Cath&Claire

13 minutes ago, Lovenature said:

I totally agree that no one knows but the sad part is no one seems to care. My husband reached out to all our representatives. One of the senators has been "monitoring" our case but all they do is pass along whatever garbage the State Department tells them.

 

For example, we get a form letter update every 60 days since summer 2019. Last one was on Oct 14 2020. All the ones since January say the same thing every time, our case is DQ and they don't know when we will get an interview.

 

My husband called them when he received it and they told him they can't interview us because the consulate is still closed! He corrected them and shared what he knew. They seemed surprised and embarrassed but not enough to do anything about it. We have provided data and asked them to make deeper inquiries but they won't. 60 days will pass and if I'm still waiting for my interview we will get the same form letter again.

 

Not trying to dissuade anyone. I think we all need to advocate for our cases and use whatever means or tools are available. Maybe your representatives are better. Either way, I'm just sharing our experience for realistic expectations. 

Politicians are all about lip service, that’s for sure. I think social media would be better in terms of directness but good to hit them both with a message.  

I just messaged Alex Panetta on Twitter. He did a story about the spousal reunification. I attached his info. He’s a CBC journalist in Washington. It’s a start .... 

Also here’s a copy of a tweet done by the Advocacy Group on Twitter. We could definitely  do the same. Outlining the lack of approvals and for us we could also  compare it to London. 

13 minutes ago, CanadaDude said:

Regarding getting Montreal to get a move on, we need to make a lot of noise. We should be calling them them out on social media, but also petitioners ought to be writing to their US Representatives and Senators. Essentially, this is hardship on the voters here, the US Citizens who have petitioned for their Canadian spouses and fiances so the politicians really ought to give a grilling on this. I'd also mention that maybe go to the media on this too. If you search up "Montreal Interview Backlog" on Google only VJ, Reddit and Social Media Posts that show up, which of course is no good in terms of getting this issue out there. Perhaps even writing to the Biden campaign would be a good idea on this too; because lets be honest, Biden is going to be far more receptive to lawful immigration than the current administration. I've worked in politics and the same boilerplate emails to politicians don't generally work, but people writing their specific stories and cases usually gets traction.

 

No one would believe you that Canadians have been waiting sometimes over two years to finally be reunited with their loved ones in the US, the politicians don't know, the general public doesn't know. It's a scandal that's had zero attention which has been made all the more worse due to the border closure. We should change that.

You’re so right that most people don’t realize or even believe how long we have to wait, compared to countries thousands of miles away! I’m compiling an email now for my spouse to send to her senators, again,  and will add the House of Representatives! The family advocacy group has done a great job with media exposure for their cause of expanding the definition of immediate family.  I’m part of the group on Facebook so will check out who they’ve contacted in the media.

1 minute ago, legendqueue said:

Sorry all, I don't mean to bring anyone down, but I just started typing and it felt good to get it off my chest.  I know we're all gonna make it.  This is just really, really hard.  Haha I've had cancer and six months of chemo and hip replacements because of the chemo and this is hands down more stressful than that.

That’s so stressful and I’m so hoping you’re doing well! And you’re right; my amazing mama was ill and passed away last year, December 26th.  This process definitely messes up the psyche far more than dealing with life and death events in our personal lives.   

13 minutes ago, legendqueue said:

I like this in spirit, especially since among my family and friends I'm known as the most optimistic person and the one to go to if you need someone to talk to or to find a good side or angle to a situation.  Being optimistic about this process, however, has broken me.  Our NOA1 to I-130 approved was 16 months, months longer than expected or reasonable, months of daily despair and speculation and desperately doing everything we could to get answers.  Now we're seemingly back there again, having no idea what's going on, having no idea of any time frame, going from being sure I was going to be down there for my step-son's 5th birthday to knowing for sure I'm not going to be for his *sixth*.  To just want to do stuff alongside my wife and not do this ridiculous two homes thing, separated by 30km but a million miles at the same time, blessedly able to steal moments at the Peace Arch ditch which is more than others get, and be given no insight nor hope nor reassurance from Montreal that any of this is ever going to change.  Some days I can manage to ignore all that and manage a smile and we have a great video call all together and feel that everything is going to be OK, but more often these days a call like that ends and I immediately get the hollow feeling because I feel *that's all I get now and that's all I might ever get*, and it's being increasingly difficult to tell myself that's not true.  I'm sad and frustrated and more and more I'm *angry* because I *don't understand* what they're doing and *they don't care* that we don't understand.  

We’ve all overcome very challenging things in our lives but I must say, this waiting and not knowing is very difficult and humans aren’t so great at dealing with the unknown and having no control over a  situation. It’s very hard to string together consecutive days/weeks/hours even, of feeling really good inside.  At least we have each other in spirit,  and on here in writing, who we can point to and think about when we’re really feeling down and out.  💜

20 minutes ago, 2Ps said:

@Lovepeace0303 @Cath&Claire @rafale1973 @Tofu  and everyone whose case is stuck at NVC, can we all voice our concern on their recent facebook post? I already did that last night and seems like they do read our social media posts... I am planning to go to seattle again next week and come back early next year since my hopes has been crushed slightly this week. I thought this post was a light at the end of the tunnel, but not seeing any interview letters has been a bit disheartening . I love this group though for helping with my mental health lol.

 

 

I posted on Twitter and Facebook already this morning.  Your DQ just ahead of me so we’re in the same waiting game boat.  Enjoy your time in Seattle.  💜

14 minutes ago, rafale1973 said:

Last Monday (of this week) I was keeping hope and therefore I decided to stay up until 2am as people who recently received an interview letters says they received it around 2am. I decided to try so I waiting on Monday and Tuesday, nothing came up. In a way I want to do the same for this upcoming week (if you are right) but I don’t want my hope to be trashed again. I’m the fourth one on the list, so I should hear in the Next interview letters. I really hope that I won’t have to wait until November to have an interview set for December I think it’s took long. I want to go back home so bad! I really hope they will schedule interview this week for the last 2 weeks of November. 

You’re so close!  It will happen soon for you.  

21 minutes ago, Tofu said:

I think we really need to keep positive for interview letters on Monday  Here is why:

- They typically give 3-4 weeks notice for interviews.  (Which would bring the first interview spot to November 16)

- If they waited until November 16 to give anyone an interview letter, that would mean the first interview date would not be until 12/7, thus leaving 3 weeks of unfilled spots.

 

Agreed, it is possible that we have to wait until 11/16 for the next batch of interviews, but there is nothing wrong with being optimistic

Thank you for your optimism! It’s really good to have a mix of personalities/moods around here so we can get lifted up when we’re down.  😂😭🙃

6 minutes ago, rafale1973 said:

I hope we will hear about interviews soon for November. We were already hoping to be back home in June. That didn’t work. So now we are hoping to be back home for Christmas. It’s just so long and giving us 2 days for November is not enough. We should have at least 6.5 days. Every Monday and at least the morning of every Wednesday. Like this they would have the afternoon for K1s. I want to see them work faster. 

There are definitely enough people on various Facebook pages and here on VJ that we will always have someone from this group receive an interview on the specific days.  So far they’ve only  scheduled Nov 2nd and 9th for spouses (4th and 16th for K1), with very few  interview letters received.  If they can accommodate the reschedules as they did, then they should move forward at that same pace, which they are not doing.  It’s already October 23rd, believe it or not, and that’s it for November!?  Why would they say last week they were scheduling new interviews and then do nothing? If this is the pace they’re working at, then things are seriously broken at the consulate. 

2 minutes ago, Abhikochar said:

No ....hang in there. I have a good feeling that in the coming week they might send out interview letters. I think you are probably among the next ones on the list. Good luck...I hope you receive the IL very soon

I’m a bit down the line - just before you.  Here’s hoping! 🙂🙃

8 minutes ago, Abhikochar said:

I called NVC yesterday and was told the same old that they have not received any update from Montreal U.S. Consulate for scheduling interviews for spouses of U.S. citizens yet.

I’m going to work on something to send to them via multiple channels and will definitely up my barrage by mid week next week. The more the merrier. I’ll post here first, as we have been discussing a unified messaged.  

Tomorrow is Friday -  5 business days of absolutely NOTHING after they announced they would be scheduling new interviews.   Ludicrous.  

5 minutes ago, Abhikochar said:

I called NVC yesterday and was told the same old that they have not received any update from Montreal U.S. Consulate for scheduling interviews for spouses of U.S. citizens yet.

This just made me feel even more horrible.  
 

30 minutes ago, DGF said:

No one does. There were never any announcements about it and it was never acknowledged by the consulate. The consulate general at the time was male, it was an ambassador that was not showing up so that wouldn't affect just spousal visa issuances.

 

I spent some time scanning the FAM a while back and couldn't find anything that would be a clear reason for them to stop since everything that mentioned stopping (at least from the stuff that wasn't redacted) required a notification to be made, although one could have been made just not publicly. Here's the link to the FAM if anyone is interested: https://fam.state.gov/Fam/FAM.aspx?ID=09FAM

I thought I read somewhere they had deployed resources to ICE!? Or that was speculation.....

1 minute ago, MWhite said:

The interview scheduling days are on the spreadsheet. It wasn’t consistent from month to month. 

Ah ok. I thought in the past they sent out letters in batches/on certain days. I’ll check the spreadsheet in a bit.  

15 minutes ago, Todd@Alya said:

I remember there was a very well done post this summer going around social media, highlighting how far behind the Montreal Consulate is in their rescheduling and poor they are . Was it any one on here? I think something like that again could be useful highlighting how they are falling further behind as a result of prioritizing K1s due to the lawsuit. 

They only did 9 K1’s in September so I don’t know that we can use that.  There is more news on the K1 lawsuit today as per Greg Siskind on Twitter so if there is movement in that category, we will likely know why.  I think it is worth comparing to other commonwealth countries - specifically the UK -  definitely a complete lack of communication - and outline how the gap, due to a couple of reasons, has only gotten bigger. 
 

Pre-Covid they sent out interview invites in batches certain days of the week. Anyone recall which day? We can create something - which I’m willing to do with input of course - unless someone else is gung ho. 
 

It’s Thursday now - pretty much end of day in the east, and nothing but crickets since they made their announcement Friday.  

22 minutes ago, Todd@Alya said:

I remember there was a very well done post this summer going around social media, highlighting how far behind the Montreal Consulate is in their rescheduling and poor they are . Was it any one on here? I think something like that again could be useful highlighting how they are falling further behind as a result of prioritizing K1s due to the lawsuit. 

Has anyone happened to call NVC this week? 

Are we able to create any number of new threads in our country forums?  If so, I think it would be great to have one where we only post interview dates and DQ info. It’s  really easy for information to get lost in this main thread.   

9 minutes ago, wordsfromdani said:

Hey guys...just wanted to provide another file. I had big plans to produce historical data by all consulates for all immigrant visa types and then just IR1/CR1 data to show who was returning to normal post-COVID and who was still behind. I also included all immigrant visa types to learn what % of visas issued were spousal versus other types. Haven't updated with most recent data, and I really think for it to be effective I'd need to get back and get all of 2019 Data.    It uses pivot table features, so it's not very well suited to google sheets, but feel free to download and use as it is helpful.  

This is  great! Tons of data! Lots of work! 

42 minutes ago, shammykay said:

 So from a visualization / data / prove our case  standpoint what helps to communicate backlog and the call to action?  

- Comparison with other consulates?  [data]

- Comparison with K1 ? [data]
- Anecdotal stories ?

- Other ?

Comparison to the UK would work and something about K1 being priority after the consulate stopped CR1 maybe? This was before my time but I’ve heard that K1’s continued while CR1’s did not. 
 

a clear message about the wait times endured by all of us - since we’re all in the same boat time wise. Before the backlog of 5 months - how long was it taking? And now - because of consulate inaction, we can only guess at a timeline, since we have no idea what they’re doing.   

55 minutes ago, shammykay said:

I’d like to start engaging via social media and come out with one visual every weekday. This visual then can be sent to government representatives (congressmen(women) , senators, etc) as a “slide deck” perhaps backed up with an advocacy letter. 

That’s the output but really first it would be to decide on what is the key messages that we want to get across. Usually 3 big themes is anyone can handle and then to define what is our ASK. 

The Canadian Family Advocacy Group for Reunification did this - and many people also reached out to their local representatives.  
 

Asks 

- what is the plan to deal with the backlog 

- communicate the plan 

- consulate stated new interviews will be scheduled - when will this take place - since nothing has been scheduled 

Any other asks? We can narrow it down.  

1 minute ago, shammykay said:

 

Try again, modified settings.

I can see the graph but not the excel data. Likely it’s my phone.  Pretty crazy how much more efficient London is.  Great data!!! Thanks again!   😃
 

I emailed them two weeks ago citing the data from London and Australia. The OP wrote back with a sympathetic tone.  I will email them again Friday if we don’t hear anything. I’ve also sent messages on Twitter twice this week.  If things don’t get rolling I will email the senators in Minneapolis again.  What are your thoughts? 

1 minute ago, shammykay said:

I have created a massive database for the Immigrant Visa statistics by month plus a visualization of Montreal vs. London for 2019 & 2020.  This is a start of what we could use for social media campaigns / advocacy.

 

EXCEL DATABASE --> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JjNOMFN1ypFVMGzYMn7e3jcJ_CUWZt3W/view?usp=sharing

GRAPH LONDON vs. MONTREAL --> https://drive.google.com/file/d/14qDtq1C-J84MIRAjODRbMp4KuqyfpamO/view?usp=sharing

Wow! That’s great! Trying to open the links tho and it says I need access? 

37 minutes ago, shammykay said:

I could help with a visualization (bar / line chart). Is this of interest?

Apparently the consulate in DR is closed yet those numbers? So not sure what’s going on. 
 

K1’s are being scheduled for Nov 16th - definitely ok to compare Canada to the UK. 4-5 months wait time for them now as per on the forum - as I noted last week, July DQ’s in the UK are getting November interview dates.  

The USA consulate Facebook page has the most comments from what I see - and there is a pinned post - so someone is reading the comments. Those of us who want can post a message there with the data?! 

2 minutes ago, A&RN said:

oh wow... I've never compared it to other consulates before. Looks like Mexico did 200+  and I know Mexico too has a long wait time too.

Tokyo has huge numbers too.  

1 minute ago, MWhite said:

It’s in line with pre covid issuances though. So at least they have resumed “normal” operations. Doesn’t help the backlog but at least we are moving again. 

Yes! Progress! Seems tho things are stuck at last interview scheduled for Nov 4th?  Being DQ’d in January, has your case moved from NVC yet? 

Numbers are out - woeful for Montreal 

September 

CR1 16 -  32 in August 

IR1 85 - 2 in August 

I checked London 

CR1 76 - 65 in August 

IR1 97 - 73 in August

Checked out further numbers and Santo Domingo (DR) is wild! 
 
CR1 95 - 68 in August 

IR1 175 - 140 in August 

Just imagine! We’d all be with our families if we had this kind of service. Crickets again today. Emails and social media comments with gentle reminders that we’re waiting won’t hurt.  

https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Immigrant-Statistics/MonthlyIVIssuances/SEPT 2020 - IV Issuances by Post and Visa Class.pdf

 https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Immigrant-Statistics/MonthlyIVIssuances/AUGUST 2020 - IV Issuances by Post and Visa Class.pdf

1 minute ago, Lovepeace0303 said:

They literally sent out dates for only the first 2 weeks of Nov. If they were following tradition, they should have sent out a full month of dates! If they don't send something this week, they will have 2 weeks of November with no schedules at all. How would that be addressing their backlog? Doesn't seem like the smartest move to me. 

I don’t think they are interested in their backlog.  It would be nice if they resumed close to normal numbers pre Covid by opening up another day for interviews. Or extending interview times as it seems most people go in the morning.  They announced Friday they’re resuming visa operations but then leave us hanging for 1.5 days now — it makes sense to me in business that when you say you’re going to do something, show some proof!