Visa Stamping from Canada/ Mexico

I am planning to visit Calgary for my H1B Visa stamping but when I goto MRV Fee Details I dont see any available date.
Calgary No Appointments Available
Halifax No Appointments Available
Montreal No Appointments Available
Ottawa No Appointments Available
Quebec City No Appointments Available
Toronto No Appointments Available
Vancouver No Appointments Available

I'd appreciate if someone can review my questions and provide their expereince feedback:
1) I don't see an option of making the payment (I see a message: There are no available appointments at this time. Please check back in a few days as the Consular Section will open more appointments.). Do we need to take a date before making the fee payment?

2) Do you know if we can book the future date (like for June 2020)?

3) Can we select any close by "Document Delivery Location" or hotel/airbnb delivery is better?

4) I have an infant (6 months old) along with me. Any idea on restrictions on carrying stroller/diaper bag etc during the interview process.

Thanks a lot.
AJ

anyone recently visited Toronto. Please share your experience and steps that will take place .

I made a mistake/ typo with salary on my ds160 and sent a email to canada_contactus email with the new ds160.

I have an appointment on feb 13 .. is it ok to travel with old and new ds160’s And ask them to update ??

All,

I would like to share my visa experience at Vancouver. This is my 5th H1-B visa stamping and the 3rd stamping from Vancouver consulate. Overall it went well but the impedance, stress upto the interview day is not quantifiable ...I am sure all of us who go for stamping may go through a similar stress but this site is the genie for all questions and I cant thank enough for the valuable tips and inputs from all those who shared their experiences and to the moderators who host/manage this very helpful site. My case is a bit unique ( not unusual) and didnt see any posts here which follow similar profile and so I added the details in the header for better visibility.

Going into the details:
Interview schedule: 7:30AM.

Check Point 1 :
Security Validates DS160, photo, I797, passport. After the initial checks you will be let into the building where there is another scanning by security. Please ensure you do not carry any sort electronics, smart watches etc. Please make sure you have very recent photo within the last six months. I have seen many who needed a new picture. There is a photo booth inside the building and you can get a picture there but try to avoid such hassles.

Check Point 2 :

Lady officer - Can I have your DS160 and photo please.
Me : Gave her the documents.
Lady Officer : Scanned the photo , wrote some notation on the passport sticker and asked me to goto the finger printing.
Lady officer Finger Printing Counter : Greetings!
Me : Greetings and Finger printing done.
Lady officer : Please follow the door and the security will take you to the interview floor.

Security Officer took us to the 20th floor. There were around 10-12 people before me. The officer was young in early 30s and looked sharp. He was not asking for any documents from anyone. Interview was maximum of 2-3 min for most of the visa seekers. It was a nail-biting experience even though this is my 5th visa stamping.

There was one guy who got 221g but from him too the officer didnt seem to ask any documents.

Finally my turn came:

Officer : GM, I797 and passport please.
Me : greetings and handed over the documents.
Officer : Who do you work for?
ME : I work for YYYY
Officer : What does your company do?
Me : They are a software service provides with extensive expertise in ERP solutions.
Officer : What is your company address?
Me : answered
Officer : How many employees are there?
Me: Answered
Officer: Do all of the employees work from this location?
Me : Yes. ( I should have been more generic and should have said some of us work at client locations)
Officer : Makes a sigh…as in deep breathe
Here comes the interesting part:
Officer : Do you work remotely or at your employer site?
Me: I work remotely.
Officer : Do you have an end client or is your employer your end client?
Me: No, I have an end client and gave the name
Officer : How many hours do you work from home?
Me: Gave answer
Officer : Do you work at the client location at all?
ME : as this moment I asked the officer to allow me to elaborate my work nature and explained in detail.
Officer : Did USCIS approve your petition based on this setup?
Me: Yes and my client gave a letter explaining it in detail to USCIS and I have copy for your review as well. He didn’t ask for the letter though..
Officer : What is your salary?
Me : answered
Officer: good
Officer : Did you do Masters?
Me : Yes.
Officer : Took the rights booklet at which point I was relieved that I will hear the good words.
Officer : I am approving your visa and please wait for the confirmation email to pick your passport.

Though the entire experience sounds lengthy, I would say it took me 3-4min max and the questions were quick. He did not ask for a single document. I was out by 8:30 AM.

One more surprise piece I would like to mention is that DOS ( Not uscis or dhs) did a query on my profile few months ago even before I applied for visa appointment. My client was kind enough to respond to the query and informed me as well. The visa officer seemed to have a copy of those responses while he was cross checking and asking me questions. I have googled and asked many friends, colleagues and none of them had this peculiar situation though it was for good in the end. I have not come across any one single person who had a privacy query (basically client verification) even before a visa applicant took an appointment.

Tip : Please jot down all the various questions from this site. Prepare in detail for each one of them. Do mirror talk , self mocks and mocks with friends/family atleast two weeks ahead of the interview. It will help you a lot when your mind is literally struggling to find the right words when you are finally being interviewed.

Lastly : The waiting game started and I was anxious to see my status change to ‘ Issued’ from Administrative Processing which is the status you see immediately after a visa approved. The verbiage on the status too can cause a bit of concern because it is the same text displayed when you get a 221g as well.
Feb 6th : Status changed to Issued at around 12pm noon.
Feb 6th 5pm: received an email with the tracking number
Feb7th: Pickup ready at Richmond Main PO email at around 10:30am. Picked it by 11:30AM and headed back to Seattle by car.

I took a flight directly from Vancouver in the past and must say that is a way better option than driving through to Seattle. Not sure if the systems at the port of entry by road are old school but it took at lot of time to get in and out of the process. I spend almost an 1 hr in traffic line after which the officer does the initial checks and sends you for further review into a building, and then atleast another 60-90 min in queue inside the building before an officer can finally look at your case. It took 5min after that for the officer to review my visa in the system and then staple a new I-94. A fee of $6 will have to be paid for the new I-94. Officer just asked for my home address and that is it.

Please feel free to email me should you have any questions.

I hope this is my last H1-B stamping… 😊

Good luck all!!

Hi all,

I had my visa interview for an approved H1B petition on December 4th. At the end of the interview,I was given a yellow 221g and was asked to email my resume which i did on the same day. On January 27th, I finally received an email to submit my passport. I sent my passport and it was received on January 31st. Since then i have not seen any update.

Is anyone else in the same boat? Why is it taking so long?

Hello Everyone,

Please, I will be going for the renewal of my F1 visa soon. Most of the visa stamping experiences I have read here are those of H-visa, and other categories of visa. Is there anyone who was in this situation before? What are the things I should pay attention to in terms of documents, questions being asked, and others?

I have been trying to make appointment at the us embassy in Canada.
It says
There are no available appointments at the selected location. Please try again later
I have to refresh the website every 10-15 mins For 3 days
I don’t have idea when is the next available date at all from what the website said :(
What should I do ? T___T Thank you

Hello

i am Thai living in USA on TD visa, my Canadian husband is on TN. I want to bring my parents to travel in American. I have some questions to ask for the advise. Thank you in advance:)

their background
- dad is a fortune teller, 40 years + experience, get paid by cash
- mom is just a housewife, take care of the family
- they got denied from embassy in bangkok before in 2018
- they both have traveled to Canada and have Canadian tourist visa
- they have traveled to some other countries too

questions
1. should they sponsor themselves or should my husband does? Since dad’s job is not a stable job in the interviewers’ eyes. If my husband sponsor them, will it look even more like running away here?
2. Can they come to apply and interview for the us visa in Canada? (Or doing again back home is better choice?)
3. Some advises for us? I really want them to see and travel in America, see where we live and stuffs

Thank you so much!!

Hello everyone,

My wife and myself recently got our H1+H4 visas stamped (renewal) at the Vancouver Consulate. Since this forum has been of help, wanted to share my experience to help someone else.

Visa Interview was on 01/22 (Wednesday) at 7:45 am

Experience-

There was a line outside the consulate. At around 7:30 they started calling everyone with 7:45 appointments. They asked to see our passports and DS-160 confirmation at that point.
Then the security officer looked at all our passports(mine+wife+kids) and then let us in.

Inside the consulate, had an airport style security check.

After that we were in line for Window 1. The VO there just checked our passports and verified I-797 etc. We were then told to proceed to Window 2

At Window 2 , they took our fingerprints(wife+mine) and were told to proceed inside to go up to Window 3.

Security guard then took a few of us in a batch up to the 20th floor . We then waited in line for a few minutes. In about 5 minutes we were called to Window .

VO- Where do you work?
Gave response
VO- What does your company do?
Gave response
VO- What is your title?
Gave response
VO- Do you do this work at your company or client?
Gave response
VO- What is your client name and where are they located?
Gave response
VO- What is your highest degree obtained
Gave response
VO- How long have you been married (looking at my wife)
Gave response
VO-Where did you meet?
Gave response

She was fairly pleasant and understanding. She then said Visa is approved and we could expect the passports back in a week.

The whole process (from entering the consulate to exiting) took less than an hour. It was fairly smooth.

Wednesday(-1/22) - Status read Administrative processing

Late Friday (01/24) - My status online was updated to Issues

Monday(01/27)- Got email notification (around 11:00 am) that the passports were ready for pickup.

Some other comments-

1- We had to apply for a Canadian visa , so that whole process took 1.5 months
2- We filled the DS-160 , paid the fees and then looked for a date. Earliest available was only April 30 in Toronto
3- We kept checking for about 2-3 weeks and somehow managed to get a Jan 22nd date in Vancouver.(You may have to keep some other cities in mind).

The biggest uncertainty is getting a good date , only then i booked hotels+flight etc.

All the best

Hi

I am planning to attend for my first H1B visa interview,
 
1) Please help me in choosing India or Canada for the visa interview in ? Which one is preferred?
2) I applied for my Canada Visitor Visa (Waiting for the approval), how Can i look for the available interview slots without filling the DS-160 form ??

Thanks in advance.

Hi my visa interview H4 to F1 is next week in Canada
I am reall scared as I am traveling for the first
time to Canada. For how many days should I book the flight?
Is there a chance of getting stuck there? PLEASE help.
Should I just abandon the program or is my fear irrational?