Starr

Freeze dried soups aren't going to be a problem. Send as many as you like.

As an aside, I bring back tons of food items, both ways. Never had a problem yet. And neither have my family who bring me items also.

Vanee, where are you moving to where you can't get tuna packed in water?

The local grocery store only has tuna packed in oil. IIRC I saw tuna in water at the health food store across town, but it cost a lot more than the oily stuff, while in Canada, there's no price difference. I might have better luck at larger grocery stores, but they aren't close by.

I probably posted my question in the wrong thread. When I saw in the thread title "ship to the USA," I thought about what I can ship via U-Pack. I won't be with my belongings when they cross the border, and if canned tuna isn't allowed, I'll give it to the food bank here instead of the border guards confiscating it. But I'd really like to bring it with me.

To rephrase my question...can canned tuna be shipped across the border with all my other belongings when I move to the US? Also, where can I find detailed information about this online?

On the "Declaration for Free Entry of Unaccompanied Articles" form, there's a box to check for "Fish, wildlife, animal products thereof." But there's no explanation about what the restrictions are.

Thanks for your help.

I had some questions about stuff I could and couldn't bring to the US (I had to leave behind my baby cactus! ), so I called CBP. The person I talked to was very nice and very helpful and very patient with all my questions, so you might be able to get some good information out of them over the phone

I have to preface this with the fact that I'm not doing DCF and haven't had my interview - however I just went through the Montreal and Vancouver Consulate reviews for the last 14 months or so and compiled a list, some are kind of obvious but I figured I would include them anyway.

CONSULATES: Montreal and Vancouver, Canada

QUESTIONS:

What is your general philosophy of life?

What?? I wouldn't be able to answer that even outside of a stressful interview situation!

Smack your husband and tell him that the "discount" is not worth having to leave and find a postal outlet in case Montreal doesn't even have envelopes on hand.

This is what I keep saying! He doesn't read this site, so every time I say "well, you should bring extra copies" or "you should bring extra cash" or "you should bring your own envelope" his response is "but it says/doesn't say that in the instructions." Like the instructions have really meant anything so far

So far, the anecdotal stuff I've read here has been way more helpful than anything coming out of Montreal.

Ihave no clue how Mtl schedules their interviews, BUT I assume (bad to do) that they have so many K1, K3,cr-1/ir-1 and DCF slots each month. I would think there are far fewer DCF'ers than many of the other visa's, thus why they can get scheduled in for interview faster!! and yes the approval is much faster for DCF, since their files dont get sent around to a zillion offices!!

I have no clue how Montreal schedules interview either, but the impression I was under was that, yes, we would save time because we would skip the months of waiting at the service center or the NVC, but that once we got to Montreal, we were put in the same line as everyone else. I just figured it would take us 4-6 months (which from day 1 to what will hopefully be day the last will be nearly 6 months, I think) instead of nearly a year.

Oh, I know we can buy it at the post office, it's just that our interview letter said that we could also buy it at the consulate and my husband, for whatever reason, is really gung-ho about getting the discount the letter mentioned. I was just wondering if anyone here had done that

Unless when you guys say post office, you mean there's a post office inside the consulate, but I don't think that's what you mean...

Good point about the tracking number. That's definitely something I would have overlooked in all this!

Steve noticed in his interview letter that he can buy a discounted XPress Post envelope at the consulate in Montreal. Has anyone ever done this? I got all freaked out by the very idea of it. "What if they run out? What if you have to get out of line to do it and then you're behind everyone else in line and you're there for hours? Why can't you just buy it early and take it with you???" Now, clearly I'm overreacting to the whole situation Still, though, in all the interview reports I've read from people here, I can't remember ever reading about someone buying their envelope there.

Any other tips we should know? I do read people's interview posts, like I said, but I worry that there's something obvious that I might have missed. Like, is it a good idea for him to copy all of his documents and forms and stuff, or is that just me worrying about something unnecessary?

Was just reading a post from cantwaittogethome, she filed DCF in June and just received word from Montreal that her interview is October 5th.

That seems zippy don't you think? Is this any indication that Montreal is getting faster or just that from time to time someone flukes out and gets a quick interview?

I filed DCF in June and also have an interview on October 5. Maybe October 5 is DCF day in Montreal!

I need two couple's VJ names..

Steve & Robin (K1)

Irene & Michael (K3)

otherwise I can't check up on your status myself =(

The spreadsheet wants your name!! It craves it!

I think I'm probably Steve and Robin, unless there's another Robin here married to another Steve! We're not K1, though, we're DCF. I probably put K1 at the beginning, then thought we were K3 for a while, then didn't realize that CR-1 was different from DCF....it's been a long, strange trip

We emailed Montreal last Thursday and heard from them Friday with the response of "2-3 months." That didn't sit well with me because we went on the waiting list June 14th and I'd seen people who I was sure went on the waiting list after us getting dates in late October. So I had our lawyer call them directly and sure enough...OCTOBER 5!!!

So Liz, I would email them again next week and check, because if you don't have a date now, you should have one in no time. I'm almost sure that we had a date last week and the person answering the email just didn't know what was going on. October 5 is way less than 2 months from now (no complaints here, of course!).

Off to update my timeline

Eep! We were put on the waiting list on June 14th....all these dates are making me think we could almost expect to sneak in before Thanksgiving!

Unless otherwise indicated by the officer, when Canadians enter the U.S., they can stay for up to 6 months on that visit.

I couldn't find any hard and fast rule regarding accuring time and when that starts, resets, etc., but did find this on the CBP site:

There is no set period of time Canadians must wait to re-enter the U.S. after the end of their stay, but if it appears to the CBP officer that the person applying for entry is spending more time over-all in the U.S. than in Canada, it will be up to the traveler to prove to the officer that they are not de-facto U.S. residents. One of the ways to do this is demonstrate significant ties to their home country, including proof of employment, residency, etc.

I thought that Canadians who have visa applications in process could only visit for 90 days out of every 180 (unless otherwise indicated by the officer, obviously). Is it actually 6 months out of every year? Because if that's the case, my husband can probably stay here until we hear about his interview rather than having to go home in October. And that would make us both very happy.

It infuriates me that so much attention is being given to the "problem" of illegal immigrants right now when American citizens who want to be legally reunited with their spouses are being jerked around and being treated like criminals. How many of us here have been harassed at a border? How many of us have waited and waited and watched the wait time for an interview get longer and longer? How many of us have read one thing in a guide, been told another thing by an officer at a port of entry, and been told yet another thing by someone at the consulate? I could not possibly care less about illegal immigrants in America right now. Stop trying to figure that out and figure out how to give support to the people who are trying to immigrate legally. I am an American citizen and I feel like my government cares more about the fate of illegal immigrants than about helping me and the thousands of others in the same situation. They need to streamline the process - not relax the requirements, but streamline the bureaucracy out of this. Officers at the ports of entry and consulate workers aren't informed and consistent in their understanding of the laws and requirements and they need to be. We need to be supported by those we elect and those who are hired to work for our government.

I in no way support immigrating illegally, which is why I'm putting up with the utter BS of this process. I would never want to break any laws or circumvent any system. But anyone who has ever gone through this can surely see why, in the short run, illegal immigration could seem attractive.

I've contacted my congressman (John Culberson, R-TX), who said he would make an inquiry into the problem for me, and have contacted a few presidential candidates as well, just to let them know that this issue ought to be on the table. Sorry for ranting up there, but I'm really passionate about fixing the immigration process for everyone, not just for me (because I've lost hope that it can be fixed in a timely enough fashion to benefit me at all).

I had a pretty bad experience the second time I went to visit my USC husband when I was going through Toronto/Pearson. I was pulled into secondary when I informed him that I had met my husband on the internet (we met in an online game, hehe) and I think the internet word is what rang bells and got me sent away to be interrogated.

Anyways the lady in secondary was horribly rude and I really thought I wasn't going to be granted entry. Scariest experience of my life. However, the only evidence I had with me that I was coming back was paystubs, and for some reason, that seemed to satify her. If I got through with only that with the rude lady from Hell, I think you'll be fine with your 10 lbs of evidence

I had a terrible experience Just read it in my profile under "Our Story"

Goodluck!

You know, you were one of the people I was thinking about when I started wondering about being refused entry. I thought, "what if we end up dealing with a jerk, go home to get more paperwork, and then end up with the SAME guy like that one person?"

I was refused Friday and had to wait till Monday to get a letter from my employer and organise some proof of ties to Canada like Mortgage papers, Recent utility bills, Property tax statements. I was allowed in Monday. However I still had to go to secondary since they had the first refusal in the system.

Carry as much proof of ties to Canada as you can.

Good luck.

I must add that if he has no proof of ties to Canada chances of him being let in are slim to none.

We have about ten pounds of proof (including return tickets and a letter from his employer, which seem to be the two most important things), but I always worry about getting that one guy who's having a really bad day

Thanks for the responses, everyone!

Just a question since it seems like there are people here who have been refused entry to the US at one time or another. Does anyone know, if you're refused entry based on not being able to prove that you'll return home, how soon you can "try again"? Later that day? A few days? A week? It seems to me that just going to a different/nearby port of entry (like, say, being refused at the Peace Bridge and driving straight to Lewiston) would be frowned upon, but if you planned a week-long trip to the US and were refused at Pearson on a Friday, could you just rebook your flight and try again on Sunday? If it's just a matter of proving that you'll go home at the end of your visit, one border guard might be convinced where another one wasn't, or perhaps you were missing a key piece of proof that you can go home and get.

This is all hypothetical at this point. My husband has never been refused entry (knock on wood and all that...), but I do get nervous and like to have contingency plans in place for every possible occurrence. Does anyone have experience with this?

Thanks, everyone! I'm starting law school in August, so I have to move next month regardless. We got spoiled by being able to live together while I got my PR status up here in Canada and I'm not looking forward to being separated at all. I heard that people with applications in process can visit the US for 90 days out of every 180, so we're going to try and see if he can come with me for the first 70 days (we're going on vacation in the US for a week later this month, so we don't think he'd be given the full 90 days if he tried). He's got a letter from his job saying that they expect him back in late October and we'll already have a flight back to Toronto booked for him, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it works. That'll take us through September and October, and then in November and December I'll have Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks to visit him, so we won't have to be apart for more than a few weeks at a time.

Thanks again for the responses. I don't post a lot, but I read religiously and the information in everyone's posts is invaluable.

Robin,

Both of you have to maintain residence in Canada for DCF. So if you move to the US, that may be a problem. I would doublecheck this before hand. As for visiting, he needs to prove ties to Canada, which I think he does with letter from employer and all - but again, BOTH need to RESIDE in Canada for DCF... unless they changed the requirement.....

Peace, L.

Woah, really? Our lawyer knew from day 1 that I would be moving in August to start school. We definitely qualified for residency to file the I-130 at the Toronto consulate. I had a job and a health card and a lease on an apartment, which apparently satisfied them. Now that that part is over with and our file is in Montreal, aren't we kind of in the same boat as everyone else? Yikes. This could be a serious, serious problem. Can you point me to the part of the guide or instructions where it says that?

Thanks

Robin

Thanks all for your advice. Michele and Mags are right, the issue is that I won't have a confirmed job when I return because it will probably be agency work. My mother lives 300 miles away and so I won't have had chance to sign up for work until I return in September.

Michele, I did think everything made sense too! There is no way I could afford to go through this process had I not been given the opportunity to return to live with my Mum for a while. Anyway, I think I can handle the questions, I was just concerned about not having appropriate documentation to back the words up. But, I do have copies of the K1 application we're about to send in and can get the letters you suggested to confirm I still have ties to the UK.

I just wonder why US immigration would assume that anyone would apply for the K1 then mess it all up by staying in the US for an illegitimate length of time.

Thanks for the reassuring words

Seeing the number of people who have been let in for 90 day visits is reassuring. My husband and I are still going to the US for 15 days later this month, but I have to move back to the US in August to start law school and his application probably won't be done until December/January. We're going to try and see if he can come with me for the first two months that I'm in school, because I have no holidays in those months and won't be able to go visit him at all. I have a week off in November and two weeks off in December, though, so it'll be easier for me to go to Canada then. I've been really nervous about him being allowed in (especially since this will be barely a week after we get back from our 15 day vacation), but we're really prepared in terms of documents and letters and proof that he'll return and we think we know how best to answer questions at the border, so I'm hoping we'll be okay. Reading everyone's experiences getting in for long periods of time has helped calm me down

Thanks, everyone! I'm starting law school in August, so I have to move next month regardless. We got spoiled by being able to live together while I got my PR status up here in Canada and I'm not looking forward to being separated at all. I heard that people with applications in process can visit the US for 90 days out of every 180, so we're going to try and see if he can come with me for the first 70 days (we're going on vacation in the US for a week later this month, so we don't think he'd be given the full 90 days if he tried). He's got a letter from his job saying that they expect him back in late October and we'll already have a flight back to Toronto booked for him, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it works. That'll take us through September and October, and then in November and December I'll have Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks to visit him, so we won't have to be apart for more than a few weeks at a time.

Thanks again for the responses. I don't post a lot, but I read religiously and the information in everyone's posts is invaluable.

I've spent the past month reading guides and websites and a ton of posts on this forum and I'm still lost when it comes to trying to ballpark our timeline (to be honest, I'm generally lost when it comes to pretty much anything in this entire ordeal). I read a post from someone who said that it doesn't matter when you first petition; Montreal will put you on the waiting list when they get your Packet 3 back. Is that true? My husband and I filed with the Toronto consulate in April and sent our Packet 3 to Montreal the first week of June. If I'm reading everyone else's timeline correctly and if Montreal sticks to the same painfully slow schedule, it seems to me that we should (hopefully) expect to hear about our interview around December. Does this make sense? My husband emailed Montreal this morning to see if they could give us an idea, but I'm not expecting much from them and I'm going nuts trying to figure this out.

Thanks!

Robin

This is a great thread. I love it.

My husband and I (I'm the USC and also a Canadian PR) live in Canada. We've gone into the US together once since his application was sent to Montreal. The immigration guy at the border (Pearson Airport in TO) asked where we were going (NYC to visit my brother) and how long we were staying (4 days). He scanned our passports and looked a little annoyed and asked us when we were last in the US (beginning of April). He asked us what our jobs were. My husband said that he's an audio technician and I said that I'm a legal transcriptionist. He stamped our boarding passes and sent us on our way. His very stern attitude scared me, but my husband took it all in stride. He didn't ask to see any proof of anything and didn't actually ask us if we had a visa application in process. Just in case, though, we had with us:

-A letter from my husband's employer stating when he was due back at work

-A copy of the lease on our apartment

-A flight itinerary printed by the people at the Continental desk

-A full copy of our visa application

We're going to visit again next month and I'm a little more worried because we'll be there longer and we'll be in different places. We're starting off visiting my grandparents outside of Boston, then going to a wedding in Boston a few days later, then going to Colorado for a vacation for 10 days, then driving from Colorado to TX, staying in TX for two days, then flying back to Toronto. I have thought and thought and thought and I have no idea what I'm going to say when the immigration officer asks us where we're going. But we'll have the same evidence as before, including an invitation to the wedding we're going to. I tend to get really nervous about this kind of thing, so I've thought through every question they could possibly ask us and I've got answers all mapped out in my head. I figure since we're travelling together and returning to Canada together, that will help us get Steve across the border.

I don't have a letter from my employer for a variety of reasons. Does that seem like something I would need, or do you guys think that just a letter from my husband's employer would suffice?

Just to update, we got a letter from the Travis County Clerk's office indicating that this was the only document they had to release and that the only personal identifiers on it were the names of the bride and groom. We gave that to our lawyer on Friday and he just called this morning saying that the consulate was satisfied and our interview (this is for the I-130) is tomorrow morning!

It sounds like the county you were in does things differently from a lot of other counties. It seems like all you've been given is your marriage license rather than what they're normally expecting to see - a marriage certificate. Is it the one you signed yourself on the day of the wedding? That's the license in most counties. Once we filed ours, the county clerk issued us a marriage certificate - which is the license copied onto a fancy schmancy piece of paper that can only be produced by the state.

I was also thinking liscense vs. certificate, and I bet it isn't certified with an official seal, hence the confusion with the consulate.

It sounds like Texas does do things differently, then. The piece of paper I have is both my license and my certificate (I called the county clerk to verify this - this is the only thing I get). When my husband and I were married, the judge filled it out and filed it. Our signatures are nowhere on it (and nowhere on it does it call for our signatures). We didn't sign anything when we got married. What we have now is what the county clerk sent to us after we were married. It does have an official seal on it. I could understand the consulate having a problem with something without a seal, or with a license instead of a certificate (because obviously having a license doesn't mean you actually did get married), but this is our certificate. This is what I always thought, and I've double checked with the county clerk, my parents, a lawyer, and a judge...if we're all mistaken, I'm really going to feel like an idiot, but I don't think we are!

I spoke to the judge who married us and he's going to write a notarized letter stating that he did marry us and that this is what a marriage certificate in Texas looks like, and attach it to another copy of our certificate. Hopefully that will clear all this up. Like I said before, I'm just shocked that the US consulate doesn't realize that this is what a Texas marriage certificate looks like.

I got a call from my lawyer today informing me that the consulate here in Toronto is "unhappy" with our marriage license. I'm not entirely clear on what the problem is, but apparently they want one with more information on it.

I think I would contact my lawyer and find out exactly what they are unhappy about. You cannot fix something if you don't know what the problem is.

He hasn't mentioned specifics, just that they want more information and an official government document. I've explained many times that this is an official government document, and given that it includes my full name, my husband's full name, the date we were married, the place we were married, who married us, and the date the certificate was filed with the county, I can't imagine what other information they could possibly need. His suggestion was to get the county clerk's office to write a letter stating that this is the only marriage certificate they have. The county clerk's office is obviously not really inclined to want to do that, although the person I talked to was very nice and didn't refuse. They're just as confused as I am, honestly. I can fix a mistake I made, but I don't really know how to fix someone else being uninformed.

Thanks for the response, though. I was just wondering if anyone else had run into this kind of issue before. I know it's a little bit like comparing apples to oranges, but the CIC didn't question the certificate when we got my PR card, so I'm a bit baffled by the consulate questioning it.

I got a call from my lawyer today informing me that the consulate here in Toronto is "unhappy" with our marriage license. I'm not entirely clear on what the problem is, but apparently they want one with more information on it. Our marriage license/certificate is a government document issued by the state of Texas and it is the ONLY type of marriage document they issue. I called the county clerk's office where it's filed to double check. There is no more information to give them. The license has a raised seal and is signed by the judge who married us. I really don't know what the problem is. Perhaps they think it's a fake or don't think they can verify that it really belongs to us?

Has anyone ever had issue come up? How did you handle it? It seems odd to me that the US consulate would have problems with a genuine marriage certificate from the state of Texas. Have they never seen one before?

Thanks,

Robin

Make sure you know what you're doing before you file.

He may be able to come see you while you are going through the process. A k1/k3 petition in progress doesn't bar entry to the country.

You will have to mail your materials to the service center with jurisdiction over "the last place you lived" (that's from the I-129F form) in the U.S. So if that was Texas, it is Texas. My advice: if you're moving to Vermont, move to Vermont, be living in Vermont and file through the VSC (or in whatever state would go through VSC).

Is your Canadian home geographically close to where you'll attend law school?

Also - being a lawyer has little to do with understanding this process (though there are some situations where you would need one, for complicated cases). In fact, if you read the forms like a lawyer, you get yourself worked up over details that wouldn't bother a lay-person in the slightest. Most of the instructions are cut-and-dry and aren't meant to be over-read.

Thanks. I think we're going to sit down with a lawyer for an hour and make sure we're absolutely doing all this correctly. I love the internet, but there's nothing like paying someone to tell you you're doing it right

My concern with visiting is that I frequently had to show proof that I would return to the US when I visited my husband in Canada before landing, which I usually did with just a return plane ticket. The border-crossing process actually got easier for me after I'd filed my paperwork, but I've seen on several government sites that filing for a K1/K3 visa shows intent to eventually stay in the US permanently, which they can use to deny your entry. I'm just paranoid, I suppose.

I'm not 100% sure where I'm going to law school yet. We live in Toronto and I may end up at the University of Pittsburgh, which isn't too far (I was in school in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon when we met), but I'm holding out for the University of Texas, which isn't close to Toronto at all.

You're exactly right -- it's the details that are getting me worked up. Thanks for the help!

Hi everyone,

I'm a US citizen living as a landed permanent resident in Canada with my Canadian citizen husband. I'm going to be starting law school in the fall and was planning on attending a school here, but just last week we decided that attending one of the schools I've been accepted to in the US is probably a better idea. I'm now frantically trying to figure out how to get my husband a green card as soon as possible. My understanding is that I send an I-130 to Vermont (because my assumption is that while I'm registered to vote absentee in Texas, I don't have a US residence...also, the Texas processing times don't even list an I-130, so I don't know what's going on there) and then they'll tell me what to do next. Is that correct? I've read the guides both here and on the USCIS website, I've read the FAQs here, I'm just still not sure (some lawyer I'll make, huh?). I'm also panicking because of the time crunch. I'm convinced I'm going to have to find an apartment and move without him, because I'm something of a pessimist and am sure that once we file, he won't be able to come into the US as a visitor with me anymore. I'm not planning on moving until August, but I have no idea whether or not I can expect him to be able to come with me or not (barring any snags in the application, of course, but he's healthy and has no criminal records and while I don't earn a lot, I have the assets to support us and my father, who makes a good salary, will co-sponsor him). I send in the I-130, and then send in another form with the receipt for the I-130, but he can come to the US when the I-130 is approved regardless of whether or not he has his K3, or did I misread that part of the guide? The processing time for an I-130 in Vermont seems to be really quick, but the website for the US Consulate here in Toronto says the total process could take 12 months for a Canadian citizen spouse of a US citizen.

I think I would probably be able to understand this better if my brain wasn't going YOU HAVE TO FILE NOW OR ELSE IT'LL ALL BE TOO LATE!!! Ha.

Anyway, sorry if I got rambly. It's my first post, so I'm trying not to sound like too much of an idiot. I lurked in a Canadian immigration group for months before we filed, so I felt like I knew everything there was to know. This time, though, I feel like I have this terrifying deadline looming. Thanks in advance for any advice

Robin