Confirmation

Just called DOS up. They confirmed the case was at the US Consulate in Montreal. The operator couldn't give me the exact date it was received, she just said it was sometime between Monday and today. As long as my case is there, that's good enough for me!

~Lindsay

Shipment delivered

So, according to DHL's website, with the tracking number I found yesterday, the shipment arrived in Montreal this afternoon at 12:36pm and signed by "IRENA". Whether or not my case was actually in that shipment, I'm not 100% sure, but I have a good feeling it was. I'm going to call up DOS tomorrow and see if an operator can confirm that my case has indeed been received by the US Consulate in Montreal.

~Lindsay

P.S. Wow, two posts in one day!

Booked my medical

Just called up Medisys and asked them a few questions (since their website is lacking in any kind of information on the medical). There are two places available in Montreal for medicals. I already had most of my answers for Dr Seidens from their website. I decided to go with Medisys since it was $35 cheaper. And when I called and asked about butterfly needles (I've been told they're easier to get to the vein and less painful), the guy on the phone told me they were available! So, I called back a few minutes after my Q&A and asked to be booked for a medical. I got scheduled for April 6th (next week!!!) at 10am.

I am now going to freak out for the next week about the blood test as I have mentioned before that I hate needles. And I've never had a blood test done before either. Hoping I don't pass out or anything. If anyone has any suggestions to help my blood test go smoother, please, please, please leave a comment. I already know I'm not going to watch and that I'll lie down if possible. I've also heard that drinking a lot of water ahead of time helps with blood circulation, as well as keeping warm. Anything else?

~Lindsay

Case sent to Montreal

I called an operator up yesterday to see if our case has been shipped to the US Consulate in Montreal. According to John, it had been sent on March 28th, the day I called. When I called the AVR this morning, it confirmed: "NVC has completed the processing of this application and has forwarded it to the embassy or consulate in Montreal on March 28th, 2011. Please contact the embassy or consulate for further questions."

Now, a couple of months ago, I found this thread with instructions on how you can track your case from NVC to the US Embassy or Consulate. You go to DHL.com and select 'Track by Reference' under the Track option. You then put in "EXP 28 MAR 2011A" as the reference number (changing the dates according to your case). Hit 'Track', and a bunch of shipments should appear, going to numerous countries. Now the thread I found said to use the day before the case was sent out as the reference number, but the day before for our case was a Sunday. I tried using Friday's date, but there were no cases sent to Canada. But when I used Monday's date, there was a shipment heading to Montreal, Canada.

If for whatever reason you want to track my case along with me, just use tracking number: 8768131783 and put it in the box here. I'm not 100% positive of course that my case is included in that shipment, but I'd say it's a very good chance. I also have signed up for email notifications on the shipment, but I'm crazy, so :D

I think I'll call up DOS a day after I see the shipment has been delivered to see if my case was received by Montreal, just to be sure.

~Lindsay

Very touching article

Back in November, I wrote a post about a mass transfer of I-130 files from CSC to TSC. I have been following the thread created on the topic from day 1 and still continue to do so. One man, Wade Grant, frustrated with how inefficient the process was going for him, reached out to the media to raise awareness of this issue. Finally, after weeks, a news agency picked up his story and wrote an article which was just published online today. I encourage each and every one of you to read his touching story and spread the news article. Everyone should be aware of how broken this system can really be. Forget about illegal immigration, let's focus on how the legal system really works, or in reality, how it's not working.

Article can be found here.

~Lindsay

Interview letter received

Very, very short update:

So, at 6am on Saturday, both Ben and I received the interview package by email. If you want to see screenshots, go here.

~Lindsay

INTERVIEW DATE ASSIGNED!!!

Omg!! It's been about 30 minutes and I'm still shaking.

So, two people on VJ got interview dates assigned today. I was super excited! So, I decided to call DOS an hour early, I was just feeling good about it. I called, asked if an interview date had been assigned and gave over my NVC case number. I was put on hold for a bit and then she came back and repeated the case number to verify. Usually they don't ask the case number again, so I was getting excited. She then asked the petitioner's name; I got even more excited. She finally said the interview date was assigned! I heard her say May 13th, at 8am. I then called up NVC to see if they had this date as well. Gary, the operator, said he had good news for me and that an interview date had been assigned for May 3rd, at 8am. I must have heard the DOS operator wrong, it wasn't the 13th, but the 3rd. Just in case though, I called another NVC operator to verify, and it is indeed May 3rd! :D

Just waiting on the interview letter now. Should get it either today or sometime soon. The operator said I should get it by the latest by the end of next week.

I'm going to call up the two panel physicians in Montreal next week and ask a few questions I have about the medical. Then I'll figure out which place to get my medical done and then book it for sometime in April.

I am so glad I didn't listen to all the operators who told me they only schedule interviews in the second week and to not call back again until the second week of April. It was complete lies and I knew it. And now, I'm proof of that. It's the fourth week, yet my interview was assigned!

~Lindsay

Wiki on EP and online forms

So, back in January I believe, I started working on a wiki I wanted to put up on VJ about the NVC process for Montreal beneficiaries in relation to electronic processing and online forms. I wrote most of it while going through the process myself. Once our case was complete at NVC, I put the finishing touches on it and finally published it on the wiki section of NVC. The link can be found here. Hope this helps other Canadians and any others that are also doing EP and/or online forms!

~Lindsay

P.S. Still patiently waiting for an interview date! Last week, I saw someone on VJ who had a case complete the day before ours got assigned an interview date for April 20! It's very possible that I can get an interview date for late April! I'm so thrilled that Montreal is getting faster. I can't believe that only last year it used to take 5 months from CC to interview, but now it's dropped to 2 months and below. Go Montreal go! ^_^

Graph

Before I start, no news yet on an interview date. Hope to hear this week!

Anyways, so I was bored this afternoon. Made a spreadsheet with recent IR-1/CR-1 visa filers in Montreal and wrote down dates for case complete and interview dates, plus a few other dates. Decided to graph it in a pretty line graph to visually see it.

Here it is: http://www.chartgo.com/get.do?id=dd14518654 (I was gonna embed it, but it was too large of a picture to post here without making it look horrible.) You can definitely see the average going down! :)

~Lindsay

Case complete email and AVR update

So, yesterday morning, NVC Electronic sent both Ben and I an email saying they've received everything needed at NVC and that our case was complete. Yay, it was official!

And then today when I called up the AVR, it finally changed to reflect our case complete: "Your case was completed on March 10th, 2011. Please allow 8 weeks from this date for further instructions."

Now to just wait for an interview date to be assigned to us. It's currently about 2 months from CC to interview for Montreal. As soon as I get my interview date, I'm going to have to make an appointment for the medical! Not too excited about that since there's a blood test involved. Oh well.

~Lindsay

SIF and CC!!!

So, a little less than an hour ago, I decided to try signing into the payment portal. While I was waiting for the page to load after putting in the case number and IIN, I looked over at my second monitor, and out of the corner of my eye, I see a red box on the payment portal site. It took me a second to realise that I was seeing the much desired sign-in failed message! I started to freak out and immediately started yelling at Ben on MSN. He then went to try to sign in on his end and he also got the SIF message! At this point, I was shaking all over and my heart was beating fast.

I usually call an operator up at 5pm, but today was an exception. I wasn't going to wait another hour to find out, so I called one up. Twelve minutes later, I finally got an operator. I explained how I got a SIF and she asked if I was using Internet Explorer and then told me that many people have been getting these fake SIFs for awhile and I should just try again. I explained to her that usually, when someone gets a SIF it's a good indication that the case is complete at NVC. Amanda (the operator) asked me to wait a second as she looked over some information on her computer screen and then told me that it looks like our case was complete at NVC. Yay!!

Amanda went on to say that we'll then be notified by email and that the US Consulate in Montreal will assign us an interview date and that we didn't make it for any March interviews. I knew this as Montreal is behind. So, we could possibly get a late April or early May interview. Now I get to ask an operator for interview dates when I call up instead of asking if our packages have been reviewed! :D

~Lindsay

P.S. Still shaking with goosebumps! ^________^

P.P.S. The beautiful SIF message

Packages being reviewed

I called an operator up as usual and according to Jim, the operator, both packages are under review now as of March 3rd. Woot! Hopefully NVC finishes reviewing both packages soon and we can get a case complete!

~Lindsay

AVR update!

Finally, after almost a month, the AVR finally, finally, finally updated to something different. It's now saying: "The NVC is awaiting the return of the biographic forms from: the petitioner. Once this packet is received, allow 6-8 weeks for the reviewing of all your documentation and you will be notified of the outcome of the review." I believe this means that they've finished reviewing our AOS and accepted it and are now waiting for our IV package. Woot!

~Lindsay

P.S. Ben will be here in about 4 hours!!! Eeeeee :D

A slight update!

So, as usual, I called an operator up around 5pm. I was instantly through to an operator, absolutely no waiting. And I finally heard some good news today! NVC finally received something today, March 3, and that it's currently under review. I'm guessing it's the I-864 since that was sent out first. It was such a nice change compared to just hearing "please wait 20 business days". Hopefully the damn AVR changes soon to say case complete!

~Lindsay

P.S. Ben arrives tomorrow afternoon! Yayyyy! :D

Printing

So, I spent a couple hours tonight printing some stuff out for the interview. I got a copy of the I-864 package we emailed printed out, along with a copy of my supporting documents. I also printed out ALL email correspondence between me and NVC. I had I believe 17 emails printed out, including auto response ones. I know I probably will never need them, but I felt like printing them out regardless. I also printed off a copy of a DS-230 filled out. Doubt I'll need it, but whatever.

Once I have everything printed out, I'll take a picture of my folder and upload it here.

~Lindsay

Certified copy of passport and apartment

Well, I was supposed to go yesterday to pick up my passport and certified copy, but it ended up snowing a lot, so I postponed it till today. When I got to the Passport Canada office, I ended up getting the exact same number as last week (B555). And then, when I got called up, I had the same lady as well and she remembered me too. Anyways, I received two certified copies of my passport in an envelope and received my passport back. Just have to give one copy over to Ben when he comes to visit this weekend!

In other news, Ben's been looking at a few apartments these past 2 weeks. He went to see one yesterday after work and he loved it. And so, he went back today after lunch to sign the lease! He's probably going to move in the weekend after he gets back from Canada. He gets the whole place for himself for about 2 months until I get there.

Here's a picture of the outside
A picture of the bedroom
A picture of the huge kitchen
And a final picture of the included (!!!) washing machine and dryer

And a video Ben took the second time he went to see the place: https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BxJvo2IPcz1qNGFlOTBjNjgtN2QzMy00M2NhLThhNmMtM2YzZTNmZjEyMDc4&hl=en

~Lindsay