H1B visa stamping experience – Ottawa, Canada – Dec. 2007

This post is to share my experience with getting my H1B visa stamped in Ottawa, Canada. Hope the post will answer most of the questions that you might have, not only particular to getting the visa stamped in Ottawa, but getting the H1B visa stamping in general.

First things first, I had my visa interview at the U.S.A consulate in Ottawa on December 11, 2007 at 8:30 AM. I reached the embassy at about 8:15 AM and I was let in immediately after the security guard at the entrance glanced at my appointment letter. After passing the security check, I had to submit my Scotia Bank deposit slips, DS-156 (with photo), DS-157 at the counter. I was asked to wait in the lobby. The lobby had about 5x5 chairs and was full. There are totally 5 counters (4 regular + 1 diplomatic visa issuing counter). All of them were being used to serve the applicants. At about 9:15 AM, I was called upon. The male VO just asked me to press my fingers (4 fingers placed together starting from small finger) – first left hand, then right – against the finger pad. Then the 2 thumbs placed together. Then he asked me wait while my name was called again. Shortly, in about 5 minutes, a female VO called upon my name. I walked up to her counter. She greeted me and I, her. I was asked the following questions:
1. Where did you study? What was your field of study? What can you say about your educational experience in the US? When did you graduate? Can you provide me with your M.S. degree certificate?
2. Can you provide me with your H1B petition documents? LCA?
3. Where do you work?
4. What does your company do? What is your role in the company? How do you like your work? Can you provide me with your recent pay stubs? (She took a long look at my pay stubs. I have a bi-weekly pay system in my company. Probably she was just tallying my pay stubs.)
5. Do you have a letter from your employer?
After a long perusal of my employer letter, she said that she’s going to hold on to the employer letter. She gave me a small red token and asked me to come back on Friday (December 14, 2007) at 3 PM. I was aware of the additional delay in the visa processing, which has been introduced since November 2007 for the electronic verification of the H1B petition with the USCIS. However, I tried to use my charm with the VO and requested if it can be processed any earlier, as I have flight the next evening. She said, “I’m sorry about that. But this delay is for everyone and it is inevitable that we have to further verify all the applications.” I took leave of her. I got my passport back at 3PM on Friday, Dec. 14 2007.

Mine is a very straight-forward case: I completed my M.S. in US in August 2006. Joined my company in November 2006. My H1B started on October 1, 2007.

Documents that I carried with me: There is a huge list of ‘documents to take’ circulating in the Internet. This is what I carried with me (items in red are those that I found to be mandated by the USA embassy in ottawa):
1. Appointment letter
2. DS-156 (with photos)
3. DS-157
4. Passport (with I-94 from the bottom portion of the I-797 A)
5. I-797A
6. Scotia Bank deposit slip
7. Employment letter
8. Offer letter
9. I-129 petition for non-immigrant worker
10. H classification supplement to Form I-129
11. H-1B data collection and filing fee exemption supplement
12. Labor condition approval
13. Recent pay stubs
14. W2
15. Tax return
16. EAD card
17. Transcripts
18. Degree certificates
19. All form I-20s, if any
20. Bank statements

My in-detail experiences (as-follows) might be helpful just for H1B applicants going to Ottawa, Canada for their visa stamping.

Visa issuance delay: I did not know about the delay in the issuance of non-immigrant visas until 2 days before I was to leave for canada. It was first my friend, who had gone to Toronto the previous week notified me about the delays. I did some further reading on it to see if it was something particular to his case or if it was the case in general. I found this posted on the official website: http://www.amcits.com/visa_delay.asp. Although there was nothing much that could have been done (of course, I didn’t want to cancel my appointment and lose the already expended money in total.), I could at least be prepared to let my employer know about this and seek permission to ‘work from home’, take extra clothing and some extra cash and of course be mentally prepared to wait in case it was needed instead of getting a shocker like my friend did. On wishful thinking that I wouldn’t be subject to the delay, I didn’t want to cancel my return flight yet in lieu of a postponed returned ticket.
The reason for the delay is because all consular posts in Canada have to electronically verify the H1B petition with the USCIS. According to various posts in different forums, this is being done to filter suspected fraudulent H1B petitions. In hindsight, the questions that I was asked during my interview seemed to be directed by this as well. Although this delay has been said to be applicable to only consular posts in Canada, I would strongly advise you to gather more information particular to the embassy you are visiting and be as prepared as possible. Although, it has been said to be a 4-day delay, I do not know how it is being calculated. All the interviewees who had their interview on Tuesday like me were asked to come back on Friday, whereas, the guys who had their interview on Wednesday were asked to come back on the Tuesday of next week. Having said this, I met a girl from Sweden who is working in Boston, who attended the interview on Thursday and was asked to come and collect the stamped passport along with me on Friday.

Weather: The weather in Ottawa, Canada was barely any motivation in assisting me in coping with the delay. The actual temperature, on all the 4 days I was there, was hovering around 12 - 22 degree Fahrenheit. The feels like temperature was somewhere around 1 – 10 degree Fahrenheit, obviously indicating very strong winds. Even as I planned the trip to Ottawa, I was aware about the weather that I might have to encounter there. The reason why I decided to get my visa stamped as early as possible, was so that I could get things done in a very controlled environment, instead of having to face the vagaries of the diplomatic requirements of the H1B stamping process, in god knows what circumstance I’m having to leave the US, especially working on a product that might require foreign travel. Of course, I didn’t have enough vacation period left over in my account to plan a trip to India.

Stay: For the first two planned nights (Dec 10 – 11, 2007), I stayed at The Quality Hotel, in downtown Ottawa (290 Rideau street, Ottawa, Ontario, CA K1N 5Y3 – about 1 km from the USA embassy). The hotel was well maintained and the staff responded well to the queries that I had for them. For the 2 extra nights of stay, the hotel receptionist said that if I made the booking directly with them, it would cost me $125/night. For that reason, he also suggested that I make the reservation through priceline.com, which listed a price of $105/night.
For the nights of 12 – 13, I stayed at Byward Blue Inn (157 Clarence Street Ottawa, Ontario K1N 5P7 – about 0.4 km from the USA embassy). They are not listed by priceline.com, with whom I had made my travel arrangements. But the place was really good and in fact much closer to the USA embassy in Sussex drive, than The Quality Hotel. If you are making travel arrangements to Ottawa, I’d suggest you to enquire with the Byward Blue Inn (http://www.bywardblueinn.com/) about reservations. For a room with a single bed, it cost me $79/night. Both the hotels I stayed in provide free wireless.

Food: Except for the walking in the snow that I had to do in the cold to get to the restaurants, I had no problem with food whatsoever. I am a vegetarian; so don’t be too concerned about food if you are one too. There are 3-4 indian restaurants in downtown Ottawa. I managed to go to just two of them (just to avoid any extra walking): Haveli (39 Clarence Street, Ottawa, ON K1N 5P4) and Nagina (217 Rideau Street, Ottawa, ON K1N 5X8). The Haveli Indian restaurant (buffet – about $14) deserves special mention. The food there was amazing, but even so was their customer service, which I thought was very very pro-active. You can’t say the same about The Nagina restaurant (buffet – about $18) though, but it wasn’t too bad. There are a couple of Tim Hortons (coffee/donut place) in the downtown area. For those of you who’d like to keep their coffee real, there is a Starbucks coffee pretty close to the USA embassy. There is also a subway restaurant (380 Dalhousie Street, Ottawa, ON K1N 7G3) pretty close by.

Return travel to the US: I had to research quite a bit before I decided upon my mode of transport for my return to the US. After I got to know about the visa delay, the idea was to keep off from any unnecessary expenditure on anything that does not warrant it. After all, I had spent close to what I would have had to, if I had gone to India. I had a few options at hand.
1. Postpone my flight: I spoke with US Airways representative as well as to priceline.com representative. Both of them said that I had to pay a $100 postponement fee + the difference in price for the ticket. With US Airways it was ($100 + $430 difference in ticket price) and with priceline.com it was ($100 + $30 service fee for priceline.com + $395 for difference in ticket price). So the best quote that I got was $525 if I was to return by flight.
2. Rental car: First, I went to hertz website only to find them charge an $800 drop off fee along with $80 car rent. While I was about to freak out, I saw that national didn’t charge the drop off fee, however their car rent was $230. Then I did a reality check on the weather and found a forecast for the nor’easter for that weekend. So it was certainly not worth driving all the way.
3. Greyhound: Time not being a factor (as it was already Friday evening and there was no hurry to get back to home or office) I decided to do my return travel by greyhound bus lines. There’s a greyhound bus station (265 Catherine Street, Ottawa, ON K1R 7S5 – about 3 km from downtown). From there, I could take a greyhound bus to Montréal and there was a connection greyhound bus from Montréal to Boston Logan International airport (where I had parked my car). The total travel time was said to be about 9.5 hours. However, they got me to Boston in 8.5 hours and it seemed like a smart move especially in the wake of delayed flights because of the nor’easter. The best part about it was the ticket was priced at $95 only.

Miscellaneous:
1. Scotia Bank receipt: You must provide two Scotia Bank teller-signed deposit slips (for USD 100) at the counter in the embassy before your interview. My visa interview was at 8:30 AM and I reached Ottawa late on the previous night. The Scotia bank in downtown (117 Rideau Street, Ottawa, ON K1N 5X4) opens at 9AM. So I had to get my friend to deposit USD 100 to a Scotia Bank and snail mail me the deposit slips. Bank of Nova Scotia which operates on the behalf of Scotia Bank in the US, does not undertake personal transactions like deposit slips.
2. At no point when I was there, did I have to exchange my US dollars for Canadian dollars. All places including cabs, restaurants accept USD. However, some drivers might try to low-ball you with the Canadian currency conversion rate, especially as the CAD is now faring better than the USD. So, either know what the conversion rate is or even better carry CAD for those purposes.
3. Because of the cold weather, I didn’t get to go around much. But to overcome the boredom (pssst…pssst…I was working from ‘home’) I visited the Canadian parliament building and a couple of visits down to the Rideau Centre, which is a huge mall in the downtown itself.
4. There is a well-connected city bus transit (www.octranspo.com). I used it only once. There’s a flat $3 ticket for a ride.
5. In the visa interview hall, there are 2 computers attached to a printer, so that you can fill out the DS-156 form in case you forgot to do so earlier or made some mistakes, enough to make you fill out a new form. However, just to save time and avoid needless anxiety, I would strongly encourage you to fill your forms even before you get to the embassy.


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I hope my experiences would have provided you with as much information as possible.