Los Angeles LVO INFO

[Rosanna123]

I received the passport request last week! File was with LA for 8 months. Did not get asked for documents or an interview. Good luck with your journey.

wow! Congrats! great news. Mine was transfered on June 25th, so long wait for me I guess.

 

[Lasgidi0311]

Hey Guys,
We just got hooked up on this LAVO train today.
File was transferred from Sydney to Mississauga to LA.
We've had no business with the US infact none of us has ever been to US, but we both live in Canada, PA is an Intl student.
Looks like it's gonna be a long wait.

 

[Kalearn]

I got document request today but i am confused how to send documents through email or mail them directly to the office?

 

[Duemanshi]

Feb 2018 app, file was transferred to LA last June, no updates for over 13 months now. We got our local MP involved who states we are in queue for interview after speaking to LA.

Meds expired back in May but my GC Key just updated last Friday stating I passed the medical exam on July 26th, 2019, which is the first time I've seen any changes to my app in over a year. I hope I can hear word soon..

 

[gobbos]

Hey Guys,
We just got hooked up on this LAVO train today.
File was transferred from Sydney to Mississauga to LA.
We've had no business with the US infact none of us has ever been to US, but we both live in Canada, PA is an Intl student.
Looks like it's gonna be a long wait.

We were in the exact same situation. File stayed in LA for 8 months and was then approved. Expect a long wait

 

[gobbos]

Feb 2018 app, file was transferred to LA last June, no updates for over 13 months now. We got our local MP involved who states we are in queue for interview after speaking to LA.

Meds expired back in May but my GC Key just updated last Friday stating I passed the medical exam on July 26th, 2019, which is the first time I've seen any changes to my app in over a year. I hope I can hear word soon..

From our experience, extending the medicals means LA has approved your application and extended the medicals to issue the passport request. Passport was requested a week after medical was revised for us. We were not called for an interview, so you might not either.

 

[Rosanna123]

Received my GCMS NOTES, yesterday.
Most recent notes says:
***OFFICER REVIEW*** Transfered to mission for further review.
So the mission is LA office. Is this a bad sign. What does this really mean? There is no specific notes which says any comments about genuinity of marriage. I am little worried on what to expect?

 

[Duemanshi]

Received an interview request couple of days ago. August 29th in LA
Hope it can be over after this, my file was transferred to LA early June 2018. 14 months of silence until this update.
Feb 2018 applicant.

 

[StellaArtois]

Thanks everyone in this thread for giving us an idea of what to expect.

My husband and I submitted our application to Sydney, NS on May 23, 2019, was transferred to Mississauga on July 24, and just today (August 8) forwarded to the Los Angeles Visa Office.
My lawyer said she didn't think they'd ask for an interview with my husband and I, but now reading everyone's experiences in this thread I'm kind of worried that they will...

Our time line so far:
24 May, 2019 - App received
13 Jul, 2019 - AOR1
13 Jul, 2019 - ECAS IP
16 July, 2019 - MR
16 July, 2019 - Biometrics Fee Payment requested (but they have not yet requested the biometrics themselves be done)
17 July, 2019 - SA
23 July, 2019 - Medical Exam
24 July, 2019 - App transferred to Mississauga VO
2 Aug, 2019 - Biometrics Fee Receipt submitted
2 Aug, 2019 - Medical Received (has not passed yet; my husband is a chronic smoker and they may be suspicious of his chest x-ray)
8 Aug, 2019 - App transferred to Los Angeles VO

I am a Canadian citizen living in Alberta (where we plan to live together in the future) and my husband is a US citizen living in MI.

My husband has 4 criminal charges all in 2004 or earlier - 2 of marijuana possession (less than 1 g each time) and 2 of domestic assault (he served 1 day for the first and 10 days for the second; he didn't actually cause any injury to her or even try to hurt her). My husband also lived in Australia for 8 months in 2006. We declared all of these things in our application (included a rehabilitation application package), and we included PCC from Australia, the two states in the US where he has lived, plus the FBI clearance.

We met online in June 2009 and have maintained contact since then except for a 2 year break from Nov 2014 - Nov 2016 (we were still just friends at that point and didn't start dating until afterwards). We got engaged Jun 2017 and were married in June 2018, so we'd been married for just under a year when we submitted our application. No dependants. He has one ex-wife (the one who filed the domestic assault charges), and we submitted the divorce certificate in our application package. We have pictures from our wedding (only our families were present) and from our visits. I have been visiting him in the US about once every 2-3 months since June 2017; pending rehabilitation approval he is currently inadmissible to Canada due to his charges.

Red flags would most likely be the domestic assault charges, though they may be concerned about the 2 year break as well (even though we included an explanation)... haven't asked for GCMS notes yet since we have a pretty good guess of why our application was forwarded to LVO, and my lawyer says everything is currently going as expected. I guess now we have the long months of silence ahead of us... hopefully not followed by a sudden interview request, but we'll see

 

[StellaArtois]

Received an interview request couple of days ago. August 29th in LA
Hope it can be over after this, my file was transferred to LA early June 2018. 14 months of silence until this update.
Feb 2018 applicant.

Glad they finally broke the silence at least! That sounds brutal. Hope the interview goes well and they give you approval soon! Let us know how the interview is.

 

[Daniel89]

I HAD MY INTERVIEW ON 8/7! It went really well, the next day I got the pre-arrival services letter. DO NOT BELIEVE PEOPLE WHEN THEY SAY LA IS FOR BAD FILES!!! My interview was a random selection. If you get your GCMS notes, search for R11 - That is the reason for VO assignment. Mine was "Nationality" because im American. Hopefully PR to come soon.

 

[Duemanshi]

I HAD MY INTERVIEW ON 8/7! It went really well, the next day I got the pre-arrival services letter. DO NOT BELIEVE PEOPLE WHEN THEY SAY LA IS FOR BAD FILES!!! My interview was a random selection. If you get your GCMS notes, search for R11 - That is the reason for VO assignment. Mine was "Nationality" because im American. Hopefully PR to come soon.

Glad it went well. Surprised to hear they didn't give you COPR on the spot, I've heard LA does that a lot after interviews. Did they take the US passport?

 

[Daniel89]

No they dont take the passport for US citizens, only a copy. COPR will be emailed. The only reason he said he couldnt finalize in my case was that CSIS check was still pending.

 

[StellaArtois]

I HAD MY INTERVIEW ON 8/7! It went really well, the next day I got the pre-arrival services letter. DO NOT BELIEVE PEOPLE WHEN THEY SAY LA IS FOR BAD FILES!!! My interview was a random selection. If you get your GCMS notes, search for R11 - That is the reason for VO assignment. Mine was "Nationality" because im American. Hopefully PR to come soon.

Just curious, what questions did they ask you at your interview, and about how long was the interview itself? Did your spouse come with you?

 

[Daniel89]

Just curious, what questions did they ask you at your interview, and about how long was the interview itself? Did your spouse come with you?

It was actually very easy, the officer just asked me to go over how we met and how our relationship is, we have been together for 5 years, married for 1.5.. so it wasn't very difficult.

My spouse came with me but sat in the waiting area and only joined me for the last 2 mins to sign a paper. The officer at the end just told me that he was "satisfied" that our relationship was genuine and gave me a little envelope that had our original photos in it. The next day we got the pre-arrival services letter in an email. He stated that my background was still in progress (the CSIS portion, since my FBI and RCMP were already done) so that could take time. The interview was only 20 minutes or so..

When we arrived back in Canada that same night, the CBSA BSO gave me a VR for 1 year and at the bottom it states that "PR Approved in Principle, awaiting finalization and issuance of COPR"