H1B Renewal

[Texan100]

Hello,

I attended Visa interview for my H1B Visa renewal. I received my Visa today via courier, but the expiration date 16th Dec 2012 is not matching with what's on my I-797A approval notice which is 13th Sept 2013.

Can someone advise what I can do to correct this mistake made by US Consulate? Thanks for your help.

[AKD_80]

Is your passport expiring in Dec 2012? The H1B visa rules say that you will be given a visa for the duration of validity of passport or validity of H1B visa as given in the approval notice whichever is lesser ...

[kabkaba]

It is possible that this is a mistake or your passport is expiring in 2012. But there is no rule that Visa needs to be as long as the petition end date. Your Visa only needs to be valid on the day of entry to the US. If you get your passport renewed (assuming that was the reason for shorter duration) and show the new passport along with this Visa and petition, the IO will give you I-94 according to the petition.

[Texan100]

Thanks Kabkaba and AKD. My passport is expiring only in July 2018. If there is no rule that Visa needs to be as long as petition end date, is there anything I could do to update the expiry date on Visa to match that of the petition?

Appreciate your valuable guidance!

[shervin143]

You can check with the consulate to see why the visa was stamped for a lesser duration. But I am sure how much help they will be. With so many rejections and 221g's, you should be happy that you got your passport stamped for two years and got it back on time.

As clearly mentioned in the previous reply, visa is just an entry document. When you are inside U.S, your I-94 will determine until when you can legally stay in U.S. When you enter U.S, the officer at the POE can give you an I-94 that is valid until the petition expiry date, since your passport is valid for a longer duration and you can stay until the expiry date of the I-94. In case you had to go out of the country after December 2012, then can once again get the visa stamped based on the petition that is valid until Sept 2013 and return back.

Thanks Kabkaba and AKD. My passport is expiring only in July 2018. If there is no rule that Visa needs to be as long as petition end date, is there anything I could do to update the expiry date on Visa to match that of the petition?

Appreciate your valuable guidance!

[Texan100]

Thanks Sherwin. Actually even I received the Pink slip, got my Visa 45 days after my interview. However I did not know a lot of them are getting 221g's.

Anyways I was not able to reach US Consulate from the number I found online. Can someone give me the Chennai US consulate contact number?

Appreciate your help!