Planning to Visit india in July for Visa Stamping

[jgnjay]

Hi,

I am planning to Visit india in July for some personal reasons. I am on my 6th year of H1 and recently got a 3 year extension (Based on my 140 (EB3)). My current Visa expired more than a year back and I have to go for H1 extension stamping (mostly to Chennai, since that is my native) .I am working at the client location and my employer (A very small MNC) is the direct vendor. I have been working for more than 2 years in this current role and I am pretty sure they would be extending my contract for another term. My client also provides employment letters to validate my claims.

I never had any problems in the past with USCIS (No queries,RFE's, 221G's etc.) or at the consulate. My last stamping was more than 3 years back and i know things have dramatically changed between then and now.

My idea to go for stamping is to get done with it so that I can be clear for the next 3 years in case I need to travel for any emergency, also even if there is a delay in india for few weeks, I would be able to manage with my client. , I spoke with the guy who manages immigration in our company and he was not very positive about the travel. He was suggesting to travel to Canada for Visa stamping, but I am not very keen about it (I have done all my education in India).

I have 2 of my friends who went to india in the last 4-5 months and got struck there. The first friend's case is almost similar to mine (EC model, working with the client for more than 4 years, 7th year on H1, 140 approved etc) but he got 221G and his case was referred back to USCIS and still no news from consulate. Second friend was my colleague working for the same employer and the same client, he was in his 4th year of H1 but his project was ending the same month he was going for stamping and he got a 221G asking to provide information about future assignments. My company i guess is on the process of answering that, but meanwhile he is struck in india and working from there for a different project.

I do not want to take any decisions just based on the above 2 cases and hence any advices or personal experiences from people of my similar background would help me overcome my dillemma.

Thanks in advance.

[infolak]

I suggest you to take all required docs and go and be confident while answering,

I have a ditto situation like you for the past few years i am afraid want will happen if i go to get visa stamp, but after knowing some of my company folks went and got stamped without any questions in Chennia, i decided to go to India this Dec ..

I am in Employer-Vendor-Client model....

. do not worry .. go and you will make it ...

[bvsamrat]

My sincere advise.

Follow the forum,All recent posts indicate that everybody is visting Canada. Hence make a trip Canada and have a nice time

[wildcats]

@jgnjay

I was exactly in your situation. I visited India last October and immediately attended stamping at HYD. My case was referred back to USCIS. After waiting sometime until my current petition expired, I have attended another visa interview again at HYD with the extended petition of 3 years. This time I was lucky and approved. On both the instances I had interview of about 30 minutes each.

Bottom line is you may be lucky and get approved immediately or may end up waiting quite some time. Just don't plan for a few weeks but mentally be prepared for a few months wait.

Good luck!!!

PS: I came back to US last month after 5 months and 28 days of wait in India.

[jgnjay]

Thanks Everyone for your guidance and replies. I came to india end of last month (June) and attended the visa interview immediately. To my surprise, this time too there were only few questions like how long i have been working with my employer and whether he was paying me on time. The officer posed couple of questions to my wife too, like how long we have been married and which hospital our kids were born and where we live in the USA. He immediately approved our Visa for 3 years and we got our passports in 2-3 days. The officer did not ask for any documents, even though I was carrying all the required documents like letter from my employer, client letter and all other relevant Visa documents. There were couple of people standing in front of me in the line and the office was checking all the documents for each of them, in fact he took more than 20 minutes with a lady who gave him a whole bunch of documents. I am not sure why he did not ask any documents from me, I guess it is my luck or probably he thought my case to be pretty staightforward. Whatever it is I am pretty happy that I took my chances now that I got stamping for 3 years, atleast that would make travel easier, in case i need to visit for any family emergencies. As infolak and wildcats had adviced we have to just take our chances and be confident in answering questions and be true in whatever you mention in DS-160 application. Once again Thanks everyone for taking your time to answer my post. Good luck to anyone who is going through this post and planning to attend Visa interview anytime soon.