JJ Day

I have a question that I'm hoping someone can answer, although my situation might be rare.

After going through the process of receiving an IR-1 visa, my husband and I decided not to move to the United States after all. I have the unused visa in my passport (which expired November 2015) and I am wondering if this might give me problems crossing the border from Canada to the US. I am concerned they will deny entry because they may think I have intent to immigrate. Silly, because if I had that intent I would have used the visa, but I'm still concerned.

It's been suggested I apply for a replacement passport that will not have a visa in it, but I wonder if that's just an over-cautious recommendation. I just don't want the conversation to come up every time I cross the border, should officials flip through all pages of my passport and come across the visa.

Thanks for any advice!

I'm so happy to see the activity in this forum finally die down. I hope this means most everyone (ideally everyone!) has received their visas. When I picked up my envelope today, I was not expecting to get so emotional. I don't cry often, but I broke down into happy tears in the car. Then I treated myself to a big hot fudge sundae! To those still waiting, you WILL get yours soon. And to those who have, best of luck on the next chapter of your journey! These forums have been a godsend this past year, and I am so grateful to everyone who has offered support and advice. However, I'm looking forward to watching the link drop lower and lower on my browser bar until it finally disappears. I've been checking it so many times a day, that I might go into withdrawal, haha! Take care everyone and happy journey!

Hi JJ Day when you did you received an email from Loomis my visa got issued and it say on CEAC wesbsite it ISSUED and my visa is in final processing will get it in 5 working days. So i was just wondering when you did received an email and waybill number.

My visa was issued on July 18 and I received the Loomis email July 25. So it was 5 business days exactly.

At long last, I received the Loomis email and can pick up my passport tomorrow! It will be such a relief to finally have it in my hands.

Did you try emailing the consulate?

Loomis said to contact the NVC, the NVC said to contact the consulate. I'll wait it out a little bit longer because I'm sure I'll get a generic non-answer from the consulate. It does say 5 business days, which is tomorrow, so I may be jumping the gun. Still, I got excited at the thought of not missing out on yet another event due to all this waiting.

My visa was issued on July 18 and I still have not received an email from Loomis. I tried to call, but was told I need a waybill # before they can check on, or deliver, a package for me. I'm sure it will come soon, and it's not a major deal, but I was really hoping to move tomorrow so that I could attend a wedding on Saturday that I thought I was going to miss.

Lol true.

Did you get your loomis email yet?

No, not yet. Hoping it comes tonight!

Yeah I know the difference and how it works but to me, from a logical perspective it would be way easier to have an immigration issue from a non-immigrant visa applicant than from an immigrant applicant is what I meant.

My point was there are probably fewer people working on immigrant visas, hence the delay. You are certainly right, there must be far more issues when it comes to verifying legitimate K1 cases. I'm sure you will get yours soon! :-)

K1 and CR1 are processed differently. It doesn't make sense to me but the K1's through all of this the last month have been issued way faster. You'd think it would be done the same since both parties are entering the country...

K1 visas are a non-immigrant visas, whereas CR1/IR1 visas are immigrant visas. (K1 applicants do not become immigrants until after they are in the US and have applied for an adjustment of status.) I assume that non-immigrant visas are generally issued faster because consulates process far more non-immigrant visas (approx 6,000,000/yr) than immigrant visas (approx 50,000/yr). It makes sense that each consulate would have a bigger staff working on non-immigrant visas, especially since many other non-immigrant categories are more time sensitive than immigrant visas. This is just a theory, but it might explain why K1 applicants seem to get their visas back faster.

Probably not true about CEAC update on Tues/Fri. A lot of people have had updates other weekdays including myself.

Yes to this. There was no pattern to my status being updated and my visa was issued on a Saturday, or at least that's when I was notified.

My wish came true Congrats!!!

Thanks!!!

Congratulations!!!

I had my interview yesterday and got approved! I asked if there were any delays in issuing the visas, and the interviewer was not very forthcoming (he seemed frurstrated and over-worked even though it was only 8am).

Today, the "date created" changed for me on CEAC to today's date, and a new message replaced the old "you are now ready to schedule your interview" one.

"Your case is open and ready for your interview, fingerprints, and required documents. If you have already had your interview, please check your status after two business days."

Do any of you have any idea what that change means? Does it represent any kind of progress, or is it just a thing that happens after your interview?

I don't since my status never said that, but I think the fact that they even gave a time frame of 2 business days has to be a good sign. Hopefully you gets yours soon!

ISSUED!!! At long last! I wasn't even going to check my status until Monday because I figured there would be no activity over the weekend. But checking CEAC has become an hourly ritual for the past 5 weeks that I clicked the bookmark by reflex and could not believe my eyes! Hallelujah!

ISSUED!!! At long last! I wasn't even going to check my status until Monday because I figured there would be no activity over the weekend. But checking CEAC has become an hourly ritual for the past 5 weeks that I clicked the bookmark by reflex and could not believe my eyes! Hallelujah!

hello,

I checked my CEAC, and I noticed that yesterday our app showed Status Updated Date July 17th. My interview was only 4 days ago on (July 13). I can't help it, but be hopeful that this means is a good sign? Maybe other members can share, if they have noticed any changes too.

My "status updated date" has changed many times, but it's been 5 weeks since my interview and I'm still waiting to get my passport back. July interviewees seem to be getting their passports back before many people who interviewed in June (and even May), so hopefully you get yours back soon. :-)

It's been 5 weeks since I was approved at my interview and the consulate still has my passport. I've seen people on VJ wait 12 weeks or more after a successful interview, while others have their passports back within 10 days. I hope you get yours back quickly after your interview, but save yourself any potential headaches by not making any plans to move before you actually have your visa in hand. Good luck!

Great news! I just received email notification from Loomis saying that my passport has been picked up from Montreal! No word on my kid's passports, I'm praying that they are all sent together!

That's wonderful, congratulations! Did your status ever change from ready on CEAC, or did you just go straight to the Loomis email? I can't remember if I ever saw you post about your status being changed to issued.

UPDATED: Nevermind, I see that yours was issued a while ago. I hope that all 3 of your passports are in the package. This is such happy news!!!

Any updates?

My status was updated for the first time in a long time today, but it's still stuck at ready.

Not a single "issued" from Montreal all week? What are they doing there all day? At least seeing others get their passports back gave me hope. This is getting more depressing by the day.

Best of luck to everyone still waiting. Here's hoping the next 3 days will be successful for all of us. I sadly had to give up my trip to Wimbledon because they have my passport, but I did not want to complicate the process by taking it back and returning it after my trip. I hope giving this process priority over my vacation pays off...

Thanks JJ US Consulate in Montreal already cleared all the backlog visas and they have no issues printing. So hopefully we will get ours visa soon.

I hope it comes quickly for you! Mine was among the backlog visas and it has not been touched. If it was in AP that would be one thing, but they haven't done anything at all with it in a month. It's frustrating, but not much I can do about it.

Hi guys just wondering when CEAC status change from ready to administrative then issued. My interview was July 09 and i got approved. They told me that i should get my visa within 7 to 10 days. I was curious shouldn't be CEAC status change after my interview right away or it take couple of days to change.

That's hard to say. I was approved a month ago and it's said "Ready" ever since. Still waiting.

Okay, thanks! Not sure whether we were comparing wait times from Montreal or elsewhere, since I've heard that this is a wider problem. Hopefully the wait won't be too bad for those of us whose interviews are coming up. Mine is on Friday-- I'm petrified.

Don't be, it will be fine! It's the waiting that's the hard part. My interview was very pleasant and less than 5 minutes. Good luck!

Is that people who interviewed in Montreal or elsewhere?

Montreal, as this is a thread about Montreal.

Is it Montreal specifically that seems to be delayed vs. other consulates, or are there random cases from Montreal that are moving faster than others?

I've seen people with interview dates as late as June 30 get their passports back already. I think they may have cleared the May backlog, except for any applications in AP. They do seem to do them in batches, so I'm hoping we're in the next batch. I'm trying not to be worried, but I might be living in a moving truck if it doesn't arrive by the end of the month.