L1 revalidation appointment @ Delhi - Please HELP...Am desperate!!

[manishc]

Hi, I posted this in the H, L visa section. Reposting here hoping for response, as I didn't get any response yet over there.



Here's a problem I'm facing. Any serious advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'm here on L1B with my family on L2. I need to visit India for a marriage and was planning to get our visas revalidated during the trip. Due to certain unavoidable circumstances, I couldn't get the appointment well in time (need the apptmt at New Delhi). Before continuing further, I was looking for an appointment of 12-May-06. Now today finally I managed to get to the appointment and found to my dismay that the earliest I could get was 23-Jun. There were 2 dates in Apr but 12-May is the earliest that suits me. I was hoping that by taking the emergency appointment available under the category "revalidation of visa for those already working in US", I will get the appointment on 12-May. However to my shock, that was not the case.


Now out of desperation I took the 23 Jun apptmt. Now when I went to the section on Reschedule Appointment, I was further shocked to note the text "Note: Applicants with an appointment will no longer be able to reschedule their appointment to an earlier date without first canceling their current appointment and re-entering the information on their application." I've to fill up forms for 3 people and I desperately need an appointment for 12-May. To top my problem, I've already in my hand my non-refundable air tickets from the point of view of 12-May.

Do you think calling VFS will help. Or calling the US embassy will be of any help?


Please, please, if you have any useful advise to provide me that can help me get my appointment on 12-May, I'd really be grateful to you.

~Manish

[ramkumarkoditala]

I think Chennai has the dates in Mar'06 for H1/L1 revalidations.
And as you know (I think) prsns working in US and going for revalidation has the option to goto any consulate center,
And if you apply for emergency appointment u shld get it next 3-4 working days (i belive) as per ur case ur eligible for emergency appointment.
check with VFS folks on emergency appointment
HTH
RK

[manishc]

Ofcourse I know that I can appear at any embassy. Further in Mar/Apr '06 all the embassies have appointment dates. However as I stated earlier in my post, the earliest I can go for my apptment is 12-May.

Also RK I don't think I understand what you mean by "And if you apply for emergency appointment u shld get it next 3-4 working days (i belive) ". The emergency appointment is provided online on the spot (atleast this is what I saw in this instance).

Another problem is that when I try to look up appointment availability on VFS site, it only shows me the first available. In this case it's Mar/Apr. And I need specific information on 12-May. There is no option I see as being available to check appointments for next month.

In addition to above, when I try the reschedule appointment feature, it shows me the available dates only for Delhi for which I originally booked the apptmt. It doesn't gives me an option to change the embassy.

So, PLEASE HELP ME BY GIVING ANY SUGGESTIONS YOU THINK WILL BE HELPFUL here. Am quite anxious!!!

[ramkumarkoditala]

Also RK I don't think I understand what you mean by "And if you apply for emergency appointment u shld get it next 3-4 working days (i belive) ". The emergency appointment is provided online on the spot (atleast this is what I saw in this instance).

I am sorry if the information I am providing here is not useful to you… but what I want to check with you is... will not you get the desired dates when apply 1 week before your dates in emergency quota.?

On a side note…I don’t think changing embassy is allowed when you reschedule. Think you need to cancel the first and take fresh one

[manishc]

Please don't be sorry. You are only trying to help.

And the 23-Jun I got is using the emergency appointment option itself. And that's why I'm so shocked that even under emergency, I'm not getting even a single date before this (btw, now even Apr dates are not available under both regular and emergency options).

The problem with cancelling is that
1) I do not know if changing embassy will give me the desired date.

Another problem is that when I try to look up appointment availability on VFS site, it only shows me the first available. In this case it's Mar/Apr. And I need specific information on 12-May. There is no option I see as being available to check appointments for next month.

2) I've 6 forms to fill up again (2 each for 3 people). I could do that also, but I need to know first if by doing so I'm able to get my desired date (back to problem 1 above )

Another problem is that when I try to look up appointment availability on VFS site, it only shows me the first available. In this case it's Mar/Apr. And I need specific information on 12-May. There is no option I see as being available to check appointments for next month.

[manishc]

In addition to my last post above, I found the following on vfs site...

The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi is currently undergoing a transition of our scheduling process. During this time, there may be difficulties in making emergency appointments for Non - Immigrant Visa interviews. We anticipate this process to take an additional 6 - 8 weeks to complete. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.

Do you think in light of above, I should call either VFS or US Embassy at Delhi to see if I could manually get an appointment for 12-May?

Immihelp, your valuable insights will be appreciated here.

----
After posting the above, while browsing on this site, I noticed the following at https://www.immihelp.com/usa-non-imm...waiting-times/:

If you have a genuine emergency and need to travel to the US you may inquire at
Delhi: 91 11 2355 4631 or 91 11 5154 0016.

In light of my situation described in this and earlier posts, do you think I can call this no. BTW this no is of whom?

[ramkumarkoditala]

If you got the date Jun/23 as the first available date for emergency quota from VFS online calendar, I would suggest sending a mail to VFS folks at all the 4 consulate to find out what would timeframe get an appointment date after paying the fee @ HDFC for emergency quota.

I remember the timeframe was 3-4 working days from date of applying for emergency quota (at least for H1 revalidations @ Chennai)

If that is confirmed I think you can pay the fee in the first week of May and go for emergency appointment. Just a suggestion from my side and take the expert’s advice.

[manishc]

Is there a fees to be paid for obtaining emergency appointment?

[manishc]

Does someone knows whose no is below and if it seems ok to call them reg my problem here.

After posting the above, while browsing on this site, I noticed the following at https://www.immihelp.com/usa-non-imm...waiting-times/:

If you have a genuine emergency and need to travel to the US you may inquire at
Delhi: 91 11 2355 4631 or 91 11 5154 0016.

In light of my situation described in this and earlier posts, do you think I can call this no. BTW this no is of whom?

[manishc]

I called VFS regarding my problem. Not a very professional call center setup they have (topic for maybe another discussion).

The result in summary is that after talking to two agents (who didn't have much clue), one supervirosr, and wasting half an hour of international calling, I was told that I need to email the embassy and only if the embassy concur, they can provide me the appointment for 12/May that I'm so desperately looking for.

I'm right now writing an email to the embassy. In parallel, I'm repeating a question of mine once again which strangely no one seems to be able to answer.

Does someone knows whose no is below and if it seems ok to call them reg my problem here.

After posting the above, while browsing on this site, I noticed the following at https://www.immihelp.com/usa-non-immigrant-appointment-waiting-times/:

If you have a genuine emergency and need to travel to the US you may inquire at
Delhi: 91 11 2355 4631 or 91 11 5154 0016.

In light of my situation described in this and earlier posts, do you think I can call this no. BTW this no is of whom?