Carlcayl

I’m super confused about how the fingerprinting and police check/criminal record check work.

i was directed to the commisionaires as the place to get them done, they offer ink and roll or digital. They also don’t say whether it’s under the privacy act or anything like that. Do I just say it in person? Does anyone have experience with this in the lower mainland of BC? 

thanks. 

8 minutes ago, Paul & Mary said:

Canada is a member of the "Six Month Club"   You can travel to the US upto the last day of your passport.   https://www.cbp.gov/document/bulletins/six-month-club-update  So that should help a lillte bit.

 

Ad for renewing your Canadian Passport - I'll leave that to a better source.

Though you are correct that we are members of the six month club, you are misinformed.

It’s quite the opposite. You can travel to the US ONLY if you have 6 months left on your passport from the day you plan to end your visit the US. It’s listed on the website you’ve sent me, as well:

“Visitors traveling to the United States are required to be in possession of passports that are valid for six months beyond the period of their intended stay in the United States.“

This leaves me out by far, as my passport has two months left before it expires.

Despite the laws changing regarding spousal visitations, my Canadian passport has only two months of travel left on it, making it invalid for me the visit the United States and also creating complications with my CR-1 process. 
 

The passport offices in Canada have been closed for around four months, and recently have some exemptions:

“You can only get travel document services in Canada if you have a valid reason to travel urgently.

Valid urgent travel reasons include if you’re travelling

• for a medical reason because you have a serious illness
• because of the serious illness or death of someone you know
• because you’ll have financial problems from the loss of a job or business
• to support an essential service
• for humanitarian reasons
  • You need a letter from your organization that lists the humanitarian reasons.

The loss of airfare or other travel expenses is not a valid reason for urgent travel.

If you submitted an application in person or by mail and you don’t need to travel urgently, we’ll process it when normal services resume.

If you don’t need a passport or travel document urgently, wait until normal services resume.”

As you may have noticed, these urgent restrictions don’t outline spouses or immediate family members, making it impossible for me to travel to the USA and- if I get my green card interview scheduled in Montreal I wont have a valid Canadian passport to give them. 

I’ve called and discussed this with Canadian passport services and they’ve simply restated that only the services outlined are included. I’ve also written an email to my local member of parliament. I have nothing else I can do but wait, continuously wait like I’ve been for my green card during all of this grief. 
 

Can anyone help me understand how to renew my passport. I’m at my wits end. 
 

Are people still having issues? We’ve been waiting over a month for the mailed verification. 

Thank you!

I (the beneficiary) have just found out that I have to move in the next couple of months. I may have a place lined up for August, but it's not for sure. 

I'm right about the mail my DS-260. This includes my history of addresses including my current one.

Should I wait to send in my DS-260, or can I correct it after I move?
If I should wait to correct it, do I need to do anything special if my current address on the DS-260 is different than the one that I put on my I-130? 

Thank you.

 

I went to four secondary schools and two colleges. I’m not exactly sure how to figure out when I left each one and started another. I’ve done a bunch of sleuthing but it’s becoming very difficult to connect the dots exactly. How did others get this information?

Just wanted to give a little update.

called NVC. Found out that our welcome letter emails had been sent out in mid May... to incorrectly typed emails. 
 

somehow both of our emails were incorrect on forms that we verified and typed? 
so frustrating that we are now behind two months when we could’ve been early.

anyways, we were able to login to NVC and are able to pay our fees immediately. 
 

anyone reading this, if your intuition says that it feels like unusually long for your welcome letter, give NVC a ring. I wish I’d have called sooner.

Yes, I'm referring to the NVC Welcome Letter  with our Case Number etc 
Canadian mail does seem a bit shifty, especially internationally as of late. Although, my husband lives in the USA and hasn't received the Welcome Letter either... and I was under the impression he would, as my petitioner.
USCIS says online that our case has been forwarded to NVC.

I have sent them an email and I will call them on Monday. Thank you for all of the information.


 

We are at 8 weeks since our NOA2. Our notice date was 5/13/2020. Do I keep waiting or do I alert someone?  

Thanks.

I can answer 2, which is yes, that is your NOA1

I'm  a bit confused as to what the Priority Date entails. On the Visa Bulletin I assume it doesn't pertain to me, as the dates listed are years ago.

Yes, it was very odd because I assumed the NOA2 would be slow and the welcome letter would be quick. Instead, my NOA2 came very quickly and now the welcome letter seems to be quite slow. 

I'm still gathering documents so it's quite illogical for me to be rushing anyways XD

USCIS approved our I-130 and sent it to NVC on May 13th, and neither of us have received our welcome letter yet. I know everything is delayed but is that within normal processing times, or do I need to do something if it takes too long? Thanks.

I'm interested

I'm Canadian and that sounds insane. I assume it's based on country? Mine took around 3 months to NOA2, and I filed it in March of this year. O.o 

6 hours ago, onek said:

You did the right thing. CR-1 is the best option. First of all, you are now married with this option. 😀. Second, when your spouse comes to the US,  she will immediately have PRC, can work right away, and don’t worry about long AOS process.  Don’t regret your decision and look at it from the positive side.  Even with COVID-19, since CR-1 is still being processed, some have reported quick approvals and NVC processing.

Good luck with your visa journey. Keep yourself busy talking to your spouse, preparing for her move and before you know it, your wait will be over.

Yeah I'm she, the beneficiary/Canadian spouse so unfortunately it wasn't the best for us. My husband (the petitioner) has a really good job (that it makes it not worth me working) and I'm an independent artist/homemaker XD So it's actually cost us a LOT of money to be living separately. Two rents, travel, etc etc. 

On the bright side, I've been able to be in Canada and help my grandparents while they deal with sudden terminal illness/disability. 

And yes, "with COVID-19, since CR-1 is still being processed, some have reported quick approvals and NVC processing" I've definitely been keeping my eye on this and I'm hoping that comes to fruition for me. This year has been a real slugger.
 

"Good luck with your visa journey. Keep yourself busy talking to your spouse, preparing for her move and before you know it, your wait will be over." Thank you. Time is going by much faster and I think the year will be up before I know it, and I'll be that much closer. My original estimated date was around April of next year but with everything changing so much that time might change a lot. I've noticed a big part of this process is just letting things go and doing them as they come, being an image of true patience.

Thanks for being so sweet, I appreciate all the words.

My (Canadian) passport is expiring in 6 months. I've been told I need a passport with at least 6 months before expiry, as part of my immigration package (we are currently waiting for the Welcome Letter). I'm worried that I'll get the letter and won't have an updated passport to send because of the passport centre closures. 

I called and spoke to someone and they just reiterated the website, which states the below quote: 
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/coronavirus-covid19/passport.html#canada-urgent

The only one I could see vaguely applying would be a humanitarian reason towards me, as my immigration is pending based on my having an updated passport. Is there an angle I could take here? 

Quote

You can only get passport or travel document services in Canada if you have a valid reason to travel urgently.

Valid urgent travel reasons include if you’re travelling

• for a medical reason because you have a serious illness
• because of the serious illness or death of someone you know
• because you’ll have financial problems from the loss of a job or business
• to support an essential service
• for humanitarian reasons
  • You need a letter from your organization that lists the humanitarian reasons.

You're totally right. I hope that your's does as well. All you need is the chance to get on a plane and you can go and start your life together... you're so close!

 

50 minutes ago, AliTan said:

We’re K1, but I hear you.  People have no clue what this process is like unless they have been through it.  We first applied Dec. 2017 and were denied.  We’re on our second go-round and we were so close to the visa when embassies closed.  Since then I feel like I obsessively check for any shred of hope out there.  Every time we have an update on our case I get excited thinking we’ll have the visa in a few days...nope.  I find shopping for wedding items or just things we’ll need for his arrival helps me feel like there’s still something in my control.  But my bank account and my sanity will be happy when I am no longer consumed by this process.

Yeah we actually had no idea about how the green card process worked. I did a tiny bit of research and saw that there were two options: K1 and CR1. Everyone was saying to do CR1 because it's less expensive but I didn't actually understand the difference until AFTER  we got married. It was really, really dumb. If we'd have known I could've done something before we got married, we would have. Instead we've been married over a year and only just started the CR1 process, and then Covid. It's gonna be a loooong (expensive) time. ❤️ 

The CR-1 process seems so lonely. I don't know anyone else who understands this process, although some of my friends are immigrants to Canada they weren't apart from their spouses. I just want to talk with everyone about every tiny inch of progress we make, but most people I know just can't identify with it. A lot of people close to me have very different views of immigration, a lot of people assumed that getting married means you can go be with your partner. Immigrating to the USA right now is a massive task, it's a huge part of my life. Finding all the documents I need, hearing tiny blips of recognition from big agencies as I move very slowly towards this big goal to be with my husband. I find a lot of solace just reading forums and news and gathering information, but I do wish I could chat with other people who come from the same experiences as I do. Like just go for tea and talk about about our faraway partners and not hear "you're so brave" or "I couldn't do it" it's like... dang, I don't even consider those things, it's just how my relationship works. I guess I just want to relate to people because it's going to be like a year at least, with everything happening in the world, and I'm really happy with my partner but our relationship is just different because of the nature of immigration to the US. Anyone feel the same?

Hi! I, the beneficiary, live in Canada and my husband is a USC living in the USA and we had a quickly approved CR-1. Here's what I did.

1) "Where does the beneficiary live now?" I'm the beneficiary, and my husband put down my current home address, in Canada. This is the spot where I have all my records attached and would like to receive mail. My ID, taxes and everything is attached to this address. 

2) Where in the United States does the beneficiary intend to live? We wrote down where my husband currently lives in the USA, which is most likely where we will continue to live. If plans change I believe you can adjust your documents by contacting USCIS. 

3) Where did you and your spouse last live together? We never lived together. 'Living together', with my status, would be illegal. It's perfectly fine to have never lived together but this may mean it's harder to prove a bonafide relationship with official US documents involved. 

4) At which USCIS office will the beneficiary apply for adjustment of status to lawful permanent resident? This is for people doing an AOS or adjustment of Status, I did a CR-1 so this didn't apply to me.

5) At which U.S. Embassy or Consulate location will the beneficiary apply for an immigrant visa? Her embassy/consulate is the one of the country she's a citizen of. So mine is Montreal because there's only the Montreal consulate in Canada. 

6) Additional proof of marriage. You need a lot more than a bank statement. Bank statement is great, but include more. Some ideas I did- If you can, add her to your apartment lease. Definitely add her onto any bank cards you can. Add her onto bill payments. You might need an ITIN for this stuff but ya should get one anyways for tax purposes. We also used a few affadavits from people who know both of us, explaining straightforwardly how they knew us, what they'd done with us etc, with photos of their IDs and swearing they were true under penalty of perjury within the letters. Receipts of gifts purchased by one partner and sent to the other, mail back and forth, trip itineraries,  travel tickets like planes or trains, phone call logs, online chat logs, etc. They want to see that you are actually interacting and having a relationship. 

7 ) Address History (Form I-130A). I personally don't think you should use a hotel address unless it's a permanent residency. A residency is where your documents are attached and you normally would recieve mail IMO. 


Good luck!

Wow! The Prime Minister heard us and is supposed to be changing the laws tomorrow for immediate relatives!!! <3 2 week quarantine but we can finally see our spouses! I'm so happy!

Thank you! 
 

so more questions added to that.
 

My husband has US health insurance through his company Which covers spouses but they only accept new people in November. They also require a SSN. If my immigration is perfectly on time I’d be there by around April 2021. Is there a way I could somehow explain that or get temporary insurance until next November? 
 

In terms of the proof of $$$, does this consider my spouses income? 
 

thank you for all of your help and prompt replies. Really happy to know there’s a community of Canadians going through the same thing 

I’m applying for a CR-1 spousal visa, I’m Canadian living in Canada and my husband/petitioner is USC living in US. Just recieved the NOA2 and boundless gave me a list of things to gather; one of them is health insurance. 
 

sorry if my timeline is incorrect, just found this site and I’m trying to learn everything :)

Have written multiple times to my MP about this.