JasonE

Greetings all,

I was wondering if anyone could help me figure out what to do about this?? My wife(Canadian) entered US via Buffalo back on 31 May 2010 with a CR-1 Permanent Resident visa stamp in her passport. The welcome letter states that the actual grren card should be recieved by mail within 60 days. It hasn't quite been 60 days, but we are moving next week and I'm skeptical that it we will recieve it before then. My question is 1) what do we do if we haven't recieved the card after 60 days? and 2) how and with which agency do permenent residents change there addresses when they move??

Perfect! Exactly what I needed to know

Thanks so much for that!

After an excruciatingly long and tortuous petitioning process, my wife(Canadian) FINALLY got her immigrant visa approved and has rejoined me here in the States. I was wondering what other people's experience has been obtaining ss numbers after arrival in the States. We asked for a ss number when we filed our petition(On the DS-230 I think??) Has anyone else done that? And how long did it take for the card to arrive?? My wife is a nurse and cant get a license here in Georgia without it?!??!

My wife and I just finished our visa petition(IR-1) on May 10th and it took 4 months from the time NVC completed and sent our file to Montreal until our interview. So prepare to wait

Also, Canada Post lost our appointment letter and we were still able to schedule and complete the medical exam at the MD's office in Toronto without the appointment letter. The MD's office initially told us they needed the appointment letter to conduct the medical, but they went ahead and did it without the letter. They were very friendly and helpful.

Good Luck

Sorry to create the confusion. We had an attorney prepare our petition and he regularly told us that we were filing directly withthe Consulate, so thats why I thought thats what we were doing. It seems as if CONFUSION is the norm when it comes to US immigration.

Yes, it does seems that our case took longer than most.. very frustrating as our case was cut and dry. I guess my point was that foregoing the K-visa seemed to be a shorter, easier to understand and ultimately clearer path to the end. But thats just my opinion. It felt like we needed an act of Congress to keep our petition moving... pulling teeth every step of the way. Which leads me to my next point: Use your Congressional reps to your advantage! We asked for help on several occasions, and were immediately rewarded with results. In fact, our I-130 was approved the DAY AFTER I CONTACTED MY SENATOR!!

Someone asked about visiting while the petition is pending.. We choose not to even try. We'd had some trouble at the border on previous occasions(even though we never did anything wrong) and once you are on CBP's radar your're screwed. I know for a fact that Canadian's with pending immigration petitions have been able to enter the US on thier passports, but it's entirely up the CBP officer. So you can try, but I would be prepared to be turned back. If you do try, bring as much as evidence as you can of an ongoing life in Canada.. mortgage, lease agreement, letter of employment, bank records, current utlilty bills... the more the better.

Sory again for the confusion..thanks for the Congrats

Congratulations! It will be nice to have another Canadian in Georgia .

I just have one question - I am curious how were you able to file the I-130 application at a US Consulate in Canada (which is what Direct Consular Filing -DCF- means) since you yourself did not have proof of legal residency in Canada and were not residing in Canada? Did you mean you decided to pursue the IR-1 instead of the K-3, but still initiated the process by filing the I-130 here in the US?

So DCF is actually a slang term that can mean several different things. In our case it refers to the manner in which our petition was handled. Our I-130(which results in IR-1)/I-129(which results in the K) petitions were first filed in the US and processed first by the USCIS. We indicated to them that we wanted to file directly with the Consulate. So they forwarded the approved petition to the NVC, who then forwarded the completed package to the Consulate. Its just a different means to the same end. It eliminates alot of the back and forth mailing and reduces the confusion over what to send, when to send it, and who it goes to..... in my opinion...and I'm certainly no expert..just speaking from our experience

Greetings all,

My wife(Canadian) and I(USC) had our interview in Montreal on Monday the 10th and were granted our IR1 immigrant visa! The interview was a breeze(5 mins max) and we were outta there in time to go have a nap before the Habs game that night. I thought I'd share my experience with those of you still going thru the process and those about to begin, in the hopes that the info will help others avoid the same mistake we made and give some comfort to those at wits end.

So here goes, we went the DCF route mainly due the fact that my wife was finishing her Master's at U of T and we knew she had to be in Canada for the better part of last year. I, BTW, have been living in Georgia the entire time working on my own degree(Yes we're gluttons for punishment)

Start to finish took about 14 months, which is a fairly typical time frame for DCF. Just to be clear, the USC DOES NOT have be in Canada or whatever country in oder to DCF. We filed the I-130 and the I-129 simultaneously, which I would advise everyone to do. It doesn't cost any more and this allows you to take whichever one gets processed first. the I-129's are supposed to be approved more quickly, but in our case they were approved at the same time. So we went ahead and declined the K-visa route in favor of finishing more quickly. The NVC handles this portion of the process, and we found it much easier to assemble EXACTLY what documents were needed this way. The NVC is far more competent at communicating with petitioners and they will tell you exactly what you need and when you need it. This means by the time of the interview most of the subjective decision making is done and that when we had our visa interview the green card was approved that day and my wife can work as soon as they mail it back to her and she can get down here...and thats it!! Fees are already paid and Done!! When you go the K Visa route, you may or may not be able to be together more quickly and the interview is much more rigorous. The only thing we had to bring was the medical, not a huge folder with pictures, AOS's, domicile and on and on and on... not to mention the fact that you must Adjust Status at some point down the road (more paperwork and bureaucracy blah!!!)

So there it is, for what its worth. One last word of advice... Get your congressman involved early and often! They all have underlings that handle this kind of stuff, so use them. Write, call whatever..just do it. The USCIS and NVC and the consulate all respond with much greater urgency when the boss calls!

Good luck and feel free to post questions. i'll answer the best I can

My wife lives in Canada, Toronto to be exact and I go up every month or so.... never had a problem. Just like everyone else has stressed, just be honest. I would definitely have a round trip ticket! One way tix are a HUGE red flag to border control. Just buy a return date for your approximate return and buy the ticket insurance that allows you to change the date. I would also take proof of continuing life in the states... employment verification, lease agreement.. something. Better to have and not need than the other way around

Yep... Long story, but through some political connections we got in touch with the Consular section chief and he emailed us our appointment letter, and my wife was able to convince the MD's office to complete the medical. With out that back channel connection we'd be up the creek. I have absolutely NO explanation for why we never received our packet 4, but I'm just happy we got everything sorted out.

Thanks to all who gave advice and good luck to those still waiting. I'd encourage everyone here to utilize their congressional reps to their advantage... thats what they are there for!!

Have you had any word from Montreal yet? Or been able to schedule your medical?

Like trailmix said!! And email daily!!

Thanks again for the advice everybody.

We emailed the consulate a few days ago with the case number and interview date in the subject line and we got an automated email back saying they'd get back to us in a couple of weeks!???! Silly

So I guess we're just gonna do what we can, hope for the best and expect the worst.

Shheeeeesh

Thanks for those replies guys. i called DOS and asked them about emailing us an appointment letter and they said "No we don't do that" Are you absolutely positive that we won't be allowed to interview without the letter??? Seems like if we're on list they should let us in right?

We explained the situation to the MD's office and they said we'll need the letter to conduct the medical. Weird

Anyway, the other part of the problem I failed to mention is that my wife moved several months ago. She had her address officially changed and she's been consistently receiving her mail from the old address, but I wonder if the appointment letter is something that is not permitted to be forwarded???

Any other advice on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks again

j.

Hi and welcome,

Don't wait and have the medical, some wait 4 weeks after submission of further evidence, some wait much longer - unless you absolutely don't care about waiting for additional processing time after the interview - you should get that letter now.

As for the medical, when you called to book, did you mention to them the mix up with the interview letter? You should insist that they book the appointment and if you don't have anything in your hand on the day, give DOS a call while you are in the office and have them confirm your interview date.

Don't know why they are giving you a hassle, it's no loss to them if you pay for your medical!

For the actual interview day, your name should be on their list anyway, but as SDW mentioned, hopefully DOS can email you something.

So my wife(Canadian) and I(American) filled our 1-130 by DCF back on April 14th 2009 and we just got our interview appointment for May 10th in Montreal. Good news right? The thing is we haven't received any official notification. The only reason we are aware of out appointment date is because we called the DOS number and they informed us of the date. We were originally scheduled for June 10th(also no official communication), but a cancellation allowed us to move up. Because we chose the DCF route to get our CR-1, I'm pretty sure all we need is the medical for my wife. as all the other documents are already in the file at Montreal.

Questions:

Will we be allowed to interview without the appointment letter?

The MD's office says they won't do the medical without the appointment letter. What will happen if we interview without the medical? Will they conduct the interview and just table the visa until the receive it??

Anybody else have something like this happen?

Thanks in advance

J.