Successful stamping at Ciudad Juarez
We (Mine H1-H1, my wife H4-H1) had successful visa stamping at Ciudad Juarez
. I am little late to post this but hey better late than never. Some one in the future might find this info useful.
First in the process, we took appointments on June 14, 2007. After that, I immediately contacted Victor Garcia. He is very helpful guy. He will take the Banamax check for you which takes care of visa fees. Follow the instructions in his website -
www.victorgarciainternational.com. If the link doesn't work then just google his name:-D
Next, the documents we carried. The following is the list of documents we carried(I copied the following list from other person's post here since I followed the same list) -
Now for the documents we carried
• Passport (original)
• Photos -2 (they ask only one)
• DS-156, DS-157, DS-158 (for both males and females)
• Appointment Confirmation letter (just a take a printout when you log into your account on
http://www.visa-usa.com.mx/)
• Banamex bank DD
• I-797 (original)
• I-129 (copy)
• LCA (copy)
• Employment offer letter (from current employer)
• Letter from employer to Consulate supporting your stamping (Employee strength, offices, turnover, projects / clients of that company)
• Letter from client stating your current work experience
• Previous experience letters
• Education Evaluation (for MS in India)
• Pay stubs
• Bank statements
• Photos of your employer company showing cubicles, nameplates of the Company etc.,
• Degree cert, marksheets (original)
• Resume (that was submitted with I-129 and updated with current projects)
• W2; Tax returns (if applicable)
• Proof of address ( utility bills etc.,)
• SSN card
• Brochures of employer (if unavailable, take printouts of Company info from their website; you can do this for your previous employers too)
The first six being the most important, but I carried all of them just in case.
Regarding booking of motel in El Paso and Mexico, just follow the instructions in Victor Garcia's website. But one thing to note is he suggested Holiday Inn Express in his website. But, he actually took us to Holiday Inn Motel. I cancelled my reservation once we went to Holiday Inn since all desis stayed there and also the motel looked good.
Next, the day of Interview. Victor Garcia came and picked us up at Econo Lodge Motel around 7AM and took us directly to Holiday Inn Motel in Mexico. The border is just 5 mins away from El Paso. There we dropped our luggage and just took the necessary docs. Remember to look your luggage.
From the motel the consulate is couple of minutes drive. We submitted our DS 156 and 157 forms, then we gave our finger prints and waited for our turn for interview. We waited for about 11/2 hour and then finally our turns. First it was my wife's turn. She just asked for I797 and no other docs. The officer whether my wife did her MS in India and if she had any Employment authorization card( I donno why). Then she asked if she had any problem while staying in US(any criminal offenses) for which she said NO. She then said her visa was approved and that she can collect at 2PM the next day.
For me, it was same set of questions but since I changed my school after I came to US and also I changed my employers, she asked the reason why. She then said my visa was approved and asked me to collect the visa the next day at 2PM. All the other desis who had interview along with us, also got their visas.
Next day we went at 1:45PM and stood in the line we got our passports by 2.30PM. We then took a taxi to the border bridge.He charged $5/person. Then we crossed the bridge by walk in that heat. At the border, donot stand in that long line, just go directly to the door and tell them that you need ur new I94. They charged $6 for new I-94. It took us nearly 2 hours to get our new I94. So, guys do book your flights late evening taking the worst situation into consideration.
Hopefully this info will help someone who is going to Ciudad Juarez since, I did not find any posts here regarding stamping in Ciudad Juarez. I would recommend Ciudad Juarez to everybody since it was very smooth for us. Good Luck!!!
