Montreal embassy EB-2 interview wait time-Part 2

[pilot787 23]

Hi, guys! Looking for your great advice as always. What would be the best bank to open our accounts in the US, escpecially, considering that we have 0 credit history there. Debating between BMO, RBC or TD for easier transfer of the funds from Canada. Also, I read on this forum that opening Amex might help with credit history transfer. Has anyone done it? Like, you open a card in Canada, and in 3 months you apply for another one in US, and they could transfer history too. Is it true or just a rumour? Thanks again!

[Ibbs 8]

11 minutes ago, pilot787 said:

Hi, guys! Looking for your great advice as always. What would be the best bank to open our accounts in the US, escpecially, considering that we have 0 credit history there. Debating between BMO, RBC or TD for easier transfer of the funds from Canada. Also, I read on this forum that opening Amex might help with credit history transfer. Has anyone done it? Like, you open a card in Canada, and in 3 months you apply for another one in US, and they could transfer history too. Is it true or just a rumour? Thanks again!

I use RBC in US. It works well for transferring money and I was able to secure a credit card through them using my Canadian credit. The downside is that there aren’t physical locations so it’s all online banking. 
 

For credit, I used multiple sources to build it. I don’t know about the Amex you mentioned above. The thing that helped me most was having a few different cards, including an Amazon credit card and a few low balance cards I could secure without a lot of credit (Capital One) that I used actively to build credit. 
 

Mon a related note - if you need to buy a car, BMW has a program for leasing where they use your home country credit. The interest rate is a bit higher but they were good to work with. 

[TheMaverick 47]

32 minutes ago, pilot787 said:

Hi, guys! Looking for your great advice as always. What would be the best bank to open our accounts in the US, escpecially, considering that we have 0 credit history there. Debating between BMO, RBC or TD for easier transfer of the funds from Canada. Also, I read on this forum that opening Amex might help with credit history transfer. Has anyone done it? Like, you open a card in Canada, and in 3 months you apply for another one in US, and they could transfer history too. Is it true or just a rumour? Thanks again!

So since I was in TN and already have SSN, I was able to open an account with Bank of America and get a secured credit card to build credit. Also for easy fund transfer I opened a CIBC US account which links with my Canadian account. The CIBC account is a no monthly fee account. I have heard Amex takes Canadian credit history when applying for a credit card. Also capital one provides secured credit card

[ALC 61]

48 minutes ago, pilot787 said:

Hi, guys! Looking for your great advice as always. What would be the best bank to open our accounts in the US, escpecially, considering that we have 0 credit history there. Debating between BMO, RBC or TD for easier transfer of the funds from Canada. Also, I read on this forum that opening Amex might help with credit history transfer. Has anyone done it? Like, you open a card in Canada, and in 3 months you apply for another one in US, and they could transfer history too. Is it true or just a rumour? Thanks again!

Re: Credit cards,

One option is to use AmEx Global Transfer, assuming you have an AmEx card in Canada with decent credit limit and history. https://www.americanexpress.com/global-card-transfers/united-states.html I did it the other way around when I first moved from US to Canada 5 years ago, they gave me a pretty decent credit limit. If you don't have an AmEx in Canada already, I don't think this would make sense, since you'd basically be transferring a blank Canadian history to US, and that doesn't help. 

Another would be Discover It card, they have rotating 5% cash back categories quarterly, and approve people with no history (they did me when I first applied as an 18 years old international student, hopefully things haven't changed), you might have to start with $2000 credit limit or something. I am sure considering you'd have a job and some savings, it shouldn't be a problem. Here is a referral link if you do want to get it, we both get 100 bucks lol. https://refer.discover.com/s/CHI40

 

Re: Banking

I'd honestly get Chase, largest bank in the world, branches everywhere, and some really good (and free) products if you have Direct Deposits going in to the checking account and/or maintain a minimum. They are kinda similar to RBC, relationship based, and once you have been with them for a bit, they start sending you offers for credit products etc. And if you do end up opening a checking account with them, you can ask at the branch if they'd do a low limit card for you, I know they WILL do a secured card (against some CD) at the very least. 

And just use Wise for money exchange and transfer, way cheaper and easier, especially if you deal in EUR, CAD, USD etc. Canadian banks are evil with their exchange rates and cross border fees etc. lol

[pilot787 23]

2 hours ago, Ibbs said:

I use RBC in US. It works well for transferring money and I was able to secure a credit card through them using my Canadian credit. The downside is that there aren’t physical locations so it’s all online banking. 
 

For credit, I used multiple sources to build it. I don’t know about the Amex you mentioned above. The thing that helped me most was having a few different cards, including an Amazon credit card and a few low balance cards I could secure without a lot of credit (Capital One) that I used actively to build credit. 
 

Mon a related note - if you need to buy a car, BMW has a program for leasing where they use your home country credit. The interest rate is a bit higher but they were good to work with. 

Oh, perfect. thank you! Will look into it. Do you by chance, what is the min time to build the credit? are we talking about months or years? I'm also thinking of may be opening a US costco card. I've been a member for 3 years, may be it will be easier there. 

 

 

1 hour ago, ALC said:

Re: Credit cards,

One option is to use AmEx Global Transfer, assuming you have an AmEx card in Canada with decent credit limit and history. https://www.americanexpress.com/global-card-transfers/united-states.html I did it the other way around when I first moved from US to Canada 5 years ago, they gave me a pretty decent credit limit. If you don't have an AmEx in Canada already, I don't think this would make sense, since you'd basically be transferring a blank Canadian history to US, and that doesn't help. 

Another would be Discover It card, they have rotating 5% cash back categories quarterly, and approve people with no history (they did me when I first applied as an 18 years old international student, hopefully things haven't changed), you might have to start with $2000 credit limit or something. I am sure considering you'd have a job and some savings, it shouldn't be a problem. Here is a referral link if you do want to get it, we both get 100 bucks lol. https://refer.discover.com/s/CHI40

 

Re: Banking

I'd honestly get Chase, largest bank in the world, branches everywhere, and some really good (and free) products if you have Direct Deposits going in to the checking account and/or maintain a minimum. They are kinda similar to RBC, relationship based, and once you have been with them for a bit, they start sending you offers for credit products etc. And if you do end up opening a checking account with them, you can ask at the branch if they'd do a low limit card for you, I know they WILL do a secured card (against some CD) at the very least. 

And just use Wise for money exchange and transfer, way cheaper and easier, especially if you deal in EUR, CAD, USD etc. Canadian banks are evil with their exchange rates and cross border fees etc. lol

 I've had Platinum Amex in Canada for 2 years, but not a primary memebr. I guess, I won't be able to use it..

I've heard good reviews about BMO. But will look into the Discovery card for sure!!! 

Thank you so much for all these suggestions. 

[ALC 61]

5 minutes ago, pilot787 said:

Oh, perfect. thank you! Will look into it. Do you by chance, what is the min time to build the credit? are we talking about months or years? I'm also thinking of may be opening a US costco card. I've been a member for 3 years, may be it will be easier there. 

 

 

 I've had Platinum Amex in Canada for 2 years, but not a primary memebr. I guess, I won't be able to use it..

I've heard good reviews about BMO. But will look into the Discovery card for sure!!! 

Thank you so much for all these suggestions. 

I don't know for sure about primary vs. secondary card holder transfers, but I think you should give that Global Transfer link a try, the worst would happen is they say they can't, but you won't know for sure until then

[Ibbs 8]

14 minutes ago, pilot787 said:

Oh, perfect. thank you! Will look into it. Do you by chance, what is the min time to build the credit? are we talking about months or years? I'm also thinking of may be opening a US costco card. I've been a member for 3 years, may be it will be easier there. 

 

 

 I've had Platinum Amex in Canada for 2 years, but not a primary memebr. I guess, I won't be able to use it..

I've heard good reviews about BMO. But will look into the Discovery card for sure!!! 

Thank you so much for all these suggestions. 

It takes years to build excellent credit but I was able to buy a house in 3 years so it is possible to do it quickly. I was very intentional in building my credit,  which helped. 

[pilot787 23]

8 minutes ago, Ibbs said:

It takes years to build excellent credit but I was able to buy a house in 3 years so it is possible to do it quickly. I was very intentional in building my credit,  which helped. 

oh, wow. 3 years! 

[New_123 18]

Hi everyone!

 

For the employment letter, does the letter have to be in the US company letterhead (I work for the same company in Canada). So my company is asking which letterhead needs to be used for the employment letter? I believe it should be the US company letterhead as they are the ones offering the future position (even though I'm employed by the Canadian branch, which can be seen as a different company). Has anyone gone through something similar and have an answer to this?

 

Any help is highly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[Lkkclub123 23]

I only have a BMO account, so is there a way to transfer the credit accumulated in Canada to the United States?

[Rico777 0]

HSBC has a way you can link accounts in different countries. I was able to get an account at HSBC Canada and then at HSBC USA. At the time I had to show that I had property in the US to qualify. Then they have an option called Global Transfer where you can immediately transfer money between both countries with no fees and decent exchange rates. I can do it on my phone.

[New_123 18]

2 hours ago, New_123 said:

Hi everyone!

 

For the employment letter, does the letter have to be in the US company letterhead (I work for the same company in Canada). So my company is asking which letterhead needs to be used for the employment letter? I believe it should be the US company letterhead as they are the ones offering the future position (even though I'm employed by the Canadian branch, which can be seen as a different company). Has anyone gone through something similar and have an answer to this?

 

Any help is highly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

My lawyers finally responded saying it should be on the US company's letterhead. (adding this here in case there is someone like me out there )

[pilot787 23]

15 hours ago, Rico777 said:

HSBC has a way you can link accounts in different countries. I was able to get an account at HSBC Canada and then at HSBC USA. At the time I had to show that I had property in the US to qualify. Then they have an option called Global Transfer where you can immediately transfer money between both countries with no fees and decent exchange rates. I can do it on my phone.

But can you transfer your Canadian history to US with HSBC? Or you will start blank there. And it's useful only for transferring the funds?

[Rico777 0]

Credit history is per country, you can’t transfer that. However when applying for a mortgage in the US they did look at my Canadian credit rating for leverage. Once you open the US account, you can also get a credit card and at least that will start a credit history. I’ve also had a mortgage for six years. I’m still waiting for the interview.

[New_123 18]

On 6/27/2023 at 11:46 PM, DeeM said:

Hi everyone, my wife and I had our interview last month and we finally got approved... Just sharing our journey from getting the interview letter to getting the visa endorsed. This forum has been extremely helpful in getting us prepared for the interview (and even later with crossing the border/importing car etc.). This is a long post but I wanted to cover some of the stuff that was unique to us but will be helpful to others who may find themselves in similar scenarios (e.g. change of citizenships, pregnant during medical exam, request for additional docs etc.).

 

INTERVIEW LETTER:

We got the interview letter around 45 days before the scheduled interview. 6-7 days after we got our interview letters, we started gathering all required docs and called Dr. Lee’s medical center for appointment and asked a few questions about what documents to bring in, x-ray process etc.  

MEDICAL EXAM:

Dr. Lee and his staff were great to deal with. We called for appointment a week after getting the interview letter and we were able to get an appointment on our preferred day of the week. Neither of us had the vaccine records (both of us had gotten the vaccine shots as kids but we didn’t have any records…didn’t grow up in Canada).

1)      What do if you don’t have any vaccination record: TITRES TEST

We asked our primary doctor to get this test done and the turnaround for the results was around a week. Highly recommend getting the titres test report BEFORE your medical. Will make your and the Medical Examiner’s life easier.

2)      Tetnus

I got the tetnus shot from my primary doctor and got the record of that shot from his office. My wife was given the shot 2 years ago which isn’t valid for this medical exam. So, she had to take another one with me.

3)      Covid Vaccine: If you took your Covid vaccine in Canada, get your certificates from here

How to get your COVID-19 vaccine certificate | Ontario.ca

Ontario COVID-19 vaccination service (ontariohealth.ca)

4)      X-Ray (during pregnancy)

My wife was 14 weeks pregnant at the time of our Medical exam. You cannot not have the X-ray done. It was pretty clear that this was a requirement to clear the medical. At first, we almost decided to reschedule the interview (so that we could delay the X-ray until after the delivery). But after weeks of research, and talking to our Primary physician and couple of other doctors , we found out that the chest x-rays are safe and does not impact the baby (they provided shields during the x-ray).

Few days after our medical exam was completed (Apr 29), the date on our CEAC status changed to May 2. I checked with Dr. Lee’s office and they confirmed that the report was sent to the consulate a few days ago.  

 

MONTREAL CONSULATE:

- LOCATION: We reached Montreal a day prior to our interview and checked into a hotel nearby. Drove around the consulate in the evening to make sure that we know where we needed to go the next morning. I’ve been to numerous US Consulates (its been a long journey lol) and was expecting to see the typical US stuff (flag etc) marking the US consulate. But I couldn’t see any of that and it took me a while to realize that the consulate was sort of inside the RBC building.

- PARKING: We reached the consulate 30 mins before our interview and parked the car behind the consulate building. There is a parking lot behind the building and at ~7:45 AM it only had a few cars parked there.

- PHONES: At the main entrance, the security asked for our passports/interview letter and then let us in (not many people were there at that time). They do a airport type security scan at the ground level. You are not allowed to take anything with you except your file. Lockers are available to store cellphones near the security thing. Lockers are small but enough to store wallets and phones (someone had not turned off their phone and it kept ringing in the locker… better to shut down your phones).  

- Restrooms and water fountains are available in the main waiting area.

 

- FIRST WINDOW: First you will be called by your number where they will check your original civil documents. They asked my wife to sit back in the waiting area and it was me who went through the original documents for both of us. If you are going with your spouse, make sure both of you are familiar with each other’s documents/file.

- CHANGE OF CITIZENSHIP:  Both me and my wife had applied and gotten our Canadian citizenships (and passports) AFTER getting DQ’d. In the original DS260 submitted in 2020 there was no mention of Canadian passports and we had given the passport details from our country of origin. (Our country of origin doesn’t recognize multiple citizenships which rendered our original passports sort of invalid). For this reason, I was a bit nervous. I checked multiple forums but couldn’t find an answer. I wasn’t clear if I was supposed to call the consulate and get the passport info updated… would that push my DQ date? What if they decide to use the original passport... which was no longer “valid” to travel…Well we just decided that we will use our new Canadian passports at the interview…

When the lady at the first window asked for our passports I told her that we recently became Canadian citizens and handed both passports (Canadian and country of origin)…  she straight away took the Canadian passport and said “I don’t need the old passport now”. I was relieved BUT this would almost cost me a new job offer from the US that I would get 2 hours after this interview (will come back to that later).

After getting our original Civil Docs (she made copies and returned everything except the passports) she took our fingerprints. She then asked us to wait in the main area.

 

- INTERVIEW: We were called in for the interview about 15 mins later. The visa officer was super nice and very easy to talk to. Questions she asked:

-          What is your area of specialization? (applied thru EB1A)

-          Do you have a PhD in that field? ( I did…told her about the school)

-          What do you plan to do? (told her that I interviewed for a job in the US a few days ago and was expecting to get an answer very soon… she wished me luck and said “I hope you get the job”).

-          Asked me where that job was and then small-talked about that place

-          Where did we travel outside US and Canada in the last 5 years?

That was it…she said she had no other questions and that she intends to approve our visas. We were out of the consulate in 45 mins.

CEAC STATUS: We reached our hotel and started checking the CEAC status. While I was fixated on refreshing the CEAC status, I got an email from the company I had interviewed for. They sent me an offer letter with numbers higher than what I was expecting and a start date which was 4 weeks later (that was the max they could wait before I get my GC and move there). I was ecstatic… But 5 minutes after I got that email, the CEAC status finally changed…. And it had changed from “READY” to “REFUSED” !

 

- EMAIL (DOS FOLLOW UP): Soon after the status change, we both got emails from the consulate asking for additional documents. And the document asked was “the original passport” which had all previous US visa stamps. It was frustrating as 1) we had the passports with us at the time of interview 2) we presented it to the lady…but she said she didn’t need it.

 

- SENDING ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS: We were probably sitting less than 500m from the consulate but we couldn’t just go and give the documents to them. You are expected to log in to the AISUSVISA.info website account and download a return label and then ship the requested documents to the consulate through Canada Post. We went to one of the CP’s offices listed in the return label instructions page and shipped the additional docs. CP will give you tracking number to see if the packet has been rcvd.

 

- STATUS CHANGES AND WAIT: After that all we could do was wait. Our CEAC status changed the day our packet was delivered to the consulate, then the day after that and then 4 days after that. With my joining date approaching fast I was getting restless day by day…It remained REFUSED until it finally changed to “ISSUED” on the 18^th day after our interview. Finally!

 

- GETTING THE PASSPORTS: 3 days later we got the tracking number and then a day later we got texts that the passports were delivered to our selected CP location. You are supposed to take one ID with you which has the same address on it which you had used for passport delivery. If it doesn’t match the address, then CP will most likely not handover the packet to you.

 

- ACTIVATING AND MOVING: After getting the passports, we couldn’t wait long and decided to get the visas activated a few days later… We went to the Lewiston bridge and got the visas activated and also imported our car before doing the final move… We then returned back to Canada the next day. I used the endorsed visa to start my new job remotely while we finish packing and prepare for a long road trip across the border.

can someone please help with these below questions?  :

1. can we ask the consular officer during the interview to change the address where the physical green card will be sent to in the US? Or does that have to be requested elsewhere?

2. if my old passport has all the previous US visa stampings, while my current passport is the one mentioned in the DS-260 - should I give my old passport along with my current passport even if the consular officer (the one who checks the documents) does not request for it? Even if they say they don't need it, is it better to confirm with them if the old passport needs to be submitted?

[asking the second question as I see @DeeM faced this issue]