My wife and I got our H4 and H1B respectively from Chennai consulate last week. We submitted through drop box on Dec 18. Passports with visas were delivered on Jan 3. We endorsed each other’s name in our passports prior to the visa application, but no surname changes. It was the first H1B stamp for me. Previously I have had F1 visas issued by Chennai consulate. I work as a postdoc in a well-known university.
Part 1 of 2: At the passport office in Chennai
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We went to the passport office to endorse the spouse’s name on each other’s passport. This was straightforward. If you go with the forms filled, you will be waiting in a line for about 45 min (you can sit during this time and you keep moving from one chair to the next while the queue progresses). After you submit the documents they give back your passport with spouse’s name added in about an hour. I found the process quite efficient. Documents needed are the completed form with photograph, marriage certificate original and copy. In some cases you need proof of residence and copy and filled in index card with photograph (see below).
Here are some tips:
- They state that they will accept the application between 9:30 and 12:30 PM. But then practically they don’t let anyone submit after 12 noon or a little earlier. You will be asked to come the next day if you don’t go early enough. This might sound atrocious especially if you happen to come from out of town and have to stay another day. They do this so as to clear out the queue, so that the last application they take is around 12:30 PM.
- I think the form to add spouse’s name is available online. But then you are supposed to purchase the form they sell on the ground floor and use that. So don’t take pdf printouts.
- the first page of the form is machine scannable. This page will be confusing as it will ask for details of prior passports. This page is not actually submitted for adding spouse’s name, so ignore this page. Even if you fill this page, they wont take it.
- if your passport is issued outside India (actually, I think, at any office other than Chennai), then they ask you for proof of residence in Chennai!! This could be in the form of bank pass book, ration card etc. Mine was issued in the US and therefore my application was refused on the first day. My wife’s passport was issued in Chennai and was therefore accepted. I came back the next day with some bank pass book that had my local address and they took my application.
- have one or two additional photographs, glue, stapler etc with you. Don’t staple the photo, but glue it.
Part 2 of 2 (at TTS)
------------------------
Thanks to earlier posting by others this was smooth. Documents I submitted:
For H1B:
- Two demand drafts for the required fees
- Passport
- Completed DS156
- Completed DS157
- I-797 original, without the I-94 at the bottom right (this I-94 and the old F1 based I-94 were both given to the airline staff when I left the US)
- I-129
- LCA
- Original undergraduate degree certificate (India)
- Sealed transcripts from both undergraduate (India) and graduate school (US)
- Work experience letters (the one from my current employer also requests the H1B and H4 visas to be issued)
- Job offer letters from current employer (I had two from the current employer as initially the offer was until expiration of F1 OPT, and the more recent one was after the H1B approval notice came through)
- Six photographs: inside (3) and outside (3) of current work place
Contact information of all employers
- Directions to all employers (for the present employer I got it from the website; for the earlier employers I used yahoo maps printout, using the nearest airport as “from” and the address as “to” fields)
- Xerox copies of all the above documents except that of my passport; but additionally provided xerox copies of graduate degrees from the US university.
For H4 (note that this is a simultaneous H1B/H4 application):
- Passport of the H4 applicant with spouse’s name endorsed; maiden name retained.
- Completed DS156
- Demand drafts
- Original marriage certificate
- A small photo album (20+ pictures; album should be small as otherwise it wont fit in the folder they give; I believe you can also put in loose photographs)
- Wedding invitations from both the groom’s and bride’s side
- Xerox of DS156 and marriage certificate
Note that you use the same folder for both the H1B and H4 application. TTS will provide this folder that has the slots for the required documents.
Neither of my transcripts was opened.
Also they returned all the xerox copies. So why did they ask for the copies (when they had the originals)? The Chennai website states that xerox copies of ALL documents are needed. So I had xerox copies of all 36 pages of both my passports (two of them, one expired, one current), as well as xeroxes of workplace photographs (silly, eh?). But the copy of the passport is not needed for your application. That’s what I was told by the help desk person at TTS, so did not submit that.
Did not submit bank statements, pay stubs, or original of US degrees, although I had them with me.
It took exactly 10 working days to get the passports back.
Part 1 of 2: At the passport office in Chennai
----------------------------------------------------------
We went to the passport office to endorse the spouse’s name on each other’s passport. This was straightforward. If you go with the forms filled, you will be waiting in a line for about 45 min (you can sit during this time and you keep moving from one chair to the next while the queue progresses). After you submit the documents they give back your passport with spouse’s name added in about an hour. I found the process quite efficient. Documents needed are the completed form with photograph, marriage certificate original and copy. In some cases you need proof of residence and copy and filled in index card with photograph (see below).
Here are some tips:
- They state that they will accept the application between 9:30 and 12:30 PM. But then practically they don’t let anyone submit after 12 noon or a little earlier. You will be asked to come the next day if you don’t go early enough. This might sound atrocious especially if you happen to come from out of town and have to stay another day. They do this so as to clear out the queue, so that the last application they take is around 12:30 PM.
- I think the form to add spouse’s name is available online. But then you are supposed to purchase the form they sell on the ground floor and use that. So don’t take pdf printouts.
- the first page of the form is machine scannable. This page will be confusing as it will ask for details of prior passports. This page is not actually submitted for adding spouse’s name, so ignore this page. Even if you fill this page, they wont take it.
- if your passport is issued outside India (actually, I think, at any office other than Chennai), then they ask you for proof of residence in Chennai!! This could be in the form of bank pass book, ration card etc. Mine was issued in the US and therefore my application was refused on the first day. My wife’s passport was issued in Chennai and was therefore accepted. I came back the next day with some bank pass book that had my local address and they took my application.
- have one or two additional photographs, glue, stapler etc with you. Don’t staple the photo, but glue it.
Part 2 of 2 (at TTS)
------------------------
Thanks to earlier posting by others this was smooth. Documents I submitted:
For H1B:
- Two demand drafts for the required fees
- Passport
- Completed DS156
- Completed DS157
- I-797 original, without the I-94 at the bottom right (this I-94 and the old F1 based I-94 were both given to the airline staff when I left the US)
- I-129
- LCA
- Original undergraduate degree certificate (India)
- Sealed transcripts from both undergraduate (India) and graduate school (US)
- Work experience letters (the one from my current employer also requests the H1B and H4 visas to be issued)
- Job offer letters from current employer (I had two from the current employer as initially the offer was until expiration of F1 OPT, and the more recent one was after the H1B approval notice came through)
- Six photographs: inside (3) and outside (3) of current work place
Contact information of all employers
- Directions to all employers (for the present employer I got it from the website; for the earlier employers I used yahoo maps printout, using the nearest airport as “from” and the address as “to” fields)
- Xerox copies of all the above documents except that of my passport; but additionally provided xerox copies of graduate degrees from the US university.
For H4 (note that this is a simultaneous H1B/H4 application):
- Passport of the H4 applicant with spouse’s name endorsed; maiden name retained.
- Completed DS156
- Demand drafts
- Original marriage certificate
- A small photo album (20+ pictures; album should be small as otherwise it wont fit in the folder they give; I believe you can also put in loose photographs)
- Wedding invitations from both the groom’s and bride’s side
- Xerox of DS156 and marriage certificate
Note that you use the same folder for both the H1B and H4 application. TTS will provide this folder that has the slots for the required documents.
Neither of my transcripts was opened.
Also they returned all the xerox copies. So why did they ask for the copies (when they had the originals)? The Chennai website states that xerox copies of ALL documents are needed. So I had xerox copies of all 36 pages of both my passports (two of them, one expired, one current), as well as xeroxes of workplace photographs (silly, eh?). But the copy of the passport is not needed for your application. That’s what I was told by the help desk person at TTS, so did not submit that.
Did not submit bank statements, pay stubs, or original of US degrees, although I had them with me.
It took exactly 10 working days to get the passports back.
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