Successful H1b stamping in Guadalajara, Mexico

[badger2891]

I'm excited to share my recent H1B visa interview experience in Guadalajara, Mexico. The interviews were on 4/24 and 4/25. I am on a EVVC model, had all the letters from the end client to the employer, but none of these documents were asked. I am always nervous about these visa interviews because back in 2012, I was stranded in Canada for 4 weeks on a 221g before getting cleared. Things went really smooth this time though.

The first step in the process is to get a Mexican tourist visa. It only costs you $36 and is issued on the same day. Google 'mexican tourist visa' and you should find information about the process and documentation. At the Mexican embassay, I was asked the purpose of my visit. I said H1B stamping, and for that the officer asked me for evidence like a interview confirmation letter. I had not booked my visa appointment yet, so she said she can't guarantee. She disappeared for a few minutes to talk to the consular officer about my situation, and fortunately my application was accepted. Received the tourist visa 2 hours later.

I booked my H1b interviews on the April 24(Monday) and 25(Tuesday).

Guadalajara is the 2nd biggest city well connected via air to major US cities via Volaris, Delta and United. Volaris actually connects to a lot more US cities than the other 2, but google flights usually  doesn't show Volaris, so i recommned searching their website directly. I actually got a good direct flight deal to Guadalajara. 

4/22 - Flew in to Guadalajara and checked into my hotel. I took a prepaid taxi (safer) for 320 PESO to the hotel. Uber costs a lot less (around 140 PESO) but it was 9.45 PM and I choose the safer option. I had done some research on the hotels and had settled for Hotel Krystal Urban. It is a 10-min walk to the ASC and 20-min to the Consulate. I paid about $60/night, but there were cheaper hotels available though. This hotel had great reviews, newer construction, front desk spoke English, attached restaurant, 24x7 room service, iron board, TV with Cable, drinking water bottles, daily house keeping. There is a good mall right across the hotel. 

4/24 (Monday)
Photo and Fingerprinting at the ASC at 7.20 AM. Looks like 7.20 is the only available slot for petition based applicants. It was a 10-minute walk to the ASC center. Plan to be there 15 minutes early and it'll take about an hour to complete the process. They only asked for my passport and DS-160 confirmation page.

4/25 (Tuesday)
Interview was at 8.15 am (only available slot for petition based applications). I stood in the line at 7.45am, reached inside the building at around 8.30am. Petition based applicaants like me were  made to sit in a waiting area, we were about 10 people. A staff memeber (not the VO) collected our passports and DS-160 forms and disappeared for an hour. Am guessing she validated our petitions against PIMS, but not sure why it took so long. She come back after an hour, handed over the passport and DS-160 form and asked us to stand in the interview line. There were 150 folks ahead of us. My turn finally came and this is how the interview went:

VO: Passport and DS-160 confirmation please
Me: Gave

VO: Is this your very first H1b visa interview?
ME: No its my 4th one. 

VO: Asked questions about my title, work location, job duties and salary.
ME. Answered. Your answers here must be consistent with your I-129 petition.

VO: Looks like this is your extension petition, can i look at all your previous H1B approvals from your current employer?
ME: This was my first extension with this employer, so gave him the only other petition that wa applicable.

VO: He looked it up on the system, propbably to make sure everything is legit and said he is approving my visa. Asked me when am going to USA.
ME: I said i've got a Thursday morning flight (current day is Tuesday).

VO: There is no way you'll get your passport back tomorrow. We are one of the busiest consulates in the world, and it usually takes 3-5 business days. He said he'll try his best to issue asap, and asked me not to make such ambitious travel plans again.

It was 10am when i came out of the consulate.

Received an email on Wednesday evening with DHL tracking number. Received another email on Thursday evening that passport is ready for pickup. DHL office i had chosen was just a 5-min walk, and I picked it up straight away. Rebooked my flight for Saturday morning, am back in the US now. No hassles at the port of entry.

My experience with the country - Mexico is a beautiful country with very nice people. Language at times can be a barrier, but people try to help with broken English. I never felt unsafe or threatened during my 1 week stay. Google Translate came in handy many a times, so have your international data plan activated. I did go sight seeing, mostly rode uber and never felt uncomfortable or unsafe. The food was awesome too.

[Ani1923]

Congrats. Very helpful information. 

[valliappan]

On 5/12/2017 at 3:22 PM, badger2891 said:

I'm excited to share my recent H1B visa interview experience in Guadalajara, Mexico. The interviews were on 4/24 and 4/25. I am on a EVVC model, had all the letters from the end client to the employer, but none of these documents were asked. I am always nervous about these visa interviews because back in 2012, I was stranded in Canada for 4 weeks on a 221g before getting cleared. Things went really smooth this time though.

The first step in the process is to get a Mexican tourist visa. It only costs you $36 and is issued on the same day. Google 'mexican tourist visa' and you should find information about the process and documentation. At the Mexican embassay, I was asked the purpose of my visit. I said H1B stamping, and for that the officer asked me for evidence like a interview confirmation letter. I had not booked my visa appointment yet, so she said she can't guarantee. She disappeared for a few minutes to talk to the consular officer about my situation, and fortunately my application was accepted. Received the tourist visa 2 hours later.

I booked my H1b interviews on the April 24(Monday) and 25(Tuesday).

Guadalajara is the 2nd biggest city well connected via air to major US cities via Volaris, Delta and United. Volaris actually connects to a lot more US cities than the other 2, but google flights usually  doesn't show Volaris, so i recommned searching their website directly. I actually got a good direct flight deal to Guadalajara. 

4/22 - Flew in to Guadalajara and checked into my hotel. I took a prepaid taxi (safer) for 320 PESO to the hotel. Uber costs a lot less (around 140 PESO) but it was 9.45 PM and I choose the safer option. I had done some research on the hotels and had settled for Hotel Krystal Urban. It is a 10-min walk to the ASC and 20-min to the Consulate. I paid about $60/night, but there were cheaper hotels available though. This hotel had great reviews, newer construction, front desk spoke English, attached restaurant, 24x7 room service, iron board, TV with Cable, drinking water bottles, daily house keeping. There is a good mall right across the hotel. 

4/24 (Monday)
Photo and Fingerprinting at the ASC at 7.20 AM. Looks like 7.20 is the only available slot for petition based applicants. It was a 10-minute walk to the ASC center. Plan to be there 15 minutes early and it'll take about an hour to complete the process. They only asked for my passport and DS-160 confirmation page.

4/25 (Tuesday)
Interview was at 8.15 am (only available slot for petition based applications). I stood in the line at 7.45am, reached inside the building at around 8.30am. Petition based applicaants like me were  made to sit in a waiting area, we were about 10 people. A staff memeber (not the VO) collected our passports and DS-160 forms and disappeared for an hour. Am guessing she validated our petitions against PIMS, but not sure why it took so long. She come back after an hour, handed over the passport and DS-160 form and asked us to stand in the interview line. There were 150 folks ahead of us. My turn finally came and this is how the interview went:

VO: Passport and DS-160 confirmation please
Me: Gave

VO: Is this your very first H1b visa interview?
ME: No its my 4th one. 

VO: Asked questions about my title, work location, job duties and salary.
ME. Answered. Your answers here must be consistent with your I-129 petition.

VO: Looks like this is your extension petition, can i look at all your previous H1B approvals from your current employer?
ME: This was my first extension with this employer, so gave him the only other petition that wa applicable.

VO: He looked it up on the system, propbably to make sure everything is legit and said he is approving my visa. Asked me when am going to USA.
ME: I said i've got a Thursday morning flight (current day is Tuesday).

VO: There is no way you'll get your passport back tomorrow. We are one of the busiest consulates in the world, and it usually takes 3-5 business days. He said he'll try his best to issue asap, and asked me not to make such ambitious travel plans again.

It was 10am when i came out of the consulate.

Received an email on Wednesday evening with DHL tracking number. Received another email on Thursday evening that passport is ready for pickup. DHL office i had chosen was just a 5-min walk, and I picked it up straight away. Rebooked my flight for Saturday morning, am back in the US now. No hassles at the port of entry.

My experience with the country - Mexico is a beautiful country with very nice people. Language at times can be a barrier, but people try to help with broken English. I never felt unsafe or threatened during my 1 week stay. Google Translate came in handy many a times, so have your international data plan activated. I did go sight seeing, mostly rode uber and never felt uncomfortable or unsafe. The food was awesome too.

Hi,

Thank you for the information.

Could I ask the following:

1) In order to select an appointment for Apr 24 and 25, how soon did you have to schedule in advance? (2 weeks? i.e. by April 10?)

2) I haven't scheduled my appointment yet. However, I intend to schedule one for around Monday June 12. I understand the interviewer told you that the processing time is about 3-5 business days. I'm thinking of booking one 1-way ticket, followed by another once I get an email indicating that it is ready. In your case, I gather than you scheduled a round trip, but ended up getting an additional one-way ticket because you were only able to pick up your passport on Thursday evening, correct?

3) I have an LG Volt phone in the US, with a charger. Did you need to bring an adapter for your charger?

4) Was WIFI free of charge at Hotel Krystal Urban? Based on their website, that seems to be the case.

Thank you.

[badger2891]

Hi Valliapan,

1) Appointments were pretty open. I just booked them 2 weeks in advance.

2) You are correct, my passport was not ready for my Thursday morning flight. Had to buy a new 1-way ticket for Saturday. If you schedule for a Monday and Tuesday, you should be good to return back to US on Saturday.

3) Your US adapter will work in Mexico.

4) Hotel  wifi was super fast and free.

[valliappan]

Thank you badger2891. I only just saw your reply.

By the way, are you a UW-Madison graduate? Your nick says badger, and I was curious. I graduated from UW-Madison myself.

[valliappan]

Hi,

I'm excited to share my recent H1B visa interview experience in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Being a citizen of Singapore, I did not need to obtain a tourist visa. I just filled out the form handed out on the plane. You may wish to look up the countries whose citizens have a waiver of the tourist visa.

http://www.inm.gob.mx/gobmx/word/index.php/paises-no-requieren-visa-para-mexico/

 

I took the prepaid taxi (like Badger2891) on the night of the June 3rd, and stayed at Hotel Krystal Urban (like Badger2891) throughout my stay. It was a good experience.

 

6/5 (Monday): My ASC photo appointment was on Monday 6/5. Same appointment time (7:20am) as badger2891, and a similar experience.

I will add one thing: The person giving instructions regarding how to line up, gave those instructions in Spanish. However, it is manageable, if you just indicate you don't know Spanish, and can ask someone to help.

Also, you may wish to leave your valuables/bag/thumbdrives at the hotel, rather than bring it along. I brought my bag along (which had thumbdrives, and was asked to leave it outside. Given that there a lot of people waiting outside, leaving the bag unattended is something I would have avoided if I had known beforehand. Just bring along all your visa-related materials, and leave all else at the hotel.

 

6/6 (Tuesday): My consular appointment was on Tuesday 6/6. Up to the point of the actual interview, I had a similar experience to badger2891.

During the interview, one significant difference I had from badger2891, was that the consular officer didn't offer to try and expedite the process because I wanted to leave by the end of the week. She mentioned that it would be ready by Monday 6/12. It was ready only by Monday. Don't bank on an expedited issuance of the visa/passport. Plan accordingly.

Also, just like with the ASC center, just bring along visa-related materials and leave everything else at the hotel.

 

I concur with badger2891 about Mexico being a beautiful country with friendly people, and there is a bit of a language barrier (e.g. ordering at restaurants). I didn't have a data plan. So I used the wifi at my hotel, print out directions, or keep the map on the phone, etc.

I walked to some of the places that I went sightseeing for, including the cathedral (note that walking to the cathedral from the hotel takes 45 minutes or more). Also, I noticed that at least some tourist attractions seem to be closed on Mondays - you may wish to take note, and find out ahead of time, before making plans.