I wanted to share my recent experience at the Chennai Consulate for those who might find it useful: Having been a long-suffering applicant for the green card, I have been getting my I-94 extended through my company's attorneys as well as getting my H1B (currently 8th yr) stamped through DOS. However, since the DOS service has been discontinued now and I was coming to India on vacation, I scheduled my appointment months in advance (Oct'05) before showing up at the consulate in Feb'06 for what I thought would be a simple process.
The appointment was scheduled for a Monday through VFS and while their appt scheduling system had a query on whether this was an H1 revalidation or a new H1 application, their guidelines (issued on appt confirmation) on what documents to bring for the appointment did not differ from the requirements for a new H1. While this should have set off a red flag in my mind, distracted by the demands of my job, I did not pay heed.
Entering the consulate, the VFS "screening" agent who first
reviewed the application package put together by my company's attorneys, simply pulled out just the "application form" and and discarded the rest of the supporting documents! All right, I thought, I guess that's the only document they need. After walking in, I was fingerprinted by one consular officer and asked to join a different line. When our turn came, I presented the application form to the officer, who then asked me a couple of questions on how long I had been working for my company. Then he asked me if I had my W2 forms with me. As neither my attorneys nor VFS had indicated that I needed these, I had not brought these with me and I told him so. Immediately, he told me that he couldn't grant me the validation and stamped our passports with "Application Received" (Denial), before I could so much as open my mouth! He then scrawled "W2" on a blue 221(g) Notice of Denial, handed it to me and turned around saying that was all he could do. Stunned, I told him that the documents he was looking for were in a land far away, that I could not get to - I offered him the rest of the documents that had been put together by my attorneys, including recent payslips. However, he refused to budge and told me that instead of coming back again, I should just use the "Drop Box facility" to submit the W2s and turned away from the window! He quite flatly refused to answer any other questions, instead asking me to refer to the document he had handed me.
Scrambling now (since I was scheduled to fly back on the coming Sunday) I reached out to my company that night and asked them to fax me the W2's. The next day, I deposited the W2 along with the rest of my application in the VFS Drop Box as indicated by the Consular Officer. When a couple of days went by (the stated processing time on the Consulate's web site is 48 hrs) and I had heard nothing back, I frantically tried reaching out to different "contacts" to see if anyone could check on the status since the weekend was just a couple of days away. Unfortunately, everyone had the same answer: The Drop Box was as good as a Black Hole! Once you went through that, you just had to go through "due process" (whatever that was!).
By EOD Friday 5 days had elapsed and I knew I had to cancel my return tickets. So, I reached out to my company and let them know I wouldn't be coming back as I has planned. I also asked my attorneys to see if they could follow up with the Consulate. There was nothing to do but wait through the weekend. To make matters worse, I couldn't rebook my return tickets until I actually got my passport back!
On Monday of the next week, I received some positive feedback from the attorneys: the visa had actually been approved the previous Friday. Whew, I thought, I should have it today. Having already been delayed, I decided to head straight to the VFS office and pick it up without waiting for it to be couriered home. However, while passports kept streaming into the VFS Service Center (including of some folks who had actually had their interview just that morning), mine didn't show up. Glumly, I returned home thinking it would show up at least the next day. But, it was the same story the next day again - no passport yet. On my way back, I got chatting with some of the VFS employees and a couple of others who had been waiting like me and they told me that what I was experiencing wasn't unique - the consulate always took additional time to issue H1-B stampings beyond the 6th year....sometimes, it even took upto a month!
The next day, I was obviously not too confident about seeing my passport that day but when I checked online I found that VFS had actually received my passport that day from the consulate! I went in that afternoon and picked it up, 8 days after I had submitted the "additional" documents in the Drop Box, thankful that it hadn't taken a month! Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of my travails though - when I tried to rebook my return tickets, I found that there was nothing available until the next Monday. Consequently, I had extend my "vacation" by a week because of the visa issues - only wish it had been a true vacation and not running around for a visa!
Moral of the Story: Take your W2's with you for your H1B extension AND GET YOUR VISAS REVALIDATED IN VANCOUVER INSTEAD OF CHENNAI!
