Successful experience of H1b - Vancouver Canada Stamping

[jbabraham]

First of all I would like to thank Murthy forum for all the collective information forum. This forum helped me a lot for the preparation and would like to add to this so that others are benefited as well.

 

Background

 

 I came to the US with Company A and I switched 3 months back to another company B and am renewing my visa with company B.

Also I work as a full time employee with Company B and work from their office location for their clients. I did not have a client letter and was working for projects for my employer from the secondary office location.

 

 

Vancouver Experience.

 

My interview was at Oct 28  - 2014(Tuesday) 8:45 am. I took a Oct 27 evening flight and reached Vancouver at 11:20 pm.

 

I stayed in hotel Ramada in downtown which was quite economical and close to the consulate. By taxi it costs $10 to reach the consulate.

 

I reached the consulate by 7:45 am and asked me to come 15 min before the interview. I went to the next Starbucks and waited there .

 

At 7:30 am I came to the entrance once again. They asked for my I-797,DS-160 and passport.

 

Once this was provided and the security checks are done I was told to go inside where there was another lady waiting to collect my information. Here she asked whether I stayed in the US and what was the purpose of coming to the consulate, I said for H1B renewal and she wrote it down on my DS-160. She gave me a token and said to wait while my passport was verified.

 

I waited for almost an hour and there is nothing much you can do but see the people come and go. After an hour my number was called and I took my fingerprint scanning. Then I was directed to the 20th floor where the VO were taking interviews.

 

At last this is the moment I was waiting for and will decide my future dreams.

 

While I was waiting there I could here many others taking the interview and the VO asking all the questions. I was close to Counter 3 where there was this Male VO. He was really active and asked a lot of questions. He was so interested in all the work people do so the interviews went for 10 - 15 min. I was praying not to get the VO at counter 3. Unfortunately or fortunately I was called to Counter 3. :)

 

I went to the counter and the greeted the VO

 

Me : Good Morning Sir

VO : A very good morning to you too .  So what is your purpose here in Canada.

Me: I am here for my visa renewal

VO: Are you renewing your visa with the same employer you previously had ?

Me : No officer I changed my employer and would like to renew the visa with the new employer

VO: Tell me more about the Job you do with your new employer

Me : I am a developer working for so and so and I said my job functions and roles that I do

VO:  So do you work for a particular client

Me: No I am a full time employee and work for projects for my company. My company is a services company which provides solutions to its clients. My main job is to complete tasks of the projects assigned to me by my project manager.

VO: So who do you provide services to ?

Me: The current project that I work on provides solutions and services to Client A and Client B.

VO: Very well. Now you said you work on the data warehouse section and you need data to perform VV duties. How can you work on a project which will provide services to 2 different clients ?

Me: As  a part of this project we need to install,  configure and create a vanilla base model which is common for any client. Once this is done then we customize the configuration based  on the client data.

VO : That’s great. So why did you switch your company and how long have you been working with your new employer

Me: Better opportunity and I have been working for 3 months.

VO: So do you go to the client site ?

Me: No I do not. I work from my company office location which is in so and so location.

VO: Can I see your LCA for the location please ?

Me : Sure and provided the LCA.

VO: He took all the documents I had and was browsing through all of it (Paystubs,W2, Offer Letter, Company Brochure,Resume,I-29)

VO: Then the VO looks into the system and types in for almost 2 min and the VO says your visa is approved and you will be getting your visa from your Loomis office in 3 business days.

 

After the interview.

 

I went back to the hotel and waited for another day. Please find the details below.

 

Oct 28 : Attended interview.

Oct 29: By the evening the status of my application changed to issued.

Oct 30 : Morning at around 1:00 am I receive an email saying your passport is being collected from the consulates. On the page where I had the appointment information I could see the waybill number for tracking purpose.

Oct 30 : At around 6:30am I saw the status changed to received at the facility.

 

I called the Loomis at around 9:30 am and they said the package as arrived. I checked out from my hotel and collected my passport and went directly to the airport as the Richmond Loomis office was very close to the airport. It took me only 2 business days to get my passport.

 

Overall my experience with the Vancouver consulate was very pleasing. The people here are very generous and kind. The VO which I got was energetic and was very knowledgeable. I checked with a few others who were there for the visa interview and all got approved . 

 

In the airport the port of entry was in Canada itself in a separate line. The officer asked me the purpose of my visit and where are you currently going to. I answered the questions and he stamped me the I -94 with the expiration date as that of my visa.

 

I hope this information would help all the others planning to go for visa stamping. I did the preparations and research for almost 2 months and by Gods grace everything went well.

 

Please let me know if you all need any more information and would be happy to help.

 

Best wishes to one and all.

 

Regards

Jethin 

[veenas]

Can you give your contact info ,have qns on canada visiting visa & appointment setup.

[praneeth_murthy]

Hi Thank You for the descriptive e-mail. Can you please share your contact details or can you pls mail me. you can find my mail ID in profile !