We had our appointment on Monday April 24 at 8am in Nogales. I was transferring from L1b to H1b and my husband from L2 to H4.
We flew to Tuscon and hired a car, drove to the border on Sunday. There are many lots to leave the car, the one near McDonalds is only $3 per day. Walked accross the border and took a cab to the Banamex El Greco. This is not the bank itself as this is closed on Sunday but the Banamex counter that is located in the Ley supermarket accross the road. The cab was $7 one way. The Banamex is close to the US Consulate.
Took the same cab back to the border and drove back to Tuscon. Stayed at the Travel Inn for $32 for the both of us. Crossed the border same as before on Monday morning, took a cab to the consulate ($7) and thought that there would be a small line as it was about 7:45am. Oh no, there were probably 200 people waiting all with 8am appointments!
After waiting over an hour we saw a lawyer helping other TCN's go to the front of the line, we asked him what to do and he said to go to the front and mention that you are renewing a business visa, this worked and we waited another 30 mins at the front of the line.
When we got inside we had photo's taken and fingerprints done etc, then waited an hour for an interview. Since I was changing visa this caused a few questions, it wasn't until I explained that I am legally allowed to do so without having to leave the US that she approved the H1b and H4 and told us to come back at 3pm to pick up our passports. We got out of the consulate at 11:45am, 4 hours after waiting in line.
We went to El Marco restaurant for lunch, it is not cheap but the food is excellent, service is extremely good and you can drag lunch out for a few hours to pass the time away.
Walked back to the consulate at 2:30pm, waited until 3pm to be let inside. Was then told that our visa's were not printed and to come back at 3pm the next day, no further explanation. A family of 4 who we met there had 3 out of 4 visa's printed so also had to come back the next day.
Found a hotel called Hacienda de Real, paid $63 for the night. Taxi again was $7. Starting to think that this is a standard rate no matter if you go 5 minutes or 15 minutes drive away!
Next day back at 3pm, the only other people waiting to get their visa's that were not ready the day before were TCN's.
It seems that the process is that the consulate issue all local's applying for H2's on the same day, they even collect earlier than TCN's, they collect around 1pm. The computer must generate the H2's first and then whatever time is left to generate the TCN visa's this determine's how many are issued on the same day. It does not matter if you are first in the line at 8am or last at 11am it's just a matter of luck if you get your visa back on the same day.
Word of advice for the consulate, you are not allowed any electrical devices such as phone's, car key fobs, any make-up, soap, shampoo etc. There is a man that will take your bags for you for $3 at the consulate.
All in all the experience was a little frustrating but successful as we both have our visa's renewed. I think though I will be booking Vancouver as far in advance as possible for future.
I'll be happy to answer any questions.
