I and my wife had H1B and H4 extention interview on May 3rd. Overall everything went fine. Mine is a H1B extension of same job from the same company. My exp is similar to others who wrote in this forum. Regd documents, I took most of the docs mentionsed on immihelp.com.
My notes (mostly more details than you need or care to know):
Reached the border ("last exit" on I-5) around 8 am and parked the car in one of the many parking lots there. Then just walked across the border. I didnot have any Mexican permit or visa and I don't think you need unless you are very paranoid. As soon as we crossed, the "Yellow Cab" guy approched us and we took the taxi. It is $10. no hassels.
Weather:
----------
Just because it is down South, weather is not necessarily warm. It was overcast in the morning.. I asked my wife also not to get any jacket saying "after all we are in San Diego". But during the whole day we ended up waiting for hours and hours essentially outside (see below).. this was the main regret of the day, especially for my wife. check weather forecast.
Reached the Embassy by 8:30 or so. If you need restroom there is a small parking lot across the embassy where the guy charges a buck to use the restroom. Don't worry about your position in line in front of the embassy. It does not really matter for non-mexicans since all Mexicans will be interviewed before any others.
Went to Banamex bank around 8:50. The bank is in the the building arcoss the road from the Embassy. It opened at 9 am sharp and it was was $205 for two passports.
Only rip off I felt was to keep my cell phone for a few hours at this "American looking" (meaning all the stuff in English etc) right next to embassy. The guy spoke decent English and charged me $5! It not much but I would rather pay more to a taxi driver or a waiter. My sugestion: take couple of dollar bills and give him that. Also note that you will have to pay roaming to use your phone in Tijuana though it is right one the border. My cingular phone phone worked only after stepped inside US customs compound.. i.e. you can use your phone while waiting for I-94 etc on your way back.
Then we got in and sat under an open shed (only roof, no walls). Weather and your clothing matters here since you will be sitting there for around 3 hours. Take a book with you. I don't think you will be allowed to carry an Ipod. Initially we were called inside in the order we entered the embassy. I naively thought it was pretty quick. It was only to take a picture and to look at D-156. If you are with your dependent spouse, both of you go the same booth. We were in different booths and they were confused a bit to connect these two applications.
Then we were back to the outdoor shed and waited till all the Mexicans were interviewed. But I have to say type of visa also might matter. There was an Indian family and a chinese couple and they were called inside just like the rest of the people. I don't know what visa there were on. At the end there 3 Indians (including us), all applying for H-visas were allowed in.
Interview: (only the excerpts)
----------
VO:hmm.. thats a long first name, what should I call you?
Me: Raghu.
VO: Same job, same company?
Me: Yes
VO: What do you do?
Me: (Simple, basic answer)
VO: (something to the effect of) means what?
Me: Bit more detailed answered.
VO: Is that legal? (not a serious question)
Me thought: (What? )
Me: (smiling) Yes, it is legal.
VO: (till now only looked at passport and I-797, may be D-156)
VO: Do you have latest pay-stub?
Me: (gave).
VO: Is this by-weekly?
Me: yes, twice a month.
VO: I can only give you visa till 'date mentioned in I-797)'
Me: Thats fine. Thank you.
She did not ask my wife anything. Just took her passport.
Then she gave me a print out and asked me to pay $100 (for two of us) at another part of the building. We were asked to collect our passport at 3pm.
Came out, a gaurd took me around the building where I paid $100 in cash. Ok finally we were done. We walked around a bit and ate at a Mexican place. If you are a vegetarian you are better off going to a pizza place I think.
There is no line to stand in for collecting the passport at 3pm. So no need to be at the embassy before 3pm. They will call out your names.
Tijuana traffic involves "creative driving" as you might expect but it was not chaotic (I think mainly because there were only 4-wheelers on the road).
The staff at the embassy were friendly. I haven't been to Chennai consulate in many years but my wife was especially releaved to see that not all consulates are as bad as Chennai.
After collecting the passports took the taxi back to the US border. One impact of the Tijuana experience is that we decided to take spanish classes later this year. Don't think people might know at least some broken English.. most won't.
I-94:
-----
At the US border, the regular customs officers designed to process quickly because so many cross the border every day. This main customs place has large line but moves quickly (we waited around 20-30 minutes). I think you have your old I-94 and it is still valid, you will be allowed through this one. Otherwise you *might* be asked to go back to another office to get new I-94. We were asked to go back. Also the officer gave us a slip so that we don't have to stand in the same line again.
To get new I-94 you need to go to another small office. Here the line is small but moves painfully slow. This was another long wait for use. We waited here from 5pm till 6:45. To get I-94 the officer filled one page form for each of us sloooowly and took our pictures. So its your choice either to try your luck with regular customs or stand in the new I-94 line from the beginning.
One good thing with new I-94 (apparantly) is that it is multiple entry. So when you are entering US another time, you will wait less.
ok, time to go home now!
Raghu.
My notes (mostly more details than you need or care to know):
Reached the border ("last exit" on I-5) around 8 am and parked the car in one of the many parking lots there. Then just walked across the border. I didnot have any Mexican permit or visa and I don't think you need unless you are very paranoid. As soon as we crossed, the "Yellow Cab" guy approched us and we took the taxi. It is $10. no hassels.
Weather:
----------
Just because it is down South, weather is not necessarily warm. It was overcast in the morning.. I asked my wife also not to get any jacket saying "after all we are in San Diego". But during the whole day we ended up waiting for hours and hours essentially outside (see below).. this was the main regret of the day, especially for my wife. check weather forecast.
Reached the Embassy by 8:30 or so. If you need restroom there is a small parking lot across the embassy where the guy charges a buck to use the restroom. Don't worry about your position in line in front of the embassy. It does not really matter for non-mexicans since all Mexicans will be interviewed before any others.
Went to Banamex bank around 8:50. The bank is in the the building arcoss the road from the Embassy. It opened at 9 am sharp and it was was $205 for two passports.
Only rip off I felt was to keep my cell phone for a few hours at this "American looking" (meaning all the stuff in English etc) right next to embassy. The guy spoke decent English and charged me $5! It not much but I would rather pay more to a taxi driver or a waiter. My sugestion: take couple of dollar bills and give him that. Also note that you will have to pay roaming to use your phone in Tijuana though it is right one the border. My cingular phone phone worked only after stepped inside US customs compound.. i.e. you can use your phone while waiting for I-94 etc on your way back.
Then we got in and sat under an open shed (only roof, no walls). Weather and your clothing matters here since you will be sitting there for around 3 hours. Take a book with you. I don't think you will be allowed to carry an Ipod. Initially we were called inside in the order we entered the embassy. I naively thought it was pretty quick. It was only to take a picture and to look at D-156. If you are with your dependent spouse, both of you go the same booth. We were in different booths and they were confused a bit to connect these two applications.
Then we were back to the outdoor shed and waited till all the Mexicans were interviewed. But I have to say type of visa also might matter. There was an Indian family and a chinese couple and they were called inside just like the rest of the people. I don't know what visa there were on. At the end there 3 Indians (including us), all applying for H-visas were allowed in.
Interview: (only the excerpts)
----------
VO:hmm.. thats a long first name, what should I call you?
Me: Raghu.
VO: Same job, same company?
Me: Yes
VO: What do you do?
Me: (Simple, basic answer)
VO: (something to the effect of) means what?
Me: Bit more detailed answered.
VO: Is that legal? (not a serious question)
Me thought: (What? )
Me: (smiling) Yes, it is legal.
VO: (till now only looked at passport and I-797, may be D-156)
VO: Do you have latest pay-stub?
Me: (gave).
VO: Is this by-weekly?
Me: yes, twice a month.
VO: I can only give you visa till 'date mentioned in I-797)'
Me: Thats fine. Thank you.
She did not ask my wife anything. Just took her passport.
Then she gave me a print out and asked me to pay $100 (for two of us) at another part of the building. We were asked to collect our passport at 3pm.
Came out, a gaurd took me around the building where I paid $100 in cash. Ok finally we were done. We walked around a bit and ate at a Mexican place. If you are a vegetarian you are better off going to a pizza place I think.
There is no line to stand in for collecting the passport at 3pm. So no need to be at the embassy before 3pm. They will call out your names.
Tijuana traffic involves "creative driving" as you might expect but it was not chaotic (I think mainly because there were only 4-wheelers on the road).
The staff at the embassy were friendly. I haven't been to Chennai consulate in many years but my wife was especially releaved to see that not all consulates are as bad as Chennai.
After collecting the passports took the taxi back to the US border. One impact of the Tijuana experience is that we decided to take spanish classes later this year. Don't think people might know at least some broken English.. most won't.
I-94:
-----
At the US border, the regular customs officers designed to process quickly because so many cross the border every day. This main customs place has large line but moves quickly (we waited around 20-30 minutes). I think you have your old I-94 and it is still valid, you will be allowed through this one. Otherwise you *might* be asked to go back to another office to get new I-94. We were asked to go back. Also the officer gave us a slip so that we don't have to stand in the same line again.
To get new I-94 you need to go to another small office. Here the line is small but moves painfully slow. This was another long wait for use. We waited here from 5pm till 6:45. To get I-94 the officer filled one page form for each of us sloooowly and took our pictures. So its your choice either to try your luck with regular customs or stand in the new I-94 line from the beginning.
One good thing with new I-94 (apparantly) is that it is multiple entry. So when you are entering US another time, you will wait less.
ok, time to go home now!
Raghu.
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