Lois K

Is anyone else having schedule challenges with Dr Cheema? We called the office Monday and got multiple busy signals. When we finally got through they said we had to email to set the appointment. We emailed that on Monday. No response yet. Called today (Friday), got directed to voicemail. So one week since IL, and no medical appt set yet due to lack of response. Any hints how to make it work? 

FWIW, I'd been so worried about this problem that I decided we would order both available police reports, yes pay for both, and yes upload both to CEAC. This was due to having read stories here of both types being denied and both types being accepted, even though (at the time) there was clearly a right one and a wrong one. The commissionaire said it wasn't necessary to order both, and firmly said he knew which was the right one. Maybe he was right, but even if he was, that doesn't mean all the people processing paperwork would know what was right. We figured if one of the reports was wrong, we'd still be covered. Or if the NVC or consulate people processing our paperwork were wrong, we'd still be covered.

Reading this thread recently and others, it's sounding like the reports may have changed again, which would be why the US sites haven't been updated to match again. (Just speculation, obviously I don't have special insider info.) But if our current police reports expire before the interview and entry, then I'll once again suggest we re-buy both (or however many there are), just to avoid this potential problem. 

30 minutes ago, wordsfromdani said:

It always been a source of confusion for me on how Canadian couples are able to apply days after their marriage.  Can you provide insight? I never asked before because it is irrelevant for me at this stage, but I’m genuinely courious to know what we could have done differently. 
 

In Ontario, we had to wait for the marriage to be registered so they could issue a marriage certificate. That process is typically 10-16 weeks, we had it expedited by the request of City Hall when they submitted our signed marriage license and record of solemnization of marriage but it still took 5 weeks. 

I'm the USC but we got married near Victoria, BC, Canada. Took about two weeks for our official marriage certificate to reach hubby in Canada , no special expedite request. Sounds like Ontario takes longer than BC.

On 10/7/2020 at 7:51 AM, Paula&Johnny said:

We did with a lawyer and was a waist of money and more problems than solutions. 

If your case is normal and no red flags you don't need a lawyer. 

You will find a lot of good information here and in others places.

Our lawyer make so many mistakes with ours documents that our case took 4 months more to be approved. 

Sadly I have to agree with this sentiment. We had numerous phone consults with a lawyer, lots of delays. The I-130 help file and VisaJourney were more helpful. Then, I don't know why we thought it was needed, but we paid to have a lawyer review our file in person. They actively disagreed with some of the content and wanted us to change things that, here on VisaJourney, we had seen were working. For example, the lawyer had not heard of tax transcripts, didn't know these were downloadable online, nor that the I-130 directions said they were preferred over manual copies of your tax submission. I was astounded at her lack of knowledge and so grateful for having done research and validated it with stories from here. In the end we followed the advice from here and the help files, not the lawyer. So far, no RFEs, and a smooth, albeit overlong, process.  

FWIW, I just answered a similar question over in this thread, page 1. 

I provided:

• 40 pages titled 'Moments from our Shared History' and include emails, pictures, plane tickets, all sorts of things. This includes Kevin suggesting we see a play for our first date, an email from my parents after meeting Kevin for the first time, pictures of making pizza for my family in Mexico, us at a cousin's wedding, multiple family reunions, and tons of stuff from our own wedding - pictures, planning documents, guest book photo, etc.,
• 8 pages of family pictures. We both have kids from previous marriages and our pictures clearly show our kids in various stages of growing up all while we were a couple. All our kids are graduated now but we have family pictures dating back to when some of them were still in elementary school.
• 3 pages of pictures of gifts and notes we wrote each other over the years. 
• 15 pages of pictures and memorabilia from various couple moments - hiking, a weekend visit to Seattle, profile pictures from Facebook, going to a company Christmas party and the like
• 1 page that is a printout of his I-94, something you can print online, showing all his visits to the states to see me. 
• 1 page of my Google Maps timeline showing many of my visits to Canada.
• 15 pages of affidavits from family and friends who have known us for years.

On 10/6/2020 at 9:43 PM, Hawk Riders said:

@Lois K...

Just summoning me over here, eh? 

My table of contents for the I-130 submission was 4 pages long, yes, just the TOC, 4 pages. No, a TOC isn't required, I just like things to be super organized.

• The first 23 pages are the bonafides (birth certs, passports, marriage cert, divorce docs, etc.). 
• The next 40 pages were titled 'Moments from our Shared History' and include emails, pictures, plane tickets, all sorts of things. This includes Kevin suggesting we see a play for our first date, an email from my parents after meeting Kevin for the first time, pictures of making pizza for my family in Mexico, us at a cousin's wedding, multiple family reunions, and tons of stuff from our own wedding - pictures, planning documents, guest book photo, etc.,
• Next up, 8 pages of family pictures. We both have kids from previous marriages and our pictures clearly show our kids in various stages of growing up all while we were a couple. All our kids are graduated now but we have family pictures dating back to when some of them were still in elementary school.
• Three pages of pictures of gifts and notes we wrote each other over the years. 
• 15 pages of pictures and memorabilia from various couple moments - hiking, a weekend visit to Seattle, profile pictures from Facebook, going to a company Christmas party and the like
• 1 page that is a printout of his I-94, something you can print online, showing all his visits to the states to see me. 
• 1 page of my Google Maps timeline showing many of my visits to Canada.
• The final pages are 15 affidavits from family and friends who have known us for years.

We have no shared finances to show since we live in separate countries - no shared bills, no shared property, no tax anythings. But still, lots of evidence of a relationship.

8 hours ago, BunyanP said:

I know for my children they had them with Canadian citizenship. However, when they had their US citizenship, they took their nexus cards and had to wait until they received new ones with American status on it. Was a little annoying since we had to pay for new cards (less than year after getting them) and wait for the new ones in the mail. 

So sorry to hear that. Yikes!
Thanks for the heads up about what might happen to the rest of us.

Due to COVID, mine's been even longer. My Canadian beneficiary and I have not lived together yet. We were married in Dec 2018, applied for IR1 in Jan 2019, and have been in process 21 months. We are waiting for the interview letter now, but still a few months out. Our CR1 may become an IR1 before he's actually approved. We've been a couple for 10 years and visited regularly while dating, while engaged, while married, and throughout the visa application processes. Though our visit timings are much different now due to COVID. 

1 hour ago, Rose__ said:

For those that are too far away to move by car, what are you using to ship your belongings?

I have 4 suitcases only, I’m debating between: checking 2 in and shipping 2 via sendmybag ; pay a bit more and just bring everything with me on the plane. I don’t know how I feel about leaving half of my things to a company, for them to have to open the suitcases at customs, etc.

In college, I once upgraded to first class because the free baggage perks was cheaper than paying extra for each suitcase. That was years ago, but may be worth a quick check to see if it holds true. Plus, you know, first class. 

1 hour ago, SeriaRisa11 said:

additional processing is required.

Ouch, that hurts. It's totally reasonable to be despondent as long you need to be and feel free to come back here for perking up. Hugs and empathy!! 

If the 221g was on colored paper that apparently also provides more information:
https://www.novacredit.com/resources/what-is-221-g-common-reasons-for-refusal-processing-times-and-reasons-for-delays/

19 hours ago, Rlewis said:

Did they even ask how long he was staying?

I find whenever I cross via Vancouver they don't....ask so much, especially if you cross so often.

They didn't. Now, being Nexus, and we put his ID in when we bought the ticket, it's possible that they already had his return flight info on screen. But I can only speculate on this.

Oh I did find out a bit more now that he's here, which is that to use the Nexus lane there was a kiosk where you answer all the standard customs questions on a computer, rather than to a person. So he did get asked a bunch of things including the one about bringing in plants, seeds, livestock, etc. He checked yes on that for the cat. Then up at the desk, aside from the 'anything to declare'  question, they didn't do any additional follow up. 

Amendment: They also asked "anything to declare", to which he replied, "just my cat". They didn't even look at the cat.

My Canadian husband and I are awaiting his Montreal interview. We had set some slow plans in motion, thinking the interview would happen before everything played out, but as y'all know, COVID changed everything. Long story short, he hired replacements to take over his job and sold his house (permanent address changed to his sister's house, he went there after his house sold). So he is flying (with our cat!) to visit me in Oregon. Literally he is in Seattle between flights right now.

We have Nexus passes to expedite border crossings and though he couldn't use it for the TSA security check in Vancouver as usual, he was still able to use it to go through immigration/customs there (yes, the USCBP has a presence at YVR to do immigration/customs there before you fly). Literally all they asked was "purpose of your visit", he said, "visit my wife", and that was it. He's done and through! We were prepared for everything - he had a return ticket, he had copies of our marriage certificate, he had a copy of my passport, he has our paperwork for his immigration application, we even had a reason for bringing me the cat (his sister is allergic, no lie)... everything we could think of to justify that he was only visiting. Then, the only question they asked  was that one. I looked up his I-94 afterward and noted they had given him the full six months to be here.  I can suspect that Nexus and his frequent visit/return history also bolstered the ease of this crossing. We've had 10 years of monthly visits, only broken by COVID.

We won't use those six months. We calculated the tax impact of when he could return and not pay US taxes, so Dec 1 is the latest we can use. Now, based on data from here (and HawkRider's awesome spreadsheet for DQ'd people immigrating from Canada), we'll be able to loosely predict the interview timing and get him back safely in time for everything that precedes the interview - self-isolation (Canadian rules), the medical, the results, and flying to Montreal. We are so glad airlines are waiving fees on changing ticket dates too. 

Anyway, I'm off to pick him up in 3 hours and I'm super excited to see him again! With luck, this could be our last visit ever and the next time he travels into the states it will be as a PR!

Thank you @Hawk Riders for maintaining that spreadsheet. Seeing each new date appear is a mood boost!

5 hours ago, Ophoriwaa said:

Hi. What happens after your case becomes DQ'd but the embassy in your country is still yet to resume routine visa services? Will NVC forward the case to the embassy, or wait till the embassy resumes visa interviews?

 

 

If Ghana is like Montreal, here's what's happening with us. Montreal closed in March and only recently reopened. Many people had interviews cancelled. Many of us had DQ's but no interview yet. Furthermore, while it was closed, even more people got DQ'd in the last six months. So the cases have been piling up waiting for the consulate to open. Right now they are only re-scheduling the people whose interviews were cancelled. The rest of us are still waiting our turn.

18 minutes ago, Rlewis said:

I saw someone with CR1 interview date of March 23 got resched for Sept 2. So it might be pretty soon for your husband!

I can hope! We were at the DQ stage in mid Jan, so there are still a few months worth of people ahead of us inline.

I'm the USC and my Canadian husband is coming in two weeks for a long visit. We're at the Montreal interview step, but my swag is we're still 3-5 months away from that day. All the airlines we looked at were offering free one-time changes to return flights. So we bought him a round-trip ticket for the furthest out safe (immigration and taxes) date. This should help with the border crossing. But of course if he gets that email with an interview date, or if I see other people here in VJ with similar DQ dates starting to get interview dates, we will change his return ticket, send him back to do his quarantine, so we can get on with the medical, the interview, and that final wait.

We were both previously married, later divorced, and now married to each other. Our CEAC site requested both of us to submit our prior marriage certificates, our divorce documentations, and our current marriage certificate. We didn't want to have to do that, but we did it nonetheless. FWIW, our documentation was approved on first submission.

I'm the USC and my Canadian hubby was visiting when the shutdown happened. He ended up staying three months. When he drove back, they did let him back into Canada, with lots of questions and a health screen. They had very strict rules about self-quarantining. He had to have a plan to prove he could self-isolate for two weeks. They (both BC and the Canadian federal government) then called him at home to follow up and make sure he was self-isolating. So  yes, the Canadian can return. But me? If I want to visit him, I have to be able to commit to two weeks of self-isolating. I can't do that due to work. So we won't see each other until restrictions lift or until he gets through the rest of the immigration process

My hubby and I see each other twice a month. I go up once a month and he comes down once a month. Lots of short visits with longer ones of up to two weeks. We've been doing this for 10 years, only the last 1.5ish while going through the visa process. Also, I recommend Nexus passes.

6 hours ago, mam521 said:

I still think its a pretty expensive and time consuming piece of essentially blank paper that causes many Canadians headaches!  

Yeah, much of this process is. My empathies for all who endure it. Wow that there are so many of us too! Where are the 'OMG we all survived immigration" parties where we stand in our peers and admire each other and ourselves for the accomplishment. 😉

On 2/20/2020 at 11:49 AM, mam521 said:

Was your police check requested under the Privacy Act with "other" selected?  In other words, did it come back as basically a blank sheet, no finger prints, saying essentially we've got nothin on this person?  

Yes, and LOL at "we've got nothin on this person" 🙂 
I don't want to say 'blank' though as it's got some legalese. Here's a redacted version for whomever is curious.

Criminal Record Check, privacy, redacted.pdf

24 minutes ago, Don and Demi said:

Hi Lois! Yes, I do all these actually. I was wondering between the time from DQ to the scheduling of the interview though. Thank you! 😊

Great. Then you have the data to answer your question. DQ is called Case Complete in the timelines. Is that what you're looking for?