H1B, H4 Visa

First of all , I would like to express my sincere Thanks to ImmiHelp
for creating such a wonderful forum. Although there are tons of forums
existing and tons of posts online, it was ImmiHelp that I sought help from.
It is more analogous to the existence of thousands of trees but the only tree
that you would be greatful is the one which you rested under its shade.

Ill Start with detailing my experience from the time i got down at Chennai Railway
Station. Our train from bangalore reached at 4:15 AM. It was pouring like Cats and

Dogs. The Pre Paid Auto Counter opens only at 5:30 AM so just trusted one auto guy
who charged Rs 200 for a meagre 3 KM distance.

OFC appointment was at 1130 in the morning. We reached at around 10:50 and saw that

there were two queues. One for ppl with 11 AM appointment and one with 1130

appointment. We ignored the queue and took a walk and drnk the costliest tender coconut

at 60 Rupees. At around 1115 or so joined the queue and went in.

This was the smoothest process. We had an umbrella which they didnt allow inside so

just put it on the stair case and proceeded in where they checked our documents and

pasted a barcode on our passports and gave my wife and me seperate tokens. We were

called in to two different counters and we were asked the same set of questions.

1. What VISA category, when is the interview, then took our pics and finger prints and
asked us to go the consulate no earlier than 15 mins before the actual interview time.
We were done and had the whole day for roaming around chennai.

Next Day: Appointment time 8 AM. Reached the consulate around 715 and we were made to

wait in a ginormous queue and we were allowed inside the consulate at around 5 mins to

8 AM. Security wise everything was similar to OFC. There is acounter near the queue

where you can deposit all your belongings like cell phone etc. We chose to leave them

at the hotel.

There are two rooms inside the consulate ( more like two buildings). The first building

had counters and seats and queues except that it was deserted and it was not

operational. One guy probably from VFS asked us to go directly to the second building.

The moment we entered the second building, a lady at the security desk took the

passports and checked us in. Since were were the first few of the 8 AM slot, we were

rushed in to a counter (number 18) where our finger prints were collected/verified.

Left four fingers for me and right four fingers for my wife.

The officer asked us to wait in teh seating area and someone will call us for the

interview. No Token was given. Even before we were out of the queue #18, a guy rushed

us in to counter 17 where the officer looked like either he was at the end of a

tiresome shift or he was just up from his sleep and was beginnign the day. There were

two people ahead of me. One lady for H1 and a couple visiting their son-in-law for B2s.
Both of them got approved. The lady for H1 got the white pamphlet and the golden words

as well.

Our turn came in and we both stepped forward.

We: Good morning Officer, How are you.
VO: Good Morning, can i see your docs?

We: Sure. And passed the Passports.

VO : So where are you going.
Me : City and State in the US.

VO : Who Do you work for ?
Me : XYZ Inc.

VO : How long have you been working for them ?
Me : About 8 Years now.

VO : What is your designation?
Me : Stated the OCC Code 30 in the approved petition as Computer Systems Analyst.

VO: Are you going to work for a client or employer directly ?
Me : Client, which is ABC Corp.

VO : Do you have a client letter
Me : Yes and showed him that.

VO : I See you have an L1 B Rejection in the past, so what happened.
Me : The VO felt that Needed to apply in a different category as L1 was not appropriate
at the point in time and asked me to reapply in diff category.
VO : And you reapplied in diff category indeed.

VO : Do you like Winter because the state you are going to is very cold
ME : I love the winter because i come from a city where it is a 100 degrees.
VO : I understand but most of your countrymen seem to not like winters so i Just asked.

VO : KEPT TYPING SOMETHIGN IN HIS SYSTEM FOR ABOUT 60 SEconds non stop and put our

passports in the tray behind him
ME : Thought that interview was through

VO to my Wife : Are you his wife ?
Her :YES

VO : ANy Kids ?
Her :NO

VO : Suddenly shudders and says I SEE your petition is not valid and gets up from his
seat and calls someone else to his desk. Takes our passports back from the bin and puts

on the desk.
WE: Chills thorough the spine.

VO and another guy :talking on mute for about 2 mins
We : Waiting.

VO : Scans the barcodes on the passports and puts them back in the bin
and utters the golden words "Your Visas are approved"
We : Thanks and have a good day!

I think what the officer meant was that my petition is not valid until OCt of this year
I heard the golden words but missed the rights pamphlet and did not get it.

That night while on our journey back to BLR, we checked our status on CEAC website with

the DS 160 # and saw that it changed to "Administrative Processing" and
was utterly shocked. Didnt know what to do. A lot of posts online say that for some

people the ADMIN processing after VO said issued took around 2 months to move from that

state. Well the next two days were spent in agony and pain and waiting to see the

status move from ADMIN PROCESSING. ON the third day morning at around 11 AM the status

changed to Issued to both of us.

Two days after that received a mail from travel docs asking us to collect our

passports. One interesting thing on the stamped Visa is a section called Annotation

which said "NOT VALID UNTIL SEP 21st 2014" for both of us. Which means we cannot travel

before that and it is understand-able. Let me know if you all have any questions and I

will be glad to answer them.