Obtaining H1B Stamp - Indonesian

[spikemasta 1]

Hi again forum,

My girlfriend is from Indonesia and currently living and working on an H1B here in California. She came to the US on an F1 Student Visa, and then got her H1B work Visa after school. Since she got her H1B Visa while already here in the US, she does not have her H1B stamp, and she is going to need to travel internationally for a new job coming up. We have been told by her firm's lawyers that she could try to goto Canada or Mexico to try and get an appointment with the Indonesian consulate, but it is not guaranteed that either of those countries will give her the H1B Stamp, and she would then have to fly home to Indonesia to get the Stamp, before she could re-enter the US. Have any Indonesian's (or anyone else), tried to obtain the H1B Stamp by going to Canada or Mexico and had any success or have any advice on the easier way we could try to obtain the H1B stamp, without having to go back to Indonesia?

Thanks for any advice and help on this topic, and let me know if any other details are needed.

[spikemasta 1]

Anyone want to give any input or help who have been in this situation? Thanks so much.

[Boiler 45,510]

Sounds like she has status, not a visa.

And nothing to do with the Indonesian Consulate.

Going to Mexico or Canada is quite common in these circumstances.

[juliava 80]

No, she actually needs to get that visa stamp in the passport, otherwise she can't enter back in US even if she just goes to Canada for 1 hour.

With an approved status inside US - you are fine traveling anywhere you want in this country, however once you step outside and you want to come back - you can't enter it with that "approved status", you need a "visa".

If you don't want to travel back home, the closest consulates to do that are either in Canada or in Mexico.

I had friends who had approved H1B and J1 statuses in US, and they went to Canada to get their passport stamped and they had no problems.

[Penguin_ie 5,993]

Could she not get one from her local USCIS office during an infopass appointment?

[Boiler 45,510]

A visa has to be obtained from a consulate outside the US.

[juliava 80]

Penguin_ie - That works if you have a Green Card approval. In this case she needs to be out of US to get the visa in her passport, even though her status was approved here. It is tough as it's pretty much like applying for a new visa, however, that's the only way to handle this if you know you will be travelling outside US.

Edited December 16, 2010 by juliava

[spikemasta 1]

Penguin_ie - That works if you have a Green Card approval. In this case she needs to be out of US to get the visa in her passport, even though her status was approved here. It is tough as it's pretty much like applying for a new visa, however, that's the only way to handle this if you know you will be traveling outside US.

Thanks for all the input everyone. We already are aware that she has to leave the country to get the Stamp, so thanks for confirming that. We are just wondering if any other Indonesians have gone through this process in canada or mexico, as her company lawyers said there is a chance they she may need to be in one of those countries for a few days to get the whole stamp process completed, so she could re-enter the US. However, they also stipulated that it is very possible that either country could deny her the stamp and she wouldn't be able to re-enter the US without first going home to Indo and getting the stamp from a foreign consulate. Anyway, thanks again for the advice and hoping another Indo has been through this and has advice.