catnipyosh

I know from experience that even the 'mail' from the Sydney (Australia) Consulate isn't paper mail. It's all email. So you'd really only have to go there for your interview, and not wait around in Australia for Packet 3 and 4.

So actually I would be reluctant to move back to Australia with the idea of still having the visa interview in Vancouver. As I mentioned in the previous post, the Vancouver Consulate sent my fiancee (a Japanese citizen in Vancouver on a working-holiday visa) a letter by snail mail to her address in Canada asking her to send evidence that she actually has a work permit.

Also, if the beneficiary moves, he or she is obligated by law to inform the government of the address change. And when you fill out the paperwork for the visa, you have to list your current address, and if it's not in the country where the embassy is located, they won't process you there.

That being said, if you are currently living in Canada on a working holiday visa, and think there's a good chance that the fiancee petition will be approved before your visa expires or you plan to move back to Australia, by all means list Vancouver as your consulate of choice. If it turns out that processing is slower than you thought, you can always contact USCIS/State Department and change your requested consulate to Australia.

One final note -- if it looks like it's going to be a tight turnaround (i.e. your petition will be approved only a few months before your visa expires), I would definitely recommend having all of the paperwork you need for the visa interview in order, so that as soon as you receive Packet 3, you can send it back and schedule your interview date, and not have to be scrambling to get your police certificates (Australian AND Canadian), birth certificate, etc.

I'm an Australian citizen living in Vancouver, Canada on a working holiday visa - however I just read on the Vancouver Consulate website that they will not process K-1 visas unless you are a Canadian citizen or permanent resident.

I am neither of those, so they're saying I need to use the Montreal Consulate.

My fiancee is in the same boat (she's a Japanese citizen, but is on a working-holiday visa). We asked for the interview to be in Vancouver on the I-129F, and it was in fact sent to Vancouver. My fiancee got a letter yesterday from the Vancouver Consulate, which said:

We do not process applications for fiancee visas unless you are a canadian citizen,a landed immigrant in canada, on employment authorization, or are pursuing a full-time academic program of at least a year's duration. If you are in one of these categories, please provide evidence from a canadian authority.

I emailed the Consulate a copy of my fiancee's work permit, which should do the trick. Given that it takes about 3 months to get an interview at Montreal, you're better off at Vancouver if they will take you.

One last thing you will want to keep an eye on is when your work permit expires. It's taking USCIS like 5 or 6 months to process the initial I-129Fs, so if your visa expires before then, you'll probably end up having to go back to Australia. (But if I remember right, you guys get a 2-year work permit! For the Japanese working-holiday program, it's only a year...)

Good luck!

Did the expedite requests get approved yet? any words from USCIS??

I received the following message from the VSC in response to my request to expedite. It looks like they are automatically pulling all petitions with beneficiaries RESIDING in Japan (Japanese citizen or otherwise). Folks may want to follow up to make sure their cases have been flagged for expedition. This is the (redacted) text of the email response I received:

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

VERMONT SERVICE CENTER

75 LOWER WELDEN STREET

SAINT ALBANS,VT 05479

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Monday, March 28, 2011

Emailed to []@[]

Dear M. []:

On 03/25/2011 you, or the designated representative shown below, contacted us about your case. Some of the key information given to us at that time was the following:

Caller indicated they are:

-- Applicant or Petitioner

Attorney Name:

-- Information not available

Case type:

-- I129F

Filing date:

-- 01/xx/2011

Receipt #:

-- EAC-xxxxxxxxxxxx

Referral ID:

xxxxxxxxxxxVSC

Beneficiary (if you filed for someone else):

-- LAST NAME, First Name

Your USCIS Account Number (A-number):

-- 000000000

Type of service requested:

-- Expedite

The status of this service request is:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) understands that this is a difficult and emotional time for our fellow citizens with family and friends in countries recently affected by natural disasters. The Vermont Service Center (VSC) has identified all pending applications and petitions (including petitions that were returned from a U.S. Consulate or U.S. Embassy) where a resident of Haiti or Japan is involved. These cases will be processed in an expeditious manner.

If you have any further questions, please call the National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283.

Please remember: By law, every person who is not a U.S. citizen and who is over the age of 14 must submit Form AR-11 AND notify this office of their change of address, within 10 days from when they move (persons in "A" or "G" nonimmigrant status are exempt from this requirement). To notify this office of a move, visit our website at: www.uscis.gov or call the National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283. The Form AR-11 can be downloaded from our website or you can call the National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283 and we can order one for you. Instructions for filing the Form AR-11, including mailing instructions, are included on the Form.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Yes, it looks like she'll definitely need a Canadian police certificate -- fortunately, it looks like it's not so onerous to get one.

My bigger question is what, as a practical matter, will happen if the I-129F is approved close to the date when she will have to leave Canada -- where will the NVC send the packet on to?

On the VisaPro website, I found the following:

Say we're lucky and her I-129F is approved by USCIS in 5 months -- by the time it got to the consulate, she'd only have a month or so to get her visa. My biggest worry is that USCIS will decide she won't have enough time to get her visa while in Canada, and refuse to send the petition onto the Vancouver or Montreal consulate. But since she doesn't have a permanent residence in Japan or anywhere else, they will refuse to send it to Japan as well...

My fiancée is a Japanese citizen, on a 1-year "working holiday" visa in Canada, for whom I just filed a I-129F.

She has a little over 6 months left on her "working holiday" visa, after which point she will have to leave Canada. Judging by the processing times I've seen on the site, it often takes 6 months or more to go from filing the I-129F to actually getting the visa in hand. On the I-129F, her current residence is listed as Vancouver Canada, and in the cover letter I requested that her visa interview be conducted at the Vancouver consulate, but any ideas what USCIS will do if the approval of the I-129F approval comes close to the expiry of her visa?

For what it's worth, I noted in the cover letter that she is in Canada on a working holiday, noted the date when her visa expires, and included a copy of her Canadian visa in the application packet.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!