Successful H1B stamping on July 16th in Calgary

[maalage]

Hi,

 

I am a full time employee, same company since 6+ years. This was my 3rd H1B stamping,

the first two were in Mumbai and Vancouver in that order.

 

I reached Calgary on the 15th, stayed in downtown Calgary for the night - very expensive

but the consulate in a 10-15 minute walk from there.

 

Next day arrived at the consulate at 7:30am. '615', the address is written on the building

but its not very clear. In any case, its right across the Macleod trail street from the Calgary

Public Library.

 

No cellphones are allowed, the security folks will not allow you to enter if you are carrying

one with you. A lady checks your documents on the 1st floor and then you are escorted to

the 10th floor.

 

Most of the interviewees were getting their visas. Two guys(one FT and another EVC) got

their visas too. I wasn't asked for any documents. The first question the VO had was whether

I was a full time and worked at the company(as against offsite) location. Both answers were

'yes'.

 

The Loomis record got updated on Wednesday night and we collected our passports on

Thursday afternoon. Two of us returned back on Friday and the other guy on Saturday. No

issues for anyone at the port of entry.

 

We stayed at the Days Inn Calgary Northwest. It was a wonderful stay, great internet speed

and 15 mins walk to some food joints. It was about $150 per day, Calgary is an expensive city!

The only con was that the place is 20 km from the airport and there is no free airport shuttle,

but no big deal considering the other positives.

 

As mentioned, downtown Calgary is very expensive and my Vancouver trip 3 years back came

out to be cheaper, would suggest going to the latter for economical reasons.

 

Hope this helped,

Pritam