Risks Associated with International Travel and a Consular Visit

[christopher.ward 0]

Hi everybody,

 

I did a PhD in mechanical engineering in the US using the F1 visa and got a job in the US at a high tech company with ~30k employees worldwide after graduation. I was lucky and got the H1B from the lottery in my first time. Using the change of status option I made a transition from F1 to H1B and have been working full time using the H1B visa since October 2020 and my H1B is valid until September 2023. It has been two years since the last time I visited my home country (Turkey) and I am planning to take some days off for a vacation in February 2022. As you might already know, I need to visit the US consulate in my home country to get the H1B visa stamp in my passport so that I can enter the US upon my return. I already made an appointment at the US consulate on February 22nd, 2022 and I wanted to create this topic to ask about your opinions about the risks associated with this travel. Making the optimistic assumption that there will not be any consulate shutdowns or travel restrictions imposed on travelers coming to the US in February /March 2022 due to Covid, do you see any other risks associated especially with my consular visit?

 

During my PhD, I had applied for and received the F1 visa twice (one in 2013 and another in 2018) however in both of my F1 visa applications, I was given a yellow paper at the consulate and went through the administrative processing. Luckily, the administrative processing took about two weeks in both cases. 

 

Now if I travel to my homeland in February 2022, I will be requesting an H1B visa stamp this time. Is there the risk of me having to go through the administrative processing do you think? And if yes, do you think I shouldn't worry about it taking months or a year or more than a year to be completed since I have already been working for my company using the H1B visa for about 14 months now and the H1B visa stamp in my passport will just be a hard copy confirmation of something that already exists as an electronic record. The scenario of me having to go through the administrative processing and it taking so long that my company would stop waiting for me to come back to the US and my employment being terminated is a nightmare for me these days 😰

 

I would be so happy if you could share your opinions and past experience with me. Hope to hear some relieving news from you guys. Thank you so much in advance!

Edited December 13, 2021 by christopher.ward

[igoyougoduke 1,656]

no one can tell what the consulate will do. all you hope is for consulate to be open and covid not wreck any more havoc.  be prepared for anything . nothing is guaranteed and you would need h1b visa in order to renter the country on h1b status. 

 

 

[Coco8 1,042]

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however in both of my F1 visa applications, I was given a yellow paper at the consulate and went through the administrative processing. Luckily, the administrative processing took about two weeks in both cases. 

It's hard to tell, but given that you went through AP before, I'd talk to HR to see if you could work from there if you happen to be put on AP and cannot come back on the date you are supposed to come back. 

 

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do you think I shouldn't worry about it taking months or a year or more than a year to be completed 

It's impossible to say. However, you already got F1 visas several times, so it'd be unlikely that you'd be put on AP for years. I'd expect to be on AP for a couple of weeks.