Siarg

No they won’t ever tell you why, it’s just an email with the questions on it. They give this to children, babies and people who have never travelled, so the original use case for national security concerns doesn’t hold much weight anymore. It appears to be sent whenever there is any delay, 221g for a missing document or for an SAO like TAL, or name match in CLASS etc. Most people in this group have no idea why they received it, we’re just all trying to guess and make sense of it. It is used significantly more at Montreal than most other countries and Montreal Consulate has an international reputation for AP delays and 5535. Best thing you can do is have him fill it out and send it in ASAP after he receives it (he can even prepare in advance by googling the form and preparing his answers ahead of the email). The next thing to do is start setting aside money $5-8k USD for filing a Writ of Mandamus. If he’s lucky they will “find” the medical and then issue the visa - but if they send the 5535 off to DOS for a security clearance, they can’t issue the visa until he receives clearance. so I would visit the doctor and either get some kind of proof of submission or ask for a physical sealed envelope and deliver it yourself.

Hacking Nimer - best reputation I’ve seen but still 7-8k Goldstein Jesse Bless Curtis Morrison Raju Mahajan - seems to be cheapest around 3.5k, make sure he files in DC not Maryland (he has license for both but some maryland cases are starting to get transferred to DC in the 5535 telegram)

https://dvcharts.xarthisius.xyz/postsiv.html this shows monthly or yearly issuances by post in separate categories - MTL has issued 1381 family sponsor and 2755 immediate relative categories so far this year. Comparing it to the previous two years, they only issued a few hundred of both for two years (Covid = barely doing anything). Before Covid it was 1k or much more in each category. Definitely seems like there’s a lot of catching up to do. The WoM moves you to the front of the queue as it is easier to dismiss the lawsuits than to fight them. I think next year will be significantly improved, but Covid put a stick in the machine that was already barely clunking along, and we’re all paying for it.

I think the main reason is that appearing “pro se” has the risk of a mistake being made in filing or a response and the case being dismissed. The filing fee is $400 USD, and most of the paperwork is received and sent through the legal system you have to pay for (or may need to be a lawyer?). From your end it might need to be paper and mail for filing the case, receiving approved summons, getting summons approved, sending the summons to the individuals, paying for a process server if you want a summons received notice. After all of that (barriers that are nothing to a lawyer but might prove very frustrating for a normal person without access) it takes up to two months for them to look at it. It’s very possible they may choose to fight it after seeing self representation, especially if they think you aren’t able to travel to appear in court. They could file motion to dismiss or transfer the location, file extensions, all of which are just delays or run the risk of an incorrect response with docket filing or summons. It’s also possible they just resolve it as normal, because to be honest they hardly ever do anything with a Writ of Mandamus, it’s just filed and then they fix the issue before the 60 days. It just isn’t as simple as writing the court letter and submitting it. I think you could do it, I considered it myself, I just realized that there are many artificial hurdles that are difficult to find out about in advance, and some of them give you less than 24 hours to resolve before automatic dismissal. If you haven’t already, check out pacermonitor, look up a name that appears on many WoM like Blinken, set the case type to Immigration- Other immigration actions and have a look at them. You can pay to see more than the 20ish cases a day, and you can pay to see some of the documents filed. Also RE: lawyers making money, I don’t hate that they’re making money, it seems like a great gig! It even crossed my mind to start an immigration firm and hire a lawyer as an employee to file them because you could churn these out for cheaper than everyone and still be making money hand over fist. I hate that I’ve seen them encourage people to file when they don’t have standing. In my opinion, encouraging a lawsuit for $5k or more when you know legally there is no standing, have previous dismissals stating so, and you’re recommending a lawsuit to everyone complaining without knowing any details of the case- that’s the kind of slime I’m complaining about.

I have had the same opinion of everything you said and completely agree. Once I found out how simple a Writ of Mandamus is, I was shocked at these law offices charging so much for a simple filing. They use a template and just change out some specifics. They don’t have to put in any effort and don’t expect to fight it in court or even appear before a judge. I guess the way to become a millionaire out of law school is to be an immigration lawyer preying on desperate people. The ones that trawl immigration forums and telegrams are the worst, encouraging people to file writs for normal wait times, for cases they have no standing in. The worst of them charge more money as time goes on, there are multiple examples of this in Diversity where they charge more the closer it gets to the Sept 30 deadline. Goldstein specifically seems to make mistakes pretty regularly looking at Pacermonitor; having to file corrections on many of the cases attached to his name. I’m in a 5535 group chat and Nimer has the best reputation, but I believe they’re around 7k. The next would be Raju, he’s cheap/the cheapest at 3.5k but seems to be pretty simple - pay for the filing, but don’t expect much else in terms of explanation or communication. I don’t think we’ll ever find out what is going on at Montreal to cause the noticeably higher rate of AP/5535.

This link has names - Ana Escrogima is the consul general for Montreal, David Cohen is the US ambassador to Canada. Maybe they mailed it to the consulate?

This has been reported by people in Johannesburg for Diversity Visa as well. So messed up.

It’s the fiscal year, so for DV22 it started October 2021 and runs until September 30th 2022.

Completely understand. It’s so unfair - I see other consulates handing out visas with basically no questions, and no issues.