Stamping experience at Hyderabad consulate.

As soon as i landed in India, i made an appointment with Hyderabad consulate for January 19th 2010 8:15 AM.

At Hyderabad Consulate:

I dressed myself in formals to make a professional impression. I would have seen atleast 100 members for stamping at 8:30. Considering this figure, Hyderabad is a well deserved place for consulate.

After completing Biometrics and waiting for some 45 minutes, I attended visa officer. Discussion was simple and here is the transcript -

Why are you going to US? To complete a technical assignment assigned by my employer.

Have you ever been to US? Yes

Who is your client? xxx

Do you work for xxx? No, i work for YYY

Have you gone through the Booklet provided? Yes

Your visa is approved and you will be receiving your passport in couple of days sir.

Thank You.

It took 7 working days for them to stamp and print visa on my passport. I got my passport back on 29th January 2010. My extension for another visa was in process and i got approval on that extension very next day after my interview. So i guess USCIS will clear all records on your name before stamping.

My employer is desi consultant and type of visa is H1B. i used "counter passport collection at Blue Dart" as my option to collect passport.

I called consulate during this process and i was educated that it takes minimum of 2 working days and maximum of seven working days to complete processing. So guys, don't be panic if it takes long time and forget the rule "VFS will get passport immediately after interview", atleast with Hyderabad consulate.

I wont say every discussion is this simple. I witnessed next counter officer checking LCA, Client letter, Pay stubs, I94 cards, previous visit details etc etc. But few confident Yes or No's would make it easy for both visa officer and you.

With new memo and few rumors on Port of Entry issues, I would say entering US got another tough step ahead.

Lost @ London Airport

I am back home. Started at Seattle on Jan 5th and now in India on Jan 8th. Its a long painful journey.

Jan 5th @ Seattle

I was expecting shuttle express at 3:40 PM. I planned to reach airport prior 120 minutes at the least. Max reached apartment at around 4 PM, i was little tensed. It was limousine in front of me, Wow...not bad. He dropped me at 4:30 PM at airport. Though appreciated, i didn't tip him as 10 minutes delay was unacceptable for me. It was smooth till London.

London - A Geographical error

If not for London at the center of the globe, There is no largest airport called Heathrow and British Airways would have suffered for Business.

Lot of airports around London are closed. There is snow. But BA 277 is expected to start little late after cleaning the ice on wings. It took 6 Hours for Airlines to announce that flight is canceled. Infrastructure is not proportional to Business, It is not the first time i witnessed.

Pathetic Airlines

All other BA flights were canceled. It took 4 hours for us to collect Hotel vouchers (Hotel@ Central London, more than an hour from Airport..you must be kidding, we didn't use the voucher after standing in line for 4 hours), Immigration check - Another 4 hours (4 counters for thousands of passengers). 8 hours for re-booking (Surprise, British Airways cannot arrange staff late hours when thousands of passengers were stuck. 8 counters were helping passengers at a slow pace. I got lucky to catch my friends at Lane 1, Its tough just to think about last row, i guess they are still waiting). Counter for re-booking opened at 8 AM or around in the morning. Very regular time by staff on an irregular day.

My flight BA 119 got delayed for 5 hours without notice. After reaching Bangalore, i realized my baggage missing. Here is the good news, Around 75 passengers had similar problem. Airlines doesn't have enough infrastructure to take our complaints real fast. Is it unexpected? You don't know that you didn't board our baggage? Shouldn't you be arranging some thing at destination to make it fast for passengers?

This is the second time my baggage is missing, they did not reimburse claimed amount yet.

Globalization @ Heathrow:

Everyone had same grief, They wanna go home. Everyone tried same tricks, Calling travel agent/Friends/Family to book tickets, trying online, sharing mobile. So you gotta talk to next one for sure, You gotta talk about your country and you a little for sure. You gotta scold BA for their poor organization of work. It was fun.

Acquaintances

One big guy asked me, do you work for microsoft (i had microsoft bag)? I said, yes i was and yes i will. Emily also works for Microsoft he said. Whoz Emily? My daughter. Hmm, after some time, his wife expressed her love to India. She said i wanna visit Taj Mahal before i die. These words filled me with joy and was energy booster. Incredible India.

There is another girl. Interesting, talkative, simple, good-looking. Her name is also Emily. She connected to every passenger around and brought cheer on everyone. She would listen to everyone, which makes her interesting. She must have saved her energy without talking much (Like i do), but she didn't. She was grouped with an old lady Robson, whose passport is filled with a stamp by every country and an young boy reaching out US to complete his graduation.

There was russian old lady, who missed Birthday party next day and Bolivian, who wanted this delay in New York instead of London so that New York can be toured. One Italian, who least bothers about situation and doesn't pity himself for whats happening or doesn't scold any one for situation. He got his tickets re-booked my travel agent. One Italian couple was still on lane.

Indian Intruders - I am from this group :P. Rule is, you have to intrude into nearest lane. Thats what we did and thats why i am back :-).