H1B, H4 Visa

Hi All,

I just wanted to share my experience after I went through this website several times for help and questions when me and my wife were getting our visa stamped in Jan-Feb 2019.

Before I begin, I should tell you that it all worked out for us in the nick of time and we are safely back in the US. Here are the details of our experience with lots of details so that others can learn from it as well.

Some details about me:
I have been working in the US for past 10 years for the same company and have multiple visa stamps for the same really large and well known software company. My wife is currently working on H4 EAD. This trip was somehow the first time I was eligible for dropbox so I was a bit happy knowing that a couple of days won't be wasted. Little did I know what was in store for me when I went to India. I had prepared everything in advance and was ready to drop it off the first day I landed.

Duration of my trip
Jan 23 to Feb 17

Timeline
Jan 25 - Documents dropped off
Feb 2 - Passports received through blue dart
Feb 4 - H4 visa interview
Feb 8 - Last updated changed
Feb 11 - Last updated changed
Feb 12 - Issued
Feb 13 - Ready for pickup
Feb 14 - Picked up

Visa Post
Mumbai

Part 1 -- Dropbox experience
I reached on Jan 25 in Mumbai and then set out to submit the documents for me and my wife. I had the I-797 copies and our photos which were taken in Costco. I went to Parinee Crescenzo to drop off my documents and there was no queue or a long waiting line when I reached about an hour from their opening time. I reached the front pretty quickly and noticed that there is a person standing in the other line with about 10-15 passports being dropped off. I quickly dismissed him as an agent for a large Indian company and went about doing my work. The lady took my passport and after examining everything said that everything was perfect but she couldn't accept the photo as I was smiling a bit. At first I thought it was a joke but very quickly realized that she is not kidding. She also rejected the photo of my wife who wasn't smiling as there as a shadow in the white background. I had another photo of her and that was promptly rejected as well since a bit of her teeth were showing. The shadow referred to here was the natural shade on the white backdrop.

I got out and tried to look around for a shop that would take a photo for me when I found out that all the autorickshaw people and the guards seemed to in on this photo rejection rate. The autos were not willing to go by meter and were charging something like Rs.90 each way to take me for the photos and come back. When I started calling Uber, (Yay! international data roaming) they agreed to charge me Rs. 30 and drop me off to trade center next to which there is a shop that charges Rs.500 for 4 passport size photos. I asked nicely and he dropped the price to Rs.800 for the two of us. (Yes, I could still haggle!) The shop is pretty small but they were extremely professional with all the right equipment like hairpins etc. so that not a strand of hair can remain loose for you photo. They also photoshopped the background to (#fff) full white so there was possibility of no shades, printed and then hand cut the photo using scissors into perfect size.

Then I returned to the dropbox location this time paying the full price to auto as there are very few in that location for Uber and the ones that you find just wouldn't listen. Once we were back the applications were promptly accepted. I had heard from a few colleagues about the delay in processing for their applications so when I asked about the timelines, I was told about 3 weeks. It was touch and go from the start as that timeline was just barely fitting into our trip.

Part 2 -- Passport delivered

I went to my native city from Mumbai after a staying a few days there but kept checking the status on ustraveldocs about the passports. The documents were submitted on Friday and about Wednesday it started showing something to the effect of "Passport has been returned by the consulate and are being prepared for delivery". That status remained like that till Saturday when the passports arrived by Blue Dart to my home. My wife who was busy with the kid happily took the packets, handed over Rs.1000 to the courier person and then kept them declaring that the work was done! Soon enough when I opened them up I saw that there was a green 221G slip in the first packet. They had not stamped her visa and were asking her to come back on any day for an interview between 1030am to 11am. Then I took out my passport and it took me a while to realize that my visa was actually stamped on the passport! I could not comprehend this for sometime that they would stamp the H1 without issues but would ask my wife to come back for her H4. Given the tight timeline, we booked her flight for the next day to be able to appear on Monday for the interview.

Part 3 -- Mumbai Consulate experience

Based on all my past experiences which were in Delhi and Hyderabad, I asked my wife to go early as sometimes they would let you in early and you were done really quickly. She got ready and left with about 2 hours margin to reach the consulate in Mumbai. However, it was a really bad day for traffic. I was keenly following her trip on Uber which she had shared with me to see that the car was not moving at all for really long durations. The half hour journey seemed to take forever. My heart was racing as I realized that she would reach there at around 10:30am or 10:40am. I did not call her and started telling myself that it's gonna be fine. At worst she could go again tomorrow and we would need to re-book her return journey. She reached the consulate around 10:35 and when she tried going in, she was promptly stopped told that smartwatch and mobile phones are not allowed inside.

Sure, she said, this was in line with the other consulates so she asked where can she check-in her stuff. The guard told her that there was no such facility there. There wasn't even a tea vendor nearby who would be checking in that stuff for you in Mumbai. Generally these instructions are there on the visa interview document but since this was an ad-hoc situation, we never prepared for this. When she started pleading to the guards a bit for help, one came forward and said that she could ask the other applicants relatives standing outside for help. She went to them and started pleading but people were unwilling to keep a random stranger's belongings. Finally, when she was on the verge of tears as the clock was ticking one of ladies agreed to help and kept her phone and smartwatch. She rushed inside and then went about the interview.

Part 4 -- Interview

The standard fingerprinting was done for her at the consulate. Both of us had give our fingerprints in 2017 as well so that couldn't have been the reason for calling her back in my opinion. Then she was asked for I-797 at the window. She took both our I-797 but the visa officer only took mine and then asked her the following 3 questions

1. Why are you here? - To attend my sister's wedding
2. What do you do in US? - I work for X company as a Y on project Z. Some more details followed.
3. Does your husband still work for A? Yes

Then she was told that her visa is approved. They kept her passport and she was told by someone to expect it in 6 days. She came out and was relieved to find the person still around that had her belongings. She profusely thanked them and took her stuff back and happily returned.

Part 5 -- Passport tracking

I called up UStravelDocs help line as the website showed something to effect of passport is out for delivery to find out how to track the passport now. They told me to use the ceac website instead. There it clearly showed the details of what was going on. So I started following it.

Part 6 -- Administrative Processing

From my past experience I knew that even when the visa is approved, for about a day it shows administrative processing and then it changes to issued. I expected it to be the same for my wife and waited to check it on Tuesday. Around 9ish the website just fails to load any status. Around 10:30am it still continued to show "Administrative Processing". Doing my research I found out that people suggested that it usually updates around 3pm. So I resolved to check later in the day. However that status stayed and the last updated date on the status did not change for the next few days while I furiously checked the status many times a day. I sent an email to ustraveldocs for help but it hasn't been answered at all. I also called up the helpline where they acknowledged the email and they told me after listening to the entire details that administrative processing is taking about 60 days for it to clear up!

Finally after checking many times last updated changed to 08-Feb on Friday when I checked around 4pm. Reading about it what I understood it meant was someone had accessed her file. I got a bit hopeful now as I thought the only reason someone would do that after a week would be due to some details arriving back on the queries they were doing. So I hoped for it to change to issued on Monday.

I read this forum and the experiences thread for all recent experiences for any help and saw another post about a wife working on H4 that was stuck in administrative processing for 2 weeks. I was hoping for a faster outcome in my case. I checked several times on Monday but once again there were no updates. By this time I knew the application number by heart. Finally around 3pm when I checked, I saw that the last updated had changed to 11-Feb. That night, I started making the backup plans for real. I started checking the flight ticket adjustment costs, mailing office about chances of delay in the trip, contemplating returning alone in case of further delays, etc.

The next morning I had plans to go to a famous temple with family members and went about those plans. While the plans were not made for it but the visa issue was definitely one of the first things for which I asked for help from the almighty! We came back from the temple and around 11:45am when I checked the status it showed "Issued". Everyone was happy that the problems were solved and we could go about the tail end of our trip in peace. But there was a twist remaining in store for us.

Part 7 -- Collecting back the passport

I once again called the helpline and told them that the passport status has changed to issued and so when can I expect it back. At this I was told that it takes about 10 days for the passport to arrive. That deflated my spirits a bit and I asked for the delivery details as ustraveldocs at this time was showing "passport has been picked up". So when I learned that it would again be delivered to me, I requested a change for it to be picked up instead. I was not in Mumbai but would be leaving for it pretty soon. The delivery address was in a different city so I did not want for the condition where the passport had not arrived by the time I was leaving for Mumbai. For this they were actually able to help out. They asked me to go through the entire scheduling in ustraveldocs once more and select the pickup option.

Immediately, we also got an authority letter for passport pickup made and couriered it to my relatives in Mumbai for picking it up. On Wednesday sometime in the day it started showing the status as passport is ready to be picked up however the courier for authority letter was supposed to reach early morning on Thursday. When it did arrive on Thursday, the passport was picked up. It was the second last possible working day before our scheduled flight back to US! We got pictures back and confirmed that the visa looked good. Finally we had the passport in our hand with the visa on Friday.

If you have any questions for me after this detailed post, I will still be happy to help out. Take care and hope that it works out for you. My take on the ustraveldocs helpline is that they are like an outside office to the embassy with no idea on what goes on inside. They merely send and bring back the documents so don't rely too heavily on what they say. Also, most of the cases that you find here aren't from people who didn't face problems so don't worry if you find majority of bad cases here.