So I've mentioned I'm engaged and may or may not have mentioned that I'm emigrating to the US from Canada. Waiting in the immigration process, in a word, sucks. Add to that the we got shafted by a lawyer who didn't do what he was supposed to, so we lost 6 months of processing time not having our application in. Average start to finish is 8 months or so, so you can imagine how upsetting losing that time was.
In February we started the process ourselves without the lawyer. We've been watching it closely and expected that sometime in the next two weeks we should start *hoping* that our case was coming up soon for first level approval (the part that takes the longest and is the most "unknown"). Much to our surprise, we both had emails this morning telling us we're approved and on to the next stage. !!! It's averaging them 90 days and we got through in 49!!! We're very excited because the next stages are more "active" ones for us.
- from here our application spends 2-4 weeks at the national centre in the US while they gather last bits of info and run a basic security check
- the application is then sent to the US consulate here in Vancouver
- the consulate sends me a packet of things to collect and send back to them, and gives info on how to set up my physical and police check
- once receiving that, they book my interview (usually a month later). I get the visa at the interview.
So we don't have too much longer to go, even though it feels like forever still. But I'm happy happy and full of sugar (eeep!) so just had to share!