Mumbai Experience

[Matt and Chandra 0]

Hi all,

I wanted to write a brief note concerning my wife's experience in Mumbai. She received her visa and is now with our son and I in the US (after a four-month absence!), but I thought that perhaps someone might benefit from her experience at the consulate.

1. Her appointment letter never arrived, which is not especially unusual. It arrived in the US, and we scanned and sent it to her, but it turned out that it would not really have been a good idea for her to try to use the scan. In the event, she collected a copy of it from the window at the embassy on the day she came for her medical exam, although it is worth mentioning that the line was very long to get to that window. The staff at the window were very nice and helpful, and said that it was good that she was collecting it, as it might have been problematic to try to use a printed scan of the letter. I would suggest that if anyone has not received their letter and doesn't have a lot of time to spare like that, it would be wise for the USC in the US to courier them the copy of the letter which they received. She was able to submit her documents at the VFS office without any problem.

2. When she came for the interview, she was questioned by the clerk who took her documents, who made a number of insulting and unnecessary remarks as well as misinformation. When I called the State dept and asked about this later, the person I spoke with sneered and said, "She was just a clerk. She probably didn't know what she was talking about." It's good for those going for an interview to be aware of this, so they aren't unnecessarily rattled just before going in for their interview.

3. We got 221g'd because we needed to send a couple of documents which hadn't been included to the NVC, and we scanned and sent them by email for her to print. They needed originals. It was a major pain in the neck, but on important documents they need *original* signatures. I know, I know, sounds pretty stupid to have tried to send anything in that way, and to be frank, it sounds stupid because it was. My bad on that one.

3. When she returned with the documents (now couriered) to her!), the person at the VFS counter (different from the person who had been there earlier) demanded a document that *no one* had even mentioned earlier, and tried to send her away! My wife argued that she had brought everything she had been asked to bring, and that she needed to receive her documents *NOW*. The lady's response was a doubtful, "Well, we'll let the consulate decide." (which, I suppose, is the whole point, right? ).

3a. Important Note: As far as possible, don't take anything with you to VFS accept what one needs to submit. My wife went alone the second time (from another city) and had her backpack with her. She left it with a woman who said she was waiting for her daughter, and when my wife returned, the woman was gone, and so, apparently, was her backpack. She was then scolded by the security guard, who went on and on about how it wasn't their responsibility to look after her backpack, that she shouldn't have left it with that lady, etc, etc. After waiting there for a good half hour trying to figure out what she was going to do, the guard brought out her backpack, which it turns out the lady had left with him to give to my wife! He was going to keep her backpack!

4. The visa was issued several days later; I was able to find out by calling the State Dept (+202-663-1225) and find out that her visa had been issued before her passport arrived the following day! That was nice....

A Couple of other bits and pieces:

5. We got a reasonably good ticket price for her to fly out to the US within 10 days of getting the visa by going to http://www.mobissimo.com, which is a meta search engine for flights. Highly recommended.

6. Her visa had the following on it: "Upon endorsement serves as a temporary I-551 evidencing permanent residence for 1 year;" from appearances, it looks like this is standard.

7. POE in Newark was without problem.

8. Embraces and family hugs upon arrival were celebrated by all 3 of us!!

Hope this is helpful to somebody[ies]. The upshot is: 1. Make sure you have all of your original documents in, 2. Don't get discouraged by clerks and VFS staff, and 3. Be persistent, and 4. Don't bring anything to VFS, unless you have someone with you who can wait outside with your stuff.

Matt & Chandra

[ELW 5]

Congrats :dance: and thanks for all the interesting details! So happy it finally worked out though you guys were put through a lot of hassle!

[Jigi 0]

Hi,

I am so happy the family is united. Just to bug u again ... what did your wife submit to the VFS; which documents are you talking about which need original signatures

Jigi

[Matt and Chandra 0]

Hi,

I am so happy the family is united. Just to bug u again ... what did your wife submit to the VFS; which documents are you talking about which need original signatures

Jigi

Hi Jigi,

It was slightly complicated. My mother is joint sponsoring my wife (I'm in graduate school at the moment). Initially, we had her fill out an I-864 as a joint sponsor. NVC told us she had to fill out the I-864A instead, as we had the same address (we'd done the I-864 originally for various reasons I'd rather not get into here). Unfortunately while we sent in the I-864A (which required both of our signatures), I had not sent in a fresh I-864 which included her I-864A information, including joint household income.

She had brought another I-864A (which they'd had anyway, but returned to her since it wasn't on my I-864) and the new I-864 I'd filled out reflecting my mom's household income. The scanned documents which they'd found inadequate were my scanned signature on the new I-864 and my mom's scanned employment letter. The counter person at VFS was asking for more documents, but it seemed like one of those situations where someone begins demanding something one isn't like to have on hand in order to create a problem which doesn't really exist (perhaps in order to feel important, to enjoy harassing someone, out of their own ignorance......who knows?).

Hope this is helpful, and that you have less headaches in January than we did.

Peace,

Matt & Chandra

[maya62 7]

Congratulations, Matt & Chandra!

Best wishes,

Maya

PS I love your wife's name... if we are ever lucky enough to have a little girl by birth or adoption, I'd like to name her Chandra... so pretty.

[Bacchha 0]

Thanks Matt great post!

This brings up all the red flags I've been thinking about that may come up with this "VFS" office.

Some of this should go into a sticky for all the others, haven't seen some of this advice summed up anywhere.

Also can someone please clarify?

Does the VFS need another I-864 Made out just for them, even though the NVC has been submitted one and been approved? In my case I did a I-864EZ.

This goes against what the Packet 3 PDF from the Mumbai Consulate site says (see under Instructional Packages - Packet 3 Click Here For PDF, which is:

If form I-864 and its supporting documents have already been submitted to the National Visa Center (NVC), the documents will be forwarded to our office by the NVC and will be reviewed by the consular officer during the visa interview.

Also is the VFS checklist accurate from their website Link where it says " Click here for list of documents to be submitted to VFS."

And how

Also can someone please also clarify what the Packet 3 consists of exactly:

1) The Packet 3 PDF Checklist/ Applicant's Statement Sign-off (From mumbai consulate site pdf)

2) DS-230 Part 1 + Photographs (2)

3) Passport Copies (Biographic Data/Parent Names) First/Last Pages

Also did you submit these directly to the Mumbai Consulate, once you found out the case was transfered from the NVC?

Any specific advise on how to submit these in advance? As waiting for the mailing asking for it may be lost/delayed/etc.

Edited December 10, 2007 by Bacchha

[Matt and Chandra 0]

Congratulations, Matt & Chandra!

Best wishes,

Maya

PS I love your wife's name... if we are ever lucky enough to have a little girl by birth or adoption, I'd like to name her Chandra... so pretty.

Thanks, Maya! I love her name, too, as well as virtually everything else about her...... though I am a tad biased. Not bad after 14 years of marriage!

Congrats :dance: and thanks for all the interesting details! So happy it finally worked out though you guys were put through a lot of hassle!

Thanks, Nagaraju & Eileen!

[Matt and Chandra 0]

Thanks Matt great post!

This brings up all the red flags I've been thinking about that may come up with this "VFS" office.

Some of this should go into a sticky for all the others, haven't seen some of this advice summed up anywhere.

Also can someone please clarify?

Does the VFS need another I-864 Made out just for them, even though the NVC has been submitted one and been approved? In my case I did a I-864EZ.

This goes against what the Packet 3 PDF from the Mumbai Consulate site says (see under Instructional Packages - Packet 3 Click Here For PDF, which is:

If form I-864 and its supporting documents have already been submitted to the National Visa Center (NVC), the documents will be forwarded to our office by the NVC and will be reviewed by the consular officer during the visa interview.

Also is the VFS checklist accurate from their website Link where it says " Click here for list of documents to be submitted to VFS."

And how

Also can someone please also clarify what the Packet 3 consists of exactly:

1) The Packet 3 PDF Checklist/ Applicant's Statement Sign-off (From mumbai consulate site pdf)

2) DS-230 Part 1 + Photographs (2)

3) Passport Copies (Biographic Data/Parent Names) First/Last Pages

Also did you submit these directly to the Mumbai Consulate, once you found out the case was transfered from the NVC?

Any specific advise on how to submit these in advance? As waiting for the mailing asking for it may be lost/delayed/etc.

Glad we could be of service, in spite of the many typos! (remember, kids, that "preview" button is there for a reason! )

Anything extra was submitted via VFS in Mumbai, although some things (x-ray from the medical, et al) were hand carried to the consulate on the day of appointment.

Peace,

Matt & Chandra

[mgk 0]

Thanks Matt great post!

This brings up all the red flags I've been thinking about that may come up with this "VFS" office.

Some of this should go into a sticky for all the others, haven't seen some of this advice summed up anywhere.

Also can someone please clarify?

Does the VFS need another I-864 Made out just for them, even though the NVC has been submitted one and been approved? In my case I did a I-864EZ.

This goes against what the Packet 3 PDF from the Mumbai Consulate site says (see under Instructional Packages - Packet 3 Click Here For PDF, which is:

If form I-864 and its supporting documents have already been submitted to the National Visa Center (NVC), the documents will be forwarded to our office by the NVC and will be reviewed by the consular officer during the visa interview.

Also is the VFS checklist accurate from their website Link where it says " Click here for list of documents to be submitted to VFS."

And how

Also can someone please also clarify what the Packet 3 consists of exactly:

1) The Packet 3 PDF Checklist/ Applicant's Statement Sign-off (From mumbai consulate site pdf)

2) DS-230 Part 1 + Photographs (2)

3) Passport Copies (Biographic Data/Parent Names) First/Last Pages

Also did you submit these directly to the Mumbai Consulate, once you found out the case was transfered from the NVC?

Any specific advise on how to submit these in advance? As waiting for the mailing asking for it may be lost/delayed/etc.

Hi,

Usually you would receive Packet 4 from the consulate for IR1/CR1. But, looks like the process at NVC for DS230 has changed where you need to submit more documents than before. This shouldn't impact you.