H1B, H4 Visa

Hi All,

I first of all wanted to thank the forum for the common questions etc.

I would like to share my experience.

Biometric
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There is a misconception that we need to go early for this. There is no need for that, just make sure you are there 15 minutes before the appointment. This is pretty straight forward. Make sure the DS 160 is not the personal copy one, but the official one. If not in Chennai there is shop below the VAC where they take the printout and give.

Make sure you don't have any laptop bag or anything. Phone is ALLOWED, just switch it off

VISA interview
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Make sure you reach 45 minutes before. I would suggest booking earliest appointment possible. Anything before 9 is the best. Chances of rejection are very less early in the morning.

Browse the forum for the common H1 questions and most of them are from that pool.

When inside and waiting in the final queue for the interview, just have a glance at the counters and see which VO's ask what type of
questions. So be mentally prepared to get the worst VO possible. Don't panic.

Once your turn comes up, greet the VO confidently, don't overdo it.

Keep the answers short and precise. They don't want to listen to stories most of the times.

Be ready for tricky questions like "have you completed your majors or bachelors"

Dress neatly, no need to dress in full formals, but make sure any shirt you wear is ironed, and looks neat.

Carry as much documentation as possible, but in my case strangely not even the i797 was requested by the VO.

My questions were as follows

1. Are you already working for X company
2. Location of company
3. Salary
4. Have you finished master or bachelors

Your visa is approved.

Getting the passport in hand
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You may be over the moon once hearing visa is approved. That is just 50% of the work. The next is to make sure
the actual visa is issued.

There are 2 things to check
1. Visa status
2. Passport status

Both can be got here

http://www.ustraveldocs.com/in/in-niv-passporttrack.asp

Administrative processing
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Once the interview is over, the immediate status is admin processing. Don't panic on seeing this [Although it is easy for me to say, I did panic]. After doing a bit of research i found that admin processing is the first step. Generally if the VO says
your visa is approved and you will receive it in 3 - 5 days you are clear. Make sure that there is no holiday. In my case
the Friday was a holiday and i had my interview on Thursday, so the status never changed till Monday and I panicked for the whole weekend. After doing bit more research i found most of the cases resolve with 3 days.

Even for 221 G the case gets resolved with 3 weeks.

General inputs
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1. Drink a lot of water before the interview
2. Have good breakfast as you should not get tired waiting in the line
3. Answer confidently, practice the questions few times

Best of luck for everyone and thanks for all the inputs.

Regards,
Arun