Visa Stamping in India - Nov 2009

[samays]

Hi,
I am travelling to India in November 2009. My visa recently expired and I got my H1b extension until 2012. I work for a big US company of repute. Although my company has no TARP related benefits from the GOV, given the economic conditions, I am little concerned if Stamping in India for visa could be a problem? My concern is if they would deny or delay the visa approval? I have all my documents valid including employment status.My GC is under process(I-140 approved).
Additionally, what precaution should I take that enhances my chances of successful visa stamping?
Please advise.

Thanks a lot in advance.

[hopelessGC]

Just make sure you have your documents in order (assuming you already know which :-)) and you shouldn't have any issues. It is all they ask for and after that it is your luck and the IO's mood. Don't be nervous when answering questions.

I have done this three times in Mumbai and no issues at all. Most recent in Nov. 2008. I had an Indian-American IO who started talking to me about Hindu traditions...weird

[rkgc]

Hi All,
Sorry if you think I am hijacking this thread, but me and my wife are going for visa stamping @ Chennai consulate, can someone can post the list of visa documents that I should be carrying, and also if someone can fwd the Employment verification letter template that would be really great.

Thanks in advance.

RK

[CantLeaveAmerica]

yep, we just had our visas stamped for H1 at chennai. Make sure you have legible copies of your LCA and I-129 petition as we didn't have them on us. My wife had to return twice to chennai as she didnt have them on her the first time.

As long as your employment is legit and you can summarize your work duties if asked, you are good to go!. The embassy guys were polite and i had no issues.

[golgappa]

1. Take the business card of you direct manager and HR Manager, of the client and middle layer
2. Take your access card of your client, which has your photo.
3. Inform your client HR Manager that you or embassy may contact him.
4. Take the client letter showing you have a valid contract, in case you are consulting.

[IAF]

It is a very good question to list few:
Carry your visa papers
All H1B extension and approvals
Birth and Marriage certificate
Educational document
If possible, take a letter from your employer saying that you are presently employed and is needed in future as well for long term giving brief of your skill sets
Last 2 month pay stub and w2 of last year
Bank statement where you have direct deposit of your pay
Utilities bill
Driver’s licenses

Do not carry cell phone and food.

[rkgc]

thanks everyone for their input, it has been really helpful so far.

[rkgc]

Hi folks one more question, I am trying to book an appointment in VFS for me and my wife, instead of creating 2 application and getting 2 different appointment times, is there a way to create one application (2 if there is no option) but get the same appointment day/time? any reply is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
RK

[letstalklc]

you dont need to get 2 different appointment times, while filling the application, at the end of the application (Before you select your appointment date) you will see an option (Button) to add a family number in it, so click on that option and will allow you to fill all your wife info, once you are done with the filling of the applications, it will takes you to the appoint date selection page (you dont have any control on time selection, system will gives you the time automatically), just select that date and it will give you same time for both of you.

Note - Family can appear together for Visa interview.

Me and my wife attended both together for H1B stamping (both are H1B).

good luck.

[CantLeaveAmerica]

Hi, I know not of any option to use the VFS online process to make such a booking where both your applications are clubbed together for the exact same time slot when both your cases are separate files.

If you have used the system before, before you can even take an appointment date, you would have to fill in your passport details, HDFC receipt numbers, DS-156 & DS-157 in its entirety on multiple screens before you can actually get to the appointment date screen.
The whole process of filling up the form took a good 1 hour for us.

What YOU CAN DO is both you and your wife work on different PCs on your respective applications and when you get to the appointment screen around the same time, you can take appointment dates back to back. This is what we did and it worked with us getting dates and interview times 15 mins apart. Make sure sure you do not sit too long idly between screens or even at the end as it times out pretty fast when you get to the appointment screen.
You can take much longer time though when you are filling DS-156 and DS-157...no problem there.

Good luck with the interview process. No need to worry..Chennai IOs were nice and professional people in our experience

[CantLeaveAmerica]

well, I guess I will retract my reply now as the person above just mentioned a way that it can be done to get a single time..I apologize for my ignorance.

[kosb]

I don't want to scare you or discourage going to India.. but you should keep some sufficient buffers between the time you take for appointments and return back to US. So you should have an appointment immediate after reaching India. These days USCIS is putting all renewal cases to "Administrative Processing" even if you carry all documents and paperwork. This has become a standard procedure for them and probably an underhand tactics (probably following some memo distrubuted by DOL/DOS.. who knows) to dicourage people returning back on H1. Officially they state that administrative processing can take at least 2 weeks to 90 days depending on case. Obviosuly, they are not rejecting cases outright. So far, I know of one instance where a close friend of mine went to Mexico for stamping the renewal of visa. He got slapped with the administrative processing nightmare. He went back to India. He owns a house over here. Fortunately he has Canadian PR and got a job in Toronto. Its already now more than 3 weeks since the admin processing started. He is now planning to withdraw the H1B admin processing and apply for visitor visa so that he can close and settle all his tangible assets here in US and leave US for good. Yes, he was working in a consulting compnay, but he had the client letter.
I would like to see some positive experiences on visa renewals in India, before trying visa renewals in India. Yes your id(cantleaveamerica) sounds funny.. but its ironic and true.

[letstalklc]

Originally Posted by kosb

I don't want to scare you or discourage going to India.. but you should keep some sufficient buffers between the time you take for appointments and return back to US. So you should have an appointment immediate after reaching India. These days USCIS is putting all renewal cases to "Administrative Processing" even if you carry all documents and paperwork. This has become a standard procedure for them and probably an underhand tactics (probably following some memo distrubuted by DOL/DOS.. who knows) to dicourage people returning back on H1. Officially they state that administrative processing can take at least 2 weeks to 90 days depending on case. Obviosuly, they are not rejecting cases outright. So far, I know of one instance where a close friend of mine went to Mexico for stamping the renewal of visa. He got slapped with the administrative processing nightmare. He went back to India. He owns a house over here. Fortunately he has Canadian PR and got a job in Toronto. Its already now more than 3 weeks since the admin processing started. He is now planning to withdraw the H1B admin processing and apply for visitor visa so that he can close and settle all his tangible assets here in US and leave US for good. Yes, he was working in a consulting compnay, but he had the client letter.
I would like to see some positive experiences on visa renewals in India, before trying visa renewals in India. Yes your id(cantleaveamerica) sounds funny.. but its ironic and true.

kosb - I agree with you 100%, one of my friend's colleague works for MICROSOFT as a full time employee and he is working from past 3+ years with them, he went for stamping in India/Hyderbad, the VISA officer said that they can't issue out visa right away and it's under administartive processing, my friend's colleague asked what is the reason for it, since he submitted all the necessary documentation, but officer couldnt answer properly, on top of that he said that you have advanced payroll, why dont you use it and re enter into the country if you want to go back in short span of time (like he was there for just 2 weeks vacation, yes he has advanced payroll)....

this is the latest story from hyderabad.....

[letstalklc]

Originally Posted by CantLeaveAmerica

well, I guess I will retract my reply now as the person above just mentioned a way that it can be done to get a single time..I apologize for my ignorance.

CantLeaveAmerica - That's fine, it's very small thing, you don't need an apologize for this....

[CantLeaveAmerica]

Hi KOSB,

I was just answering someone's question. Me and my wife both got our H1s stamped in chennai 1 month back. Just before I re-entered the country, our GCs were approved and hence I was able to return on GC.

Yes, my wife had administrative processing on her case but that was genuine and all they wanted from her was copies of I-129 and LCA. She provided them and they approve dthem in a few days itself.

Unless something has changed between when I got my H1 visa and now wrt. embassy policies, it don't think it would be too much of a problem otherwise. Again, this was just my experience.