Passport expiry and h1b stamping

[krishna-gopinath]

My Indian passport is expiring on July 20 2020. 

I scheduled a H1B appointment and stamping on Jan 13 2020.

Initially, I was thinking of travelling to India, completing the H1B interview, returning to the US and then getting my passport renewed. I'm worried that I may have difficulty entering into the US with an Indian passport that is about to expire.

Should I get the passport renewed in the US before leaving to India in January? I am also worried about timelines. I've heard that CKGS takes extra time during the holiday season to process renewals. If CKGS delays my passport renewal, I would be stranded without a passport and will have no way to go to India.

What do you folks advise?

Edited December 1, 2019 by krishna-gopinath

[shekar11#]

18 hours ago, krishna-gopinath said:

My Indian passport is expiring on July 20 2020. 

I scheduled a H1B appointment and stamping on Jan 13 2020.

Initially, I was thinking of travelling to India, completing the H1B interview, returning to the US and then getting my passport renewed. I'm worried that I may have difficulty entering into the US with an Indian passport that is about to expire.

Should I get the passport renewed in the US before leaving to India in January? I am also worried about timelines. I've heard that CKGS takes extra time during the holiday season to process renewals. If CKGS delays my passport renewal, I would be stranded without a passport and will have no way to go to India.

What do you folks advise?

Get your stamping done and immediately renew your passport in India which is very quick now and then return with old and new passport. In that case you will not have any issues. As you said passport renewal during holiday time is risky in US.

[krishna-gopinath]

Understood, thank you very much for the response!

[cyberlord]

Usually you need atleast 6 months passport validity to get a US visa stamped. So you are safe!