H1-B and marriage

[cartman976]

Hi,

Me and my girl-friend are both on H1-Bs. We are planning to get married in India and we both will have to get our H1-B visa's re-stamped.

However since I'm from western india, I understand that I should go to the mumbai consulate. She is from northern india and so I guess she will have to go to the Delhi consulate.

My questions.

If our visa-interview dates fall after the marriage date

a) Should we go to our respective consulates and apply for visa's just as if we would have done otherwise (if we were just visiting and not getting married)?

b) If we are married and go to our respective consulates (me in mumbai and she in delhi) do we have to provide proof of marriage and does the partner need to be present also?

c) Is she required to change her name? Coz if she does that, then she has to wait for the passport to get re-issued and that takes its own sweet time.

Any other tips/advise by folks who have done this or know of others who have done this.

thanks,
-Anoop.

 

[ksprsad]

Hi Anoop,

Recently my wife and me got our H1 visas stamped in Chennai consulate. They did not ask any proofs of marriage certificate and photos. But we had kept the certificate ready just in case. One was original and another was notarized since we both attended interview at the same time. Also we had included spouse names in our passports respectively. I guess there wont be a need for partner to be present since its H1. Regarding name change on the records, We did not go for it as it takes ages to get(min of 2 months).

Regards
Shiva

 

[neelmanish]

Marriage and H-1B

Found this in the Consulate FAQ:

4. Should my spouse's name be in my passport? Do we need to have the same last name?
Your spouse's name should be entered in your passport if you are applying for a H4/L2 visa. You do not, however, need to have the same last name.