I applied for H1 stamping on March 6th. This is how we went about on the day.
We flew to Tucson (we had friends there), stayed over night and drove early morning (1 hour drive from Tucson) to reach the border by 6AM. We parked at McDonalds close to the border, there are other parking lots too - they all charge $4 for the whole day. Then we crossed the border by walk into Mexico, literally there is no one to ask you about any permit or visa, so do not worry and just walk into Mexico following the signs. As soon as you walk into Mexico, you will see cab drivers all over asking if you wanted a cab. Just say American Consulate (or 'Americano Consulaado' if you want to be more clear
). They say $8, you bargain for $5, we got him to $6 for 4 of us. He will drop you in front of the consulate. If you havent taken the Bank Draft, you will have to wait till the bank opens (Banamex opens at 9AM). Ask the cab driver to show you the bank, its pretty close by and you can walk from the consulate. You will see Burger King, McDonalds & KFC all in a row very close to the bank.
We spent time at Burger King till the bank opened at 9AM. Note that we had an appointment at 9AM and it is no problem even if you are late by an hour. We checked with the person at the consulate and he said as long as you be there before 10:30 they are cool and they really dont care if you have an appointment earlier. So dont freak out if you dont have a bank draft until you reach Mexico. Dont pay ridiculous amounts of money to some agent, you can do it all by yourself. And there is every possibility you will meet someone like you at the consulate who you can tag along with, to have some company.
We reached the consulate by 10AM and they check all your forms outside before you enter the consulate (just like in Chennai). You will need to fill in DS-156, DS-157 & and DS-158 too. None of the persons there had filled DS-158, so if you can complete DS-158 form before hand, do it. If not you can always do it there. Once inside, you will go thru security chcek and then you are given a number. You will have to wait until your number is called and then you interview with the officer. It was all cool for me, just a few questions about the company, my title and offer letter. Thats it. And then you pay the $50 fee for your visa. You will be told to collect your passport at 3PM. So you can either wait around the consulate or go shop around. We went back to the border to shop, there are lots of shops which sell mexican stuff, bargain like crazy, like you do in India and eat some good authentic Mexican food, my fav was Chicken Fajita!
When you collect your passport, BEFORE you leave consulate, check all your details on the visa. We had 3 people who had something wrong on their visas. One person had his Date of Birth wrong (poor man, he had to stay back, with his 3 month old baby and wife), another one had his nationality wrong, and the other one applied for H4 and he got H1!! So, make sure and check everything and one more thing, DOUBLE CHECK!
Once you collect your passport you will come to the border and walk into the building to go through immigration, customs and border protection. This might take 2 to 4 hours depending on the number of people and how fast the lazy ass staff do their work. DOUBLE CHECK everything at this point too, when you are issued your I-94. Walk back into US to pick up your car and drive home happy!
Good Luck & Gracias!
PS: Mine was from H4 to H1 to those who care.
We flew to Tucson (we had friends there), stayed over night and drove early morning (1 hour drive from Tucson) to reach the border by 6AM. We parked at McDonalds close to the border, there are other parking lots too - they all charge $4 for the whole day. Then we crossed the border by walk into Mexico, literally there is no one to ask you about any permit or visa, so do not worry and just walk into Mexico following the signs. As soon as you walk into Mexico, you will see cab drivers all over asking if you wanted a cab. Just say American Consulate (or 'Americano Consulaado' if you want to be more clear
). They say $8, you bargain for $5, we got him to $6 for 4 of us. He will drop you in front of the consulate. If you havent taken the Bank Draft, you will have to wait till the bank opens (Banamex opens at 9AM). Ask the cab driver to show you the bank, its pretty close by and you can walk from the consulate. You will see Burger King, McDonalds & KFC all in a row very close to the bank.We spent time at Burger King till the bank opened at 9AM. Note that we had an appointment at 9AM and it is no problem even if you are late by an hour. We checked with the person at the consulate and he said as long as you be there before 10:30 they are cool and they really dont care if you have an appointment earlier. So dont freak out if you dont have a bank draft until you reach Mexico. Dont pay ridiculous amounts of money to some agent, you can do it all by yourself. And there is every possibility you will meet someone like you at the consulate who you can tag along with, to have some company.
We reached the consulate by 10AM and they check all your forms outside before you enter the consulate (just like in Chennai). You will need to fill in DS-156, DS-157 & and DS-158 too. None of the persons there had filled DS-158, so if you can complete DS-158 form before hand, do it. If not you can always do it there. Once inside, you will go thru security chcek and then you are given a number. You will have to wait until your number is called and then you interview with the officer. It was all cool for me, just a few questions about the company, my title and offer letter. Thats it. And then you pay the $50 fee for your visa. You will be told to collect your passport at 3PM. So you can either wait around the consulate or go shop around. We went back to the border to shop, there are lots of shops which sell mexican stuff, bargain like crazy, like you do in India and eat some good authentic Mexican food, my fav was Chicken Fajita!
When you collect your passport, BEFORE you leave consulate, check all your details on the visa. We had 3 people who had something wrong on their visas. One person had his Date of Birth wrong (poor man, he had to stay back, with his 3 month old baby and wife), another one had his nationality wrong, and the other one applied for H4 and he got H1!! So, make sure and check everything and one more thing, DOUBLE CHECK!
Once you collect your passport you will come to the border and walk into the building to go through immigration, customs and border protection. This might take 2 to 4 hours depending on the number of people and how fast the lazy ass staff do their work. DOUBLE CHECK everything at this point too, when you are issued your I-94. Walk back into US to pick up your car and drive home happy!
Good Luck & Gracias!
PS: Mine was from H4 to H1 to those who care.