Passport not returned, Kept client letter, No updates

[ssurapa1]

I read these forums often for information/experiences and so below is my H1-B visa interview experience at the U.S Embassy in Ottawa:

I drove to the Embassy on Tuesday (Nov 13th, 2012) morning. Rush-hour traffic is pretty bad in Ottawa and it took me almost 45 minutes to cover about 10 miles in the city. Please take that into consideration if you are driving to the Embassy. There are multiple parking garages near the Embassy. I parked in the garage on York St., which is like a 2-min walk from the Embassy, and the charges are $11/day (early bird price if you park before 10am) or $14/day (full-price).

My appointment was at 9:30am on Nov 13th, 2012. I reached the Embassy at 9:05am. After the initial security check, I was asked to show my appointment letter, passport and I-797 in the lobby. The lady marked my name on an appointment list she had in front of her and asked me to go to Counter 7. When I went to Counter 7, a gentleman asked for my passport, appointment letter and I-797. Upon taking those, he asked me to wait for my turn to be ten-printed and gave me a number. From here on, it is a lot of waiting. I would advise you to be prepared to wait atleast for a couple of hours before your turn.

After waiting for like 30 minutes, I was called to Counter 4, where I gave my finger-prints. I was asked to wait again until a Visa Officer (VO) called my number. There were 3 counters - Counter 1 with a Chinese-American gentleman, Counter 2 with a young American gentleman and Counter 3 with an older American gentleman. Due to some internet connectivity issues on this particular day, processing was pretty slow. Counter 2 was also closed out pretty early. It seemed like the older American gentleman was approving visa's for all applicants and the Chinese-American was about 50-50. He seemed to be asking for a lot of documents from the candidates. He gave them a document and asked them to turn in the respective documents. This could have been the case as they had no internet connectivity and so may have been unable to view all the documents that were submitted along with the I-129 petition. The older American gentleman closed down his counter for like half-an-hour also (probably due to lack of internet).

The internet started working later on and the older American gentleman opened up his counter too. Finally, at like 10:25, my number was called by the Chinese-American. Below is the sequence that ensued:

VO: Good Morning!

Me: Good Morning!

VO: Who do you work for?

Me: ABC Company

VO: What do you work as?

Me: Systems Analyst

VO: Who is the end-client?

Me: XYZ Company

VO: How long have you been working for this end-client?

Me: Since September 2010

VO: Are there middle vendors?

Me: Yes, there is 1 layer - a primary vendor

VO: Do you have a client-supporting letter?

Me: Yes and I handed it over

VO: I will keep this letter (he marked something on it and some lady came from the back and took the document from him)

VO: What do you do there?

Me: I do development work using .Net, Java, Oracle and DataStage...(did not let me finish my sentence)

VO: Ok, how many members in your team?

Me: I am actually part of a couple of groups...(did not let me finish my sentence)

VO: Ok, how long have you been an employee of ABC Company?

Me: Since September 2008, when I completed my Master's

VO: Are you happy with your employer? (he did not seem interested at this point)

Me: Yes, I have been there for over 4 years and I get employee benefits.

VO: Alright, here is your original I-797 but we will keep your passport and end-client letter. We will call you or send you an e-mail regarding your case status. If there are no issues, then you should receive your passport soon. He gave me a sheet of paper that had instructions to check my status online.

Me: What do you mean by issues?

VO: We are not sure but we will keep you posted.

Me: ok, thank you.

My interview lasted for less than a minute. It seemed like everything was in fast-forward mode and that the Chinese-American was in a real hurry to finish off my interview and move on to the next candidate. I called my client as soon as I came out of the Embassy and let them know that the Embassy folks may reach out to them to confirm the facts in my letter. It is the evening of Nov 16th, 2012 and I still have not heard back anything from the Embassy but am keeping my fingers crossed. They have not reached out to my client either. I tried contacting the Embassy and even got in touch with the Loomis location for passport/document pick-up, both to no avail.

Take-aways: Try to have mock interviews with your employer, colleagues or friends. Just reading and being prepared may not be enough to respond spontaneously to the VO's questions. I know it is really hard, but try not to think about the myriad of negative/positive scenarios that can occur as it will just trouble you even more. Just be patient and wait to hear back from the Embassy. MOST IMPORTANT - Be confident with your responses and do not get flustered even if the VO tries to cut you off or jump from 1 topic to another.

Has anyone had similar experiences? Any idea when the Embassy will reach out to me with an update?

I will post an update here when I hear back something from the Embassy.

[rahul412]

My interview lasted for less than a minute. It seemed like everything was in fast-forward mode and that the Chinese-American was in a real hurry to finish off my interview and move on to the next candidate. I called my client as soon as I came out of the Embassy and let them know that the Embassy folks may reach out to them to confirm the facts in my letter. It is the evening of Nov 16th, 2012 and I still have not heard back anything from the Embassy but am keeping my fingers crossed. They have not reached out to my client either. I tried contacting the Embassy and even got in touch with the Loomis location for passport/document pick-up, both to no avail.

My guess is that your PIMS is not updated.If your client won't get any email by the end of Tuesday, I am sure your visa is approved.

Moreover, you didn't got any 221g form.

[ssurapa1]

Thank you for your response rahul412.

[ssurapa1]

I just received the following e-mail from Ottawa - FPU and will be e-mailing the requested documents to them:

Please be advised that your application requires further processing.

Please e-mail us the following documents.

I-129 petition

LCA

Pay stubs (last 6 months)

Letters from Employer, vendor, client.

If you require your passport to travel, you are welcome to pick it up any Tuesday or Thursday between 2:00 – 2:15pm (except on US and Canadian holidays.

Ottawa FPU

US Embassy Ottawa

This email is UNCLASSIFIED.

[rahul412]

I just received the following e-mail from Ottawa - FPU and will be e-mailing the requested documents to them:

Sorry my friend. You got 221g.

[ajith.kumars639@gmail.com]

Hi Rahul,

I am in the same boat but different place I did attended the interview on Nov 13 8.00 am at Montreal and VO said that visa is approved and didn't give me any 221G form but today got a email today to send in some documents basically which describes my job ,roles and responsibilities and contact details of the company's which get benefitted by my service

Ajith

571-315-8865

[srinu5526]

hi surapa,

Any updates on your thing ..?

[ssurapa1]

I sent in the documents at about 9am this morning. My client received an e-mail in about an hour. They will be responding to it in a little while. I will keep you posted as to what happens next.

[katramesh]

I sent in the documents at about 9am this morning. My client received an e-mail in about an hour. They will be responding to it in a little while. I will keep you posted as to what happens next.

I am also in similar position. My Interview was done on Yesterday. No response yet. Probably they will ask me to submit the documents. May i know what are the questions they have asked your Client and how you prepared to answer them? Thanks.

[ajith.kumars639@gmail.com]

ssurapa

Can you please post the set of questions which were asked to the client and their response on it to my email ajith.kumars639@gmail.com

[ajith.kumars639@gmail.com]

ssurapa

Can you please post the set of questions which were asked to the client and their response on it to my email ajith.kumars639@gmail.com

Hi Surapa,

Any updates ?

[ssurapa1]

No more updates due to Thanksgiving holiday closures. My client responded on Wednesday evening and I will just have to wait for the next steps.

The questions were standard and mainly pertaining to who has control over my employment. I will post the questions later as I do not have access to them right now.

[ssurapa1]

ajit@Montreal - Any updates on your end?

[ajith.kumars639@gmail.com]

ssurapa1,

No email was sent out to client yet

[ssurapa1]

I just received an e-mail from the Ottawa - FPU (OTTAWAF@state.gov), asking me to return to the Embassy. Below is the e-mail I received:

In order to complete the application process, please return to the US Embassy any Tuesday or Thursday between 2:00 – 2:15pm (except on US and Canadian holidays).

Please present this e-mail to the guards in order to be admitted to the Embassy.

Please advise if you are currently outside of Canada.

Thank you

[chicha24]

Congrats ssurapa1. Dont worry you will get the visa.

[ssurapa1]

The following was the e-mail my client received and the responses (ABC Company is my employer/petitioner and XYZ Company is the end-client):

The U.S. Embassy Ottawa occasionally contacts petitioners and client companies involved with Non-Immigrant visa petitions in order to verify that information presented to the U.S. Consulate is accurate and valid. Please note that the H1B petition was filed by Prime Solutions Inc. We would greatly appreciate if you would answer the questions below. This questionnaire is one of several methods we use to validate information provided to us. Your answers are taken very seriously and are part of the applicant’s permanent record. Please answer to the best of your ability and provide detail where it is needed.

Applicant: Applicant's Name

Who (you/preferred vendor/petitioner) supervises the applicant, and is such supervision off-site or on-site? ABC Company supervises the applicant from off-site with frequent on-site visits.

1. If the supervision is off-site and performed by the petitioner, how does the petitioner maintain such supervision i.e. weekly calls, reporting to the main office routinely, or site visits by the petitioner? Please provide an example. ABC Company conducts weekly calls with the applicant as well as frequent site visits to maintain supervision.
   
2. What is your position in the organization? Reporting Manager's Title and Department at XYZ Company. Are you a full-time employee? Yes.
   
3. Who has the right to control the work of the applicant on a day-to-day basis if such control is required? Please provide an example. The Reporting Manager at XYZ Company controls the project and work assignments for the project.
   
4. Who determines the direction of the project? The Reporting Manager at XYZ Company determines the direction of the project.
   
5. Who determines the applicant’s daily activities? Please provide an example. The Reporting Manager at XYZ Company manages daily work assignments for the project.
   
6. Who provides the tools or instrumentalities for the applicant to perform the duties of employment? XYZ Company provides only a laptop to applicant.
   
7. Who hires, pays, and has the ability to fire the applicant? ABC Company
   
8. Who claims the beneficiary for tax purposes? ABC Company
   
9. Who provides the beneficiary with employee benefits? ABC Company
   

Thank You

Ottawa Fraud Prevention Unit

US Embassy Ottawa

[ssurapa1]

For the first 2 questions, I do not think your employer has to actually be on-site. I think if you say that your employer conducts weekly calls and you submit weekly status reports, that should be good.

The consulate is trying to determine if end-client is the employer rather than employer/petitioner since it is likely not clearly indicated in the petition the consulate received. The goal is to ensure that the employer/petitioner maintains supervision and control of the employee’s work.

[ssurapa1]

I went to the Embassy at 2pm yesterday. Along with me, there were 13 candidates that were allowed into the Embassy at that time. Every candidate was asked to provide the e-mail that they received (this is necessary to gain access to the Embassy) and turn in their passport and 221g form at Counter 7.

Once I reached Counter 7, the person behind the counter asked me for my passport and 221g form. I showed him the e-mail printout and told him that the Visa Officer kept my passport on the day of my interview and did not give me any form. I mentioned that the only document that the Visa Officer gave me was the document with the instructions to track the passport. He looked at me a little puzzled and took just the e-mail printout. I asked if they need any other documents but he said they will ask for them if they need anything else from me.

After waiting for like 40 minutes, an officer started calling the candidates to Counter 4. Pretty much, for everyone, he gave the document with instructions to track passport and all the supporting documentation back. I think everyone who was at the Embassy, received their visas. In my case, when I went to the counter, he said, "You already have the instructions to track your passport. There are no more issues with your case. You should receive your passport in 3 business days." With that, I walked out of the Embassy and am waiting for the tracking information to be updated on the web-site.

In my situation, I think the Visa Officer messed up on the day of the interview by not issuing a 221g form and by keeping my passport. Almost in every other similar case, a 221g was issued and passport was returned to the candidate. I think my case was delayed because of that. Firstly, since the 221g form was not issued, I did not know what the status of my case was and had to wait for 5 business days before I heard from them. Secondly, if they knew that my passport was with them, I do not think they would have asked me to come back to the Embassy. Eitherways, my process that is taking more than 3 weeks could have been completed within a week if everything happened as usual.

All in all, this was a unique experience and hope it helps someone else, just like the feedback from so many users helped me on this forum.

[ssurapa1]

@chicha24 - Thank you for the vote of confidence.

[ssurapa1]

I finally received my passport on Monday, Dec 3rd. I hope my experiences help others, just like others experiences on this forum helped me.

Forum Members - Thank you for your input and support.

[ottawa_rocks]

Thanks Surapa, what is your email ?

[vinsea]

Hi ,

Interview :Nov 19

Email sent to client Nov 19

Client responded: Nov 27

2nd Email to client to be specific about answers (to mention examples) : Dec 3

Client responded : Dec 3

As VO took my PP, 797, client,vendor,emp letters (221g white) and also got answered by client a week back, If they don't need any documents from me to process by application,what should be i waiting for?. Will i get email from embassy about approval or i would directly get mail from loomis?

Thanks

[ssurapa1]

@Ottawa19 - you will most probably get an e-mail from the Embassy asking you to come back on a Tuesday or Thursday afternoon, at which point you will be notified that your visa has been approved and all documents will be returned to you. After that, you will receive the email from Loomis.

Good luck!!

This is just my opinion - not legal advice.

[vinsea]

ssurapa, thank you..

Will keep posted into forum