H1B Stamping Experience

I got this update from Rakesh on Apr 10th, 2010 who emailed me his recent experience in Tijuana about H1B Stamping. He shares important information about how to get to the border from San Diego Airport. Rakesh, thanks for your update and sharing your experience with others


Hi -
Thanks for putting up the blog at - http://tijuanatrip.blogspot.com/
. It was very helpful. Here is my experience.

Had my appointment at 9:30 am on April 6th. Flew to San Diego the previous day and reached tijuana in the evening. There was a bus # 992 from SD airport ($5 - all-day pass) , that would drop off at the Trolley (Civic Center) station - the light-rail system at San Diego. Taking the blue line on the trolley to San Ysidro south (the same day pass purchased at the bus applies) , took about 45 minutes and it stopped right at the border. Crossed the border and came into mexico (
had a mexico visitor visa for 5 yrs, issued at SF, but nobody seemed to check at the mexico border though). Took a yellow-line cab from the streets in mexico for $6 and went to hotel real del rio situated right behind the consulate.

Hotel rate was $65 per night with a restaurant within.

Got into the room and went to banamex (right across the main street, near to the hotel) and purchased the receipt for the visa appointment ( $148.75) by cash. They do give changes in USD for small amount though.

Roamed around tijuana in the evening near the hotel.

Got up in the morning and reached the line around 9:00am hoping it to get over sooner. I was totally wrong. The line was pretty huge and it took around 45 min to get inside the consulate. There were 2 phases , one for checking the documents/visa purpose etc and the second phase
would be the actual interview with the consular officer.

Phase 1:

What are you here for ?
H1-B renewal

I-797 please?
...

Took a photo of mine.

"Please wait in the lobby" around 10:15am.

Then the long wait began, in the lobby. Obviously we cannot get out for breakfast / lunch from that place. There was a vending machine in the lobby that accepted pesos only and I had only usd in my wallet essentially making it useless. Could have asked for an exchange in the
crowd among there, but did not try that. By the time -I got to meet the consular officer, it was around 2:45pm.

Q: Have you been waiting for long ?
A: Yes.

Q: Sorry about that. Your renewal is for the same employer ?
No.

Q: Can I see the notice of action (i-797) ?
Here, it is ..

Q: What do you do ?

Q: How many people being led in your team ?

Q: What does the company do ?

"Your visa is approved. you can pick it up tomorrow at 3pm. "

Next day, again the queue starts forming at around 2pm . Waited in the queue to get there early. Did not allow us to enter until 3:15 pm actually. Got mine around 3:30pm. Went back to the hotel, got my stuff ( they have a place to store in the lobby while you are getting back the passport ), took the cab for $7 to the border.

pretty much empty at that time, around 4:15pm. There were no directions about getting a new I-94 until I was about to meet the officer in person about it. He directed me to go back to a building (which I passed through initially) that would issue a new I-94 and come back again. Walked back to the building , and not much of a big queue either - may be around 10 people . But we were made to wait for 10 minutes because the office was ' temporarily closed' (!!).


Talked to the officer there to get the I-94, after some informal chit-chats( "are cows considered sacred in india" ? , "will your spirit go away if I take your photo" ? ). Got my I-94, paid $6 in cash
in a separate counter in the same building and then walked back to the border. There was absolutely no queue , and I was let in within seconds of reaching the counter.

"do you carry alcohol/tobacco / any other contents for which you need to pay the duty " ?

put my stuff through the scanner , came over to san ysidro station around 4:40pm, trolley to sd downtown to airport and back home in northern california.

Overall experience, extremely cordial people in mexico with great food and good fun (a place called plaza del rio about 4 blocks of hotel contained some attractions, cinepolis etc.) and light on your wallet :)
If you are going for a renewal then it is a breeze , if you are in a emergency to step out of the country for business/personal purposes.

Good luck !!


--
RS

Thanks again Rakesh ;)