SomberCat

In the topic description, I would have said "our" experience instead of "my husband's", but get this - they didn't let me go to customs. How funny is that?! Has anyone else had this happen?

We pulled up to the booth and my husband was first in line driving the moving truck. He gave them his packet, went through a lot of questions and was sent to customs. Our friends pulled up next. They were driving their pickup truck and hauling the old car that my husband is restoring. It was the typical questions and they were sent to customs. My husband's daughter and her boyfriend pulled up next. They were driving my husband's car. As before, it was the typical questions and they were sent to customs. When I pulled up, I was asked what was in my car and I said it was my husband's things and they told me to go ahead. I paused and said, "Go ahead where?" I thought he was going to tell me to go with the others, but it sounded like he was telling me to leave. He then said that I didn't need to stay, there were going to be space issues in the customs building soon and since I didn't need to be there for anything, I should go to the next exit (Michigan welcome center) and just wait there. I asked him how they would know where I am and he said he was going off duty after I was done and he would tell them. How weird is that? I had to laugh because my number supposedly "comes up" quite often and I get sent in for full vehicle searches, so I'm always praying I don't have to go to customs. This time, here I was practically begging to go to customs. Am I stupid or what?

It was no big deal, but I have to admit I was curious to see the process in side. So, I sat in the rest area, went to the bathroom, called a few friends, filed my nails, read a Michigan map I picked up inside, etc. Boring. Fortunately it took them no time at all and in just under an hour they were all there with me. It was very cute - he jumped out of the truck and ran across the parking lot at me like a little girl yelling, "I'm official, I'm official!" We were hugging and kissing in the middle of the parking lot when I glanced over and saw our friends taking pics of us. Those will be nice to have.

I'd love to give a lot of info to those of you who will be crossing at this POE, but you know how guys are. When I asked him what the process was, he summed it up in about 1 minute. He did mention two fingerprints and he said the actual CR1 paperwork took less than 5 minutes. He said the rest of the time was all spent importing the 2 cars and he did have a wait about 15 minutes in between. All in all, he said it was incredibly simple and took no effort at all. Everyone was knowledgeable and friendly. Also, they did not look through one vehicle, including the moving truck and didn't ask for our inventory list either.

So, we're done... until we need to remove conditions. Hopefully his social security number will show up soon and he can get a driver's license so we can go buy his new truck. I know I thanked everyone when I wrote my interview review, but seriously, thanks again SO much. We couldn't have done it without all of you. You're simply fantastic.

Congrats Mumtaz!!

Just wanted to let you know that our POE went well. We made it home on Sunday around 3PM and then unloaded. My gosh this man has a lot of #######... I mean stuff. lol God help me. Oddly enough, they wouldn't let me go into customs with him. They sent me down the road to wait in a rest stop as they said customs was filling up and I didn't need to be there. So, I sat alone while the other 5 people (friends and family) and the vehicles (3 total) all went to customs for an hour. Kinda weird but it worked out fine. Monday morning I had to leave for Atlanta for business and got back last night, so I did the "welcome to the US" on Sunday and ditched him on Monday. lol

lol i'm crossing through....

James Richardson International Airport in Winnipeg!! lol I called them to see when I should show up because their customs isn't run on regular hours and they were like "oh that takes like five minutes come whenever"

Wow, never heard of that place. Five minutes? Damn, I'm jealous. Hope it goes really well for you. We're crossing at Port Huron/Sarnia and the last few weekends I've been through there, I've had to wait over 1.5 hours each time and that's just on a regular day. So we're planning to do it at about 7AM.

Just curious, where are you crossing at? We're crossing this weekend too, minus the birth control.

Procrastinator. Get your ####### together.

I'm having one of those moments tonight where I can't believe this is really happening. How many times do you have to pinch yourself to realize it's true? I just can't believe that I'm leaving in the morning and when my husband comes back with me on Sunday, it will be permanently. Wow. No more solo drives to Canada every other week. Too weird. #######, no more Timbits unless I drive to Lansing or Detroit.

I'd love to answer you but since we're driving I know nothing about the airports. Just thought I'd pop in and say hi anyway and welcome back! BTW, when is POE going to be?

Not sure if we're keeping track of visa receival dates or POE dates, but we received the visa today and our POE is the 30th. Woohoo!!! Back up that moving truck, pile that sh!t in and let'####### the road!! Although, I have to be in Atlanta for a meeting the next day, so my husband will be living there for about 8 hours before I have to ditch him to get on an airplane and be gone for two days. How's that for rude - welcome to the US honey, see you later.

Right on!

That's awesome news -- now you can get in line for the interview wait which I hope isn't going to be too long but I fear that it is.

Congratulations at least now you know that you have nothing to worry about for the moment.

LGG

Hey guys!

Just called NVC and found out that my case has been completed! It took a whole month longer due to 2 RFEs (none of which I could've avoided) but now it's done! ))) Interesting enough, I can still log into the payment website....someone forgot to switch off my access?

Hey you should totally do that -- let people know what the RFEs and such were so they can avoid them?

But hey, it's all done now. I gotta ask you, your name is mikey78 so are you really a mikey as in a dude or are you a woman? I hate using the wrong pronoun here...

Thank you thank you thank you

Now I can write a couple of books: "A smart #### GUIDE to non-standard NVC processing" and "KILL your RFE before AVR has it"

I would never suspect mikey could appear gender-ambiguous B) LOL...in my case mikey as for a dude ...but I have a great contact with my feminine side Lgg, it would be fun if we ended up at the doctor's and in MTL at the same time...the last two people who interviewed the same day in MTL had their cases completed in May withing two weeks from each other...so

Hey! That's Holliday and I that you're talking about. Actually, if you can get together with someone else for dinner the night before or a drink or something, you'll find it does relieve some of the stress - particularly if you're travelling alone like Holliday was. We may have had too many drinks though.

Also, you cannot be more correct about the NVC being totally full of ####### about scheduling interviews the second week of the month. While that is true for MOST countries, it is definitely NOT true for Canada.

Congrats and good luck on your interview wait! We found that to be the hardest wait of all, so hang in there.

Dear FFFF's,

If anyone still remember us...

I rescheduled my interview for Aug 25th. After 40 min conversation with the Council, she finally gave me a little American flag pin with "Congratulations", stamped "Approved" on my DS-230 and that was all. :dance::dancing:

"Your visa will be delivered in 2-3 business days, have a safe flight to USA and also, congratulations on your pregnancy" :dance::dancing:

Ahh, I haven't slept well the last few days. Going to rest, and promise to leave an interview review later.

Yea!! Congrats!!

Are you able to track your envelope with Canada Post yet?

Nope, not able to track it at all and I'm sweating this one out BIG time. We'll have a moving truck to reschedule, a trailer for the car he's rebuilding to reschedule and three people who will need to change their days off to help us move if it doesn't show up. Normally I deal with stress pretty well, but I'm really worried about this. If I could just track the darn thing I'd feel a whole lot better. I have this sneaky feeling we're not going to get it. I sent Montreal an email telling them that our tracking number isn't working (making it sound like it's Canada Post's fault) and then I did a major suck up dance about how much I'd really appreciate it if they can tell me when it was shipped. Not that I think I'll ever hear back from them with anything more than their standard reply about waiting two weeks, but I figured it was worth a shot.

Congrats S&F and DesiDon! Woohoo!!

BTW, welcome back Kevin. Glad your trip went so well.

OMG what a funny dream, loves it! One time my Mom saw VJ and Kathryn's avatar and said "is that really what she looks like?"

My husband said exactly the same thing and said she was beautiful. He was sitting in the same chair with me, so I popped him in the head and said, "That's anime you goofball," to which he replied, "What's anime?" He really needs to get out more. God help me.

The elevator thing is hilarious isn't it? We actually saw a guy get to the top, was facing the wrong way, and then started freaking out but never bothered to turn around and look behind him. The doors closed and he was sent back down to the bottom floor

I love it! We saw a similar thing happen. There was a guy who got to the top, the doors opened, he sloooowwwwly looked over his shoulder to see the room full of people and then freaked a little, pushed the button really fast and went back down. My husband laughed and said he would be back in a minute and a few minutes later, there he was. I'm not sure I could have gotten off the elevator the second time out of shear embarassment/stupidity.

For starters, we went to dinner with Holliday the evening before the interview and had an AWESOME time. She's a great person - lots of fun, very conversational and easy to get to know. I can't wait to meet her husband one day. I think there will be a road trip from Indiana to Oklahoma coming.

The next morning, we showed up at the embassy at 7:00 to find Holliday and one other man there. People started showing up shortly after that and it was quite the line by the time they opened the doors at 7:30. As stated by others, they were prompt with the 7:30 door opening and 7:45 elevator arrival. I have to admit that I loved walking in the elevator and knowing which way to face since the door opens on the other side. Later on, this became a source of entertainment for my husband and I, but I'll get to that in a minute. We received the letter C.

Letter A and Holliday (letter B) were called back to windows and had both returned before we were called back. I wasn't nervous at all but my husband was shaking in his boots and when Holliday came back with her b1tchy lady story, I have to admit I think my blood presure went up a bit. However, we were called back and had a wonderful lady. She basically confirmed every single piece of information on the DS-230 and unlike the woman that Holliday had, she read the info directly to us and just asked us to confirm it was still correct. She also did the fingerprinting at the same time which letter A guy and Holliday went back later to do. We were done with all of that around 8:25 and went back to await the interview. This is when the real fun started. Note the sarcasm.

There were two people doing interviews - a man and a woman. Holliday was called back first and was done before anyone else was called back. We had been talking to letter A guy and wondering why he hadn't been called back, but he finally was called around 9:30 by the woman. About that time, the man started calling more people and one after another after another after another went in and came out approved while we continued to sit. It was a shade after 10 and my husband, who was already stressing, started to freak a little. I kept talking him off the ledge and saying that we were probably scheduled to go into the woman after the letter A but since his was taking so long, I was sure we'd be up next in the same room. Little did I know that I was wrong - kind of.

After letter A guy came out, we continued to sit as more people were called into the woman for interviews. A few of these people were there first thing in the morning, but then it went on so long, people were called in before us that we watched arrive around 9:00. Needless to say, my husband's freaking level went sky high and I started to get concerned also. By 11:00 we had been waiting just short of three hours and decided we should try to find out what was going on. They had gone through 19 interviews by this time and there were only three couples still waiting. The problem - how in the world do you ask someone a question? When I would stroll back to the windows, they were always with someone and if they weren't, then they wouldn't be sitting in their windows. So until 11:30, we tried to figure out who to ask. We decided to try the security guard but I have to admit that I was nervous about raising an issue since these people were holding our future in their hands.

After multiple trips back to find someone at an empty window, my husband went to the security guard. He said he noticed how long we had been there and would check into it. Ten minutes later we were called in. The story we got was that we were originally second in the queue for an interview with the woman (just like I had thought) when her computer went down. When it came back up, somehow we dropped out of the queue and they had completely forgotten about us. #######? How does THAT happen? And even if we did drop out of the queue on the computer, did anyone happen to notice our inch thick file sitting there? Geez! I have to admit I was totally shocked that they just admitted they forgot us, but I did appreciate the way she apologized forwards and backwards. She only asked us how we met, how he proposed and if he would have medical insurance and we were out of there. I don't think we were even there for five minutes after waiting almost four hours.

We had visions of a nice kiss after the approval, I figured I would probably get teary eyed and then we were going out for a celebration lunch but none of that happened. We were 100% mentally exhausted. We had started snapping at each other a little during the long wait (out of frustration), started hating the beautiful view of Montreal out the windows and were starving. The only thing that kept us partially sane was the Wunderbar Holliday bought me (my first one - YUM!) and continually watching the elevator doors open with people facing the wrong way. That was hilarious. So we went back to the room, called/texted our friends and family, ate some lunch and promptly fell asleep. I know it sounds a little dramatic, but we truly were exhausted. For all of those hours we were wondering what was wrong with our case and trying to keep the other one calm and we were just beat - totally brain dead.

We made up for it the next day though as once we had a lot of sleep and general down time, we felt great on Thursday and spent the whole time in Old Montreal. All in all, it's hard to b1tch about it since we were approved with no problem, but we definitely felt like they sucked the joy out of it. We never really got to enjoy the approval until the next day. I simply cannot understand how someone can be forgotten. Oh well, we got what we wanted and are ready to move as soon as the visa shows up, so all is good.

Thanks SO much to everyone on VJ. Whether we asked you a question directly or found answers in your previous posts, we appreciate each and every one of you. There's no way we could have done it without you.

Thanks for the address Trailmix. I think I'm going to be using it to complain after our move is over. I'll write my review of the BS tomorrow as I'm really sleepy right now (just got home from Montreal a few minutes ago), but I'm still irritated over what happened with our case.

I GOT IT!!

I received an email from Canada Post this morning because I was tracking my envelope, and it said it was delivered at 11:59am (but the email was at 9:43am). I checked the mail at 11:00 and nothing... I checked again right at 12:00 and it was there! Canada Post can tell the future! Oh man. I'm giddy.

I HAVE A VISA! This is craziness!

Whoa!! That is EXCELLENT news, particularly from my own selfish standpoint. We are very afraid that we won't get it in time to move next weekend, so since you have yours, I'd think ours isn't far behind... unless they forget about us like they did with the interview. lol At least I'm starting to laugh about it now.

Thanks so much everyone. Couldn't have done it without all of the help. I'll post a review next week when I get home from Montreal but as a snippet now, there's nothing like the consulate forgetting about you. I could have beat them with a stick. lol At least it all turned out well. Thanks again!

I'm so sorry that you guys had to wait so long! Are they allowing you back to pick up the visa tomorrow or Friday? I hope so, considering what they put you through! Also, did you find out how things went for the "A" man? He was really nice. Also, did you enjoy the Wunderbar? I hope you guys get to relax now and enjoy Montreal for the next couple of days!

Nope, not allowing us to pick up the visa. They said we could only do it if there were "special circumstances" and my old brain just couldn't think of a lie for a special circumstance fast enough darn it. Must have been all the wine the night before. lol The letter A guy had to wait forever too. He only got in about an hour before us. There were some major problems going on behind the scenes with the files for all of us interviewing with the lady in room 7, but in the end, he was approved and all is good. He medical wasn't complete yet so he won't be getting the visa in the mail anytime soon like you and I, but he knew that going in so he was cool with it.

The Wunderbar was FABULOUS! Could be my new favorite candy bar in Canada. Thanks so much for that! Actually, it really helped a lot because after waiting there for so long, I got hungry. Well, I guess I better hit the shower and head over to Old Montreal for the day.

Congrats Mumtaz!! I didn't do a very good job reading all of the updates since I'm in a little rush, so if I missed any other approvals, congrats to you too! Everyone else, I guess there's not much to say but keep hanging in there and try to keep your chins up. I know it must be just awful continuing to wait.

BTW V, we'll totally do Dallas. Holliday is a very cool chick and we'll all have a great time for sure.

Hi everyone, we were approved also, although many hours after Holliday. They actually "forgot" about us and we had to wait over 3 hours just for the interview portion. Idiots. lol I think we'd still be sitting in there if my husband didn't finally go ask what the heck was going on. Anyway, I'll write a review next week when I'm back from Montreal. Thanks SO much to everyone here who's been so helpful to me. I couldn't have done it without you.

Thanks so much everyone. Couldn't have done it without all of the help. I'll post a review next week when I get home from Montreal but as a snippet now, there's nothing like the consulate forgetting about you. I could have beat them with a stick. lol At least it all turned out well. Thanks again!

Thanks so much everyone. We're sitting in our hotel room in Montreal right now waiting to go meet Holliday for dinner shortly. Think good thoughts for us and hopefully Holliday and I will both be online tomorrow with good news. Thanks again!

Thanks for the well wishes Serendipity. Look at you! Your POE date says today? Woohoo!! You didn't waste any time girl! Good for you. Hope everything goes well at the POE and you get a wonderful weekend to start your new life.

You say its been 8 weeks since your case was completed at NVC, but do you know exactly when Montreal received your case and logged it into the system? Sometimes this can take longer than you'd expect. It took our case almost a month to travel from the NVC, to Montreal, then for the consulate to receive and process us. I know K-1 are quite different, but the wait times when you get to the consulate are normally quite similar. I would call DOS and ask them when Montreal logged your case, if you don't know already, and you may find you haven't really been waiting as long as you think. I know this doesn't help the situation much, but you'd at least have a better understanding of where you're at as far as wait times go. But, I completely understand your pain, waiting on the interview is the worst part of the process, there are so many unknowns! Best of luck to you and let us know how it goes. Just as a tip, I found e-mailing Montreal to be the most effective way of getting a direct response!

Thanks for the suggestions! I have called the NVC and I got the impression that they don't forward the case until the interview is scheduled, but who knows? I will start calling the NVC on Monday to see what's going and maybe e-mail the consulate as well to see if they've received anything - good idea. Thanks.

You are exactly correct. For CR1/IR1 visas, your case will not be sent to the consulate until after your interview is scheduled. Definitely start calling them on Monday. Their window will totally be lapsed by then. Just from watching the timeline thread for Montreal CR1/IR1 interviews, I really would guess that you'll get scheduled during the last two weeks of this month.

Montreal schedules interviews in a crazy way that I think none of us has yet to figure out. I know eight weeks is a long time to wait. The wait time to find out the interview date was definitely the hardest for us and I think most people around here would agree with that. Hang in there because Montreal most definitely does NOT schedule interviews during the second week of the month like most countries. We received our date on the 23rd of the month and several others did also. I wouldn't be surprised if you hear from them later this month, however, don't be shocked if it's in October or at least very late September. Best of luck!

It's nice to hear things are going so well, minus the thumb of course. Best wishes and thanks so much for the update.

My husband just got the call from his boss that they are going to let him keep doing his same job when he moves to the US and simply work out of our office down here (we work for the same company but different divisions). Woohoo!!!! No reading the unemployment section of the Canada forum, no filling out forms, no making resumes, no job hunting, no carrying him on my healthcare plan and $70K+ falling into my lap. Man, does it get better than this??! Now all we have to do is ace the interview next week and we're good to go. Minor detail.