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| Montreal, Canada |  Review on September 22, 2014: |
nightingalejules
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
Everything went great!
I arrived at about 7:30 for an 8:30 appointment, and there was already quite a long lineup. Checked in at the side door - the security guard was quite helpful when I was having trouble with my purse, documents binder and empty coffee cup. (8:30 eastern felt like 5:30am given that I'd arrived from Vancouver the day before)
Checked my keys and cellphone at the security desk and headed upstairs. I didn't feel like forcing my way through the crowd, so I was near the front of the second elevator to go up. There were a lot of people but almost all of them were there for non-immigrant visas, so the girl at "reception" gave me #4 for immigrant visas, and told me to sit in the waiting area farthest from the interview windows.
The laminated card with your number on it has a list of things you will need to provide at the first window: Interview Letter, Passport, Pictures, and Medical report, so I had those all ready. If you did EP, the first window is also where you'll provide them the originals of all your documents (birth cert, marriage cert, I-864(s) etc)
Had a nice chat with another couple, who had #3, and we waited to be called. When they called #4 to window 2, I went there and provided all the necessary documents (I had them well organized in order at the front of my binder and the woman at the desk smiled and said "Wow! Someone's prepared!"), had my fingerprints taken (all my years of piano lessons made me do it wrong at first... put your whole fingers flat on the glass, not just your fingertips) and then sent me back to wait to be called to window 7 (a bit more private but you still don't get to sit down).
I saw the couples with #1 and #2 get called in and then come out smiling, which put me a bit more at ease - I was a bit worried about the domicile requirement, which everyone says is tough at Montreal, but it looked like the officer was in an approving mood!
Finally got called to window 7 and the woman there was very friendly and put me at ease. She asked me how long ago we met, and then asked if we'd been dating all that time (I said, "Well, we started hanging out as friends, which then developed into dating, and so on... and we got married last summer"). Then she asked for my address, and my husbands, and I said he lived in Vancouver with me. She asked where we'd be living in the US, and I gave her the address, and told her it was his Mom's house, where we'd be living until we got our feet under us.
She asked about what he'd be doing for work, and I told her that he had joined the Portland local of the Musicians' Union which also registered him as a music teacher (she seemed impressed by that - I guess a union makes it seem more like a "real job") and then asked what we had done to plan our move to the US, and I told her we were planning on selling most of our furniture and just moving our belongings, and we'd gotten a quote from U-Pack for the move. She asked to see the quote, and I showed it to her.
Then she said I was approved, gave me the "Welcome to America" letter, and told me they were going to keep my passport and send it back to me in 5-10 business days!
Later I checked on the CEAC website, just to see where it said "ISSUED" - boy did that feel good!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #15237