Who's waiting for interview, Montreal Canada
 

I am wondering what is going on with the Montreal Consulate? My wife had send back all the forms for K3 VISA on April 7, 2003. I phoned them, they say they received, but they need time to work on it. It has been over 2 weeks already, still no interview date. Any idea? Are the consulate so busy now that they can't schedule interview date? The told my wife to wait 30 days for the interview notification, and then the interview date maybe another 1 month. I can't believe it!!!

I did my K3 visa through Montreal, and was very reluctant to mail any original documents anywhere. So I e-mailed the Consulate and was told I could come and file in person and to bring all originals with me. I believe (if I'm remembering correctly) that you can only do this on Wednesday mornings before noon. You go (as early as possible) and wait in line to get in. You can tell them you don't have an appointment because you are processing a K3. They'll let you in, you'll go upstairs and get a ticket from a cashier. Then you wait a couple of hours, get called up, give an officer all of your forms. They look them over, ask you any questions (clarification ones) then give you a number and tell you to sit down. Then you wait another 2-3 hours and you get called to meet the Consul. You swear an oath that you're not a terrorist, and then they asked me how long I'd been married for, how we met, what we were planning to do in the States. Took two minutes. Then she said to come back at 4 to pick up my passport with the visa inside. Came back, showed them my slip saying to pick up the passport, they let me back up. I was given my passport and the mysterious brown package and I left. Normally, however, if you file by mail, they don't require an interview as I understand it.
Hope this helps!

Thanks for the info. My wife received her Packet 3 on March 27, 2003 and then she was instructed to return the DS230, DS156 and the checklist to them. Then they will schedule an interview for her K3 Visa.

So, you mean that as long as we gathered all the required documents in the checklist, we can show up at the Montreal, Canada consulate on Weds morning to get the interview by walk-in?

She live in Toronto and it is a four hour drive to Montreal, I want to make sure that she can get the interview and K3 Visa before I tell her to go.

many thanks,

We have all the original documents ready already.

All I can say is that I was able to do that in January, but things might have changed. When I got the package to complete, there was no mention of interview. In fact they even asked for a self-addressed postage-paid Expresspost envelope to mail the visa back in.
When I e-mailed the Consulate abck in January, this is what they sent back:
"If you would prefer to come to the office with all your documents, you may
do so on any Wednesday AM prior to 10:00. Please make sure that you also
have the US$100 cash with you at that time. You should be prepared to wait
so bring a good book!
The K-3 visa is a nonimmigrant visa that will allow you to enter and live in
the USA while you wait for your immigrant visa. All other questions will be
answered when you come. em"
The e-mail address if you want to contact them to check is Montreal-IV/[email protected]. You should put your case number in the subject line.
Good luck! Your wife could also consider taking the train to mtl (a lot more pleasant) or even flying.....it's more than a four-hour drive, more like 4.5 hours if you drive *fast*.
Good luck! I hope this might help you.

Thanks, I will email the consulate to find out if she can go for the walk-in appointment.

I should also mention that people at the Consulae frequently mix up K3 and K1, and may have given you information for K1 over the phone. From what I've been told, they never ask for K3 interviews, but if you go in person they ask a couple of questions since you're there. Also instead of e-mailing them you could call and ask the same question...I was never able to get through by phone though.

Thank you for this information - I was under the impression that you had to wait for notification from them - this sound encouraging...

Unfortunately things have indeed changed. They no longer issue the K-3 without an interview.

Anyone who is using the US Consulate in Montreal should certainly call them to ascertain what the procedure for the K-3 is at the moment. The changeover from INS to BCIS has altered procedures on many visas.

Rete

Waiting for interview
 

My husband is waiting for a K3 interview in Montreal. We are in Kitchener. The DS-156 and DS-230 arrived at the consulate on April 2nd. They told me on the phone that we should receive the interview letter by the end of the month so we'll see but I doubt that will happen.

I hope it comes soon. We were told so many times that there would be no interview so we had our hopes that things would speed up once the case got to the consulate. Now it's hurry up and wait again.

I wish it was as easy as walking into the consulate and getting a two minute interview!

Best of luck!

Montreal consulate confirm that walk-in appt. is not available. Those people at the consulate are not very helpful at all. They simply will not explain to you what is going on with the K3 processing. Just waiting for appointment (30 days just to schedule to appt). Really frustrated.

Uh huh!
 

I completely know how you feel. They once were able to send out those visas through the mail and now all of the sudden its some big secret and they can't explain anything! I have not had good luck getting a friendly person when I call. They just try to get you off the phone as soon as possible.

You're not alone in your frustration!

I agree. Called them twice yesterday. They were so anxious to hang up I didnt get all my questions in. I had to call back and again it was a big rush to hang up. I'm thinking geeze it's my dime lady! I dont know, every since the beginning of this process it's be hard to get answers from the officials and in my case got answers but were wrong. Thank goodness I found out the correct information through helpful sites such as this one. Saved us a denial actually. They say not to believe what we read on the internet but they are not much help.
That's just my opinion.

A French State? Tell that to my Canadian husband and you will get an earful. They are a french speaking province, namely Quebec. They are not a state. And FTR he was borne and raised in the province of Quebec but as an English speaking citizen of Canada.

As for calling Montreal's US Consulate, you guys are lucky in the respect that you can call them and talk with someone. In '98 you were not able to even do that. The only communication was snail mail and back then it was a 30 day wait for an interview as well. That apparently has not changed. Mailed the checklist back in May and received an interview date for June, five weeks later.

If you think that their attitude sucks and you are indignant because it is your tax dollars paying their salaries, how did you feel when you were neglected by the BCIS for the approval of your I-129F's or will feel when you go through BCIS hell when you apply for adjustment of status.

My phone bill pays the salary of the phone company's personnel and I don't encounter many helpful people there either.

As for contacting your Senator re speeding up your petition, your congressional representatives have little affect on the US Consulates.

Sorry about my rant on your rant. Guess Jim is rubbing off on me. I was with him when he raked a young man over the coals while we were waiting on line at the Lake Champlain crossing and the young man was handing out literature on Quebec and walked over to our car and said Welcome to my country, Quebec.

Rete

As a Canadian waiting to hear from Montreal on our K1 Visa application . . .

I am going to remain calm and pretend that I didn't read this person say that Canada is a French state and we are now acting like the French.

I thought I had more to say here but I really don't. I could write about ignorance and everything Rete touched on but I am going to leave it at this: these people have jobs and I am sure they get calls all day asking why this isn't processed and how does this work. Which probably takes them away from actually doing the things you want them to do.