Tijuana Visa Experience

[04348_Kumar]

Attended interivew in the 4th week of September

MODEL : E-C

Day 1 : ASC Interview.

Just minutes before my interview I realised that there was a typo in my middle name on DS-160. Had no clue what to do , went ahead with the finger printing.No questions asked about the wrong middle name, Spent the rest of the night thinking about the mess I made

Day 2: Consular interview : 10:00 AM interview

Reached at 8:45 at the counter outside the consulate. They will first check your appointment, DS-160 and passport. The guy immediately pointed out the mistake in the middle name, however told me to inform the officers inside about this mistake.

After you enter the consulate you will have 3 areas of interview .

1) PIMS : The lady at this window told me that she will correct the middle name and update it . I was totally relieved.

2) Finger printing: This is the second stop . Routine finger printing.

3) Visa interview.

It was 10:25 by the time I was called for the interview

VO : Greetings

Me : Greetings

Vo : What do you do

Me : blah blah blah

Vo : Where do you work

Me : blah blah

Vo : How long have been working with this client

Me : I just started couple of months back.

VO : How long is this project ?

ME : end of december with extensions

VO : Exlain your responsibilties at the current client

Me : blah blah...

VO : how long have you will workign for this company ? (My employer)

ME : 5 years

VO : is this your 4th H1B Stamping ?

Me : Yes This is my 4th H1B Stamping 2 of them in the old passport and 1 in the new passport. So when I gave him the new passport it had only one visa. so I had to show him the other passport too . Also this is my second stamping in Tijuana. The first time I was here 3 years back , it was a one day process , quick and easy.

VO : please wait and I will call you.

Me : waited for 1 hour and then the VO Called me again and told me thta it will take some more time and asked me to have my lunch and come back.

I was then called to a differnt counter and it was a different VO

VO : Same questions like the previous VO along with below questions ( this went on for 30 minutes)

1) have you ever been on bench ?

2) Did you ever pay your employer for H1B ?

3) why did you change from your previous employer ? ( I intially came with a different employer and after 6 months moved to the current employer and have been with them ever since (5 yeras)

4) List me all the clients you have worked with in the past 5 years with durations . ( I worked for 4 different cleints)

VO : We may have to do some more processing and it will be under 221g case

VO : You look nervous

Me : YES SIR I AM . I have some family emergency I need to be back home soon.

CO : OK sir I undersand your concern, I will tell the VO ( the prevoius VO) your situation and he is the person who can take the last call

Waited for anoter 30 minutes

VO : Sir, unfortunately we cannot give you a visa right now and we need to do some administrative processing.

Me : How long will it take ?

VO : 1- 2 days . unfortunately its friday tommorow so I dont think you will get a all tommorow ..

Me : Ok sir. thanks

Day 3- Employer and client received emails and both of them replied back.

Day 6 - I emailed the consulate asking for status

Day7 , 8 - No response

Day 9 : Got a call from the embassy asking to attend for another interview

Day 12 :

Same VO and another set of questions for about 15 minutes

All the questinos were related to employee- employer relationship stuff ..

Less questions if you are direct to client.

VO : your Visa is approved, you can pick it up tommorow .

ME : Thanks officer..

VO : Sorry for the delay and sorry for making you wait so long .

ME : I really dont know if he was being sarcastic ..but I couldnt care less.. Over all my VO was a very nice guy.

Unlike others who were not courteous, not respectfull and took there own sweet little time to process 221g's .

I know couple of guys I met who have been waiting for over a month and I really feel sorry for them.

My 2 cents :

1) Get prepared to stay for a month

2) Your client should be positive in sending responses, to get your 221g processed sooner ( incase of a 221g)

3) The least number of clients you worked with in the past the better.

4) google your employers' name and company name prior to booking an appointment. I foudn out that some one has posted negative comments about my employer which is totally false, tough it was subjective. ( i guess this was why the VO kept asking me if my employer was treating me well)

5) Your existing VISA WILL BE CANCELLED the moment you give your passport to the VO. I had my visa till end of december and thought even if I get a 221g I can come back with the existing visa. but that did not go well as the VO cancelled it the minute he took my passport.

6) talk LOUD as you will be talking through a window and dont be shy to talk out loud.

7) if your W2's are consistent and above LCA you are in good shape. My W2's were always above LCA but varied from year-to-year .

I was the pick for the day I was interviewed. We were about 7 H1B candidates and only I was put on 221g. I still think this is a good place to get your H1B. I personally recommend Tijuana as ther is a hight percentage of getting through unless you are THE unfortunate person for that day.

Hope this is helpfull.

Thanks

Good Luck !

[dgshyam]

Congrats < thanks for your clear explanation.

@04348_Kumar, I would like to go Tijuana for stamping. I am in 7 th year with 2nd extension H1B with 140 approved and visa is expired in passport. I have been with same employer all time.

My concerns are:

1. The client cann't give a letter.

2. Some W2s have less amt(1000) against LCA.

Can I go with having above conditions? If they don't get visa, can I come back with expired visa to US or need to go back to India?

Please advice, thanks in advance.

[replybin]

Congrads kumar on your visa.

Thanks for sharing you experience.

I am also planning to Tijuana next month.

1. Can you please explain what kind of information did the VO ask the client ?

2. Also do we need to take a mexico visa to enter mexico ?

[04348_Kumar]

Yes Please get your mexico visa before leaving country ...

[ersum_max]

Can anyone with recent experience, please let us know if we need to handover our current I-94's while crossing the US-Tijuana border??