H1B, H4 Visa

Hello,

Many thanks to the forum , the experience of many has helped us a lot in preparing , and here is my experience.

I applied for fresh h1 and h4 for my wife and kid.

Appointment for Biometrics was on 2nd April and the visa interview was on 3rd April at hyderabad.

Biometrics :

Appoinment was given at around 4:45 PM, we reached the place by 3:45 PM. There was a notice stating that the queue inside the building is for only 4 PM appointees.

I enquired the security gaurd about how we will be intimated, he requested us to stand nearby on the footpath and he will inform when required. Thanksfully there are trees and we stood under shade.

After few minutes security gaurd requested 4:30 PM appointees to come inside, most of the people seemed to be parents who have come for visiting visas.

We stood for some more time, by 4:10 PM we were asked to get in , there were not many people in our group.

As we entered inside the building , we saw a small queue, it seemed to be the backside of the building and i have seen people on 4:30 PM slot also standing in the queue. The security were allowing only few folks at a time. A girl came and checked for the passport and DS160 confirmation form, asked all others to keep them outside.

Once they rechecked the passport with DS160 confirmation, we were asked to get inside the door, on the left there is an enclosure to security check females, on the right/ straight there was a security gaurd with his metal detector checking males. No electornic equipments are allowed inside....the place seemed a bit cluttered... in the small room there are security checks and on the table after the queue the team would check your passport and attach stickers on the back... the stickers would have the bar code, you name , visa appointment date and time at the US consulate. (double check these before you move forward) ensure your name is DS160 is same as in the passport , they are verifying letter by letter and any discripancy means you need to fill in another DS160 form.

Once the stickers were attached at the back of the 3 passports, we went in to the next room, there is a lady standing on the left beside the token generator, she gives tokens based on the number of applicants. she gave three tokens even after saying that i have a kid (well , i have not got my kid for biometrics i got his documents and the picture). we stood in the queue and were looking at the screen where the token numbers and the windows numbers are displayed. I took my kids documents along with me and my wife went seperately so that we can quickly complete the process.

As soon as i entered the window , the lady asked me to give the passport and the confirmation document, i mentioned abt my kid and gave both the passport and DS160 forms. she took my biometrics (4 fingers left then 4 fingures right and the 2 thumbs ), she took my picture using the camara and than took the picture of my kids photo by sticking it to the glass window....i collected all my documents ...remember the DS160 confirmation pages will be stamped with date , the same needs to be taken for the appointment at the consulate.

she also mentioned that you need not take your kid for visa interview and only the necessary documents are sufficient.

The whole process took not more than 40 minutes, we entered in at 4:10 and came out by 4:50 PM. The only documents you need to take for biometrics are (Appointment conf , DS160 conf, Passport and if you have kid make to take his picture along )

Visa Interview -

We got 9:30 AM slot, reached the place by 8:50 AM , we were directly allowed inside there was a little queue but it was moving quite fast. I got my kid along for the interview.

There was a guy outside who scanned the bar codes at the back of the passport (these bar codes were attached during the biometrics) and asked us to move forward, the security gaurd inside checked the passport and allowed us through the gate.

As it was early in the morning there were not many people , we were able to go straight to the security check area , where we were asked to put the documents, wallet, belt, any thing that is of metal in the container and asked us to stand in the queue, there were few people and the queue moved quite fast, inside the room containers were scanned through as we see in the airports. All those who work here are indians and quite friendly. They would not allow any food items, they however allowed milk and water for my kid , well they asked us to taste it infront of them :) ....they took the chocolate away, so no food items allowed..they mentioned abt a canteen inside where you can buy things ....we then went outside the room and took our belongings (there is a nice arrangement , a big table placed all over and the path to wards the waiting area is filled with chairs on either side..)...we then went to waiting area where we were asked to sit for few minutes, we were then asked to move to counter 7 where out biometrics were verified, they have only verified the 4 fingers of the right hand....once done through biometrics verification , we were asked to sit in the waiting area...plan to sit in the middle row...interestingly they are asking people in the middle row to move forward (there are three rows each with many chairs ) we went to the left most row as it was completly empty and under the fan....after the pople in the middle row went out, we were then asked to move to middle row ... this process is quite wierd.... after few minuets the lady asked pople who have moved from the left row to middle row to stand ...i have seen some people stood even though they have come late and joined the middle row...no process as such... we were asked to move forward and made to stand in the queue, the lady gave us a token indicating the window number, we got number 8, she also gave us "know your rights" booklet, an elderly couple having interview when we went to the counter, there was another elderly couple waiting in the line , we joined them, the lady in the counter seemed between 25 to 28 ...she was asking few questions and listning carefully... as they were speaking in telugu , the interpretor was helping her to understand ,she took their passports and they left the counter, same is the case for the couple standing infront of us, she than took the headphones from the interpretor ....:) she would only need the headphone when you are speaking directly ....she requested me to come forward , as soon as i came in she asked are you from YYYY company (well when you stand in the line at the counter, a lady comes and collects your passports and scans the bar code , which would update the system and our records appear sequentially) well i was thinking inside ...no greetings straight to business :) ....well this is how the interview went...

VO : are you from YYYY company
Me : answered
VO : Since how long were you working for this compoany
Me : answered
VO : who is your client
Me : answered
VO : Can you give me your i797 first page only
Me : i gave the same and mentioned abt an amendment that is being filed
VO : is it approved ?
Me : I said its only the receipt notice, she seemed not interested
VO : Where will you work/ wats the client location
Me : answered
VO : whats your highest education qualification
Me : answered
VO : What is you salary in US
Me : answered
VO : wats the reason for amendment ?
Me : answered
VO : she checked the system for few minutes and then shifted to my wife (when they shift to dependents it means the interivew is almost over)
VO : How long have you been married
Wife : answered
VO : pointing to my son , she asked ...Is he the only son
Wife : answered
VO : Have you gone through the "know your rights" booklet
Me : Not Yet, i have got it just now
VO : you are good to go , i will process your visas

We thanked her and made a move outside.

The process took not more than 45 minutes , we went in at around 9 AM and came out by 9:45 AM.

All the best .....