I am an Indian National working here on H1B visa. When I tried to travel to India by Lufthansa Airlines to Madras from Atlanta on Feb-2002, myself and my wife was denied boarding by the airlines for the following reason:
We had visa stamping from my previous employer valid until November 15, 2000. 8 months before expiry I changed my employer and got the I-797 approval notice valid until November 15, 2002 with new I-94. According to Lufthansa, I need a valid visa for US, EU or Canada in our passport to travel through Germany or else I need to take AIRPORT TRANSIT VISA eventhough my wait time in Frankfurt is 2 hours and not planning to go out of the airport. Since I need to attend a marriage and I don't have enough time, I travelled through British Airways and they don't have any rule like that if you have a connecting flight within 24 hours from London.
After going to India, I sent an email to German Embassy, New Delhi and German Consulate, Bombay explaining similar scenario with expired visa in passport and valid I-94 documents. According to both, I DON'T NEED an Airport Transit Visa. Before returning, I took the visa stamping from US consulate. After coming back to US, I wrote to German Consulate, Miami and German Emabassy, Washington, DC. I raised lot of different scenario for the need of Airport Transit Visa. After lot of back and forth communication, I got the following written letter from Consulate from Miami last week signed by "Vice Consul".
"Indian Nationals do generally require an Airport Transit Visa for Germany. They are only exempted from this requirement if they are in the actual possession of a valid US-residence permit Card, or a valid US-visa. The emphasis is on the word, "valid", a valid residence permit as such or a valid visa as such which can be shown to the immigration authorities in Germany, who need not be aware of every detail of US-Immigration law.
This regulation is specified in attachment 3 of the "Unified Consular Instruction"(UCI) which is part of the "Schengen Agreement" of March 26, 1995. A "Letter of Parole" or "Approval Notice", or any other letters being issued by INS-authorities granting continuous legal status in the US until the new US-residence permit, or US-visa is issued are not a valid residence permit, or a visa according to attachment 3 of the UCI and can therefore not be accepted by German Immigration authorities. Subsequently it is irrelevant whether you could present an I-797 approval notice, an I-94 form, an I-131 advanced parole, or I-485 approval notice which according to US-immigration law might allow you to leave and re-enter the country".
According to the above information, following things are clear if you have expired visa in the passport, you can't travel through Germany without taking Airport Transit Visa in the following scenarios. Even outward jouney is not allowed (out of the US).
1. Those who are in H1B, I-797 approval notice is not sufficient.
2. Those who are travelling with Advance Parole cannot travel without Airport Transit Visa.
3. Those who are with I-485 approval notice.
4. Those who didn't get the Physical Green Card even after getting I-551 temporary stamping in passport (I assume from above information).
I don't want to travel through Germany any more to go through the hassle of getting Airport Transit Visa and filling the German Coffer. I anyone had different experience or hear anything differently from any other German Consulate, please let me know. (If anybody needs, I can put the scanned copy of the letter I received from German Consulate, Miami).
Anybody want get the airport Transit visa, please see incomplete information list of documents needed to get one.
http://www.germany-info.org/relaunch/info/consular_services/visa.html
http://www.germany-info.org/relaunch/info/consular_services/visa/transit.html
http://www.germany-info.org/relaunch/info/consular_services/visa/countrylist.html
Best of Luck.
We had visa stamping from my previous employer valid until November 15, 2000. 8 months before expiry I changed my employer and got the I-797 approval notice valid until November 15, 2002 with new I-94. According to Lufthansa, I need a valid visa for US, EU or Canada in our passport to travel through Germany or else I need to take AIRPORT TRANSIT VISA eventhough my wait time in Frankfurt is 2 hours and not planning to go out of the airport. Since I need to attend a marriage and I don't have enough time, I travelled through British Airways and they don't have any rule like that if you have a connecting flight within 24 hours from London.
After going to India, I sent an email to German Embassy, New Delhi and German Consulate, Bombay explaining similar scenario with expired visa in passport and valid I-94 documents. According to both, I DON'T NEED an Airport Transit Visa. Before returning, I took the visa stamping from US consulate. After coming back to US, I wrote to German Consulate, Miami and German Emabassy, Washington, DC. I raised lot of different scenario for the need of Airport Transit Visa. After lot of back and forth communication, I got the following written letter from Consulate from Miami last week signed by "Vice Consul".
"Indian Nationals do generally require an Airport Transit Visa for Germany. They are only exempted from this requirement if they are in the actual possession of a valid US-residence permit Card, or a valid US-visa. The emphasis is on the word, "valid", a valid residence permit as such or a valid visa as such which can be shown to the immigration authorities in Germany, who need not be aware of every detail of US-Immigration law.
This regulation is specified in attachment 3 of the "Unified Consular Instruction"(UCI) which is part of the "Schengen Agreement" of March 26, 1995. A "Letter of Parole" or "Approval Notice", or any other letters being issued by INS-authorities granting continuous legal status in the US until the new US-residence permit, or US-visa is issued are not a valid residence permit, or a visa according to attachment 3 of the UCI and can therefore not be accepted by German Immigration authorities. Subsequently it is irrelevant whether you could present an I-797 approval notice, an I-94 form, an I-131 advanced parole, or I-485 approval notice which according to US-immigration law might allow you to leave and re-enter the country".
According to the above information, following things are clear if you have expired visa in the passport, you can't travel through Germany without taking Airport Transit Visa in the following scenarios. Even outward jouney is not allowed (out of the US).
1. Those who are in H1B, I-797 approval notice is not sufficient.
2. Those who are travelling with Advance Parole cannot travel without Airport Transit Visa.
3. Those who are with I-485 approval notice.
4. Those who didn't get the Physical Green Card even after getting I-551 temporary stamping in passport (I assume from above information).
I don't want to travel through Germany any more to go through the hassle of getting Airport Transit Visa and filling the German Coffer. I anyone had different experience or hear anything differently from any other German Consulate, please let me know. (If anybody needs, I can put the scanned copy of the letter I received from German Consulate, Miami).
Anybody want get the airport Transit visa, please see incomplete information list of documents needed to get one.
http://www.germany-info.org/relaunch/info/consular_services/visa.html
http://www.germany-info.org/relaunch/info/consular_services/visa/transit.html
http://www.germany-info.org/relaunch/info/consular_services/visa/countrylist.html
Best of Luck.