mrsu

Like impossible. I finally found a photographer in Kearney, NE who was willing to do ours. He charges us a sitting fee and uses a white background and then prints and crops to Canadian passport size. So expensive!!! Cost me  $79 every time I have needed a pic. Me, my daughter and I'm dreading my sons expiring shortly! Don't bother trying it yourself,  it must be signed and dated by a photographer. 

So for whatever reason they do not give you anything after divorce in Canada.  I did CR1 process but needed proof of first marriage and proof of divorce.  I had to order both a copy of marriage certificate and a divorce certificate, and yes both cost $$. Vital statistics has the link to order both. Good luck:)

You're welcome

Yeah if you are flying I would say that luggage would be a good place to start although you might want to research out the cost of airlines to see which ones charge what and whatbtheir weight restricyions are ahead of time. We fly a lot but generally fly first class to avoid baggage fees but I know some are a lot more than others as far as cost. I believe, but I'm not 100% sure that you can ship cross border  (with the proper paperwork) via greyhound bus lines and it's relatively cheap for price, although it's been a few years since I looked into it, but that might be an option for shipping as UPS can be pretty pricey. 

I moved down from Alberta to Nebraska in Dec 2014. I made the decision not to move a vehicle down and to sell most of my stuff other than clothes  personal items. So we had the option of renting a uhaul truck or my fiancee driving up with truck and horse trailer to get my things. We priced it all out and it ended up being cheapest for us to avoid uhaul and he drove up empty and went home with my things. We then had a hired hand we hired from Canada and when they moved down they put their things in a shipping container and had them shipped here for about $1200. I don't know if that helps but the uhaul option was not great, it was a lot of money and we really didn't need that much room. Plus a lot of the trucks did not seem to be in the greatest mechanical condition for a long trip like that. 

Good luck with the move. Remember she will need to label boxes with numbers and have a list at border crossing with each numbered box and what it's contents are

I dont know if 10 days would be necessary, in our case it was simply because of when our interview fell, there was a holiday day before that so processing times for our medical exam took an extra 2 days and we wanted to be absolutely certain we would have our medical exams back in plenty of time. As soon as you have your interview date call the medical office because appointment times are limited to certain days and times. 

Also, I was a bit confusing, sorry. Our hotel was only 3 blocks from medical office. Then medical office was about a 15 block walk to consulate for interview. 

There was a really nice Supermarket about 6 blocks further past the medical office, it was the French partner of Superstore. We walked there and then cabbed back to hotel cause of bags. I highly recommend not bothering with a rental car.  Parking is extremely limited in downtown Montreal and everything is in walking distance and cabs are cheap and plentiful. Also you can request a flat rate for the cab ride from the airport to downtown motels. It's quite the cab ride, ours was over an hour and although I am used to city driving I was extremely thankful I didn't have to drive that stretch!!!

Also, ask ahead of time about extra costs for your medical exam. They gave us a flat cost per person when I called and I had budgeted that amount. It ended up being a LOT more. They had to give us all Hepatitis B vaccines as they are necessary for US. Had I known that ahead of time I could have hadone them done at my local health unit and paid about a tenth of the cost. Also there were extra xray charges for mine, they didn't require chest x-rays for the children but they do for adults and I had not known about that either. Our exams ended up being $1100 more than planned so I would ask when you book about any of those extra costs. Also, the staff at the medical office had very limited English. They were very nice and as helpful as they could be but communication was a bit difficult when they were trying to explain things. 

Again, you wouldn't have to stay the entire time but our flights from Calgary were rather expensive and long so it made no sense monetarily to fly back home for a couple days in between medical exam and interview. But if you had a short cheap flight it might make sense. 

Yes. We had to travel to Montreal from Alberta and we're able to do both our medical exams and interviews in same trip.  But we did stay 10 days. We scheduled our medical exams the day after arriving. This is because it takes several days to process the exams and go back in person to pick up results. You need the packages they give you for your interview. We stayed at a nice hotel just down the street from the medical office and got a suite with a kitchen so we could make meals etc as I had 2 young children. It was easiest to walk there as there is no parking.  We were also close enough to walk to our interview,  I think it was about 15 blocks from the office where we did our medical exams. 

So it would totally be fine to have your parents bring your things. When me and my kids were moving down my husband drove up from Nebraska with truck and horse trailer and took our things. I didn't have a lot either, sold most of my big stuff in Canada,  was just easier.  If you send your things with someone else you need to provide a letter stating that they are moving your things and it must be signed. Also, you must provide a numbered list of boxes. So when you pack your boxes just number them and put a quick description on the list of what is in them. This is how the border asked us to do it. They looked over the list, opened the trailer, picked a box and opened it to ensure the contents matched what had been written on the list. My husband was through in less than 5 minutes and we were not along.  

As far as waiting to move,  you will be fine. I had to finish out a work contract and could not move til end of December and our expiry date was March 1. It's just important that you get there before expiry date

Congratulations on getting yourself approved, I know it's a long process and I had a ton of worries through it all and there will be ongoing stuff to deal with once you are down here but honestly the toughest/longest part is over. Just get yourself moved and concentrate on your wedding. 

We schedule romantic weekend getaways in Omak.

Omak.

I have it easy, my trip is 2 hours max so we see each other every weekend. Sometimes we can meet halfway for dinner. I remind myself of that fact when I might compare our condition to others.

Oh wow, that is great that you guys are so close. We try to have 3-5 days together every month but we both have pretty hectic schedules so it gets hard but it will all be worth it;) Our romantic getaways/weekends are usually Billings, MT LOL which is probably not considered a romantic getaway for anyone else but its half way between us so it works.

Must be nice to live close enough to drive. It's a 3 hour plane ride for me! (18 hours of driving.... no thank you!)

Really auto correct? Yer gonna remove an s and make me look like a fool... Oh wait... lol

I hear ya! We drive 4 hours to Great Falls to fly another 4 hours. And then a 2 hour drive on the other end LOL. I drove the 22 or 24 hours once and that was enough. DId it with two toddlers and almost pulled out my hair. Worth it,definitely, but yeah we only fly now.

I did not have a lot of stuff. She asked me if I had applied for a visa. When I responded yes, she wanted to see any paper work regarding it. I showed her the noa1. She then said I was not a visitor and had no rights as a visitor because my intentions are to immigrate. She spoke with her boss and he issued the I-94. And stamped the passport paroled. My question if any one know i, if you do get rejected does it show up on the screen and does that prompt them to reject you again?? Is it better to offer your proof or wait to see if they ask? I would have thought that going the legal visa route would have seemed to be in my favour but no it was the opposite.

Do you still have a job in Canada? I was probably over prepared when we started this whole process but we had met with several lawyers and talked to a few people and they had some good suggestions. I always get my boss to sign a letter on company letter head saying that I have a permanent full time position there and that I am just on holidays or days off and that I am expected to be back to work on a specific date. I have never had to use that letter but I always get one just in case. Quite often I travel down without my children and twice they have asked me if I intend to stay in the states to which I truly reply no because I have to come back to care for my children and work at my job. That seems to be plenty to satisfy them of my intentions to visit only. I don't know if that would help you but it might not hurt to have that in hand when you try next time to cross. Sadly I think you really just got someone on a bad day, most these guys know that visiting is normal and if you are going through the hassle of doing all this paperwork to do it legally that you are not a risk for staying down there

Coutts? Because that's among my worst experiences with border crossing, long before we started this process even.

LOL sadly yup that is the one. We had an immigration lawyer suggest always using the biggest port of entry nearest to cross, however I now always use Havre and Carway and Del Bonita, the US guys at Havre are soooo nice!!! They treat us so well every time we go across and coming back the cdn guys at that crossing seem a bit easier to deal with too. Just maybe a bit more human and understanding.

When they held me at Coutts my parents had my 2 little toddlers and we had talked when I landed in Great Falls and just before the border so they were expecting me at a certain time and when I started to be hours late they were beside themselves with worry. The border agents had seized my phone right away and would not even let me call them to let them know that I was ok but would be much later than expected. It was a rough experience for everyone involved, one I have no wish to repeat, ever!

Their statements seem over the top , did they inform you of the $800 exemption if you were staying over 48 hours? ( 200 for overnight) . Under those rules you have nothing to declare --unless the penny was made outside of North America

I agree, it seemed way over the top and they were not interested in the groceries I had picked up or the bit of shopping i had done (and declared of course), pretty much just interested in proving a point with my wedding ring and trying to scare the ####### out of someone it seemed. I know all the exemption rules but wasn't going to quote anything to them at that point, I just wanted to be on my way with no more trouble. Since that crossing I have chosen a different (smaller) border crossing and have had no problems. My husband has been across with our horses a few times and twice they never even asked to look at the paperwork or look in the trailer which seemed super odd but I really think it just depends on who you get and what sort of day they are having.

I cross (in Alberta/Montana) about once every other month and have had zero issues going down, in fact at the one border the US guys are super nice to me and the kids, always have suckers for my toddlers as they figure I pack the cooler way too healthy When they ask why I am going down I tell them to visit my husband and they ask where and I tell them and how long and i tell them. They have always asked if we are trying to immigrate at which point i say yes and let them know where we are in the process. That said though I have had major issues coming back into Canada twice. I got held and searched for hours because of my wedding ring. I did not realize that I needed to claim it. It had been over a year since we were married and when coming home a few months ago they pulled me in, put me in a room and came in and asked me where I had got my ring and when I had declared it. Stupid me, I honestly did not realize I needed to claim it when I came home from Vegas after getting married, honestly never crossed my mind and I told them that. Well they went through my car, my phone, my laptop, etc and then called my husband down in the states to ask him what he paid for my ring and tell him that they were holding me. I got told i could either pay the fines (for not reporting it initially) and pay the duty and gst on the value or they would seize my ring and charge me with lying to a border agent. Five hours later I was finally released after conjuring up the cash to pay them. Was a very unpleasant experience to say the least. Learned my lesson. They stated that if I picked up a penny on the sidewalk while visiting the states and failed to report it when returning to Canada I was breaking the law. So now I claim everything, right down to the stuffed animal my son won at a state fair.

Sorry if someone else has already asked this but I am having a hard time finding an answer in all different forum posts. We just got the email yesterday that My (and kids) NVC is complete. I know that the next step is the interview in Montreal but am really unsure how long before we find out about interview, how they notify us of interview date, etc. I am in Alberta and a bit stressed about getting flights in time so that its not ridiculous expensive. Would love to hear what others have experienced for wait times, how you were notified of interview date and how far out your interview date was from time you were notified. Also trying to give employer an idea of how much time off I will need...I know that we need to do medical exam in Montreal before interview, how long before, how long were most of you in Montreal for the entire ordeal? Thanks to anyone who has some answers, sorry again if I am asking a question that has answers posted elsewhere.

This might sound crazy but I have been puzzling over this for months and have asked numerous accountants and each one has a different answer and no one knows and admits that which is fine but I still have not done my 2013 taxes and need to. I am in process of immigrating to US to join my husband who is US citizen. We got married in 2013 so I assume my marital status is married. However, when I looked up the definitions I do not meet the requirements to file as married because we have never lived together and do not reside at same residence and he does not have a Canadian social insurance number or canadian income. I am so very confused by this. Most accountants said I should file as seperated as that was the marital status that was most fitting but then it asks for date of seperation and still wants the name and social insurance number which is of course my husband does not have. There is no way to enter a spouse without a social insurance number and of course as soon as I enter married my tax return changes drastically and I am no longer considered a single parent even though I still live as one and recieve no monies from my spouse in the US. How have other people filed their taxes? I am really stressed out by this scenario and would love to hear what others have done to be able to file correctly.

Another quick question or two??

When you take police certificate to the medical, do they keep it or do you just have to show it?? Can it be a photocopy?? Trying to figure out how many copies I need of things

At the interview do they keep all the documents you take ie wedding certificate, birth certificate, police certificate - do they have to be originals??

Many thanks once again for all your help and responses x

Friend of mine just went through the interview/medical. Everything you take with you MUST be originals. Original birth certificates, marriage certifcate, any previous marriages divorce certs, original police report, all must be the originals and you take them along with you to the interview and they will have copies on hand that you have submitted and will check through to make sure that they match. Its a pain I know, my birth certifcate was in tatters and my big one is glued into my baby album (thanks mom) LOL so I just had to order a new one to take along when we get to that point. I have tried really hard to be organized along the way too but I was completely floored and was not expecting some of the required info on the DS-260 forms once our items got through USCIS. They wanted to know every single address I had lived at since age 16 up until present and how long at each address. In my career I moved a LOT the first few years and had I known ahead of time of that question I could have gone through paperwork and travelled to find those addresses, it took me over a month to gather all that information and I was frustrated because I could have had my DS-260s in so much quicker had I just had that information ready.

HI there, I am wondering if anyone knows what the answer is...we can't seem to find a solid answer. We are in last stages of NVC, just waiting for interview date to be sent to us, which will be at Montreal, Canada consulate. I have read that my husband (the US citizen who resides in US) will not need to be present at the interview but we cannot figure out if the children need to be there, they are ages 2 and 5. It is my understanding that they will need to be there for a medical prior to the interview but because they are so young it would of course be easier to have them return with my parents if they do not need to be present for interview. My son who is 5 is autistic and will not talk to strangers and my 2 year old only has about 25 words so far so I cannot imagine that their presence would be beneficial in the interview but I don't know. If anyone knows, would love to find out so that we can start planning our travel accordingly, its a big trip clear across the country.

Thanks Darnell, I think that is a really good idea....to use it as a check with lawyer to make sure that they are following same guide or same steps. That was my biggest frustration is that everyone kept telling us different things and we really had nothing and no one to go to to as a template for lack of a better word. I did do quite a lot of weeks of research and can't believe I didn't find this site, seemed like a lot of the sites we found were law offices or businesses offering to help with paperwork and no real answers to any of our questions. Yeah was just in the canada forum and that is a great place to read too as there are several others in same process as us with spouses not too far from mine actually. I appreciate the heads up about the NVC Electronic Processing after approval as well

Thank you so much Florida4 life, that was really a great comparison and helps a lot.

Thanks to Darnell as well for pointing out that this is a DIY site and mentioning that there is a strong emphasis on D and Y. I know that this is a not a legal advise site and was not seeking that. I am not looking for someone to do this for me, we are doing this ourselves and was just reading through other posts and noticed lots of other people sharing their experiences so did not think I was wrong to ask if anyone else was going through same process and had any more information than we had. I will read through the guides, thanks so much for pointing those out too, had already actually already browsed through.

I found this site and am thinking its too late for any initial advise but maybe there will be some of your here on the same journey who have answers or insight...

I am in Canada with my children and my husband is in Nebraska where he resides. We were engaged fall of 2012 and right away got an immigration lawyer to figure out best way to start the process of getting me and kids down to Nebraska as he is not able to transfer with his career but I can. The lawyer told us that we needed to get married and then once we were married I would return here and my husband could file paperwork to bring us down there. So we finally found time in March (we both have busy work schedules) to get away for a weekend and get married. We contacted lawyer as soon as we both got home and then spent 9 frustrating weeks being put off and put off and got nowhere with forms, etc. So we hired a new lawyer in Denver and finally after having the I-130s and the G325As re-done about 6 times due to their errors they were finally sent off at beginning of July and we got reciept the following week from USCIS. We have been trying to find out from lawyer what the next steps are, how long we can expect to wait til interview in Montreal but they are being exceptionally vague and although they originally said we would be down there within 6 mos they are now suggesting that I do not list my house for sale as it could be more like a year and a half. I am hoping that is not true but honestly have no idea what to believe anymore. They are saying we never should have married, should have filed for a fiancee visa which we did not even know was an option as they first law firm never told us about that option. Is anyone else going through this same process? If anyone is and could shed any light on what happens next, what wait times generally are for length, etc I would be super greatful, this is stressful enough but even harder with no answers.