 months, But unfortunately am still in the U.S with family and was wandering if I can send my passport to a family member in Canada and have them mail it to the visa office in Montreal since I don’t want to be away from my family? Not sure if am over pushing it😇.

Will appreciate your feedback.

 

You had your interview and DS-5535 on Jan 3rd, 2023, and received letter in the mail to send in your passport on December 10th right? So it took 11 months and 7 days?

 

Is it usual that they mail you a letter, rather than contact you via email? Seems like an absolute waste of time since regular mail takes around 7 business days from Canada to US.

[ShawnK 76]

1 hour ago, APRIL2023 said:

Now I’m confused because I emailed them specifically about this and I was told NOT to send this in. Can anyone else confirm this as well??

I agree with the moderator , send in the correct police certificate ASAP.

 

I hate to say this, but that is all they probably ever wanted from you, no wonder they NEVER emailed you the DS5535. 

 

You can't rely on the competence or intellect of these low level consulate officers. No offense, but these aren't the most brightest or "can do" people, they wouldn't take such a lame job if they were.

 

They are largely miserable souls doing a completely useless job that adds nothing of value to the economy or the to the world. It must be pretty soul crushing. Like 99.999% of what they do is basically useless and just adds pain to the world, and/or gets in the way of actual productive folks adding something of value to the economy (think of how many bright/creative people are blocked from accessing the US). 

 

They sent me 2 incorrect DS5535 emails (with someone else's case # and a name kind of like mine but not exactly) before sending me the correct email with the correct name and case#. Think about it, the form is utterly useless and has likely never resulted in them catching anyone. Everyone seems to eventually clear it. It's just pointless paper shuffling work. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AP_since_May2023 37]

20 hours ago, Phil_K_IR1 said:

Has anyone involved congresspersons in this matter? 

Are they able to force a reply from the consulate/DHS?

 

I have. No, they can only get a generic response. But your CEAC case will show that it has been updated, presumably because someone looked at it.

[AP_since_May2023 37]

17 hours ago, Bestbest7 said:

Appreciate the feed back. I will start by responding to APRIL2023 lol.

 

1, plan on having my wife fly up to Canada and mail my passport together with a return envelope inside so they can have my passport back to me once visa is processed then she can go pick it up for me so I can leave the U.S. before returning with the sealed envelope.

2, I already did my second medical in November since the one I did in January had expired in their system.

3, i don’t have a Nexus card to return back to Canada, But I can use my citizenship certificate with driver’s license if the process takes too long. I don’t return back to work till spring so am home babysitting our 7 month old son.

LETSGOFAST,

I did my second medical already and they only ask for my passport since DS5535 has been completed and all cleared.

Phil_K_IR1,

I was put on AP / DS5535 for having the wrong RCMP clearance letter.
Am praying this last stage goes by fast.

Thanks.

 

 

I would double check with the Consulate if this is allowed before going through with this route.

 

I specifically asked the Consular Officer after learning that my case had been placed on AP if I was able to do this from US, and they said can only issue the Immigrant Visa to someone who is physically present in the Country.

[ak47 26]

January 2023 folks started receiving medical request in nov or dec 2023.

 

So Feb 2023 interviewees should be getting something soon as they have also completed 11 months...

[LetsGoFast 13]

On 12/27/2023 at 12:56 PM, LetsGoFast said:

 

I have a very similar situation as @Bestbest7. Here is my timeline until now. I am still struggling about what's the next steps...

 

My DQ date was 12/01/2021. 

And I received the interview invitation letter on 05/19/2023 for a interview on 07/26/2023.

My case was under EB2-NIW category. I went to the interview together with my husband on 07/26/2023 and received 221g. I received it before for my L1 visa in Dec 2022, so I was not very surprised about that. We was asked to fill out a form online through a link provided on the 221g form and we filled the form out on the same day as the interview. The question were all about the addresses, travel histories in the past years (I don't remember what the form is called exactly). The officer did not collect our passports and told us that we can get back to the US with our valid L1 and L2 visas.

 

So we went back to the US. Then I received the email for mailing back our passports on 10/24/2023. The email is very brief and did not mention what was the time range that we should mail our documents back.

We went back to Canada on 11/01/2023 and mail the passports back to Montreal Consulate upon their instructions through Canada Post.

Then the timeline became strange..

 

11/02/2023 - We mailed passports through Canada Post.

11/07/2023 (Tue) - The tracking showed that the documents were delivered. - Actually the consulate collect the mails from a third-party facility every Monday. So we missed the mail collection for that Monday. And the next Monday is Canada holiday, so our documents stayed in the facility until 11/20/2023. (We confirmed this by calling the third-party facility, my husband found their phone number through Google Map by using their address).

Since 11/02/2023, we sent emails to Montreal-IV-DV@state.gov (usually takes 2 weeks to get a response) a few times to check if they received our passports.

11/21/2023 (inquiry sent on 11/08/2023) - The consulate responded and saying they did not receive the documents yet. They said it takes time to transit from the facility to the visa unit of the consulate.

12/07/2023 (inquiry sent on 11/21/2023) - The consulate responded and saying they acknowledged the receipt of our documents and the documents were pending review by an officer.

12/18/2023 (inquiry sent on 11/06/2023) - The consulate responded and saying they acknowledged the receipt of our documents and the documents were pending review by an officer.

 

In between we really worried that our passports were lost and luckily they were delivered to the visa unit.

However, I did not expect that the process for getting the visa stamp takes that long according to the records in  http://docs/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1jV7rzX2eCRVoEDRhOtN9a6hDoHRLNEf1P3ZGZbQ0_Dc/htmlview. I was pregnant and will have a baby due in June 2024. So I have to go back to the US for some necessary prenatal tests in a certain range of time. Thus, we made a very hard decision to request our passports back.

 

12/13/2023 - we sent an email to the consulate to request our passports back and has not heard anything back since then.

1. Does anyone know that if this can work and how long does it take to get our passports back??? 

2. Is that possible to fly to Montreal to take our passports back directly from the consulate to make it faster???

3. Did we make a correct decision? I found out this forum stream this morning and realize that "mailing back the passports" is almost the last step...

4. Our medical check was done in early June this year so according to the half year validity, it has expired. After asking for the passports, will the consulate request us to do a second medical check?

 

Thank you all and have a wonderful holiday for everyone!

Friends, we finally got our status changed to issued this morning!

 

Since the timeline above, 

12/28/2023: New medical reports requested by consulate

1/5/2023: New medical reports were submitted through eMedical system

1/18/2023: CEAC status changed to issued TAT - finally after such a long journey

 

And for the friends here, do you know - 

1. Now will we receive sealed package with passport or is the package already electronic now?

2. When should I expect to receive the email with tracking number?

3. I plan to drive from Vancouver to Seattle to pass the border, does that sound a valid way? Anything that we should prepare in advance?

 

Thank you all and wish you all the best! And good luck everyone sincerely

 

 

[Ontarkie 13,957]

3 hours ago, APRIL2023 said:

Now I’m confused because I emailed them specifically about this and I was told NOT to send this in. Can anyone else confirm this as well??

After your interview the CO gave you a letter asking for the right PC. On that letter is should say where to send it. 

 

When you email the consulate you are not actually getting a reply from the CO who interviewed you. The person that replied did not know you were given the 221G form for the PC. Get a copy of that 221G for your records and send that asap with your PC. 

Edited January 18 by Ontarkie

[ShawnK 76]

1 hour ago, ak47 said:

January 2023 folks started receiving medical request in nov or dec 2023.

 

So Feb 2023 interviewees should be getting something soon as they have also completed 11 months...

The scary thing to me is those folks actually received their medical requests around September. So it's very concerning that February folks still haven't received a request for a medical. I am hoping it's just our small sample size and that there are some Feb Montreal Ds5535 folks who have gotten medical requests.

 

 I don't know what is going on, I thought after the DV ended they would start to speed up, however, nothing. Their new fiscal year started in OCT, yet these incompetent dip***ts are just sitting on our cases.