Visa Stamping from Canada/ Mexico

Hi,
This is a fantastic website with so many experiences being shared, it helps virtually everyone. Thanks immihelp for that.

I have a, not rather unique situation, however, haven't found a solid answer yet, including employer attorneys.

I am going to Mexico for visa stamping. Followed the procedure and scheduled to have interview on 28th. However, something that I overlooked regarding eligibility - quoting from consulate website in Mexico:

Not eligible to apply in Mexico if:

-Applicants who entered the U.S. with a visa issued in their home country and changed status with Department of Homeland Security in the U.S. who seek a new visa in the new visa category


Now, last I entered US with H1B was in 2009. I left my last employer and was in H4 for few months. I never leaved US while in H4. So my last stamp in passport is still H1B. I converted back to H1B for my current employer in April 2011.

I am confused according to above clause, whether I am still eligible to apply for stamping in Mexico, after I have changed status during my stay in US (after last entry to US), although have switched back to H1B.

If any of you have encountered a similar situation, specifically, have converted to H4 temporarily and still went to Mexico for stamping (with success), please post. Will greatly appreciate your help.

Hi,

I would like to share my visa stamping experience at Tijuana, Mexico.
If you are planning to go for Visa renewal to Canada or Mexico without your previous visa (that can be expired but you need the visa), you may probably get into trouble.

Let me explain my case first.

I lost my passport with a valid H1B visa on it. I booked a police complaint and got the police report to collect duplicate passport. After that I applied and I got my new passport and applied for visa extension. My H1 petition got approved for another 3 years.
I got the I797 and scheduled an appointment for visa stamping at Tijuana, Mexico.

First day I appeared in ASC centre and done with finger print and photo. Next day I was having consulate appointment at 10 AM and I was waiting in the queue and reached the entrance of the Consulate where there will be a window and two peoples will be checking your appointment details and allow you inside.

I was questioned by the document checking lady (she was my Evil). I have shown my passport and appointment confirmation page and MRV receipt number (for visa payment). After checking the passport (it was my new passport without any visa other than Mexican tourist visa) she asked me where is your old passport with your previous visa? I said I lost my passport and visa, and shown her the police report with all the documents mentioned in that and photo copy of my previous passport and H1B visa. She took that report and asked to wait. After sometime she called me and said since you don’t have your previous visa's physical copy in your passport it’s going to be considered as a fresh VISA application. The rule for fresh VISA is you have to get it in your home country and not in any other country. I totally got shocked. I told her that my previous visa is still valid for another 4 months, since I have lost my VISA I came for stamping here and I cannot travel back to USA without the VISA. She replied I totally understand that but I can’t help because this is the rule mentioned in the website also. I asked her to allow me to talk to any high officials regarding this. But she didn’t allow me for any reason.

We tried different ways to appear for the interview but nothing was working. We called State immigration department of USA and spoke to an office she said that is not a rule (if you don’t have your previous visa's physical copy you cannot get it stamped in other countries) but whatever the office decides that’s going to be the final which cannot be changed because it’s not a rule. Since, in Mexico everyday high volume of VISA is being issued, to reduce that the officers can take any relevant actions like this which is applicable. This kind of rejection or restriction is possible for 10% applicants if they are missing any required documents.

I got trapped and I thought that was my end of USA life. There are other options like going to native country and get it stamped there and come back to USA. But getting H1B in native country is a big deal now. two of my colleagues already waiting there for more than 3 months. There are asking more and more documents each time.

I was staying there in Mexico for more than 10 days. Instead of staying an alien in another country because of few problems in VISA stamping, better go to native country and try for other jobs there if you don’t get your visa. That’s always safe.

Else have a plan to go back to your native country always when you plan for stamping in Mexico or Canada in this case (lost visa and passport). And also come with more dress and patience when you are planning for stamping here. It’s not going to be always as you expect.

Think twice thrice before planning to go to Canada or Mexico if you have lost your visa and passport and going for renewal. I would say DON’T GO CANADA OR MEXICO IF YOU ARE GOING FOR RENEWAL WITHOUT YOUR PREVIOUS VISA (because of lost or damaged).

Hope I didn’t confuse you. Take better and safe decisions always which will keep you away from suffering.

I am sure the problem was nt the girl it was absolutely you. Who cares about your so called "Kharcha". If you want a visa you have to be patient with the process instead going there like an idiot and asking the same retard question. Infact rajnikant example is directly applies on you who was asking same crapppp over and over again. Your kind of attitude somewhat disgust the consulate and in general possibly impacts other applicants (who are far more patient than you're). visas outcome. Learn to be respectful and patient dude after all they decide if you deserve a visa or not. By the way I am dual citizen from US and Canada.

I would like to share my H1B visa stamping experience with everybody. This may be helpful to others. I have MS degree from US and working directly with a large US manufacturing company. I went to Ottawa for my first time H1B visa stamping. I read in many places that we should try to go our home country for the first time H1B stamping but I was confident that there should not be any problem if we have all the required document.

I scheduled my appointment for Feb 9, 11 at 9 am. I was there at the consulate around 8:40 am. Security checkup was done within 10 min and then the officer verified my passport, I797 and appointment confirmation email. After verifying everything he gave a token number for my visa interview.

First they call for fingerprinting and then for the interview. The interview question and answers are as follows,

O- so you are a **** ** scientist (in a funny way)
me- yes I am...
O- when you graduated from college?
me- 20**
O-show me you transcript and degree
me- I gave my degree and transcrip
O-show me your W2 for 2009 and 2010
me- I gave w2's to him.
O- congratulation, you will get your passport from the DHL office in two days. Please check our website and provide ur passport no, DOB and country of citizenship for the status. I checked the status nothing was shown the day of interview and the next day of interview.

I went to the DHL office in the evening of the day of interview and the next day but couldn't get my passport. It was there with DHL after two days of interview.

I wish goodluck to everybody going for the H1B stamping.

I am plaing to go for my H1B visa renewal in Feb to Tijuana, and i saw some of them suggest not to do visa renewal at Tijuana. They will never let us to enter inside, and will ask to go back to home country for stamping. Please suggest if some one has more experience on this.

summary first in case you dont want to read the detailed experience:
 - I'm from India. working full time on H1B in an investment mgmt firm. Did MS in a US Univ.
 - Went to Calgary, Canada for H1B visa stamping. Appt was on 14th Dec 10.
 - Got the passport back on the 17th Dec.
 - No PIMS confirmation/email was required.
 - New form is DS160. Fees are now paid when you fill the form online and not in any Scotia bank.
 - calgary Downtown is pretty safe. It's almost dead after 10.00 pm, but still roamed around till late, and no issues.
 - I had heard that if you get your previous stmaping in a country (in my case Tijuana, MX) other than your home country (India), you cannot go to a third country for your next stmaping. I didnt have any such problems.


Here are the details

Background: I'm from bombay, India. I did my MS in US and have been working since 6 - 7 yrs. currently I work for an Investment management company in the Sf bay area as a Financial Data/systems manager. I had gone to Tijuana, MX last year (jan 2010) for H1B stamping. My 6 yrs of H1B got over Dec 15th 10. My I 140 (GC) is done. So I got another 3 yrs on. Got a new 797 around 6 Dec 10 and booked an appt in calgary for Dec 14th 10. I was lucky to get the appt. Dates in Canada are booked almost a month in advance.

The US consulate there sends your passport(pp) to a local DHL office where you can pick it up from. This happens at most Canadian US consultes, not all. Dont know why this DHL step was added. it's extra work for them and the applicants and possibility of docs getting lost in transit. Though they say it might take anywhere from 2-5 business days, though it generally gets done in 1-2 days for the pp to be sent to DHL. I took a one way ticket to Calgary. Booked a hotel for 3 nights in a hotel called 5 calgary Downtown suites. Decent hotel, ~100 a night, ~1.5km from the consulate. Dont forget about a canadian visa in the first place.

About Calgary: Consulate is in downtown (mcleod Trail and 6th Ave SW). The downtown seemed pretty safe. from my research, I found out that calgry is a safe place except some parts of North East. Downtown is pretty safe, though dead after 10.00 pm on weekdays. All restaurants shut down by 10.00. luckily I found a 24 hr subway and Tim hortons. Subway was a life saver, couple of nights.

Day of the appointment:
Got there at 9.45 for a 10.00 am Appt. Took a cab. Had all the documents from my Univ, tax returns from last 3 yrs, docs from previous 2 jobs and the current one and everything else you can imagine + Appt confirmation and the front page of the appliation form with the bar code and pic and other inormation. When you finish the application, you can 'Email it' to yourself. The PDF from the email is what I'm talking about. They checked all the docs (they take their time downstairs) and the guard took me and some other applicants upstairs. By now, you should know - No cell phones, bag packs. One mother with a 6 month old in the stroller was asked to throw away extra diapers, wipes etc. Yes. Be prepared.

In the Consulate office:
 - First you are called and someone takes your documents like PP, 797 and appt confirmation etc.
 - Called again the second time. this time for finger printing.
 - finally after an hour so, they called my number. here's how the interview went.

Visa Officer: Do you work at 'XYZ'?
Me; yes
VO; What's your role?
Me: blah blah blah
Vo: Your last visa stamping was also for the same position in the same company?
Me: yes.
Vo: Ok great. Your visa is approved. It should be in DHL office tomorrow, but in some cases it takes 2 -3 days. Here's how you check the status of your passport.

She gave me a piece of paper with instructions to check the PP status. And a DHL bill. You need this bill + an ID to pick up the pp at the DHL office. According to the instructions, you need to go back to the same site where your booked the appt. Enter your PP nmbr, DOB and Citizenship and you'll see your summary. On that page, IF THE PP IS READY, you see the status as : Ready for pickup. if not, you wont see the box for status at all.

so went back to the hotel. They had Free Wi-fi. so was working from the hotel. By the time I left the hotel for dinner, it was 9.45 pm. I could not find a place to eat. after roaming around for an hour, came back to the hotel and saw a subway right behind the hotel. It's in a Max (a grocery store) and is 24 hrs. when finally got into that subway, started eating, my jaw had gone stiff due to the -5F temp + wind outside. It finally started moving afer a couple of bites and considerable effort. Again, I felt very safe walking around. I saw not more than 5 people on the streets at that hour. But again, never felt unsafe. Interestingly, one of those 5 was a girl wearing a short skirt walking to...wherever she was going. Did I mention that the temp was -5f outside, windy and snowing? oh well...

Next day onwards, I started checking the Consulate's site. No information about the PP status. Which means it's not done. Kept working. kept checking every hour or so.
Next day, the same story. Website showed nothing. Checked out. Went to a starbux nearby, and continued working. And Kept checking the site for the status. Nothing till 5 pm. hence booked another day in the same hotel, went back. The same story the next morning. This is Fri, 17th Dec. Went to the consulate and the girl checking docs in the lobby told me that website is the only source on information. I said there seems to be some bug coz, at times, it asked me to log in to schedule an appt even though my appt was done. Other times, it showed my application summary page minus the passport status. She said, I quote
Girl: "The website should work fine".
Me: Yes it should. But it seems it is not.
Girl: But the website should work fine. It always does.
Me: I know it should. But it is clearly not. Is there not a way where you can check. I have the DHL bill, my passport number etc.
Girl: There's nothing I can do. The website should work fine.
Me: I understand. But there's a difference between what should happen and what IS happening.
Girl: I'm not concerned about the process or the system. The officers upstairs too are not concerned.
Me: You may be not be concerned. I am. It's MY passport we talking about.
Girl: As I told you, I'm not concerned about the process or the system. The officers upstairs too are not concerned. The website should work fine.

I'm not exaggerating. She repeated the same sentence over and over again as if she's a machine who's programed to chose one of these 2 lines. As I had expected, didnt get any answer from that robot, who looked like a girl (May be she was an earlier version of 'Rajnikant' and Prof rajnikant sold 'IT' to the US consulate at a discount:)). Went back to the hotel. checked DHL's website too. entered my Waybill number and it said "No Information found". called DHL's office. yes i was doing whatever I could think of. yes, clutching at straws. With all the automted answers and Please-Hold, I hung up after 10-15 mins. so again, I checked out of the hotel, went to the starbux, really tensed coz it's Fri. If it doesnt happen today, I'll have to book the hotel for 3 more nights. Unnecessary kharcha, restricted to a hotel room and may be a few blocks. Couldn't rent a car and go somewhere coz a snow storm was approaching. If the day was not bad enough, my BOA ATM card stopped working and was 'swollwed' by the machine. Next time if I'm travelling, I'll call BOA to ask if they are ok with it :):). Atleast my credit cards kept working.
As I was contemplating what to do next, (and my wife was thinking of coming over to Calgary from SF for the weekend) i tried to see if someone has updated their experience,in particular, about the DHL part. I had read one or 2 about Calgary. none were any detailed. But someone whose appointment was in Toronto wrote that even though the websites (both the consulate's and DHL's) didnt show anything, his documents had already arrived at the DHL office. Some other post also mentioned the same thing. So I called up DHL again and this time I was able to get someone on the phone. I gave them my waybill number and she said, the package is sitting at the DHL office, waitng for pickup. No one's voice had ever sounded that sweet. Not even my wife's when I first met her :D:D.

I picked up all the stuff, took a cab, went to the DHL office. I found out that my documents were delivered there the night of 15th Dec. Yes, the day after my appt. But the website never showed any status info. The person at the DHL office said that some Gomes or whoever would have called me and left a mssg saying that the docs have arrived. I got no such phone call, nor any message. Anyway, took my docs from her, took the same cab to the airport. In the meantime, my wife booked a ticket online and I flew back. It's 19th right now. I came back yesterday and the consulate's site is still not showing anything :):)


Note 1: I was worried if I'm eligible to get stamping done in Canada. I had read in couple of blogs that some people were sent back from the consulate saying they stamped their previous visas in a place other than their home country and hence, going forward, they can only go back to that same country or their home country. I checked with my lawyer and she confirmed there is no such rule. My first stamp was in Bombay and the second one was in Tijuana, MX. I had no issues, getting it done at the consulate in Calgary.

Note 2; I was also worried about getting (or not getting) PIMS confirmation or whatever that is. My lawyer told me that it happens automatically. When they give you a new 797, they also send this information to the dept responsible for PIMS database in Kentucky or kansas or somewhere and they enter it in there. We dont have to specifically email/call the consulate for PIMS. And since my visa was stamped and passport delivered the next day, I'm assuming all this PIMS thing happened in the background automatically.


Thinking about it, this was a very smooth experience. the Visa office asked some basic questions since i had all the docs. It was approved. stamped and PP delivered the next day. Just their website which SHOULD work wasn't actually working. And that caused all the trouble.

I hope this piece will help someone in deciding if they want to go to Calgary, and preparing for it in case they decide to.

Hi

I entered us on B1/B2 visa, Expiring on april 2011. But i also have my F1 visa stamped in New Delhi, India.

Now I want to enter USA on F1 Visa to Attened University of Texas. Can i just go to mexico and just re-enter us on F1 visa.

Do i need to have mexico visa or mexico border permit would do.

For those of you who are going to one of the Mexican consulates and wondering whether or not you need mexican visa: You do NOT need mexican visa according to statement released by Mexican officials on Chicago Embassy site.

http://www.consulmexchicago.com/
[Click on "Visa Section" to your left]

"Starting May 1st, 2010, access will be granted in every single entry point to Mexico to all of those foreigners (regardless of their nationality) on tourist, transmigrate or business matters that arrive to the country from a U.S.A. inbound flight and have with them a valid and not expired visa issued by the U.S.A. government."

Now it is upto your discretion to think whether people traveling to mexico by land are covered or not :)

I have my visa appointment in Tijuana on 23rd September.

1. I had my first visa stamping in india in 2005, never been out of country but has changed 2 employers. I would like to get my visa stamped with my I-94. Is there a problem.

2. How/where do i send my H1B approval? In what scenario should that be done?

3. Do we need some kind of permit to enter Mexico, i understand we do not need a visa.

Thanks

Hey,

My H1b visa stamping is expired. I just got the H1b renewal, planning to go to Matamoros for the stamping. Please guide me and share your experience.

Thanks,
Neetika.