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Superluminal

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  1. Superluminal
    I think this article is a little misleading. They are claiming there is a growing visa backlog but it actually has been decreasing over the last couple of years. The green datapoint is the one mentioned in the article. I pulled this data off of https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/visas-backlog.html. Since the peak in Jun 2021, the backlog is falling by about 75k per year. These are worldwide stats though. Does anyone know how to determine the number of people stuck in AP?
  2. Superluminal
    I feel for you bud. My wife and I are in the same boat as far as waiting to start our family. My interview was the end of April so I'm hoping things unjam soon for the folks earlier in the year. Anyone moving through now is good news for everyone. I also went with PIC. We didn't end up fighting the MtD since it felt futile. We waited 3 months because thats what seemed like the wisdom at the time was.
  3. Superluminal
    That person is probably still waiting. Probably not healthy to think of it that way. The beauty of our tracker is to see the status of everyone else. For example, there has been basically no change for a few months. Eventually they will get to us and start clearing out a backlog of AP folks.
  4. Superluminal
    We did
  5. Superluminal
    I used PIC, and they had many recommendations from folks on this forum in the past. I was asked directly their success rate and was given a figure greater than 95%. If I were filing a WoM today, I would be asking directly to any lawyer about the recent actions by the state department to file dismissal motions on WoMs lawsuits. I would really question their ability to deliver if they don't have a concrete answer to that and how that wouldn't impact my case.
  6. Superluminal
    April
  7. Superluminal
    This is sadly not true. I filed a WoM at 3 months like many others in the past, and it got a motion to dismiss. In the dismissal motion, it said that waiting up to 3 years would not be considered an unreasonable time to wait. There have been cases this summer where a judge threw out a WoM case since the plaintiff had ONLY waited 16 or 17 months. We have to take into consideration that the WoM cases have been growing at a rapid rate in the last couple of years. Several months back I had looked on PACER and found that WoM cases for AP were being filed at a rate of 2 - 4 per month in 2020 and 2021 and in early 2023 they were being filed at a rate of 30 - 50 per month. I imagine the State department is sick of these and will fight tooth and nail to stop the WoM lawsuits from being the cultural norm. The traditional wisdom for the WoM being effective was that a filing a WoM would give the state department the option to either (i) fight your WoM, or (ii) just process your case. Since fighting the WoM would be harder, they would just accelerate your case and be done with you. However now, likely because to the large number of filings happening, they are actually investing the effort in fighting the WoMs. One final note on the WoM, is that none of us actually expected it to get to the point where a judge will issue a WoM. The costs for preparing the lawsuit only covers the filing, not actually fighting the case and hoping a judge will rule in our favour. This is why the motions to dismiss sting. You then have to pay your lawyer to respond, and each time there is a roadblock, it costs $$$$$. All that being said, filing a WoM is totally up to you and you may have different luck given you waited a bit longer to file.
  8. Superluminal
    What kind of and quantity of positions were they filling? If they are resource constrained maybe they put AP clearances on hold since they aren't held to a particular timeline. This is especially true now with being able to shutdown all the WoM cases.
  9. Superluminal
    If it makes you feel any better, I'm a boring Canadian with Scottish and Irish heritage and have never lived in another country. My last name is connected with a tiny island off the coast of Scotland, so not exactly common.
  10. Superluminal
    Good news for you is it doesn't look like you have a DS-5535 so you will likely move a lot quicker than us who had to send in a bunch more information. Hang tight.
  11. Superluminal
    We filed out of Illinois since that is where my wife lives. We were told we are the first (perhaps for our lawyer) who went right to Motion to Dismiss (not even an extension) from outside of DC. We filed shortly after 90 days. I don't think anyone knows. One of the landmark cases that the US Attorney's are using was a scenario where the WoM was denied after 1.5 years (I think). My current thinking on the AP crises we are all in is that, for IR1/CR1 greencards, it takes around 180 - 300 days to be asked for a 2nd medical / return your passport. Looking at the tracker, that seems to be the case. My approach will be to monitor the tracker and if I don't clear our around the same time as my peers (you folks), we may consider filing another WoM. Based on the worstcase IR1/CR1 example in the current tracker, I am hoping to hear back before Janurary. But a huge chunk of us could hear back any day now.
  12. Superluminal
    Motion to Dismiss. Basically the argument is I have not waited long enough for a WoM to be justifiable. Our lawyer felt we could fight it but given how Montreal stonewalls everyone, we're just not sure if it is worth it. Going into the WoM, it looked like it was helping others a lot, but it does seem they are pushing back quite a bit. In the end, the WoM didn't do anything for ~$5000, but at least we tried.
  13. Superluminal
    Maybe because you are at the 6 month milestone? It says on their website to not even reach out to them until at least 6 months. The March - May AP people are getting close to hearing back I think. Do you mind adding yourself to:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jV7rzX2eCRVoEDRhOtN9a6hDoHRLNEf1P3ZGZbQ0_Dc/edit#gid=0. I find it useful to see where I am relative to everyone else.
  14. Superluminal
    Congrats! Great news. Also, this is further evidence that EB visas clear faster than the CR/IR visas
  15. Superluminal
    It was explained to me that AP is only done at the consulates and the consulates don't get your info until like 2 months before your interview - well after your DQ. AP doesn't exist if you go the route inside the US. AP is all about the consulate being unable to make a determination. Why? I have no idea.
  16. Superluminal
    I will add onto this to say I have also have had no issue going back and forth since getting the DS 5535. I do have Nexus though so I generally get through a bit easier because of the voluntary pre-screening I went through years ago. I've been pushing our tracker a lot as I've found knowing others are in the same boat has been the only comforting aspect of the whole ordeal. Please consider adding yourself to the tracker: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jV7rzX2eCRVoEDRhOtN9a6hDoHRLNEf1P3ZGZbQ0_Dc/edit#gid=0
  17. Superluminal
    This forum is only for Canada consular applications. All of us have to go through Montreal.
  18. Superluminal
    Not sure at this point. Hoping to find out later today. We filed at 90 days, so you and I are very close I guess. If you could check out here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jV7rzX2eCRVoEDRhOtN9a6hDoHRLNEf1P3ZGZbQ0_Dc/edit#gid=0 you could see my progress. Please add yourself as well. I'll second what was said earlier, the only comforting thing is knowing others are going through this and we aren't alone.
  19. Superluminal
    For what its worth, we filed our WoM in Northern Illinois since my wife lives outside of Chicago and we just got a motion to dismiss. I'm hoping we can connect with our lawyer on Monday.
  20. Superluminal
    Do you mind adding yourself to here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jV7rzX2eCRVoEDRhOtN9a6hDoHRLNEf1P3ZGZbQ0_Dc/edit#gid=0? I have a WoM active so I haven't reached our directly. They do say on their website to not reach out until at least 6 months after you give them your DS-5535.
  21. Superluminal
    I also am keeping a pretty close eye on the spreadsheet for evidence of other people's updates. Here are some potential factors I was able to find online about our consulate: - Ana Escrogima was the consul general up until Jul 2023. Robert P. Sanders started a couple of months ago (maybe some time in August?). - The Deputy Chief of Mission to Canada was Katherine Brucker until at least the summer, then Elizabeth C. Power was the active Deputy Chief at least as soon as Aug 16th. The current Deputy Chief is Marybeth Turner. Not sure exactly when these transitions happened but since they didn't have someone lined up, it could have been quite disruptive. I have no idea how much these individuals and changes in leadership may influence how things move as far as our process goes. That being said, internal changes in management could cause a temporary slow down in any organization. I am going to remain as positive as possible that things will pick up again soon. (Note: for those wondering how I found this out. I looked up old versions of the consulate and embassy's website on https://web.archive.org/. In particular, I was looking at versions of https://ca.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/montreal/consul-general/ and https://ca.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/ottawa/dcm/ since they show who is currently in the seats of those positions)
  22. Superluminal
    I wish it were for good reasons, but I think you are right and it is because no one is getting any updates lately.
  23. Superluminal
    Looks like things are moving slowly right now. A bunch of us had updates from Aug - early Sep but its been pretty dry with only one update in the last couple of weeks. I believe we are due to hear back on out WoM by the end of the week / early next week. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jV7rzX2eCRVoEDRhOtN9a6hDoHRLNEf1P3ZGZbQ0_Dc/edit#gid=0
  24. Superluminal
    Any chance you can share the specific case?
  25. Superluminal
    Down for everyone right now: https://www.isitdownrightnow.com/ceac.state.gov.html
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