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Average Rating: 4.2
/ 5
1649 Review(s)
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| Montreal, Canada |  Review #4922 on September 2, 2009: |
nathandace
Rating: 
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I went to the montreal consulate for 7:30am (my appointment was at 8). There were only a handful of people waiting to go throguh security before me. Went through security, then sat in a waiting room for about a half hour. A guard came to get the group of people in the waiting room, and brought us up to the 19th floor. We were given two tickets with a number, and waited until our number was called. This took about a half an hour. Once my number was called, I went to the booth, exchanged forms,then the lady pulled out my file, made notes, sent me to pay the fee, finger printed me, and asked me questions. She then gave me the second ticket back, and told me to wait in the waiting room. This took another half hour. Was called in for my interview, the interviewer was very friendly, asked me very basic questions about my relationship, gave me a welcome letter, and a slip to pick up my visa the following day. They apparently dont do that very often, only for special circumstances. I was back in my hotel room by 10:15am. The next day I went back to pick up my visa, was in the consulate for almost two hours. Someone had attached my file with another, I had to be interviewed a second time, wait for the two files to be separated, and wait for the consulate to fix/print my visa. During this time I had missed my train home, and had to pay full fare for two tickets. My experience regarding the interview, and the events leading up to the interview was good. I had no problems. It was the frustrating experience that I had the following day that took away from the 'very good' experience that I had. If that makes any sense?
| | | Vancouver, Canada | Review #4919 on September 2, 2009: |
Jauque
Rating: 
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Really simple, the whole thing took about 3 hours. When we got there the electricity was down so we had to wiat about 30 minutes for it to come back up and then once we got upstairs we had to wait another hour for the computers to come back up. All and all the actual interview only took about 10 minutes.
She asked me:
1) When we first met.
2) When we got enganged.
3) When we first met in person.
4) How we met.
5) What he did for a living.
6) How much money he made.
She then said okay this is all fine take this over to my colleage at window 2. I got there she gave me a paper notifying me to reappear with my medical results. I came back with my medical results the next day and she gave me my visas the day after that.
The worst thing about the interview was where its located. There was a demonstration going on at the time, which I'm sure is normal but the pictures of bloody beaten people plastering the sidewalk was abit alarming for my daughter.
Also it's a pain in the butt driving in and out of downtown vancouver, if I had it to do over again I would figure out the bus or skytram schedule.
| | | Montreal, Canada | Review #4892 on August 26, 2009: |
StephyD
Rating:
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Overall the experience was better than I thought. I got to the embassy on a rainy morning at about 725am.Doors opened around 745am. Everyone on here said to get there so much earlier, but I didnt want to stand around, knowing no matter what I would be waiting inside eventually. I was 4th in line, and about 6 people came after. The first woman brough a carry on suitcase, so she had to leave and come back. Bumped me up to 3rd. I had my passport ready, and went through security, then down the steps to a dingy looking basement. I was given letter 'B' during the security check. About 5-10 mins later a guard came to take letters a-b which was myself and a couple. Then up we went to the 19th floor with a gorgeous view on Montreal. The guard was so friendly and sat us in an area near the left. I was called up about 20 mins later to give my paperwork. I was organized and prepped and even still the woman was a tad impatient. It was early on a Friday morning, so i'll let that pass. I sat down, called up again, paid at another window, sat again. Evenutally i had my interview in room 8, and that woman was so nice. It took about 10 mins.She asked how we met, what he does, what i want to do, etc. Then she welcomed me to the states. Then i hit the bathroom, which is close to the seating area if you need to run in while waiting, makes it quick and easy if youre stressed about missing your name called. I was done it all by 930am. It was quick and my best advice is to be organized as much as possible, and they'll be happy. I would say it was a painless experience for such a daunting task.
| | | Montreal, Canada | Review #4887 on August 24, 2009: |
Walt and Shannon
Rating:
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: K1 Visa
The most stressful part of the trip was the airline losing my baggage. I got to the interview early, about 7 am and was the first in line. They let us in about 7:45, we went through security, given numbers and waited in a sitting room for the security guard to come get us. He did, and we went upstairs to wait again. I was called, gave the lady my documents and she took fingerprints. Then I paid the cashier. Soon they called me, I went to an interrogation-like room for the interview. The agent was very nice, and seemed convinced our relationship was legit. I supplied photos, phone bills, emails, etc. but he didn't even look at them.
It lasted about 10 minutes and he granted me my visa. Very low-stress experience, other than I made the mistake of waiting for my cab in the entrance and a rude guard told me I couldn't wait inside.
| | | Montreal, Canada | Review #4883 on August 23, 2009: |
SomberCat
Rating:
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
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 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. WTF? 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.
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