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| Montreal, Canada |  Review on November 19, 2012: |
amberlynnloves
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
We stayed at the Candlewood Suites at 191 Renè-Lèvesque Blvd E, Montreal. This hotel is nice. Speaks French and English. The rooms are huge and have full size kitchens with stove, oven, dishwasher, TV and DVD player. They are pretty decent priced around $100 a night plus tax. It is only about 10 minute walk to the Consulate.
Montreal Consulate:
We arrived around 6:45AM and waited outside until 7:30 when the guards opened the doors. We were waiting with another VJ couple so that was nice to talk to them and joke around. It set my fiance (Canadian) and myself (USC) at ease. Sort of made any nervousness go away!
We were let in. We only brought our hotel room key, IDs and small folder with all of our stuff in it. The people behind us were turned away because they had large purses and briefcases. Do NOT bring any purses. Even if YOU think it's small. We went through security and down the stairs to the holding area. They do have passport photo booth where you get 6 passport pictures for $10. It only accepts $10 bills. So make sure you have change. (Side Note: If you sent the required number of passport pictures with your Package 3, they didn't even ask us for more.)
We took the elevator to the 19th floor with everyone. They packed us in there. It was crowded so be prepared to get close and personal to everyone else. We got off the elevator and immediately went to the left to window 14A to get our numbers. They ask for appointment confirmation page. We used the one that was emailed to us after booking our appointment and this was fine. We got number C3. We were immediately called to window 3 where a VERY nice lady helped us and took my fiance's birth certificate (original and copy), police certificate (just original), my I-134 support form with 2010 and 2011 tax transcripts. They took his finger prints and went over all the paperwork and she checked off the list. We had a pretty simple case as neither of us have children or were married before. This process took about 15 minutes.
We then went back to sit down close to our new VJ friends we met and talked for about 20 minutes before we were called up to window 7. The guy welcomed us to the United States Consulate General and swore us in. He went through our paperwork, confirmed what I did for a living and what my fiance did for a living. Asked where I lived. Asked where he lived. Asked how we met. He made a small joke about what took us so long to meet. We waited 10 years to meet in person because we only met each other online when we were 13-14 years old. He had my fiance sign a paper that says he will register for Selective Services within 30 days of his arrival in the US.
He then said "Looks like everything is together here in the file" and starts typing. This is when my heart started beating SUPER fast! He looked us both in the eyes and said "I am authorizing your Visa!" I about lost it. As a single tear rolled down my cheek, I looked at my fiance and was relieved we were done with this stage at least.
We walked back to the elevators and gave our new friends the thumbs up that we had met they all said congratulations and we got on the elevator go back to the basement. We walked out of the Consulate by 9:15AM and took the VERY cold walk back to our hotel.
All in all, it was the easiest part. It is done. And now we get to plan all the fun stuff...and actually set plans in stone! YAY!
Good luck to all of the VJers out there! Just focus on the stuff that happens after the interview. It's a piece of cake!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #10906