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 have my passport) and sign that I’d received it. Inside the envelope was my passport, containing a one-page immigrant visa that looks similar to the bio page on all passports. I also received a CD of my chest X-ray for my own records. There was a one-page handout explaining the next steps for crossing the border and paying a final immigration fee. Important to note that even though they told me to pay the fee before crossing the border, I forgot and didn’t do it until a few days later. My understanding is that the fee is for processing your SSN (if you don’t already have one, which I didn’t) and your green card.





One thing to note is that I had been told all along that there would be an “immigration packet” which I was not to open until the border. But the one-pager explained that this immigration packet is now electronic, and they’d be able to look it all up and process it at the border.