H1b Fee paid online, do i need scotia bank receipt.

[madvamsik]

Hi, I have made my appointment for the end of this month at vancouver, BC, Canada for h1b visa stamp. I have made fee payment from the website http://usvisa-info , and obtained the MRV receipt number.

Now, do I still need to go to the Scotia Bank to obtain the receipt before the interview?

Thanks in advance.

[This message was edited by Admin on August 03, 2011 at 08:47 AM.]

[madvamsik]

Another success story, H1B and H4 stamping.

I scheduled my visa appointment at Vancouver US consulate about a month ago and gathered documentation rather leisurely, until I visited Canadian consulate (a week before US visa interview) for visitor visa stamping.

Canada Temporary Resident (visitor) visa: Canadian consulate is not processing visitor visas on the same day. Also, they are stricter these days (atleast in seattle) about the required documentation. I had

• Application forms for my wife and myself,

• Passports

• 2 passport size photos (same as us size 2X2, taken at walgreens)

• Bank statements for proof of funds,

• I-797 (original)

• 2 money orders for USD 150 (no need to convert to Canadian 150 dollar worth)

• US visa appointment confirmation letter

• Vancouver hotel booking.

Caveats:

• If parents (visiting from India) need Canadian visitor visa, their return ticket to India is a MUST.

• Also the next day when you go to collect passports in Canadian consulate take a letter of authorization from parents if you are going to pick up the passports by yourself.

US H1B Stamping experience:

We live in seattle, so there is one less hassle of flying to Seattle and going to Vancouver from there. We left seattle to Vancouver by car on Wednesday evening (day before the interview). It took us 3 hours to get to our hotel (Ramada on Kingsway, Vancouver), the hotel and price were decent. Eventhough it is about 10 km from downtown (consulate), we were able to get there in 20 mins, so we reached at 9AM, one hour before interview time (10AM). We parked our car in a parking lot right across the consulate. Outside the consulate there was security and a lady verifying documents, especially appointment confirmation.

Documents we carried:

o Passports

o DS160s

o 2 passport photos each (just in case)

o Our I797s, I129, labor condition

o Current company, proof of employment letter, 6 months payslips, company information, offer letter.

o GC docs (labor and 140 approval, just in case)

o Previous companies I797s, payslips, experience letters, offer letters

o W2s (four years)

o Bank statements (3 months)

o OPT card

o Masters degree cert, transcripts

o Bachelors degree cert, transcripts

o Marriage photos (for H4)

o Date of birth certificates of both.

o Marriage certification (for H4)

Our major concern in documentation was receipt for proof of payments (visa fee). I paid online during appointment scheduling and missed to take a print out of the receipt of payment ( a page after successful payment on usvisa-info site) also I didn’t receive any email receipt. I didn’t find a definite answer for whether a receipt of payment for online payments is mandatory, anywhere in blogs, forums, usinfo-visa (even after multiple enquiries), emails to Vancouver consulate, except that a friends friend that previously got stamping was not asked for one…read on…

At the consulate, the lady also asked us our method of payment and I said online. It didn’t seem like the printed receipt was a big deal, as the MRV fee receipt numbers were printed on the appointment confirmation letter.

We waited on the second floor for abt 30 mins, they have collected the first page of DS160, passports and my i-797 then took ten finger prints and returned passports and i797 banded together. Then we were sent to the 20th floor for the actual interview according to the pullout number. We waited on the 20th floor before the interview for abt 10 mins, then our number showed up on the digital display.

The interview was a not so bad.

• Consular and I greeted each other, he took the passports and my I797 that were banded together, with a number stuck to one of the passports.

• Consular: What do you do at X company

I: I gave my title and one liner description of what my company does.

• CONSULAR: Do you have a proof employment.

I: I showed him my proof of employment letter and pay slips.

• CONSULAR: what applications do you work on at X company

I: I gave him a 2 liner description of my job

• CONSULAR: where did you do your master of science.

I: I told him the name of the university, also asked him if he wanted to see more documentation (degree and transcripts).

• CONSULAR: I have all your information on the screen here,

• CONSULAR: is your employer processing your immigration.

I: yes, GC is in process and the company will proceed depending on the remaining year’s budget.

• CONSULAR: when did you come to united states (asked my wife)

She: told him the date she entered.

• CONSULAR: are you working in US.

She: no I am not working.

• CONSULAR: Your visa has been approved, follow the instructions on this page to collect your passport with in 3-5 business days.

it took about 10 mins infornt of the consular. We left to the hotel, hungout in Vancouver till the next day evening 4 PM, just with a hope in vain that we will get our passports or atleast status by that day (Friday), before we left to whistler for the weekend.

We returned to Vancouver on Monday afternoon 2:00PM, still there was no status updates in usvisa-info, or emails with waybill numbers. It was suspenseful as to whether we will get our passports back by that evening or do we need to checkin in to another (comfort inn Vancouver airport) hotel. We went to Richmond DHL to inquire about the status. They don’t have any update and are helpless without waybill number. We waited until 6PM and checked into a hotel. I got a couple emails with waybill numbers at 7PM, but the status was “NOT READY FOR PICKUPâ€. We rested that night but in the mean time I have checked for status updates about a zillion times on email and usvisa-info. Tuesday morning, I saw an update on loomis express tracking (company that delivers local Canadian post to dhl), that vaguely said undeliverable. So I called loomis express toll free 1-855… number, the guy took my waybill numbers on phone and gave me very much awaited news that our passports are ready for pick up at DHL. We went to DHL that afternoon and picked up passports, checked information and left to Seattle.

Overall feeling: Felt happy that we got our visa stamping done. It took about 4 biz days as suspected, and the whole DHL process was cumbersome, and having to checkin in to a number of hotels waiting for one thing was a hassle. The process should have been more straight forward as it used to be i.e., attend the interview and collect your passport very next day at the consulate, with the H1B number gone down and infact the number of people waiting on the interview day were only few unlike before (my first extension) there were room full of applicants.

CAVEAT: IT TAKES 4 BIZ DAYS MINIMUM AT VANCOUVER, I’D ADVICE TO GET A MONDAY OR TUESDAY INTERVIEW, SO YOU DON’T GET STUCK THERE FOR THE WEEKEND.

[pinram]

No. But carry a copy of the MRV fee receipt.