Had a successful CP @ chennai on Dec 19th.
I am in EB2 and work for a small startup company. The process was very smooth and easy (If you have all the documentation correct). I read thru lot of posts on this board and extremely thankful to all the people for sharing the information. I would like to add my contribution to this bucket.
I basically followed the consulate order of documents which I received with my packet 4. Here is how my experience goes
Lab & Medicals :
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Reached chennai on Dec 13th night and checked into Hotel Greenpark. Could not find a better place than that during that time of the night. It was 1000/- bucks a night and not worth it with lot of noise from traffic. It is located down the Gemini flyover close to consulate (5 mins by Auto... not walkable). Went to Lister on 14th morning at 8:30 AM. Completed tests in about 30 min. Then went to Konica near Taj coramandel and got immigration photos done. I got photos in an hour. Then called up Dr.VijayaLakshmi for an evening appointment (I originally had an appointment for 15th morning). She obliged. She is very friendly and accomodative. We collected reports from Lister at about 4:00 PM and rushed to Dr.Vijaya Lakshmi. There were 2 more couples the same day.
I had taken all the vaccines when I entered US on F1. I showed her the documentation. Since MMR shots have expiration date, she asked me take one MMR shot and I did not have chicken pox before, so she gave me chicken pox shot. In my wife\'s case, she had chicken pox so she had to take only MMR.
Interview:
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Reached chennai again on Dec 18th evening. It was hard to find a hotel room in Hotel Maris/Woodlands. So it might be a good idea to make reservation in advance. Checked into Hotel Palmgrove. Another lousy place. Since my stay was only short... I did not mind. Charged about 1050/- per night. Reached consulate at 7:30 AM in the morning. There was a huge queue already. I stood there with almost 80 people ahead of me. The consulate security personnel came to us asked for the type of VISA. We said immigrant, he asked us to go to front of the line. I took a clear tranparent bag putting all my documents. The security person was adamant that I can not take the bag in. So I was looking for a place to leave my bag outside. There are locker businesses which charge you 50/- for putting your bag. Luckily I found a savior who is waiting for his interview on the next day and he happily agreed to keep my bag. I had all my documents inside two big water proof folders... so I was not too worried about my documents.
I went in it was drizzling on and off. We went inside and sat below the famous tent. At about 9:00 one of the official came out and asked us to arrange our documents in an order (same as the one sent to u in packet 4). Only change was he asked us to put only year 2000 tax returns (not the previous years). Since I already had them in that order, I took out the other tax returns. We lined up and went inside the consulate to submit the documents. An Indian lady collected all our documents and handed us a slip to pay the fees and also fillup the blue dart address sticker.
We gave the documents and started waiting outside. Little while later about (9:45 AM). Consulate official came out and made us swear the authenticity of the documents submitted. At about 10:00 AM our names were being called. Every one came out with smile on their faces. There seems to be two counters dedicated for this. One couple were asked to submit more documents... so they came out and sat there. In one of the cases, they were asked to submit their W-2 forms. Finally we were called at 11:00 AM.
We went in and an Indian lady went thru all the documents and gave us the originals and kept photocopies. She asked my wife to sign the OF-230 part II. Then she gave us a slip and said "Pay the fees and go home".
I was so relieved to hear it and came out of the counter and paid the fees. I was happily tak
I am in EB2 and work for a small startup company. The process was very smooth and easy (If you have all the documentation correct). I read thru lot of posts on this board and extremely thankful to all the people for sharing the information. I would like to add my contribution to this bucket.
I basically followed the consulate order of documents which I received with my packet 4. Here is how my experience goes
Lab & Medicals :
----------------
Reached chennai on Dec 13th night and checked into Hotel Greenpark. Could not find a better place than that during that time of the night. It was 1000/- bucks a night and not worth it with lot of noise from traffic. It is located down the Gemini flyover close to consulate (5 mins by Auto... not walkable). Went to Lister on 14th morning at 8:30 AM. Completed tests in about 30 min. Then went to Konica near Taj coramandel and got immigration photos done. I got photos in an hour. Then called up Dr.VijayaLakshmi for an evening appointment (I originally had an appointment for 15th morning). She obliged. She is very friendly and accomodative. We collected reports from Lister at about 4:00 PM and rushed to Dr.Vijaya Lakshmi. There were 2 more couples the same day.
I had taken all the vaccines when I entered US on F1. I showed her the documentation. Since MMR shots have expiration date, she asked me take one MMR shot and I did not have chicken pox before, so she gave me chicken pox shot. In my wife\'s case, she had chicken pox so she had to take only MMR.
Interview:
----------
Reached chennai again on Dec 18th evening. It was hard to find a hotel room in Hotel Maris/Woodlands. So it might be a good idea to make reservation in advance. Checked into Hotel Palmgrove. Another lousy place. Since my stay was only short... I did not mind. Charged about 1050/- per night. Reached consulate at 7:30 AM in the morning. There was a huge queue already. I stood there with almost 80 people ahead of me. The consulate security personnel came to us asked for the type of VISA. We said immigrant, he asked us to go to front of the line. I took a clear tranparent bag putting all my documents. The security person was adamant that I can not take the bag in. So I was looking for a place to leave my bag outside. There are locker businesses which charge you 50/- for putting your bag. Luckily I found a savior who is waiting for his interview on the next day and he happily agreed to keep my bag. I had all my documents inside two big water proof folders... so I was not too worried about my documents.
I went in it was drizzling on and off. We went inside and sat below the famous tent. At about 9:00 one of the official came out and asked us to arrange our documents in an order (same as the one sent to u in packet 4). Only change was he asked us to put only year 2000 tax returns (not the previous years). Since I already had them in that order, I took out the other tax returns. We lined up and went inside the consulate to submit the documents. An Indian lady collected all our documents and handed us a slip to pay the fees and also fillup the blue dart address sticker.
We gave the documents and started waiting outside. Little while later about (9:45 AM). Consulate official came out and made us swear the authenticity of the documents submitted. At about 10:00 AM our names were being called. Every one came out with smile on their faces. There seems to be two counters dedicated for this. One couple were asked to submit more documents... so they came out and sat there. In one of the cases, they were asked to submit their W-2 forms. Finally we were called at 11:00 AM.
We went in and an Indian lady went thru all the documents and gave us the originals and kept photocopies. She asked my wife to sign the OF-230 part II. Then she gave us a slip and said "Pay the fees and go home".
I was so relieved to hear it and came out of the counter and paid the fees. I was happily tak