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Hi All,
I got lots of help from this site. Sharing my stamping experience at Mumbai for the benefit of others.
Just a little background: I am a cap-exempted candidate because of earlier filing (In Mar-2011), but visa was never stamped and never traveled to US. The previous stamping was rejected with 221G yellow at Hyderabad. The petition was reaffirmed in May-2012, but the petition was valid only for 1 year and expired in Mar-2012.
Being a cap-exempted, got second sponsorship from same employer in May-2015, this time in premium processing. The petition got approved in less than 15 days in Jun-2015. OFC interview was scheduled on 13-Sep (Sunday) for finger printing/photo and consulate interview was on 16-Sep.
OFC interview was at 1:00 PM at Bandra, trade center. I reached there by 12:15 PM and found some 15-20 people waiting in queue. Security checked appointment letter and passport and allowed inside, well before time. Another counter inside the premises again checked the document and was queued to be serviced from any of the 16 counters. My turn came in 5 minutes but there was some technical issue and I was shifted to another counter. After finger printing and photo, i was searching my wife at 12:45 PM out at main gate well before my schedule interview time
. She accompanied me to take care of mobile and bag as there is no locker facility. Later i found there is locker facility asking 200/- INR. The entire process took 20 minutes.
Note: Just carry Passport, DS160 submission confirmation, Interview Appointment Letter for OFC.
Consulate Interview was at 10:00 AM at US Consulate Bandra, Mumbai. It takes 1 hour from my station till bandra but because of train derailment 1 day before at vileparle, the journey took 2 hours and I reached somehow at 9:55 AM finding myself among somewhat odd 200 people. After security check the coordinator checked my appointment letter and asked if I am for H1B. On my positive answer she gave me a pamphlet which explains human rights and emergency numbers in USA, and pointed me to sit in an open area (with roof) opposite the main building, where around 200 people were already waiting. Serially they were allowing 50-70 people inside the main building where people were routed to 3 counters where fingers were rescanned and then sent to the final queue. There is no token numbering and people were redirected to any of the available counter out of 39 counters from the queue. My turn came and I was redirected to counter no 25 where a lady VO was interviewing a family. Because of sound from surrounding counters and people chatting in queue, I was very stressed, wondering if I will be able to listen and understand the questions of VO, who was little soft spoken.
My turn came finally (The extreme stress moment).
VO: Good Morning. Your documents Please
Me: Good Morning. (handed over Passport, I797B, I129 copy, LCA copy)
VO: Which company you are going to work?
Me: YYYY INC
VO: What is YYYY X YYYY XX
Me: Its YYYY X YYYY XX doing business as (dba) YYYY INC.
VO: Ok. YYYY INC.
VO: What is your designation?
Me: Programmer Analyst
VO: How many employees this company has?
Me: YYYY
VO: How much is the pay?
Me: XX thousand USD per annum.
VO: What is your highest qualification?
Me: Master in computer applications
VO: Which project you are going to work?
Me: told the product name
VO: What is this project all about?
Me: Started explaining but she stopped me asking me to come closer to speaker. I finished in 3 lines.
VO: Is it In-house project.
Me: Yes
VO: Are you going to work for client.
Me: No
VO: Are you married
Me: Yes
VO: Is your family accompanying you?
Me: No. Not Now.
She seemed satisfied with the answers and pointing towards the pamphlet at counter
VO: Have you read this?
Me: Yes. (I had read that when I was in waiting area)
VO: You will get your passport in 2-3 days. Thank you.
She returned remaining documents to me and kept the passport. I greeted her and left the counter.
It took nearly 2 hour for the entire process. Outside consulate gate at 11:55 AM, I was again searching my wife who was sitting just sitting beside the pedestrian, along with other waiting people to share the good news.
There was no SMS and email to notify passport pickup, but 1 day later I checked on passport tracking which showed “Ready to pick up”. I took the driving license copy with me and collected the passport from the trade center, with stamped visa
Good luck guys for your successful stamping.
I got lots of help from this site. Sharing my stamping experience at Mumbai for the benefit of others.
Just a little background: I am a cap-exempted candidate because of earlier filing (In Mar-2011), but visa was never stamped and never traveled to US. The previous stamping was rejected with 221G yellow at Hyderabad. The petition was reaffirmed in May-2012, but the petition was valid only for 1 year and expired in Mar-2012.
Being a cap-exempted, got second sponsorship from same employer in May-2015, this time in premium processing. The petition got approved in less than 15 days in Jun-2015. OFC interview was scheduled on 13-Sep (Sunday) for finger printing/photo and consulate interview was on 16-Sep.
OFC interview was at 1:00 PM at Bandra, trade center. I reached there by 12:15 PM and found some 15-20 people waiting in queue. Security checked appointment letter and passport and allowed inside, well before time. Another counter inside the premises again checked the document and was queued to be serviced from any of the 16 counters. My turn came in 5 minutes but there was some technical issue and I was shifted to another counter. After finger printing and photo, i was searching my wife at 12:45 PM out at main gate well before my schedule interview time
. She accompanied me to take care of mobile and bag as there is no locker facility. Later i found there is locker facility asking 200/- INR. The entire process took 20 minutes.Note: Just carry Passport, DS160 submission confirmation, Interview Appointment Letter for OFC.
Consulate Interview was at 10:00 AM at US Consulate Bandra, Mumbai. It takes 1 hour from my station till bandra but because of train derailment 1 day before at vileparle, the journey took 2 hours and I reached somehow at 9:55 AM finding myself among somewhat odd 200 people. After security check the coordinator checked my appointment letter and asked if I am for H1B. On my positive answer she gave me a pamphlet which explains human rights and emergency numbers in USA, and pointed me to sit in an open area (with roof) opposite the main building, where around 200 people were already waiting. Serially they were allowing 50-70 people inside the main building where people were routed to 3 counters where fingers were rescanned and then sent to the final queue. There is no token numbering and people were redirected to any of the available counter out of 39 counters from the queue. My turn came and I was redirected to counter no 25 where a lady VO was interviewing a family. Because of sound from surrounding counters and people chatting in queue, I was very stressed, wondering if I will be able to listen and understand the questions of VO, who was little soft spoken.
My turn came finally (The extreme stress moment).
VO: Good Morning. Your documents Please
Me: Good Morning. (handed over Passport, I797B, I129 copy, LCA copy)
VO: Which company you are going to work?
Me: YYYY INC
VO: What is YYYY X YYYY XX
Me: Its YYYY X YYYY XX doing business as (dba) YYYY INC.
VO: Ok. YYYY INC.
VO: What is your designation?
Me: Programmer Analyst
VO: How many employees this company has?
Me: YYYY
VO: How much is the pay?
Me: XX thousand USD per annum.
VO: What is your highest qualification?
Me: Master in computer applications
VO: Which project you are going to work?
Me: told the product name
VO: What is this project all about?
Me: Started explaining but she stopped me asking me to come closer to speaker. I finished in 3 lines.
VO: Is it In-house project.
Me: Yes
VO: Are you going to work for client.
Me: No
VO: Are you married
Me: Yes
VO: Is your family accompanying you?
Me: No. Not Now.
She seemed satisfied with the answers and pointing towards the pamphlet at counter
VO: Have you read this?
Me: Yes. (I had read that when I was in waiting area)
VO: You will get your passport in 2-3 days. Thank you.
She returned remaining documents to me and kept the passport. I greeted her and left the counter.
It took nearly 2 hour for the entire process. Outside consulate gate at 11:55 AM, I was again searching my wife who was sitting just sitting beside the pedestrian, along with other waiting people to share the good news.
There was no SMS and email to notify passport pickup, but 1 day later I checked on passport tracking which showed “Ready to pick up”. I took the driving license copy with me and collected the passport from the trade center, with stamped visa
Good luck guys for your successful stamping.
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