Visa Stamping from Canada/ Mexico

Interview date - 01/02 7:30 AM - Ottawa- H1B

I reached the consulate around 7 and parked my car at near by municipal parking garage located @ 70 Clarence St, Ottawa, ON K1N 9B8, Canada (If not 141 Clarence St, Ottawa). This is very affordable parking, I paid literally under $2 USD for 1.5 hr and its the same from 6AM-11AM.

Walked to consulate which is 2 mins away and was there by 7:20 and security personnel came out and informed me that I should wait until at least 7:40.

At 7:40 they opened the doors and asked everyone to stand in the line and asked everyone with back packs to keep them at some other place as they are restricted.

I've entered the consulate at 7:45 and at the first stop I had to give my passport and DS160 confirmation page then she asked me to go to security check. With security check I had to leave my wallet and got the token.

Literally I was the first one to be interviewed for this 2020 at Ottawa consulate :-)

First window there was a lady and asked for my passport and I-797 and she literally verified letter by letter my petition no. and validity and asked for the passport picture and asked me when did I take that pic and I answered couple of weeks ago. She also asked me why did I came to Canada and I've answered only for the US visa stamping. I was waiting for the interview questions and she asked me to go to the next window.

There was a gentleman at second window and asked for my passport and took my finger prints and when I was waiting for inter view questions he asked me to go to third window.

At last third window was the actual interview window and the lady asked me about my employer name, location and the kind of business they do. She also asked me about my salary and confirmed that I was on H1B visa for more than 12 years and my I-140 got approved. After that she didn't ask me any question but kept typing so much in her system for more than 3 minutes and at the end said, my visa is approved and will get it in 3-4 days. Even though I was sure about the answer still asked if there is any way I can collect the passport from consulate the next day and the answer was no.

As I don't have anyone at Ottawa driven to my friend's place at Toronto and was waiting there for passport.

On 3rd Jan at 11:45 AM got email saying that the passport is ready for pickup for the courier company, Purolator. After couple of hours at 2 PM or so Purolator picked up my passport from consulate and there was no status until 6th morning 7:30 AM saying it was on vehicle for delivery and got delivered at 12:30 PM and I've traveled back to US on the same day.

I've chosen the premium delivery service by paying $20 extra but I felt I made mistake by doing so, otherwise my passport would've been sent to local post office and I would've collected on 01/04th Saturday it self (Just wild assumption)