I was in India for my H1 stamping during Dec 2004. This is my first H1 stamping after my OPT. During my first interview the consulate asked me general questions like:
Where do you work ?
what is you daily routine work ?
what is your Boss's name ?
How much do you get paid ?
Thank he asked me to wait and said my interview would be finished by another consulate. The same thing happend to almost 10 ppl. We all waited in the Mumbai consulate from 9 AM till 11:45AM. And during that time we figured out that none of us were from software. I myself is a Chem. Engineer. Others were either working on some govt. funded projects or physics graduate,biology graduate etc. But none of us were in software.
So at 11:45 all of us were called by our name. And on the same window. The lady consulate than asked same questions and than said "I am sorry, at this time I can not issue you a visa.We need to further verify your case".And upon my asking "Is there something missing or not right here ?" she replied "No mam, we will send your query to Washington.And once that is done we will give you a call. This might take up to 5 weeks."
The same thing happend to all of us.And my first interview was on Dec 29th.My return tickets were on 12th Jan. But due to this I had to extend my stay. I kept calling the US Consulate after 3 weeks passed. I had to continuously follow up with them and on 24th Jan when I called the US Consulate they told me that your case has been verified and you can come to US Consulate within a week at 8:30 AM.
I went on 27th Jan. I was inside the consulate at 9:00 AM and I was called for the interview at 2:30PM. This time the lady did not aske me anything and issued my visa.
I did investigate on website and found that this is a newly introduced method and they randomly verify for H1s.And I was the chosen one.
So anyone out there who z going for stamping after Dec 2004 - don't get upset if they ask you to wait. You just might have to extend your stay in India as this really takes 6 weeks or so. So plan your journey accordingly.
Right now I am safe and sound..back to work !
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