Any ideas reg this??

[mom2love]

Hello,
My husband recently got his J-1 visa waivered and successfully obtained his H1-B petition approval. He has all his forms with him--I-797 etc. He has not travelled out of the US in 6 years and his new H1 is not stamped in his passport, as he obtained it whilst he was in the US.
Now we would like to travel and have been advised to get the visa stamped at either Canada or Mexico.
My question is why can we not get the visa stamped from the DOS here in the US? Do we have to do it from an overseas US consulate? He is perfectly legal here with more than enough documentation to prove it. And his H1 is valid till next year.
Kindly help.
Karen

 

[jaxen]

Any visa change requires a few litmus tests to be performed by the DOS authorities. Foremost is immigration intent, educational qualification, experience verification etc. Only the US consulate in your home country will be aware of the local flavor of these conditions.
Moreover, when you transfer from a strictly non-immigrant visa to a dual intent visa, you need to revalidate any doubts about the immigration intention.
DOS is a convenience for people who want to restamp the same visa. Since the local conditions are already verified when the first visa (of the same category) was issued, it is easy for them to give the next.
Careful, If the qualifying degree for H visa is not from US, canada might also reject the H visa stamping. I have not followed J to H visa tribulations. You will have to look up the archives.