My wife's interview was on June 18.
I am american citizen and we have been married 24 years. My wife was worried since we purchased a home in michigan last September and started the immigration process in mid-august 2011. She "visited" our home in Michigan several times in the past 9 months and stayed as long as 1 month several times before returning "home" to Canada. She was worried this would " show up " on some record and somehow be a problem at the interview. it did not factor into the interview at all. we did meet one woman in line who had not seen her hubby for 7 months when she was turned away at the border because she took tools in her car when she visited her husband in minnesota. ( her husband was renoating a home he had purchased in MN )
We arrived 6:15am and were 2nd in line... we found out later that we lined up on the wrong side of the door... we lined up on the right next to the cigarette ashtray on the wall. When doors opened at 7:20 the guard had all 30+ folks in line move to the opposite side of the doors... so line up on the left (not the right) when you are facing the consulate doors if you get there early.
Approximately 1/3 of the folks in line were turned away due to strollers, purses, cell phones, no LOOMIS/DHL letter, etc... one lady hid her purse in the ceiling of the TIM HORTENS bathroom rather than give up her place in line when she was told her purse was too big.
We went down to the basement/elevator area and waited for the group to collect.
When the guard came down, an agressive couple (who were the last to actually enter the basement waiting room) jumped up and ran to the front of the group to get on the elevator first( they will make perfect Americans! )
We got C3 number due to the "line jumpers" but once upstairs we waited less than five minutes for the initial document check at the first window. Then the final interview at the 2nd window was 10 minutes after that. No surprises... very anti-climactic since my wife was told her passport with the visa would be sent to the Kitchener Ontario DHL office in 2 weeks. It actually arrived 3 days later. and we immigrated that same afternoon at the Detroit/Windsor Ambassador Bridge entrance. ( at the bridge we endured a 45 minute process, mostly invovling the importation of my wifes Canadian HONDA which was easy since I had obtained the emissions letter from HONDA canada months before )
The montreal people ( except for the grumpy unsmiling security ) were very friendly and easy going.
It is unbelieveable to me that it took so long (9+ months) to process the application.
We stayed (2 nights) at the excellent but relatively expensive LE SQUARE PHILLIPS hotel. My wife had obtained her medical exam results on a visit to Toronto a few weeks prior to Montreal. Originally we planned to drive from Windsor to MONTREAL but ended up flying from Toronto Pearson to Montreal and we took the 747 bus from the airport to downtown montreal (stop # 6 ) and purchased a 3 day bus pass at the airport http://www.stm.info/english/info/a-747.htm so we did not rent a car. we did take the subway and buses around the city quite a bit on the three day pass.
The philips square hotel had a kitchen and there is an IGA supermarket 2-3 blocks east of the consulate where we bought groceries.
Consulate / USCIS Member Review #9951
Review on July 6, 2012:
