All, I got my H1 visa stamped at Vancouver Aug 20th. It was a piece of cake.
History: I came here in '99 on H1 (stamped in Madras), transferred to student in '2000 ( did not get it stamped), finished master and transferred to H1 in end 2001, got this stamped in Madras in 2002, and it expired in April 2004. I got a renewed 797 in June 2004 and went to Vancouver with this 797. I had always heard it's pretty easy if you already have a H1 stamped in your home country and/or you have a masters from US/canada
1. went to www.nvars.com and got an appointment (1st appt was about 6 weeks away) for one friday morning 8 am
2. went to canadian consulate website in L.A. downloaded forms, printed them out and sent it along with my passport to L.A consulate asking for visitor's visa.
3. Passport came back stamped with visitor's visa came back in about 7-8 days time.
4. Booked a ticket to Seattle for Thursday morning and a rental car from Thursday afternoon to Sunday evening.
5. Landed up in Seattle thursday around noon. A friend came along.
6. Picked up the car and drove to Vancouver. around maybe 2 pm or so. reached the border post around 4:00 pm. The guy at the border post looked at my passport, asked me to go into immigration (many others were allowed to go thro' without having to go into the immigration office). the woman at the canadian immigration looked at my passport and I-797 and wished me good luck, have a nice time in Canada etc. etc.
7. Border post to vancouver is about one hr. drive. I had booked a room for 3 nights at Dufferin Hotel. It's about 12 minutes walk to the consulate. Days Inn is only 1 minutes walk, but more expensive. Its all in downtown Vancouver. Very nice to walk around. Rooms in Vancouver hotels are relatively small. There's more poverty around etc. etc.
8. Put our car in the parking lot (about 8 canadian bucks a day) settled into my room and the guy at the hotel desk told us it's nice to walk towards English Beach. About 20 minutes away. We had a good time, had nice dinner walked back and slept. Vancouver downtown is really really nice, people are cool, down-to-earch, Very cosomopolitan, Highly recommended.
9. My appointment was at around 8:00 in the morning. I got to the consulate by around 7:30 and there were about 10 people waiting. 4/5 indian 2/3 chinese, couple of russians. By 8 another 20 or so people had joined. Some of them workin at Microsoft, many of them H1 extensions, few of them L1, few with wife and kids, some americans who had lost their passport, wanted to renew the passport etc. etc.
10. The guard at the consulate is a big pain in the ass and makes sure you know he is the boss. You show him that you have the money in cash, and your passport and your appointment letter and he lets you thro'. After that everybody inside is pretty courteous.
11. You first go to a counter where one admin assistant puts the necessary forms in the right order, collects your 100 bucks (You need to have CASH) and sends you to the next admin asst. They have some security check and after that you give your papers and they give you a token.
12. They called me in about 1/2 hr or so and, the guy didnt ask me anything. NO request for my pay checks, W2, college degrees, past H1 approvals etc. etc. He just looked at my papers for like few minutes or so and told me to pay the (remaining) 50 bucks (You can pay by credit card) at other counter and come at 3:30 to collect the visa. I was out of there by 9:30. The important thing is the DS-156 form needs to be filled ONLINE. You cant print it out and fill in with ink. When you fill online, it gives you a bar code, and you have to bring that DS-156 form with the bar code along with you. The instructions are all there on nvars.com. Other than that I submitted the DS-157, passport, employment letter and confirmation of appointment. Few others in other counters were being asked a few questions like, what do you do, how long have you been working there, what did you do before that, show me your degree etc. etc. In the time I was waiting, I didnt see anyone getting rejected.
13. Got out at 9:30 We went to this place called Grouse Mountain, about 45 minutes from downtown, did the tourist stuff and got back by 3:15 or so. Collected passport (it was stamped for 2 years) and went to another big tourist spot called Capilano bridge (about 20 minutes or so away). Spent the afternoon there. Came back by 6:30 or so and spent the evening at Stanley Park. Everywhere in Vancouver you have to pay for parking. I heard main st is pretty much Punjab in Vancouver, with great cheap desi food, but I missed going there for any of my meals. I actually forgot about it when I was there.
14. Next morning (saturday) went 2 hrs driving to Whistler, drive is great with Rockies on one side, ocean/Bay on the other, had a great time there came back by evening. Stopped at Shannon falls on the way. Had dinner and started drive to Seattle saturday night by 9:00 pm or so. Driving to Seattle in the night is a pain because its all thick trees on the sides and road keeps curving, you have to drive carefully, no lights from the sides. etc.
15.At the border post, the guy looked at our passports and I-94s and let us thro'. Stayed at my friends place. Spent the next day roaming around in Seattle and flew back to Bay Area Sunday night.
Thanks
History: I came here in '99 on H1 (stamped in Madras), transferred to student in '2000 ( did not get it stamped), finished master and transferred to H1 in end 2001, got this stamped in Madras in 2002, and it expired in April 2004. I got a renewed 797 in June 2004 and went to Vancouver with this 797. I had always heard it's pretty easy if you already have a H1 stamped in your home country and/or you have a masters from US/canada
1. went to www.nvars.com and got an appointment (1st appt was about 6 weeks away) for one friday morning 8 am
2. went to canadian consulate website in L.A. downloaded forms, printed them out and sent it along with my passport to L.A consulate asking for visitor's visa.
3. Passport came back stamped with visitor's visa came back in about 7-8 days time.
4. Booked a ticket to Seattle for Thursday morning and a rental car from Thursday afternoon to Sunday evening.
5. Landed up in Seattle thursday around noon. A friend came along.
6. Picked up the car and drove to Vancouver. around maybe 2 pm or so. reached the border post around 4:00 pm. The guy at the border post looked at my passport, asked me to go into immigration (many others were allowed to go thro' without having to go into the immigration office). the woman at the canadian immigration looked at my passport and I-797 and wished me good luck, have a nice time in Canada etc. etc.
7. Border post to vancouver is about one hr. drive. I had booked a room for 3 nights at Dufferin Hotel. It's about 12 minutes walk to the consulate. Days Inn is only 1 minutes walk, but more expensive. Its all in downtown Vancouver. Very nice to walk around. Rooms in Vancouver hotels are relatively small. There's more poverty around etc. etc.
8. Put our car in the parking lot (about 8 canadian bucks a day) settled into my room and the guy at the hotel desk told us it's nice to walk towards English Beach. About 20 minutes away. We had a good time, had nice dinner walked back and slept. Vancouver downtown is really really nice, people are cool, down-to-earch, Very cosomopolitan, Highly recommended.
9. My appointment was at around 8:00 in the morning. I got to the consulate by around 7:30 and there were about 10 people waiting. 4/5 indian 2/3 chinese, couple of russians. By 8 another 20 or so people had joined. Some of them workin at Microsoft, many of them H1 extensions, few of them L1, few with wife and kids, some americans who had lost their passport, wanted to renew the passport etc. etc.
10. The guard at the consulate is a big pain in the ass and makes sure you know he is the boss. You show him that you have the money in cash, and your passport and your appointment letter and he lets you thro'. After that everybody inside is pretty courteous.
11. You first go to a counter where one admin assistant puts the necessary forms in the right order, collects your 100 bucks (You need to have CASH) and sends you to the next admin asst. They have some security check and after that you give your papers and they give you a token.
12. They called me in about 1/2 hr or so and, the guy didnt ask me anything. NO request for my pay checks, W2, college degrees, past H1 approvals etc. etc. He just looked at my papers for like few minutes or so and told me to pay the (remaining) 50 bucks (You can pay by credit card) at other counter and come at 3:30 to collect the visa. I was out of there by 9:30. The important thing is the DS-156 form needs to be filled ONLINE. You cant print it out and fill in with ink. When you fill online, it gives you a bar code, and you have to bring that DS-156 form with the bar code along with you. The instructions are all there on nvars.com. Other than that I submitted the DS-157, passport, employment letter and confirmation of appointment. Few others in other counters were being asked a few questions like, what do you do, how long have you been working there, what did you do before that, show me your degree etc. etc. In the time I was waiting, I didnt see anyone getting rejected.
13. Got out at 9:30 We went to this place called Grouse Mountain, about 45 minutes from downtown, did the tourist stuff and got back by 3:15 or so. Collected passport (it was stamped for 2 years) and went to another big tourist spot called Capilano bridge (about 20 minutes or so away). Spent the afternoon there. Came back by 6:30 or so and spent the evening at Stanley Park. Everywhere in Vancouver you have to pay for parking. I heard main st is pretty much Punjab in Vancouver, with great cheap desi food, but I missed going there for any of my meals. I actually forgot about it when I was there.
14. Next morning (saturday) went 2 hrs driving to Whistler, drive is great with Rockies on one side, ocean/Bay on the other, had a great time there came back by evening. Stopped at Shannon falls on the way. Had dinner and started drive to Seattle saturday night by 9:00 pm or so. Driving to Seattle in the night is a pain because its all thick trees on the sides and road keeps curving, you have to drive carefully, no lights from the sides. etc.
15.At the border post, the guy looked at our passports and I-94s and let us thro'. Stayed at my friends place. Spent the next day roaming around in Seattle and flew back to Bay Area Sunday night.
Thanks