Daft_Cat

Yeah, someone may know more about the various nuances, but my understanding is that it's all variations of the same delay tactic. Though if you were only asked for a CV, perhaps it's more aligned to the standard pre-DS5535 SAO process.

I would say it's highly likely based off everything you've shared. Safe bet is to plan as if you will get it, and pivot later if you manage to slip by unscathed. Otherwise you risk having to disrupt your plans mid-flight. If asked about your travel history, I would be more delicate than you are being here. An officer may be off-put by your tone around career success enabling extensive travel and the inability of Government employees to relate. Attorneys have different theories. Mine is of the opinion that Montreal was always one of the most inefficient consulates in the world, and covid made it worse by accelerating an already substantial backlog of clients waiting for interviews and visa processing. The DS-5535 is a useful tool in this regard in that it removes mandatory processing timelines. This essentially gives the consulate the power to kick the ball down the road for a certain percentage of clients, reducing the immediate bottleneck. He thinks they're essentially misusing it beyond its original scope. There has been plenty of "actual" evidence shared in prior iterations of this thread, so those would be good places to start. In particular, I seem to remember a stat that ~40% of Montreal Applicants are put through some degree of AP compared to the global consulate average of ~15%. My numbers / interpretation of this data point may be off, so someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm not sure anyone can really answer that. This thread's more for people that have already received one. Few if any of us can say with certainty why we got one... except that Montreal seems to give them out more than the average consulate. 1. I would be shocked if it wasn't. 2. I'm not sure the consulate knows your travel history in any fulsome way - that's partially what the DS-5535 is supposed to illuminate for applicants whose profile triggers the process. 3. Doubt it would have any effect whatsoever. My officer didn't choose to give me a DS-5535 after looking at my passport (or any of my documents) - it appeared to me like she got a prompt on her computer when she was otherwise ready to clear me. Either way, not a great idea to go out of your way to hide info at your interview. 4. I don't think so - unless it's part of the standard applicant journey and I've since forgotten. Safe to assume that if your name was on some list, it would've popped up much earlier than your interview - likely in the USCIS phase. That's probably part of why the DS-5535 has a super high (albeit slow) approval rate. No idea, but anecdotally I haven't seen many DS-5535ers with those Visa classes (though perhaps they're less common to begin with).