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Advice for Immigrants!

A few pieces of advice that I’ve gained from this experience: If your case is pretty simple (first marriage for both of you, no children, no crimes, etc.), you probably don’t need to pay for a lawyer. There are other, considerably less expensive services that help you through some of the issues you might have (the biggest challenge is the submitting of the initial form to USCIS--we were thankful we had Boundless to help us with that one). After that, the instructions are pretty clear from the US government itself. Every piece of paper, every test, every form, everything has a price tag. We were constantly coughing up $150, $250, $700, $1200 for every step of the way. Be prepared that it is a PRICEY endeavour to immigrate, and if you’re cross-border dating, I recommend starting a separate savings account for immigration costs. Not to mention the travel you will have to do unless you’re lucky enough to live in Montreal. Move heaven and earth to get your medical results to your int...
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What's Next?

I received my SSN card in the mail about a week after I arrived, so I was able to get on my husband’s health insurance right away. Unfortunately, because of the pandemic, I still haven’t been able to switch my car to an Illinois plate or get a new driver’s license. Thankfully, my car is still insured in Saskatchewan for the time being. I haven’t received my green card yet, either. It’s been two months, so I will probably get it soon, but if I don’t, it’s probably COVID’s fault. Last thing: Because my husband and I have been married less than 2 years at the time of my crossing the border, I was granted conditional permanent residency status, which means that 2 years from our crossing date, my PR status expires, so I need to apply to remove the conditions before that. This will mean submitting additional documentation proving that he and I entered into our marriage in good faith and have actually been married, not defrauding the government--joint checking accounts, joint utility bill...
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Crossing the Border

My husband has a visual impairment that can’t be totally corrected with contacts or glasses, so he’s not legally allowed to drive. But, I had a whole apartment’s worth of stuff to bring down to Chicago, a 19-hour drive from my home in Saskatchewan. So my sister and brother-in-law (Calgarians) agreed to help us drive down, with my car (which we imported), and with a U-Haul rental (containing all my stuff). Ultimately, it made the most sense for me to drive to Calgary after collecting my passport in Saskatoon, have my husband fly to Calgary, and meet up with my sister and brother-in-law there, before turning around and driving all four of us back to Saskatoon to pack the U-Haul and head to the border. This way, my sister and brother-in-law could fly directly from Chicago to Calgary a few days later. We took turns driving the U-Haul and my car because my car is more fun and way easier to drive (it’s a six-speed manual with a pretty zippy engine, where the U-Haul doesn’t even have crui...
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The Wait

Before I left the interview, I asked the consular officer what kind of information I could have on getting my visa approved and what would happen when it was. She gave me a sheet of paper outlining the steps for mailing my packet and also a sheet that they normally give people whose visas are approved on the spot. It included a link for where to go to check on the status of my application. I logged in to see what it looked like, and it said “Administrative Processing, updated January 6”. It stayed this way until January 29, when it updated to “Administrative Processing, updated January 29”. It was updated again a few days later, and then in late February, it changed to “Issued”. A few days later, I received an email that said my passport had been shipped, and that I should use the Canada Post tracking info from then on. When I got notified that it was at the post office, I headed down right away and picked it up. I had to show ID (just my driver’s, because obviously I didn’t...
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After the Interview

I had to mail my medical results to the consulate, and apparently Canada Post does this free of charge! I had to log into the same service I used to register my interview back in December, and print a couple pages to send with my envelope. Even though I wasn’t asked to, I also photocopied the “refusal worksheet” I was given at the consulate, and included that too. It seemed prudent. I took my medical results and my passport to the post office in Saskatoon, and the person there knew exactly what to do. I felt reassured because he had obviously done this before. He said normally he sends them to Vancouver, and since Vancouver doesn’t handle family-based immigration, I assume he normally processes employment visas or work permits or other things. He said he’d see me next week because that’s how quickly they’re usually processed. I said that if it was next week, that would be an insane miracle. Part of me knew that he didn’t know what he was talking about (since family-based immigr...
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The Interview

On the day of our interview, we arrived at the consulate about 15 minutes early. We were told that we should show up at EXACTLY 8:30, and that they’d come get us from outside. My husband wasn’t allowed to come inside the building with me, but there were several other people in the same 8:30 group as me. Here’s how it went once we were inside: - We did “security” in the tiniest little area. We weren’t allowed phones (which I knew, they told us beforehand), so people who had phones had to give them to the security people till after the interview. - We went upstairs to a large waiting room, where there were about 40 people already waiting (I guess the consulate opens at 7:30am). - I waited for about 2 hours before I was called to a window (think the ticket booth at a ball game) to hand over my original documents. I had to give her my passport, birth certificate, marriage certificate, police check. She also asked for my medical exam results, which I did not have ...
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Interview Prep

Before you can go to the interview, you have to do two things: The first one is to register your appointment online and select where you want your passport mailed afterwards. You can have it shipped to your home in Canada for a fee (I think around $25), or you can have it shipped to a post-office near you for free. I selected the post office in Saskatoon because it’s closest to my house. The second piece of interview prep is a medical exam at a specific panel physician. There are five in Canada—one in Vancouver, three in the Toronto area, and one in Montreal. I received my interview date on December 16, and it was on January 6, and I was visiting Chicago at the time (with plans to go to Calgary with my husband for Christmas). So, we jumped into action and managed to book a medical exam in Toronto on December 20. I got there no problem, but unfortunately, they didn’t believe they’d be able to get my medical exam results to me before my interview date. That’s a hurdle I’ll cover la...
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