H1B Visa Stamping at Vancouver - Approved. April 23.

[webminer]

Hi Folks,

Thanks to the information posted by many of you regarding the H1B stamping process on this forum. It was immensely helpful for me to prepare all the required documentation. I will return the favor by adding my experience. I got my visa approved today.

My Job Status: Full Time Employee

Educational Background: Bachelors and Masters from US Universities.

Questions asked:

Gave my passport, I-797, DS-160 confirmation and token number at the counter.

She started typing in the approval number I guess.

VO: Is this your first US Visa

Me: No, I was on F-1 until recently

VO: But no prior H-1B, right. This is your first H-1B?

Me: Yes.

VO: Since when did you start your H-1B status?

Me: Around December 2011.

VO: What is your position?

Me: Software Engineer

VO: What do you do for the company in this position?

Me: I work on product development

VO: Is there an end client involved?

Me: No. This is a direct postion, Full Time Employee.

VO: You visa is approved. You should be able to pick it up from Loomis location in 3-5 business days.

She retained the documents (passport, I-797, DS-160 conf letter). She provided a sheet that had instructions on how to lookup the waybill for Loomis tracking information at the CSC Visa site (same as the one where you make your appointment).

No documents were asked.

A few things to note:

My appointment was at 10am. I reached there early around 9am, saw that they were still taking 9am appointments, waited at Starbucks in the same building until 9.30am. Went back to the line and the notice still showed 9am. Went and asked the person verifying the credentials. He said I can enter the line. Verified my passport and DS-160 confirmation letter and let me into the line. Also told me the photo on DS-160 is not clear and that they might ask me to take new ones. Fortunately, I did take 2 photos with me and he said those will work. (They did not ask for my photo inside anyway).

Things to note here: no cell phones, electronic car keys, liquids and a bunch of other are allowed into the building. They do have lockers where you can store these items. (The guy behind me had a cell phone, they asked him to sign a document (probably some liability waiver form), placed his cell phone in the locker and gave the key to him. I could not hear properly but i think he was asked to remove the SIM card. Not sure on that or why they even need to do that). You can pick it up after your interview is complete. They however will not store nor allow liquids (not even the ones that are less than 3 Oz) and you will need to trash it in the cans in the next building. Also, they will not store any backpacks AFAIK.

Once inside, passed through the security and went to the 1st floor. Here the person at the counter verified the DS-160 confirmation letter and passport. He also took the I-797 approval notice. Processed the application, attached a token and gave me back the documents (DS-160 conf, passport, I-797) along with the token.

Once I had the token, I was led to the 20th floor. Sat in the waiting room. They called my token number to counter 3 for fingerprinting. Once that was done, was told to sit down until the officer calls my token. The last call was for the interview, the results of which I posted above.

A few tips that will this process easy:

From what I can see the process is quite simple as long as you plan it ahead. I secured this appointment during the first week of Feb (Yes, Vancouver appts are filled up quite early). Got my Canadian tourist visa by mail (took 3 weeks!) by end of March. So, make sure you give yourself a bit of time to get these things in order if you can.

Try to book for Monday morning appointments. That way you give them at 5 business days to process incase of any delays. Try to book your return flight atleast 5 business days out.

As for accommodation, I am fortunate to have a cousin living in Victoria. So, I just stayed yesterday night in downtown Vancouver and drove to Victoria after the interview. Public transportation is quite good in Vancouver. If you stay in hotels nearby, you can walk there or take the bus. The bus costs about $2.50 (make sure to have exact change). You can reuse the ticket within 2 hrs period. Google maps can provide the transit routes and bus times.

Dont overthink this. Just make sure you have your documentation and be confident. Most of the times, the VIsa Officers are just looking for more information. I am sure USCIS operates just like any other government/large corporation. Data from one dept is not completely visible to another dept and hence the Visa Officers are forced to refer these cases to their parent office. Besides, H-1B fraud is real and documented cases exist. It affects both US govt and immigrants as well. This probably is the reason behind all those 221g issues. Does not justify it but that is how govts work.

[jdekumar]

Hey - I had attended the Visa interview in Ottawa on 24th Apr. Did you get your passport back yet? When was the status updated in CSC website. Thanks in advance.

[webminer]

Received my passport today. Got a phone call from Loomis (DHL) saying they have my passport ready for pickup. I opted to pick it up at Victoria location as I was staying here for a few days.

Interestingly, at the time of writing this, I have neither received an email nor was my usvisa-info appointment page has been updated with the DHL tracking number (waybill number). I tried to look up Loomis website using my reference id and could not find any record of my package. Not sure if this happens a lot or if it was because I chose Victoria as pickup location. If any of you cannot find the tracking number after more than 4-5 business days, I suggest calling DHL location (that you chose in the appointment page). They should be able to verify if they have it using your name.