Hima2486 Posted December 13, 2011 Report Share Posted December 13, 2011 All, Greetings! I lost my Passport with H1B Visa stamp (To be expired by October 2013) and also my I-94 card. Due to personal reasons, I have to go to India in a span of 2 months. Please advise me what is the process to be followed to expedite the arrival of new Passport and I-94. Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Link to comment
redgreenbluee Posted December 13, 2011 Report Share Posted December 13, 2011 please consult a lawyer. you will need to file a new passport (you will need to check with your consulate on requirements if filing a police report for lost passport is required or not and other requirements). expedite processing depends on your consulate if they have such application. you will need to get a new visa stamp when you are in india, procedure should be the similar when you applied last time. you will need to apply I-102 for I-94 replacement. process might be faster if you have a photocopy of your original/lost I-94. All, Greetings! I lost my Passport with H1B Visa stamp (To be expired by October 2013) and also my I-94 card. Due to personal reasons, I have to go to India in a span of 2 months. Please advise me what is the process to be followed to expedite the arrival of new Passport and I-94. Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Link to comment
Hima2486 Posted December 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2011 Thank you so much for the reply. I do not have the photo copy of the lost I-94 and speaking to my attorney, I came to know that it may take upto 6 months to process a new one. I still have a few unanswered questions though (and again, your help is greatly appreciated). 1) So, would a receipt of my application for I-94 be enough when I am travelling outside USA, to my home country? 2) Is there any process in place to expedite new passport generation in Indian Embassy at Houston? Thank you! Link to comment
Hima2486 Posted December 14, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 14, 2011 Another quick question, is it absolutely necessary that I ahev to go to the Consulate to get the Visa stamped because my employer says, if I have the right papers then, the US Consulate in India would stamp the passport wihtout a Visa interview. Could somebody please verify this? Any answer would be much much appreciated! Link to comment
spenumatsa Posted December 14, 2011 Report Share Posted December 14, 2011 Thank you so much for the reply. I do not have the photo copy of the lost I-94 and speaking to my attorney, I came to know that it may take upto 6 months to process a new one. I still have a few unanswered questions though (and again, your help is greatly appreciated). 1) So, would a receipt of my application for I-94 be enough when I am travelling outside USA, to my home country? 2) Is there any process in place to expedite new passport generation in Indian Embassy at Houston? Thank you! The time taken to issue a passport at the Indian Consulate in Houston is 30 days. Link to comment
Kartssa Posted December 15, 2011 Report Share Posted December 15, 2011 This recently happened to me a few months ago here in New York, where I live. I am an Indian citizen in my 7th year extension here based on an approved I-140 for FTE. Exact timeline of events: October 8th: Passport with visa stamp, original I-787 H1B approval and I-94 all lost simultaneously, returning home from the airport having traveled international. I didn't have a copy of the I-94 issued an hour earlier of course. October 12th: Realized passport and docs are missing October 13th: Went to Indian consulate and submitted all copies of documents I had along with the forms requesting a duplicate passport. For the I-94, I just showed a copy of an older I-94 I had but stamped through 2014. Got letter from Indian consulate that evening. October 14th: Took Indian consulate letter to police department to file a police report. The letter is a requirement for the report. After this I had to send snail mail to request the police report (NYPD) mailed back to me - painful process. October 25th: Received police report in mail. October 26th: Took police report to Indian consulate in NY. They asked if it was an emergency and I said yes. They made me fill out a form where I said why it was an emergency (I wrote have to travel for work...). Went for an interview the same day where the guy didn't seem to care why it was an emergency and just told me to pick up the passport the next day. October 27th: Picked up new duplicate passport from Indian consulate. Amazing turn around time from them. November 1st: Forms i-824 (duplicate i-797a) and I-102 (duplicate I-94) filed by my lawyers, together with police report, new passport copy and all other supporting docs. November 29th: Received duplicate I-797A in the mail. Very surprised by this, I had read online it could take up to a year. I've lived in the US over 10 years, having gone to college here before but don't think it was related to anything. USCIS in Vermont. The bottom of the I-797A had a duplicate I-94 even though I had read online it would not have this. November 30th: I checked with my lawyers who said I don't need to wait on the I-102 duplicate I-94 and can move forward with what I had. Book an appointment in Ottawa, Canada for my visa (re)stamp for the following week. December 5th: Fly to Ottawa December 6th morning: interview. I told them I'd lost my passport (visa had previously been issued at the same embassy). Very quick and easy process, 9am interview, back at the hotel by 1020am or so. December 8th: Pick up passport, go straight to the airport, no problem at immigration (they took the duplicate I-94 at the bottom of the I-797A) and back in NY and at work by 3pm. So as you can see, less than 2 months after losing the passport and literally everything else I had (including 2 prior passports and all original proof of my existence), I was back in business. Very thankful to everyone I know for being so supportive through the painful process. I'm hoping the above information can be useful to anyone else with the unfortunate luck I had. The one thing the lawyers told me is that at some point in the future, I will receive the duplicate I-94 for the I-102 filed. When this happens, I just have to return it along with my current I-94 whenever I next leave the country. Link to comment
Hima2486 Posted December 15, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2011 Kartssa, I really can't thank you enough for letting me in on your experience. Thanks a ton for your time and patience in replying. I logged in a report with Police and am getting started on the application process. I will try to keep this thread updated, so it could help somebody in the future with the same bad luck! Link to comment
Vidhya Bharathi Dhanabal Posted July 19, 2012 Report Share Posted July 19, 2012 Hi, I have lost my passport and have applied for a new one. For my H1B visa stamping should I go back to India(where my visa was stamped initially) or it should be done in US? I will be travellin to India next month and will be there for sometime. Link to comment
10451 Mill Run Circle, Suite 100
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.