CanCal2016

Hey all!

Finally all grown up and get to join the AOS pages! haha We mailed off our package on friday, arrived yesterday at the chicago lockbox.

The waiting continues...

Can anyone clarify for what reason there are SIX passport photos required? I feel like I'm missing something here... haha thanks!

Hey all,

Which number is the "nonimmigrant visa number"? I see a bunch of numbers on my passport visa page but none that I can clearly identify as such...

Thanks!

Received my Visa package from the post office today! Can't wait to get along to the POE... Only a couple weeks left.

Hey all! Now that the chaos as slowed down in my life, I figured I'd write a review about my K1 experience (both the Interview at the Vancouver consulate and the medical at Dr. Cheema's office in Surrey, B.C). Here we go!

I flew into YVR and rented a car from Thrifty in the airport. I drove to the medical and the interview, and this made it insanely easy rather than taking the public busses. I stayed at the Coast Hotel on Comox Street, and that was such a great area to be in. Great food, great access to everything, and most importantly.... it was a clean hotel. Hot tub and pool too!

Medical

Medical was scheduled for 10:45am on the 26th of February at Dr. Cheema's office. Not difficult to get to via car, although the office was busy. I arrived at 10:30am, spoke with a nice lady at the front desk. She asked for my interview confirmation page, immunization records and passport. Asked me a couple questions, I paid the $280 by debit (NO CREDIT CARDS accepted here), and was told to take a seat. At about 10:55am I was escorted to a room, and waited for Dr. Cheema. He asked me a couple questions about my health, listened to my breathing and heart beat, then took my blood pressure. He pressed a couple spots on my stomach and that was it. I told him that I am prescribed medication for anxiety and depression, and he asked me about the work I do. He said there were no concerns on his part, and that I was good to go for the x-ray and blood work which was down the road. I was given a requisition form from the front desk for my blood work and my chest x-ray, and off I went.

Made it to the x-ray and blood work building in about 10 minutes... it's a quick drive, ran upstairs to take a number from the blood work lab (I was 135 and they were only serving 109 at this point...). Went downstairs and handed in my x-ray requisition. Sat for five minutes or so, then was brought to a back room where there are a ton of curtained little rooms. Undress from waist up and piled my hair on top of my head (DONT forget your hair elastics!!). I sat in the little change room until they called me, I walked around the corner and had my x-ray done. Took all of five minutes. Sat back in the change room until they told me I could go, got changed and then off to the blood lab.

Blood lab was easy, pretty empty when I got there. Waited till they called me and sat in a chair in their back area. Blood work took all of five minutes, and we were out of the clinic building by 1pm. Hit the road and went back to Vancouver!

Picking up medical package

I drove back to Dr. Cheema's office on February 29th (Monday) and arrive at 4:45pm. Talked with the lady at the front desk and she gave me two packages, one sealed package for the interview and one package that had my chest x-ray disk and some other immunization paperwork in it. The sealed package is the only one you need to bring to the interview.

Interview

Interview was scheduled for 08:00am on March 1st at the Vancouver Consular Generals Office on West Pender St in Vancouver. I parked in the public parking lot directly across the street and paid $13.00 for the "early bird parking" rate. I arrived in the parking lot around 07:30am. This paid parking lot only takes CREDIT CARDS or coin cash. No debit.

I walked across the street to the building, and the lineup was already around the side of the building. I asked the "direction man", who seemed to be coordinating this whole thing where I was supposed to be going. He told me to line up and that he would come down the line and ask for 08:00am interviewee's. Not five minutes later he directed those of us with 8am interviews to line up, pull out our DS-160's and passports to present to the officers at the head of the line. DO NOT BRING your cell phones or any extra bags in with you, they make you lock them up. The first officer I spoke with collected my DS-160, passport and medical package, then checked my name for correct interview information/ passport number etc. She handed it back to me with a blue "WINDOW B" paper, and I handed this off to the second officer, who directed me to go inside and up a flight of stairs, then wait for further instruction. I got upstairs, was met by several officers and was directed to take off belt/watches/metal etc and proceed through the metal detector. Moved along to stand in front of the elevator, and was told to use the bathroom at this point, as there was no bathroom on the 20th floor where we would be going. Got up to the 20th floor and the officer indicated that I was to flip the switch by window B ONE TIME, either up OR down, NOT both. I was met by a lady at Window B who collected my paperwork from me, and told me to take a seat & I would be called by name. She called me back up and handed me a number, A027. She told me to ignore the screen if it said "WINDOW 1", and to wait for my number to be called again. I waited until A027 was called and walked to Window 6, where I was met by a man who conducted my interview. It's a stand-up interview at the window. He looked through my paperwork, I was finger printed and he asked me a couple questions about the paperwork (that it is truthful and I'm not lying or committing fraud). He also asked if I had received a paper on domestic violence already, and I said that I had. The ONLY question about our relationship was the following... "Tell me about your relationship from start to finish"... So I gave him a VERY brief run down of our nine+ year relationship. He nodded, and told me to have a seat until I was called up again. The lady I spoke with earlier called me up again to Window B, and she said that my application had been approved!! She gave me a run down about having to marry within 90 days, and that my K1 Visa is good until August etc, etc, etc. My Visa would arrive in the mail and that Canada Post would be contacting me.

Today, March 3rd/16, I received an email from the Department of State giving me a tracking number for my Canada Post package! So it should only be a couple more days and I'll be able to pick up my passport and visa package.

I can't wait! I've honestly been so lucky through this process so far... no RFE's, no majorly delayed paperwork or complications. Now, on to the POE and AOS...

Thankful to all those who have helped along the way, and all the awesome guides that have been there to support my OCD.

That's correct, but if you can't register the car then you're going to have problems getting it insured either in the US or Canada. My car wasn't able to be imported due to no passenger side airbag (and far to expensive to retrofit) but I was able to drive it for up to 6 months on my Canadian auto insurance. After that you'll need US insurance and if you can't register it... no insurance.

Everyone's policy is different so it's worthwhile to call and see what they can do for you.

AH. Okay, so for everyone still following along with this thread...

I spoke to a CBP officer at the POE that I will be driving through and this is what he told me:

- I CAN drive my car through the border and import at a later time.

- No paperwork required for the vehicle at this point.

- I have up to a year to import my vehicle, and can do so at MOST major international airports (which saves me a hassle, because LAX offers this option, and is relatively close to where I'll be living)

- Just make an appointment with the CBP office at the closest international airport and they'll import the vehicle

- I will be taking out a loan once I arrive at my final destination, paying off my lien on the vehicle, and will be free to import the vehicle then. I have a letter of compliance from Mitsubishi, stating that it complies with all US and Canadian standards. My insurance will cover me in the US and in Canada until the lien is paid off, then I will be registering the vehicle with California plates and the title will be in my name. Along this time I'll be getting insurance to cover my vehicle.

Sounds like a nightmare of a process, BUT I have spoken with WAY too many people about this who are supposedly "in the know", and this all seems to be correct from their end.

Here's hoping haha Thanks for all the input folks!

Are you going to be taking it back to the border when you're ready to actually import it? And just out of curiosity, why not get your soon-to-be-husband to take out the loan now so you can import it when you POE? Just curious about your planned timeline.

That's an interesting idea... To be honest I didn't think of that. That would be a lot of extra driving on my part to import the car afterwards, but we do have up to a year to do so, correct?

I suppose he could take the loan out and buy the car off of me, but then I wouldn't be able to import it as it's not my vehicle to import? Would he have to be with me? That's not an option in our case. I guess I'll have to call the border and see what they say.

Interview on March 1st, and we are APPROVED! K1 done, and on to the next step. Thanks all for your help! And good luck to all those still in the process.

If you decide to actually IMPORT your car later you're going to have to take it back to the border to do so.

You can't register the car in the U.S. without having it paid off as you won't be able to get a title in the State you're moving too without showing there are no liens on it.

You can't get insurance in the U.S. without a U.S. title.

I don't think your Canadian insurance will cover you if you're no longer a Canadian resident.

You won't be able to get proper plates for your vehicle either. You'll still be driving around with provincial plates and you will probably get pulled over eventually. When asked for your license, insurance, registration, are you going to be able to tell them you're visiting?

Lots to think about!

Fair enough, however I don't plan on spending months driving around without insurance or Canadian plates. Ideally, I get to my new home and will be paying out the lien pronto. So, pay off lien, import car, which gives me a clear title on the car, then get insurance & state plates... This all makes sense, no?

Thanks for your help!

Long quote, whoa!

1. I did some research and you're right. He's most likely going to take out the loan in his name, perhaps even just before I move down. This is a huge trust decision on his part, but seeing as we've been together since 2010 (and plan on being together until we, well, die...), I don't think that'll be an issue. Besides, once I move down we definitely plan on having a joint bank account where my income is going to help pay for it anyways, but until then I'll be making regular wire transfer payments to pay it back as ultimately I don't want him on the hook for my debt. I'm unable to take a loan out in Canada, unfortunately, credit score too low for the size of loan I'd like. Don't worry, he's aware of my finances, and...well, uh...he'll be disciplining me on my savings (which he's REALLY good at). I'll be very lucky being able to lock in the debt at the current USD/CAD exchange rates, unless...

1b. I just got my letter from Mazda about importing my car and it turns out the Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) isn't up to US safety compliance, so I may be unable to import the car until I get that rectified. If it's something that's going to be too expensive to change/adjust/fix, then screw the car, I'm selling it. Other than that, the car is good to go in regards to things like emissions and etc.

2. Oh I'm 100% positive it's a sales tactic, but sometimes it's nice to have things sugarcoated...makes you feel better about yourself, even if you don't intend on actually falling for their sales tactics.

3. The lawyer wasn't my idea, it's my fiance's, and he's the one wanting to pay for it (although I'm in full support). As long as the lawyer ensures things happen within the required timelines for the K-1 (and correctly, at that), I...actually don't mind taking our time. It'll buy me time to tie up loose ends here back at home, have a going-away party, train my replacement at my work, pay down as much of my debt as possible before acting on #1 of this list, so on and so forth. We have no legal things to worry about (we're both law-abiding, no criminal record on either part, and for both of us this is the first time we're getting married).

Hey fellow Albertan! I'm just finishing up my K1 process, also have a car to import... And I'll be doing pretty much what you've laid out here. Packing my car, driving it to the POE, crossing, taking out a loan in the US with my soon-to-be-husband, paying out the lien on my car, and importing it.

I'll keep everyone posted on how that goes. Any questions, feel free to shoot me a message.

Congratulations to all those who have been approved! And good luck to those still on the journey.

I'm currently in Vancouver, just completed my medical today at Dr. Cheema's office. Easy breezy! Interview is on March 1st, and I cannot wait to get this done and over with so I can obsess over a new process... haha I'll be writing a review of this entire journey as soon as I get it all done with.

Can't thank VJ and a lllllll the wonderful VJ'ers on here for your help and support!

No, because you're not importing the car at that time. You have a year in which to import the car.

HOWEVER, you need to check your paperwork and make sure you are allowed to move to a new country with the car. This can be an issue and anything related should be in the fine print of your loan contract.

Will this be an issue at the border or with my loan contract? Could the CBP officers deny my entry if my loan says I cannot move with the car? How would they even know? Thanks!

What forms should be submitted with the K-1 Visa (I129-F)?

Read the guides, the links are listed above. They literally show you step by step how to complete the I129-F...

Along these lines....

I am planning on hitting a POE by car, with my Mitsubishi when I activate my K1. I am financing it, and am not the title holder of the vehicle. At the time of POE, will I receive any hassle if my car is packed with my belongings? My biggest concern is packing up all my stuff, getting to the border, and being turned around because I'll still be paying for my car while I'm in the US... I'm not entirely sure if I want to sell it in Canada, or if I want to pay it off and keep it... but I don't have the time to do that quite yet. I need to use it to move.

Any and all help appreciated!

CanCal, this is exactly what my sister did (although she will eventually be going to live in the US). Just make sure your friend is honest at the border and brings documentation with him. Customs are only interested in ensuring that he will not be staying in the country after the marriage. My sister was up front, told them that she was entering to get married but intended to leave after the honeymoon and apply for a CR1. She had copies of her return ticket, a wedding invitation, a copy of the list of guest attending, copy of the honeymoon reservations, but most importantly copies items that tied her back to Canada, property tax bill, pay stub and utility bills. The CO was good with everything and thanked her for being so prepared and allow her in with a 6 month stamp.

This is perfect, thank you for the explanation! I had a feeling this was something he could do, I just had no real information on it as I am solely focused on the K1 process. I'll pass this along to my friend.

Ms Hogan, on 03 Feb 2016 - 8:37 PM, said:

Lots of us married our spouses in the U.S. and then went back home to file. Why does he need a B2 visa?

good question ! . i am sorry for my assumption, may be the husband is not a Canadian citizen.

^^ In response to this, he is a Canadian citizen. He wouldn't be able to enter the US without a B2 visa... it's what the CBP officers (sometimes) stamp your passport with when a Canadian enters the US. Canadians are "automatically" granted that visa status when we enter the US for travel.

Hey all!

Hypothetical question for a friend, so bare with me...

He is Canadian. She is American. They want to marry, but not move yet. She will *eventually* move to Canada.

Are they able to marry in the US, at a courthouse, while he visits on a B2 visa? He has ZERO intention of staying in the US. She would move to Canada at a later date.

Or would it be simpler/ "more" legal to marry in Canada and import her as a foreign spouse? (I'm not sure of the protocol for importing an American spouse into Canada... can someone link me to some information on that?)

Hopefully someone can speak to this situation, I appreciate any and all responses!

Thanks all! I got it sorted out, looks like March 1st will be the interview day, and the 26th of Feb will be the medical... I'm super thankful that I can even get these days off work. I'm not sure how they still operate like this, or why there isn't a doctor in each province at least... lol

Finally scheduled my interview! February 16, I can't wait! Medical is still in the works, but it's all coming along. Hoping to be with my love for the end of March!

Happy new year to all, and good luck in your process!

Thank you! My iPad couldn't load the whole website, which was causing me troubles.

That helps tremendously! Thank you! ☺️

Hey all! I'm finally booking my medical! However, my interview date February 16, and the 15th is a holiday in the U.S...?

How the heck do I coordinate with Dr. Chema's office? What is the email address? I cannot for the life of me find it...

And is it possible to do medical and interview on same day? I'm so anxious!!!!

Thanks all!

Hi friends,

I'm getting my packet ready for my interview but I'm really confused in regards to the list below. I can't tell what requirements are for the 2 of us, or just me. My fiancé is the petitioner in the United States and I'm here in Canada, working on moving there. I just really can't tell from the list which items we BOTH need to have in the packet. Interview material is only regarding YOU, the beneficiary.

• Valid Passport and photocopy of the biographic page.
• 2 color passport-size pictures (5 cm X 5 cm or 2 inch X 2 inch).
• Birth Certificate, English translation and a photocopy.
• Marriage Certificate, English translation and a photocopy.
• Divorce Certificate, English translation and a photocopy.
• Custody documents, English translation and photocopy.
• Police Certificates from Canada and other countries of previous residence. (assuming this is just me but how do I get this?)Call your local police station and ask them about getting a record check done, it's super simple.
• Court / Criminal records and photocopy. (how do I get this and do we both need?) Only you, and ONLY if you've been to court/jail (no, Jury Duty does not count)
• Military records and photocopy. (how do I get this and do we both need?) Only you, and ONLY if you've been employed by the Canadian military. Contact your department HR head, they'll best direct you. It's usually just a letter stating how long/in what capacity you were employed etc.

I appreciate anyone's help clarifying this.

Thanks

Do you know how to get the police report and court records? Can I get court records if I've never been?

If you've never been to court, you will have no records. They're only concerned with whether or not you've been arrested/ incarcerated etc.

Police report is separate - see above on "record check".

Hope this helps!

I thought I'd add myself to the list here, I like this!

NOA1: 0
NOA2: 0
NVC case number: 0
Embassy 'ready": 1
Interview Scheduled: 1
Interviewed-approved: 0
Interviewed-AP: 1
ARRIVED TO GLORIOUS U.S.A: 0

Just waiting on Pkt 4 now from Vancouver, and then I'll be scheduling my interview and medical!

SOS!

I FINALLY just figured out how to get updated on the CEAC site, and I have a VAC case number... so why would it be telling me to schedule an interview in Montreal? (It also tells me to wait to hear when THEY have scheduled my interview...).

I can't seem to find any answers on this forum, but I'm probably overlooking something... Classic.

Thanks all!

Keep in mind that a forum like this one is for initial bonding with others who are along the same timeline as you for initial processing. The initial application is the same no matter where in the world you are. But, having said that, once you get your approval (NOA2 text message or email), you should move over to your country's sub-forum to get a better understanding of the process for the Embassy that you will be interviewing with, and to get direct answers from those who have completed the steps you are about to at the US Embassy Canada.

Those in this thread, are applying from various Embassies around the world and there are different process for each. So what works in Russian, Philippines or UAE may not work for those processing through Canada. VJ sub forum for all things dealing with the US Embassy in Canada and they will answer your questions for the processing of your visa from their personal experience. Link: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/forum/93-canada/

Get the Canadian K1 Embassy Letter (EL) at http://photos.state.gov/libraries/canada/303578/montreal/Packet3-K1-MTL.pdfas this is your bible needed to complete and receive your visa. The required documents are included and use the EL as a check list. Once you have completed or gathered the required documents you'll be ready for your interview. If it is not on the

Embassy letter, it probably is not needed.

Last but not least, READ the pages on the US Embassy website for you country so that you are up to speed.

http://canada.usembassy.gov/

Good luck and God's speed.

Thanks Greenbaum for your help, I'll be sure to travel over to that forum!

Hi everyone,

We got our Alien # (NOA2) and NVC Case Number (through mail). But I did not get our IIN from NVC. Should I call or email the NVC to get it? Are we going to need it for later?

Thanks

When I called the NVC to see if they had our case, the man I spoke with gave me all those numbers without even being prompted. He just told me to write them all down.

Looks like I'll have to check my NVC number in the CEAC website then and go from there. How long does it usually take for it to register on that website? I tried inputting it a couple days ago and it told me that there is no case with that number. Maybe I'll call the NVC back and see what they have to say.

Thanks for your help all!