DOS lost 300 passports
As everyone is aware of- Department of State lost about 300 passports, though they don\'t claim they lost them for sure, they just say " passports are inaccessible, and time unknown if they will ever be returned", we had two passports in those ill fated 300 passports, my wife\'s and mine. Calling DOS is a huge pain in the neck.. finally I was able to get hold of them, they said they would send a letter stating the whereabouts of our passport, so we can take the letter to the Indian embassy to get new passports. DOS is not going to stamp on the new passports since it wouldn\'t have the previous visa stamp.. (they strictly follow the rules.. huh.. but they don\'t give a damn about the passports), anyways I got a letter from DOS, addressed to me, saying they don\'t have access to my passport, but again they prove their inefficiency by not sending a letter to my wife, and when I called them again they claim my wife\'s name was not there in the list of ill fated passports (then where did it go????????) I insisted on checking the list again as I knew her name was there, the "OFFICER" kept me on hold for exactly 20 minutes just to give the same answer, then I asked her to check the status of my wife\'s passport, again she kept me on hold for about 15 minutes and she said she doesn\'t find my wife\'s name no where... (am I screwed big time.. I wish I were in the twin towers on Sep, 11th :-( a couple of weeks ago, I called Indian embassy at NY to see if our names were in the list that was sent by DOS whose passports are "INACCESSIBLE" so they can apply for new passports, Indian embassy said my wife\'s name was there) I mentioned that to the "OFFICER", then she said she took my word and she was going to send a letter for my wife, I hope and pray she will.
Assuming my wife gets the letter, our next step will be to go to NY to get the passports, here are a few questions for the immigration gurus, that I will be very grateful to, if they could make some time to answer.
1) Can we go to Canada for the visa stamping? What happens if they don\'t give the visa once we\'re in Canada? are we gonna be stuck in Canada? (I am sacred to go to India and try to get the visa stamp at Chennai.. man! they will screw you.)
2) Will we have any trouble at the airport if we were to go out of the country as our passports don\'t have visa stamp? (DOS says we shouldn\'t have any trouble.. but I can\'t rely on them)
3) My wife has a copy of I797 of my previous company and I have a copy of I797 from my present company, will it be an issue? (I guess I am not so dumb, for some reason I didn\'t send our I-94s when I sent the passports for visa revalidation)?
I will appreciate if any one can answer these questions...
Peace
