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

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

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

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

Passport and operators

So, I've been calling an operator every day around 5pm. Only takes an average of 5 minutes to get through to an operator. Still no update though on either our I-864 or our DS-260 packages. I just keep getting told "it can take up to 20 business days".

So, filing for taxes this year is going to be fun for Ben. Since he's married now and I don't have an SSN, we need to file for an ITIN for me since he wants to do married filing jointly. Besides filling out the W7 form, they also need proof of my foreign status and identity. The passport can qualify as proof for both. But, it just can't be a photocopy. It has to be a certified copy by the issuing agency. So, I drove out to the nearest Passport Canada agency today and asked to get a certified copy of my passport. The lady took my passport, filled out a paper, I signed it, and I just have to wait till this Monday to go pick it up. And it was free! I was waiting for the lady to ask for money or something, but nope. Yay, score one for the government for not charging a fee.

~Lindsay

Optin email accepted!

*Reference link to abbreviations/terms post*

Yay! I log onto my gmail account and find a beautiful email from NVCElectronic: our optin email acceptance! I had a good feeling this morning as I turned my computer on, and then voila! It took 16 days from sending out the optin email to getting an acceptance.

In other news, I've been calling up an operator each day around 5pm. Only takes about 5 minutes to get through, compared to my 20 minute wait at other times during the day. Three out of the four told me it can take up to 20 business days to review a package. Blah, blah, blah. One of them, on Monday, told me that our case isn't showing as EP and that we should re-send the optin email. So, I did, even though I knew it can take awhile for the optin to be accepted, but the operator said it couldn't hurt. Oh well. By the time NVC gets around to that second optin, we'll have a CC :D

~Lindsay

P.S. Ben will be here in 2 weeks and a day!! :D

Operator #5

So, I decided to call up an operator today. I wanted to know if NVC has received or reviewed our I-864 or DS-260. Only had to wait 11 minutes to get to an operator! Fastest time so far. Anyways, Robin told me that she didn't see anything in the system yet and that it could take 20 business days. Oh well! I'm going to start calling up everyday now to see if they have any news.

Also, no change on the AVR. Was looking forward to a 4th day in a row for an update, but nothing so far. I can't wait to hear: "Your case was complete was on February XX, 2011."

~Lindsay

First day with NVC Operator

*Reference link to abbreviations/terms post*

Well, I decided to call an  operator today. Around 5:30pm, I called NVC up. Took me 3 times to finally get in. Chose the option to speak with an operator and then found myself on hold for about 20 minutes. I finally got through and spoke with a nice guy, didn't catch his first name. He asked for my CIS receipt number and then told me that there was no case number yet for my case and that I should wait till next week. I told him thank you and hung up.

Definitely not waiting till next week as per the operator's suggestion. Going to call up the operators again twice tomorrow, along with calling the AVR.

~Lindsay