Successful Visa appointment on Dec 18 @ Ottawa

bavarian_fan

By bavarian_fan,
in H1B : Visa Stamp

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bavarian_fan Member

bavarian_fan

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Hey guys,

been a long time lurker.. its time to give back to the forum..

My case is: F1 to first employer (H1-never stamped) to 2nd employer (H1- current stamping) -> so it's a first time F1-H1 stamping.

So, after reading around a lot and preparing for the appointment, I finally went for interview at Ottawa today.

As part of preparation, I got a Citibank credit card - can be used in Canada without charge, activated roaming $30 voice plan and $30 data plan on my AT&T network. I can live without sending messages - I can just send emails and fb msgs. - these things came in very handy as you'll see later.

I carried the following items:

Main application:

Passport, DS 160 confirmation letter (with the barcode), I-797 original, 2 passport photos, Employment verification letter for Immigration/Consular purpose (my employer provided this), I-129, H-1B Data Collection and Filing Fee ExemptionSupplement, H classification supplement to form I-129 and LCA 9035 and 9035E.

Supporting documents (this one was extensive... I left no stone unturned):

Pay stubs (4 - current job, 4-last job)

Work Experience letter from past employer

Recommendation letter from supervisor of last employer

Offer letter - current employer

Bank statements

W2's-all

Tax returns-all

Graduation degree and transcript (I did MS)

All I-20s

SSN card

GRE/TOEFL Certificates

Undergrad degree and certificates

-some may be of the view that you don't need to carry all of the above, and they might be correct.. but when it comes to own case, I am not taking any chances.. if visa has any problem, I won't be able to re-enter the country to obtain the documents anyways.

So, my appointment was at 10:30, I am living with my relatives, rented a car from home town in US, so drove to Embassy.. not ready to take chances with the bus system (as was proven in my advantage later on). There are few parking lots around the embassy - Municipal (underground), Citipark (attached to Rideau mall) and few more.. I went to Citipark parking as it is next to mall - least chance of being broken into and I can't stand underground parking during snow.

So, I reached the embassy, was snowing a lot.. heavy jacket and innerwear was a good idea.. forgetting gloves at home... wasn't. There was a setup just like airports - take off jacket, stuff, go through checking.. now, there is one thing which is a recent change at Ottawa embassy - the website says you can't bring mobile phone, car keys, etc.. and they don't have lockers, but they do have lockers, so they were taking car keys and mobile phones from people, putting into lockers and giving them a pin with a number to retrieve the items before leaving.

So, after security check, we had the middle-aged lady checking Passport, DS160 conf, I-797 and handing them back, and directing to counter 7 - which is cashier counter and where you submit your passport, DS160 conf, and I-797, and are given your token number and a card which has all oaths of honesty. The line to counter #7 was long.. finally i came upto the counter and got my token.

Then there was a lot more waiting. People were being called in a random order - first at window #4 and then to either windows # 1,2,3. Window #4 is where the fingerprinting was being done. The lady at the counter was having a tough time with my fingerprinting so she asked me to use the hand-sanitizer and try again once my hand was dry enough.. I think I had dirt on my hands as I had driven the car and touched the dirty trunk. So, after the 2nd attempt, I got done with my fingerprinting.. this was followed by more waiting. The counter details were as follows:

Counter #1: chinese guy - young, but giving a hard time to almost everyone, including chinese (men or ones with family only, as later on I found out from another girl that he let go 2 chinese girls without any hassle just because they would smile and talk to him - typical man thing!)

Counter #2: young Caucasian guy - almost breezing through the interviews - rejected only 1 - from what I could hear: EVC model, did not meet with client regularly, confessed that vendor had some trouble with payments while paying her (why???? - she put her foot on the axe!)

Counter #3: Old Caucasian guy - breezing through.

after what seemed like eternity, my number was called, at Counter #2.

VO: Good Morning.

Me: Good Morning

VO: So, you work at XXX?

Me: Yes

VO: What is your designation?

Me: YYY

VO: And before that you were working with ZZZ, in QQQ?

Me: Yes,

(turned out VO was from a town next to my office where we used to go for lunch, so we chatted a bit on the latest restaurants - the good ones, and he said he'd surely check them out next time he's in town)

... everything nice till now...

VO: Do you have a verification letter from your employer?

Me: Yes, (gave it to him)

VO: I don't mind giving you your visa, but I can't give it on this passport.

(Me - in my head: WTH! Am I hearing this right? Never read it before on forums - lol)

VO then showed me the 'damage' - I didn't even know it was a damage till he told me - the first and last page of Indian passports have lamination on them... this lamination was coming out on the first page and was already out on the last one.. VO did not mind the last page but he was being a little girl on the first page.. I so much wanted to give him a candy right there.. haha

Well, no use arguing with the boss, so I said, ok.

VO: You have 2 options, go to the Indian High Commission, get a new passport or get a certificate from the IHC that the current passport with the 'damage' is valid - but even doing that may be a problem at the border when you are trying to re-enter.

..so he returned me my passport, I797 and kept the DS160 conf page, gave me a yellow 221g with 'other' option checked and wrote my 2 choices there. He also checked the 'come back between 2-3pm any day' option.

It was 12:30pm now. I had almost lost all hopes - I had read a lot of horror stories about IHC, and thinking they're going to work by 'Indian Standard Time' - I might have to spend the Christmas in Canada. Still I did not give up, took my car, searched out the IHC - used roaming data - it's at 10 Springfield Drive, Ottawa (for your reference), drove down there.

Now, US Embassy is in the middle of downtown, very safe and secure and clean. IHC is in a residential+commercial area - more residential. Does not have a parking lot for visitors, so I parked across from it at a Metro store - just like KMart, TomThumb, etc...

IHC was in contrast to the US Embassy in many ways (not all bad): like US Embassy was in downtown, heavily guarded, clean, busy and too not-so-friendly-follow-the-book type, whereas IHC was in somewhat residential area, not guarded at all (except a security cam and remote-lock doors, not-so-clean and very friendly people.

The IHC has 3 gates: gate 1 is for Commercial and administrative purposes, gate 2 is for Visa purposes and gate 3 is for other Consular services.

I went to gate 2, described my case and the lady behind the counter offered to fix my passport right there! She said getting a new passport isn't going to be quick so we could give this a try and if the VO still has some problem, they could call the IHC and the IHC would support me. I mean I was flattered beyond words. IHC zindabad! So, well, after 20 minutes, I walked out with a freshly laminated passport, took the passport to the embassy and they accepted it - that's it.

I have the tracking sheet and I will start checking tomorrow onwards when the passport becomes available for pickup.

... phew... long story... it was a long day today as well...

nighty night guys...

.. will edit later if I recall something else worth mentioning..

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