mhp

I would urge H1 applicants to not go to Montreal. The consulate is extremely busy with Immigrant Visa applicants and give TCN NIV applicants the very low priority. They did not take time to understand my case and subjected me to additional scrutiny for no reason. Here is my detailed experience, it may be quite long for some of you but hopefully I'm able to help people in a stuck in a similar situation.

Interview Date/Time: 6/15/2015 7:40am
Consulate: Montreal, Canada
Visa: H1B Renewal - 7th year, 3rd Stamping in Canada - Previous 2 visas received in 1 week from Toronto and Ottawa.
My Background: MS in CS from USA. Working in EVC Model on Client site. Same client for past 2 years and also worked there for 3 years in the past. Client location is a Research Lab.

Interview:
VO: What do you do?
ME: Answered

VO: Who you work for?
ME: My company name

VO: What are your job duties?
ME: Explained. Also mentioned that I work at client site along with the client name / location. She stopped me half way.

VO: How long working in U.S.
ME: Answered

VO: Can I see copy of approved 140 copy?
ME: Gave it to her

VO: Do you have CV and list of publications?
ME: Gave resume and told her I do not have list of publications.

At that point, she gave me a white slip (nothing on it said 221g), circled Administrative Processing and checked the line that said List of Publications and told me that they need to further review my case.

ME: I did not publish anything
VO: Then don't send anything, we will still review your case

ME: Can you give me some idea on how long this would take
VO: You are educated, you should know this

I had no idea what was going on at that point but now I know that they did a TAL check on my case, presumably due to the fact that my client location was a Research Lab. I was never privy to any research related information and my Client / Vendor letter had no mention of the word "Research" so in hindsight, if it wasn't for my resume, I would probably not have been subjected to this.

Sequence of events after the interview:
6/15/2015 - 1st Email Sent with Requested Info: No Publications.
6/22/2015 - 2nd Email Sent for Follow-up: No Response
6/25/2015 - 3rd Email Sent for Follow-up: Response received on 6/26/2015 - Did you send list of publications? (Already sent email on 6/15/2015)
6/30/2015 - 4th Email Sent for Follow-up: Also asked if they received previous email. In a few mins, they confirmed they received it
7/7/2015 - 5th Email Sent for Follow-up: No Response
7/9/2015 - 6th Email Sent for Follow-up: No Response
7/14/2015 - Visited Consulate personally – they did not let me in and asked to send email. On sending email - I received a response in 1hr, basically saying it is pointless to keep sending email when the status is already available in Auto Response emails. I'm assuming they were pointing to the fact that the Auto-response said it could take upto 90 days for Admin Processing.
8/17/2015 - Consulted with a well known immigration attorney. They said try for H4,that is your best bet otherwise nothing much that can be done, just wait for approval.
8/18/2015 - 7th Email Sent for Follow-up (after 60 days): No Response
8/18/2015 - Contacted local senator office. They said they will try to follow up but if the case was in Admin Processing, they wouldn't be able to do anything to expedite it.
8/18/2015 - Scheduled H4 Visa Appointment for 9/10 as a backup, incase nothing happened till then
8/25/2015 - Email Received to Submit Passport, instead of dropping it off at local Loomis office - I went to the address on the instructions, (which turned out to be a UPS store) and dropped off my passport personally.
8/27/2015 - Around 11:30am, my CEAC status updated to ISSUED
8/28/2015 - Did not receive email for passport until 5pm so decided to visit the Loomis office in Lachine being that it was a Friday. The person was really good - he said even though the office closes at 7pm, if I got an email by 9:30pm then call him and come and pick up the passport. Fortunately, I did receive the email at 9:15pm so rushed there and got my passport.
8/29/2015 - Returned home after 76 days.

My guess is that the consulate did not even touch my case for the first 3 weeks. After that they sent it to Washington for TAL Check. My Visa Stamp says "Clearance Received 7/31/2015" which means Montreal took almost a month to process my case after they received clearance from Washington. I had been following a lot of other threads from Murthy and other forums and for most cases with TAL, the response time was between 30 days to 3 months depending on the Consulate and the time of the year. Summer and Christmas time are really slow with lot of people out on vacation. Also, during Summer time, Student Visas get priority over H1.

During the first month, I kept calling NVC quite frequently. For the most part - they did not provide much information and a lot of times misled me so I stopped calling them. Around 7/10, two different people of two different days told me that my case was "Pending Conclusion by the Consulate" which got my hopes high and then a couple of days later, a guy said there was nothing like that. Around early August though, when I called NVC asked them if there was any update on my case they said yes and I asked when - they said 7/31 which was the exact date when my was case received clearance. So it seems like they do have some level of visibility.