astronaut

Hey there! Hope you're having a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. Although some of us may not be where we want to be, with our loved ones in the US, there still is much to be thankful for. A place to live, food to eat, and the blessings we can enjoy compared to others in developing countries. Wishing you all the best this weekend!

My guess here, and it's just a guess, is that they want it to be a religious reason. The reason I'm thinking that is in some US states, parents can sign a vaccination waiver for their kids going to school based on religious reasons. This is certainly something you'll want to know for sure, rather than file paper work on an assumption.

Totally agree on the vaccination concerns that you've mentioned.

Wish I could be more helpful.

Congrats. You are blessed.

No we didn't. Not at the part of the process yet. Just looking ahead. Would be interested if others are successfull with the waiver though.

Fescobar, I'm truly happy for you that your wife received the K3. This is the way it should be for so many others to be allowed this process, but anytime something great happens for another person, it's a celebration! Congratulations, so excited for this to happen for you!

I think the question here is, WHO makes the decisions for how MTL is handling things? Does anyone know? Who can we send an e-mail to or and ask for change? Someone must be making these decisions and be held responsible.

Even though our approved I130 was sent to the NVC seperate from the approved I129F, the K3 app was still closed down.

Speaking of the NVC and bad info, they told me that when I go to MTL I just have to show intent to provide domicile, not actually have any proof. When I told the rep at the NVC that I'm hearing from real people who are telling of their interviews in MTL where proof of domicile was manditory, she responded that intent to provide domicile was what she had been told. hmph!

The gov't is also sending mixed signals to people though about the immigration process as well. I've had 2 attys tell me about the 30, 60 90 day rule. As explained to me, if you enter the US, try to AOS in 30 days, they'll think you came to the US with intent and deny. I was told back in Jan that many clients AOS after 60 days and have no problem whatsovever, no questions asked about intent. If the gov't says one cannot enter the country with intent, but chooses not to inquire about intent after someone waits to AOS after 60 days, what message does that send? I can see how it would be tempting.

How did the interview go? Hope you have great news.

Hi there. You'll find many resources here on the site that will help you discover timelines. Ours was recently approved, and it took about 5 months.

Hi there wonderful moderators. I'm sure your hands are full with a lot of work already, but I thought it would be cool to somehow connect with others who are planning to reside in the same state or region once the immigration/visa process is approved. It would be cool! Any way of doing this? It could be similar to the forum section listed by Countries, except listing countries, it would be a list of states.

Canadian redneck, if you talk to an immigration atty, they can advise what you can do if you happen to find yourself in the US visiting your spouse and the "30-60-90 day rule" in applying for AOS.

Has anyone sent an e-mail to Vancouver to request that they process their CR1/IR1 just to see what they say? Somebody somewhere makes the decision as to which consulate processes certain types of applications. Anyone know who that decision maker would be and how to contact him/her?

Yeah, I wonder how the NVC and consulates would handle that senario!

The absurdity of this all...it would be easier & faster to divorce my spouse and file for a K1, then re-marry again in the States!

I feel your pain. It's a similar path that I've been on as well. Is there a Senator or Congressman from the state you reside or have ties to that you could contact? If we all contact politicians, perhaps something could happen.

While we wait and feel somewhat helpless, at least a well worded letter to a politician can maybe do some good. Did you know that Vancouver used to process CR1/IR1 apps? The man at the Vancouver consulate who did our children's register of birth abroad told me he used to do the CR1/IR1's. One day he was notified that department was being closed, so now he works on other things. The point is, they already have someone in Vancouver who knows how to and has experience with processing those apps!

What about contacting Senators and Congressmen in the states where you have residency or roots in? The K3 Visa was eliminated because the NVC said IR1/CR1 was just as fast. Someone needs to tell them the system is getting bogged down again. Will it be you? Believe me I've had ongoing discussions with our Senator's office, and they've been receptive, sympathetic and have followed up on a few things.

As a whole the K3 may not be superior for some, but for others like myself the K3 would have been so much better in our situation. First of all the CR1-IR1 interview wait times are starting to really back up. About 4-5 months after the consulate receives the approved paperwork from what I understand. That is much slower than a K3 would have been for us.

Then there's the thing that frustrates me that we live an hour away from Vancouver's consulate, but they don't process CR1/IR1's, so now we need to book a flight to Montreal rather than a K3 visa close to home.

I almost wonder by phoning the NVC if you could be alerting them to the issue, and then they'd close the K3 ap due to the phone call. I wondered that when I phoned...like I informed them, and because of it they closed it. Just a gut feeling though. I heard from my atty that some K3 apps were getting through to consulates in Canada, but then the consulate was deciding to follow up and close them down. If your K3 has made it to the consulate, I would be happy, go to the meeting, and pretend like no one is closing K3 apps at the NVC. It will be interesting to find out how it goes! Of course this depends on how difficult it would be for you to travel to the appointment.

aila.org has immigration atty referalls, and they often do a free consultation. I paid $250 for a consulation with one atty and found that I honestly knew more about many of the issues than she did. After that fiasco, I found an atty through aila.org

K3 visa's are not an option any longer. Several of us here at VJ have still sent in I129F aps in hopes of still getting it so far. No such luck.

My husband and I met online in the early days of the internet in 1994. Back then, there were 2 main choices to go online: AOL and Prodigy. My husband just got a computer and signed into prodigy, while one of my co-workers showed me how Prodigy and the internet worked. I posted a personal ad for fun, he replied, and there you have it! I had no idea where Alberta was, although I had heard of Calgary from the Olympics. Never had heard of Wayne Gretzky! We spent about $400 per month each for long distance phone calls, sent pictures to each other and made videos of our towns and sent to each other. We finally met in early '95 and were married later that year. I still have stacks and stacks of most of the e-mails we sent to each other back then.

I think people assume that it's quick and easy to marry and move to the US because not that long ago it used to be that way. So much has changed in the last 12 years since my husband got his permanent residency in 1995. We called our senator, who put us in touch with a border crossing, who told us which forms to fill out and medical exam to take, RCMP finger prints, and 2 days after we married in Canada we crossed the border with a big welcome to my hubby...stamped papers for him to work, AP and all right on the spot! Sad that we didn't know what it would have been like at this point in our lives. Maybe we would have stayed longer in the states, got his US Citizenship, and then moved back to Canada for a couple of years to take care of his aging parents.

This is putting a financial strain on us, and the earlier comment of 7 months to process...that must have been for the K1. We're doing the CR1 which is longer.