stev

hi all,

sorry i have been absent on VJ for the last while but I saw this question on vaccinations and wanted to let you know what i did. i called alberta health services and they are able to mail you vaccination records from whatever city you request. i requested mine and then compared those to what is required by the US government. i was missing one vaccine and the flu shot so i went and got it done, it was covered by AB healthcare so i didnt have to pay out of pocket.

i wanted to warn you when you go through the border on your fiance visa, you will have a copy of your xray and vaccines -- DO NOT give them to the border officers. i did at first because both he and i were unsure if i was supposed to but i went out to the parking lot and did some research on my phone and went back in and got them. you need them to send with your AOS application so make sure you keep the sealed envelope that you get from the medical results.

i have been living in denver for almost a year now and i could not be happier. believe me, this long tedious process is well worth it!

i just received my I-797C today which is my appointment date for adjustment of status application so my appointment is scheduled for february 3!

good luck to alll of you:)

Hi there,

I haven't updated VJ with all new info, I'll do that shortly! To answer your question, my passport was ready at the loomis location in Calgary for pick up on Monday jan 26 so 11 days after interview.

hello everyone!

i have some great news! we were APPROVED!!!!

i had my interview in montreal yesterday and it went perfectly! i have written a detailed review if you want to check it out:

http://www.visajourney.com/reviews/view-dos-cis-reviews.php?entry=15980

thank you so much to everyone for the support. devin + i could not be happier:) good luck to everyone who is still going through the process!

all the best,

stefanie

I have question...

My friend is saying why did I ever apply for K1? We can get to US on our passport, get married and apply for adjustment of status.

Is that true? Isn't that immigration fraud?

K1 is definitely the right way.

From the ucsis website:

good luck

i wanted to let everyone know that i received my courierd medical results in Calgary by 9:30am on Monday following my Thursday am medical appointment. If you are in a rush to receive your results like I was, I would let the receptionist at the medical office know and she will try and rush the package out which she did in my case.

She then emailed me a tracking number for Puralator which she emailed and let me know they had been picked up. Great cutomer service and I was relieved to receive them in time!

I am off to Montreal tomorrow - wish me luck!

i wanted to let everyone know that i received my courierd medical results in Calgary by 9:30am on Monday following my Thursday am medical appointment. If you are in a rush to receive your results like I was, I would let the receptionist at the medical office know and she will try and rush the package out which she did in my case.

She then emailed me a tracking number for Puralator which she emailed and let me know they had been picked up. Great cutomer service and I was relieved to receive them in time!

I am off to Montreal tomorrow - wish me luck!

Do you still have to go to Montreal for the actual interview?

Yes I'm headed to Montreal in less than a week!! It's a minor inconvenience but just so happy to have an interview!

Enjoy your medical with Dr. Cheema and good luck at your interview!

hi everyone - i had my medical done today in Vancouver!

i posted about it here:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/530757-review-of-medical-vancouver-dr-cheema/

Today was my medical appointment in Vancouver and I thought I would share my experience with everyone and hopefully give some helpful advice. First, before I even start with the info from my trip to Vancouver, I want to let you know that there is a phone number you can call (604-597-1233) if you need to make changes to your initial appointment. You will have to schedule your appointment through their email instructions but I was able to change my appointment date and time very easily by calling this number and the receptionist was extremely helpful and accomodating.

So my appointment was at 7am on a Thursday and I was staying downtown Vancouver. The fastest/cheapest way for me to get from downtown Van to Surrey was to take the Skytrain to Scott Road Station, once you get off there, there will be cabs waiting. Take a cab from there to Dr. Cheema's office. I strongly recommend scheduling an early appointment. So once I arrived (I was the first one there) the receptionist/nurse checked me in, she was very very very nice and friendly but you must have the required documentation so here is a list of exactly what you need:

-passport

-packet 4 email (must have case # on it)

-vaccination records (i recommend making sure they align with the requirements prior to going to your medical)

-4 passport photos

-proof of appointment at us consulate, i brought my confirmation email

-current address, intended address in US

Once she has taken a photo copy of all the documents you will need to pay and indicate whether you would like to pick the results up after 4:30pm the following day or have them couriered to an address of your choice (additional fee). I got my results couriered back to Calgary and the total for the medical and the courier was $311 CAD.

Once she checked me in, took about 15 minutes, she will take your weight and height and then seat you for Dr. Cheema. Dr. Cheema came in right away and he was SO nice. He was the friendliest doctor I have ever met and he chatted with me about my move and what I did for a living, asked if I was on any medications, asked a series of questions required by immigration, he took temperature, checked chest and did an abdomen exam with the female nurse present. He then checked my ears and did a quick eye test and said I was healthy as could be and there are no issues.

At that point I went back to the receptionist/nurse and she gave me the requisition for the chest x ray and the blood test. She offered to call me a cab or said it was only 15 minute walk. I chose to walk and I warn you it is not 15 minutes! It was 2.5 kms and about a 35 minute walk so I would highly recommend taking a cab. The great thing about having a 7 am appointment was that I was done at Dr. Cheemas office at 7:30 am and with my 35 minute walk I got to the xray lab right when they opened at 8:00 am. Try and get there as it is opening because shortly after i arrived 8 more people showed up and there was only one xray technician. I was second in line and was in and out in a matter of minutes. Only one xray and very fast. Once you finish with the xray go up to the second floor to the lab for your blood work. Make sure you grab a number as soon as you walk in! I had about a 15-20 minute wait for my blood test and they only took one vile and then I was done. Right before I was called to get my test done I called the same cab company back to pick me up at the lab. The cab driver took me back to the Scott Road Station and i hopped back on the train to downtown Van.

All in all it was an extremely smooth process and everyone was so nice! From appointment time until I was done was one hour and 40 minutes and I attribute the speed which I made it through to the early morning appointment time! I could see how the later in the day you get the more waiting you would have to do. It was a surprisingly pleasant experience and everyone was very helpful and friendly.

Do not stress about the part of the process!! Hope this info helps!

sorry correction, it was 3 months total, not 4! we filed on october 15 and our appointment is on january 15!

a happy friday for my fiance and i!

we received our packet 4 via email today at 7am and then by 8 am they released appointment dates at the montreal consulate so we were able to book for January 15th! i am booking my medical in vancouver for earlier in january so i only have to go to montreal for the interview and dont have to spend the extra days required for the medical results to be released.

so although this requires a trip to montreal, it is amazing news and now we have a date that we know we will be together!!!

i hope you all have similar luck and just to give you hope, from the date we sent the petition in to the interview date was 4 months exactly:)

hope everyone has a great weekend!

This might be where things are getting lost. the K1 is considered a Non immigrant visa.

We have made it very clear in both emails that we are applying for K1 visa and that is the response we have been given both times. Also K1's are listed under immigration visas on the CSC website (https://usvisa-info.com/en-CA/selfservice/us_immigrant_visas) because " Fiancé(e) Visas are included in this section because even though they are technically nonimmigrant visas, they are processed by the immigrant visa unit."

I tweeted at the U.S. Embassy - Ottawa account yesterday and just received a reply confirming Vancouver is still processing K-1 and K-3 visas. This appears to be an unfortunate but random screwup for the OP.

It makes my day just a teeny bit brighter as we reach 70 days after NOA-2 without receiving our NVC case number.

This is definitely interesting, but we have emailed the Montreal consulate twice and both times they have claimed to be "the only Canadian consulate processing immigrant visa applications." So unless they are just outright lying to us, for now we will assume that their information is more accurate than whoever is in charge of social media over at the US Embassy - Ottawa. We have been in contact with the two couples with our same timeline and are awaiting to hear which consulate they are contacted by. If they are able to verify that they can schedule their interviews in Vancouver then I will consider contacting my congressman. We are going to attempt to reach the Vancouver consulate by phone as well, as they have not responded to our email. Thank you everyone for your contributions and we will continue to keep you all up to date on our progress.

hi everyone, i have some disappointing news. i emailed montreal consulate again to request a transfer to vancouver and find out if packet 4 had been sent out. this was the response i received:

"Good day, Thank you for your email. The Montreal Consulate General is the only Canadian consulate processing immigrant visa applications. We sent the letter Packet 3 to the applicant by mail on November 24, 2014. This packet contains a list of items that the applicant has to provide to the Montreal U.S. Consulate in order to continue the process of the visa application. As of today, we have not received any documents from you as requested in the packet 3. In order to continue processing this case, please visit http://photos.state.gov/libraries/canada/303578/montreal/Packet3-K1-MTL.pdf to complete and return to the Immigrant Visa (IV) Unit the required application form, a copy of the passport and the checklist of documents to gather for the interview. Please complete the form according to the visa category you are applying for. Make sure you select ‘Montreal’ as the place of your future interview.Starting October 8, 2013 all forms need to be sent to the U.S. Consulate General in Montreal by e-mail to MONTREAL-IV-DV@STATE.GOV with the following subject line format “Case_Number – DS-160 CEAC # Barcode” e.g. “MTL2013000001 – DS-160 CEAC # AA003GU160”Please allow six weeks for the review of your case, after you send the required documents. Upon completion of the review, the U.S. Consulate General in Montreal will send you a Packet 4 letter with instructions on how to get the medical exam done in Canada and how to schedule your immigrant visa appointment. Do not get your medical exam in advance as it has a limited validity! Sincerely, OP14"

so i sent out packet 3 on nov 24, 2014 and based on the email above, it looks like they havent processed it yet. this means we wont be expecting packet 4 for a while and hopefully by then more appointment dates open up in montreal. as discouraging as this news is, we are just trying to stay positive and hope that things start moving along the process again. right now we are at a bit of a stand still, the lovely waiting game with the government:)

for those two couples that responded, thank you for the updates and let us know what consulate you end up having to book your interview at!

happy wednesday:)

okay i have a minor update for all of you!

i spoke to both montreal (438.793.1947) and vancouver (778.807.9660) consulates today through their info/booking system and the individuals at both consulate gave me the exact same directions so i feel it is reliable. they both said that once i receive packet 4, write an email to the montreal consulate montreal-niv@state.gov and ask for permission to schedule interview in vancouver. if montreal responds and grants me permission, than i can go to the csc site https://usvisa-info.com/en-ca/selfservice/ss_country_welcome and just book the appointment for an interview at the vancouver consulate.

so as much as this does not immediately resolve our problem, it has given us hope that it is a somewhat easy process as long as montreal grants permission.

happy friday everyone:)

i tried calling the consultes today but since it is an american holiday, they are closed. i am going to try back tomorrow and hopefully get some answers and ultimately get our case transfered to vancouver.

as it stands right now, there are no interview times available in montreal which is very discouraging. we need our case to be sent to vancouver so we can get on with this process!

we will let you all know if i can get ahold of the consulates and what they have to say about this.

thanks for all your comments:)

This has happened a lot over the yrs..getting assigned to the wrong consulate.....and people have gotten it straightened out..........Believe they just emailed Mtl--stated they lived in a western province, and Mtl sent the paperwork to Van......

We have done exactly that, sent emails to both consulates with the proper subject line and everything and all we recieved back was that email from mtl stating they were the only ones processing k1s. We are going to try to find some other means of contacting them, it's ridiculous that you cannot even talk to a person at this stage in the process, looks like I might have to get my congressman involved at this point.

That's great you got your NOA2! I wouldn't wait for the correspondence from the consulate, I would call the NVC in a week and give them the receipt number on the NOA2 and they will tell you your case number and invoice number. The first three letters of your case number will indicate what consulate it has been sent to.

On another note, we heard back from two couples who got their NOA2 after us and they were both assigned to Vancouver consulate but they both live in Vancouver, not sure if that's the difference? I think they have made a mistake and are not willing to correct it and there is no one we can speak to over the phone and email is not proving successful....

Our NOA2 does not say anything at all about which consulate our case would be sent to. We did email van as well but have not heard back yet. We have also seen other timelines that have nvc dates after ours and say they were sent to van but can anyone verify that, I know I almost forgot to change the consulate on our timeline

For everyone else's sake, I hope our case is the anomaly and no one else runs into the same issues. If anyone finds out any more info on this or if your in a similar situation please post!

Thanks:)

Yes, we assumed that as well but both the NVC and the montreal consulate confirmed that Vancouver no longer processes K1 visas.

Our case number starts with MTL and to reiterate, we did try and have it transferred to Vancouver based on my Calgary residence.

Unfortunately this adds a great cost to all those applicants out West and hopefully it is just a temporary change.

We will be sure to update everyone if we receive any more information about this!

Has happned many times before where it gets sent to the wrong consulate.....In ur email to Mtl--state u live in Calgary and request they send it to Van........

We emailed both consulates saying exactly that but received an email from mtl this morning saying they are the only one's processing k1s

Hey Everyone!

My fiancee lives in Calgary so we assumed the NVC would send our application to Vancouver, but ours was sent to Montreal. When she called the NVC she was first told that they were all being sent to Montreal now, but we hadn't seen anything on VJ and Van's website says they process k-1s so she called the NVC again the next day and was told to email both consulates. Today we received an email from the Montreal consulate confirming "The Montreal Consulate General is the only Canadian consulate processing immigrant visa applications and K1 visas." This is definitely an inconvenience for us as we had been planning on an interview closer to her home. We wanted to let everyone else know about the change so you can plan accordingly.