christinebee

Hi guys. I got my CR1 visa and did my POE into the US a couple of weeks ago. However, I didn't pay for my green card yet. My husband is unexpectedly deploying so I am moving out-of-state. I made the address change online with USCIS today and AFTER that I paid the green card fee of $165. Do you think the green card will be sent to the new address or will it still be sent to the old one? I will be at the old address for another 30 days. We won't know who the new people in our apartment will be so can't really ask them to check mail for me.

Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone, had my interview in Montreal this morning and was approved! I didn't think I would be so restless the night before, I was mostly nervous if I had all the right documents with me. I was only at the consulate for under 1.5h! Sending much positivity to everyone waiting for their interviews to be scheduled and those waiting on their interview dates. The feeling of getting to this point will be worth the wait. I'm not a very active poster but thank you everyone on VJ for their support thus far! What a wealth of information.

I had my interview today and overheard from a staff at the consulate that the spouse could be there but interview is still alone.

Answers:

1. Yes
2. That verbiage is geared for citizens of country X but reside (and will interview in) country Y. For your case, your passport is the proof.

Way more simple than I figured. Thank you!

My medical was on May 30th at 10:00am in Surrey, Vancouver with Dr. Cheema. I e-mailed the office with a couple of dates that I was available and when my interview was. They got back to me within two days and we had my appointment set up for a week after. I stayed in the White Rock area which is about an hour from the airport, half an hour from Dr. Cheema's office and took a taxi to the doctors. The taxi driver, luckily, knew where it was. I was there about 20 minutes early and filled out some paperwork then handed all the required papers in (vaccinations, passport pictures x4, my address, the address I would stay at in the US, and my interview e-mail).

There was about a 15 minute wait and then a nurse took me back and measured my height and weight. Dr. Cheema came in and was very abrupt, fast, and sped right through the questions without really caring? He ended up going too fast and re-asking a couple of questions at the end about drug use, etc. He took me out to the hallway and asked me to cover one eye, with my glasses on, and then read off the board there. I only had to read two letters for each eye. Then he took me back to the room to listen to my heartbeat and register my blood pressure, then had me lay down on the table (fully clothed) and pressed on my abdomen. After that I was done and given the paperwork for the x-ray and blood work. The cost was $280 Canadian and covered the medical, the blood work, and the x-ray.

The area for the blood work and x-ray is quite a bit away, so I'd suggest taking a taxi unless you don't mind the walk. It's also quite busy! I had the x-ray done first, they took me into an area that had small areas closeted off so you could take your clothes off. Then asked me to put my hair up for the X-ray. You press your chest up against a wall and then you're done! The bloodwork area is on a different floor and is usually quite busy. There were about 20 people ahead of me so that was quite a bit of a wait. They led me back behind an area where everyone else was getting their blood taken. I have a huge phobia of needles and almost ran out of the room (luckily, I was able to use anxiety pills and had.. well, I took 4 and that barely helped). They do have a small closed room that you can lay down and get your blood taken in, so I ended up in there. The person who took my blood was very fast and managed to find my tiny veins. After waiting about 10 minutes to stop feeling sick, that was over with too!

I picked up the results of my medical the next day at 4:00pm. You can only pick them up from 4:00pm to 5:30pm. They gave me an enclosed file and told me it was for my interview and not to open it. Then another file that had some papers in it and a CD of my x-rays. All in all, I found it very rushed and very easy (minus the blood work). I do wish it felt like Dr. Cheema wasn't so rushed and just rattling off whatever, but there wasn't any problem!

How long did it take you to get an appointment?

Would my tax return for this year work as proof for current legal residence?

I have my P4 letter, and it says I need to present the original document (Proof of Applicant's Current Legal Residence) at the time of my interview.

1) Double checking, I am the applicant since I am the one applying to get the visa, right?

2) I'm not sure which document they received a scan of that qualified as proof of my current legal residence (all I submitted was my birth cert, my marriage cert, my passport & police cert) and I'll be bringing those anyway, but what else can I bring? Will my driver's license with my Canadian address on it? Any mail going to my house (I don't have my name on any utility bills).

Thanks in advance!

I just printed the one on my email out. I think it's gonna look the same as the physical one.

I got an email today, interview scheduled for July 27th (my CC was May 26th)! I don't know if my expedite request helped (sent one late last week, but didn't have documents to support it yet) but I am so relieved.

I hope everyone waiting gets their date scheduled soon too! It seems like we didn't have to wait until the end of the month after all. Thanks to everyone for their support so far.

June 8th was a really bad day. My husband (USC) was taken to the ER because of a severe medical issue. The doctor wrote a letter stating that it would be crusial for me to come over as soon as possible due to his medical state. I talked to a US Senator that´s been helping us lately and she contacted the US embassy in Sweden and NVC regarding this trying to get an expedite interview. I don´t know my chances in getting it approved but I´m hoping for the best. My case got completed on May 23rd and since then I´ve been on waitlist for an interview. All the requierd documents for the interview is collected and I´ve done my medical. The US Senator will contact me as soon as she hear something but I´m worried that it will be denied even though the letter from the doctor says it´s of vital importance. Does anyone here has any idea on how hard it will be to have it approved?

Lenhey,

So sorry to hear about your situation. I pray that everything gets set in motion and that you can get expedited to see him soon!

I gave in yesterday and booked a flight to go and see my husband next week and then today I got my interview date!! 26th July at the embassy in London.

This gave me a chuckle. Now I am tempted to give in as well and see if it gets me an interview date!! Haha.

Has anyone who got a CC in late May, 2016, received an interview dat as yet? I'm going bananas!!! It's been 2 weeks since my CC!!

Same Here!!!! My case was CC May 25th, no interview date yet. I'm so anxious!

Hang in there! I got a CC on May 26th as well, and am eagerly waiting. Your anxiety is shared!!

My case closed June 8th with scan date of may 9th. I am waiting to receive the interview date. In the meantime should my husband be looking into getting the medical exam done or do we wait until we receive instructions from nvc?

Congrats on CC! I think you have to wait until getting the interview letter in order to book medical appointment, because the doctor requests it. This is the case with where I'll be getting my medical done, anyway. They wouldn't let me book until I have the interview date.

Sure you can request an expedite. I thought you already had long ago since the reason is the #1 reason next to death and dying.

Call NVC now ypu may not have to even submit anything.

Thank you kindly for your response. I called NVC today and they told me to send an email to expedite with proof/documents.

My husband says he is able to get his orders and a letter, and I am feeling a little more confident. I guess we kept thinking that

we're so close to the end, there's not much that could have been done to expedite. When we started the process, we didn't think

he would be deploying again this year so we never though to expedite earlier on. Thank you again!

Can anyone please shed light on if I can still expedite after CC? My husband (USC) is away for training this summer and will be home 4-6 weeks before he leaves and deploys again until middle of 2017 and I really want to be able to spend that little time with him if I can... I'm a ball of nerves. I'd be moving to an empty home unless we can get our visa in time... I'm so sad. If I had known all this, I probably would have delayed the process and just continued to visit him on a tourist visa. Not to mention all the anxiety of worrying about him being deployed again...

This is good to know. I am at BOA so we will be going there first week.

While on the topic, this bank isn't as popular, but Navy Federal Credit Union lets you open an account without a social too, but you'd need a referral from a current member or military personnel to be a member, I think!

Thanks a lot Chritinebee, I walked into BOA today and I was able to open a checking account as well as a credit card without SSN. Thanks a lot. I can start building my credit at last.

Thanks a lot Amadia, I was successful in opening a checking account as well as a credit card account today with BOA.

Many thanks

Yay! Glad the advice helped!

Guys, can anyone tell me if this is true.... my cc is on 26 May.... I called NVC today 6 June and they said the next interview scheduling will only happen end of June, and that's for month of August.... I was hoping for a July interview

I have same cc as you and am fearing the same....

Been a minute, Thanks all for the birthday wishes last week. Well I have ended up at the Social Security Admin office to apply for my SSN, Luckily they said they have not received any application from USCIS and advised that the new application will trump that whenever they receive it.

I have been unable to open a bank account nor acquire a drivers license nor even state ID because I do not have a SSN. I am at least happy I now have my name on our rent lease.

Happy new week to everyone, wishing a lot of good news to folks with upcoming interviews.

Hpapy belated birthday. Not sure if this only applies to the Bank of America branches that are near the borders, but... worth letting you know, just in case it pans out. I was able to open a BofA account in a branch near the Canada-US border as a Canadian resident (they didn't need my SSN). Maybe this applies to branches elsewhere in the US too. Wouldn't hurt to ask them!

Maybe I'm just being anxious... case complete May 26 and waiting for interview date to be scheduled. I check the spreadsheet every day. Just curious, at this stage, are there still any opportunities to expedite? My husband is in the army and he'll be leaving for training in late July-August and then he has a few weeks of leave in September and he deploys. I'm already kind of sad about moving there and being on my own, but I'm really just trying to spend as much time with him as I can since he'll be gone until mid 2017. I was going to just wait it out because I figured I'm SO close to the end, but I'm having difficulty being a sitting duck right now. It's hard to think that after this whole process, I'll be moving there (hopefully by September) and getting to spend a couple weeks with him and then have to wait until next year to see him again.

i'm having a brain freeze. When my husband gets to the US, i know he'll get a I-551 stamp in his passport. While he's waiting for the actual card, there shouldn't be any issues in traveling within the US with that passport and stamp, right? We never had a real honeymoon and i'm trying to think of where we can go after he gets here. Is TSA going to give any issues of him traveling with his passport with the stamp?

Pretty sure all you need to travel within the US is an ID. Passport will work. He's already in the US, he will be allowed to travel within it freely. The visa isn't issued to allow travel to one state only, it's issued to allow him access to the US, lol. I'm Canadian and I use my driver's license to travel within the states all the time. Should be fine

I get your wife's point... you were paying for everything just fine before she started working, so why does she need to contribute that now? Maybe you both had different expectations going into the marriage. But I also understand needing the additional income if you two are really planning on getting a larger house. If she really wants that, I'm sure she'd work towards it but it seems she has her personal goals as well (at least she's saving up for her own car and not making you buy her one). I think in the end it's all about the expectations that are set. I am about to immigrate to the US to be with my husband and I asked him what he expected me to contribute to the household income, so that we have those expectations beforehand. Maybe have a serious talk with her about her current financial goals. Do you want a larger house and the baby right now more than she does? Maybe she's not contributing to that currently yet because she's got other things in mind first (like the car)? Maybe she's thinking ahead because when you guys have a baby, she'll want to be able to drive. Or were you expecting her to take care of the baby at home and not be able to run to the store to get food and diapers if she needed them? Just speculation. At the end of the day... if you love each other, the relationship is good, you're happy and you wouldn't mind continuing to work hard to provide those things for your family, then it doesn't seem so bad. I'm the kind of person that doesn't like to tally up the bills. I love my husband, and if he needs help financially, I'd dish out all the money I have and then some and not bill him for it. And all I'd hope for in return is that if I needed the same help, that he'd provide it too if he can. Which he does. We both have had our ups and downs financially and I don't think we'd be very getting very far if I counted up all the times I spent money to go see him. You wanted to get to know your wife, right? Who cares how much it cost you, don't you think she is worth all of it and more? Would you really rather have kept all that money to yourself and not have her in your life? Did she MAKE you spend all that money to visit her and see her? Or did you want to see her as well? Just some questions to think about, everyone is different. My husband would be more than thrilled spotting rent + utilities if I cooked, cleaned, paid for food and also worked to have my own spending money. I'm way more ambitious than that, lucky for him. I will say though, kudos to you on providing her part for her family's 7-day mourning/celebration. Taking care of your wife is one thing, but taking care of her family in that way is extra. You deserve bonus points for that.

As long as they did the Canada wide name check you should be fine (CPIC). Many places have a local police and in those situations, the RCMP won't do the check for you.

For instance where I used to live in Red Deer, AB, there is no local police or provincial police, so I had to use the RCMP or Commissionaires.

Thank you for the informative reply! Much appreciated.

I only got a local police check (from Vancouver Police Department) and not the RCMP... I submitted a copy of it to NVC and my case was completed. Will my VPD police certificate be okay or should I look into getting an RCMP one?

I called US customs awhile ago to prepare ahead of time, but my question for them was how can I import a Canadian car that's already entered the US. I was told I'd need a bill of sale amongst some other import forms. I'd suggest to have your bill of sale in hand too (proof that you own the car you're importing). If you can, just call and double check!

Hi everyone! Hopefully there's a simple answer to my question... I got my Case Complete on May 26 and am still waiting for an interview to be scheduled.

I need to change my address but am worried it's going to be a complicated process. Is it difficult to do this with the NVC? Will they be able to apply the changes promptly?

Thanks in advance.