http://boards.immigration.com/showthread.php?t=231768

Successful H1B/H4 stamping - Tijuana, Mexico on Nov 14, 2006
Hello,

I wanted to share my visa stamping experience @ Tijuana, Mexico. Its a long text, but wanted to share my entire experience as it would be useful for people who wanted to visit Tijuana without any concerns in mind.

I went for my 7th year H1B extension. I got approval notice (I-797)for 1 year (GC status - Labor pending). I have earlier got my H1B Visa extension applied ONLY in India. First time went to US Consulate outside india.

Applied for a Mexico Visa for myself and my wife to enter Tijuana. Mexico visa fee - Paid 134$ (each applicant). Visited local mexican consulate & got it approved well within 3 weeks. I showed the FM3 booklet (mexican entry permit) plus visa in my passport to Mexican authorities, got it stamped and did things whatever it takes to enter Mexico legally.

I had my H1B/H4 Visa appointment in Tijuana, Mexico at 9.30am on Nov 14, 2006. Drove from bay area, CA during weekend and stayed at my friends residence in Los Angeles. Had some outing at LA & San diego. Started from LA around 6.30am on Nov 14, 2006 and got struck in a very bad traffic for 1 hr in I-5 South (due to San Diego, downtown traffic). Got worried & finally after 1 hr the traffic started clearing up and then rushed to the San Ysidro US border and reached around 9am. Then parked my car in one of the car parking lot (7$ for the entire day) within US border & then walked towards the US-Mexico border. It took around 10 minutes by walk to reach the border, not that far off from the parking lot. I could see lot of parking lots in that area with different rates, but I just parked in one of the parking lot, which I saw first.

I had my wife (h4 visa) and my daughter(US citizen) along with me. Took a yellow cab (10 USD) to Banamex bank. When you enter Mexico (Tijuana) you get to see lot of yellow cabs. I couldn't see any white cabs, which might be little away from these yellow cabs. But yellow cab drivers spoke english well, so didn't have any issues. US Consulate is less than a minute walk from there. Cab driver showed me the US Consulate while crossing by road and stopped me at Banamex bank. Paid 216 USD (108 USD for each applicant) for the application fee. I also took some mexican pesos currency for my own collection. That day the convertion rate was 1 USD = 10.5 Mexican pesos. All shops, cab drivers accept USD and they do give USD changes back. I didn't have any problem.

By the time I reached US Consulate it was 10am. I saw lot of people standing in the streets in front of US Consulate. They had arranged the line in order of time, say 10am as one line and 9am as an another line. I could see the boards with timings on it. I was late by 1hr for my appointment, as I had a kid, we need to feed her too in-between before proceeding to Consulate. We weren't tensed on the time aspect, though we were late by 1hr.

I tried to reach couple of people conveying that I had a 9.30am appointment and finally landed with a lady who had an appnt check list with her. Luckily to our benefit as we had a kid with us and as it was drizzling that day we were asked to go inside the consulate within 5 minutes. Within that time frame we arranged the appln (DS-156,157,15 along with passport and receipt fee (Banamex bank). We went through scanner machines and then claimed stairs to another waiting room. I could see close to 100 people seated in that room. mostly mexicans. One security who spoke in spanish asked me to be seated, at the same time one another security asked me to proceed to another stair case proceeding to Biometrics/Consular officer meeting room. Again they were lot of people standing for biometrics and they were 7 people ahead of us in one of the line. As we were carrying our kid, one of the security asked us to proceed to another bio-metrics line to meet the mexican officer (lady) who actually takes finger printing & photo graph. We waited in the line for 5 minutes before proceeding to that lady officer. Our bio-metrics got completed in 15 minutes and we proceeded to other line for consular officer visa interview. We stood in line for 10 minutes b4 meeting a US officer (men). Now the visa interview started.

Me: Good morning officer. How are you doing?
CO (Consular officer): Very good morning, i am doing fine. How are you doing today.
Me: Doing fine, thanks.

Co: Please provide me your applications.
Me: Provided him the document set for me and my wife(DS-156,157,158, Passport, Banamex bank receipt)

Co: Do you have any nick name, which I could call now. (Smiled at me as my name was big)
Me: I conveyed him my nick name.
CO: Conveyed his experience with one of his indian friend whom he worked with, who had a very big name than mine. He asked me, do you belong to south india?
Me: I conveyed, yes and smiled too.

Co: Are both one and the same? (He meant I-797 of self and my wife).
Me: I said, one of them represents my case and other represents my wife. But both carry the same extension dates.
CO: He then returned my wife's I-797

Co: Is this for your new employer?
Me: Its for the same employer & I hold my current visa with the same employer. I am working with my employer for the last XX years.
CO: He said, ok fine.

Co: Who is your employer.
Me: Conveyed the employer name.

Co: Where are they located.
Me: Conveyed him the location.

Co: Are you taking off from your work for this Tijuana,US Consulate visit.
Me: Conveyed yes Sir.

Co: Requested for other document set (I-129 and accompanying documents)
Me: Provided I-129, H1B speciality occupation letter, LCA.

Co: What is your current position?
Me: Conveyed him my current position.

Co: What is your responsibility/role in your position?
Me: Conveyed him briefly my responsibilities & role. Also conveyed him to see the attached H1B speciality occupation letter (This letter was addressed to the US Consulate by my company in company letter head. It states my current position & their requirement, my skill set and how my education & skill set matches my employer requirement. It's the same set of document which was initially provided to USCIS for getting my H1B extension).

Co: Provide me employment letter?
Me: Provided him my current employment verification letter & my initial offer letter.
CO: Observed both of them and returned my initial offer letter and retained the current employment verification letter.

Co: Provide me paystubs of your current employment?
Me: Provided him 8 paystubs for the last 4 months.
CO: Went through them for a while and returned all of them back to me.

Co: How long do you intent to stay in USA?
Me: I gave dates as in my approved petion.

Co: Can I retain your employment verif. letter, I-797, I-129, LCA and H1B speciality occupation letter.
Me: I said yes, I don't mind him retaining the original emp. verification letter. But I clairified with him, whether I would get back my I-797, I129, LCA and H1B speciality occupation letter as they are original.
CO: Why not, I think we should take copies of them and return back the original letter.
Me: I said, I am fine with him retaining the original emp. verification letter.
CO: Ok, that should be fine.

Co: I am authorising you & your wife for new H1B/H4 visa stamping. Your new visa (h1b/h4) will be issued upto a XX-xx-xxxx date, as in your approved petition.
Me: Thank you sir. ( He never questioned my wife as she was carrying kid. He requested her to give finger prints alone).

Co: You don't need to pay Visa Issuance fee of 50 USD as it was removed recently for Indian citizens.
Me: Thank you sir, I too heard about it Sir.

Co: We by mistake collected this fee for few more days after it got removed & then we got notified not to collect this fee later.
Me: Is it so (With smile).

Co: Ok, sir. I am going to cancel the existing H1B Visa as I need to issue you a new H1B visa. Is that fine with you.
Me: I said, thank you sir. Its fine. ( I had never seen any US Consular officer, who was so polite like him, to ask this kind of question - Not sure, whether i would meet one in future.)

Co: Are you complete vegetarian?
Me: Yes, sir. We are.

Co: There is a pure-vegetarian restaurant 4 blocks away run by a ISCON-Devotee. Do visit them, you will enjoy it.
Me: Thank you sir for providing this information. Very nice of you.

Co: Come back to collect passport @ 3pm.
Me: Yes, thank you sir.
Wife: Thank you very much sir. ( my wife all along was staying next to me with my kid in her hand, watching him asking all these queries)

The whole interview with the officer took arnd 15 minutes. I saw few indians (say 5 of them). I also saw them while collecting the Passport, so I am sure they got their visa issued too without any problem.

Went out of US Consulate building and indentified the Veggie restaurant (Cintamani) - 4 blocks away. Was really surprised to see a Veggie restaurant @ tijuana run by an ISCON devotee. Paid 5 USD for one lunch. He too returned the balance amount in USD. Went back to US Consulate and waited outside in street and they started distributing passport sharp @ 3pm. Within 5 minutes, they called my name & that of my wife and handed over our
passports along with an envelope containing my H1B petition. The envelope carried a stamp - "To US border post at Tijuana". I enquired with them about my other originals (I-129, LCA etc). She said, did the officer knew they were originals. I said yes, he said it would be returned after taking a copy. She made me to wait for couple of minutes, took back my passport. She returned within few minutes along with my passport & other originals. She returned me back all originals including my emp. verification letter.

Earlier I kept few of my baggages in the adajacent building to US Consulate (Stroller,2 big bags - kept my cell phone, watch & other electronics). Picked all of these after getting my passport back from US Consulate. The people who were there, readily helped me to take all these items back and never asked any money for taking care of them. I wasn't sure, whether I need to give money on my own. By that time the person who initially helped me, said thank you no problem. Please go ahead and have a nice time in english. I
thanked them too for this kind gesture.

Took another yellow cab back to US border (paid 10USD). Found out one white cab, I enquired with him in english, he replied back in length), didn't understand what he meant. I think he might be waiting to pick up some one else. So took a yellow cab driver, who spoke english well.

Before returing to US border, entered a brown colour building (small one), which issues new I-94. The US officer, who was issuing I-94 was very slow. Few people in front of me. Took about 45 minutes before he attented us. He issued a new I-94 for both of us and asked us to pay 12$ at another counter for issuing new I-94 (6$ each for new I-94). Paid and got the amount stamped in back of the new I-94). Then cleared US custom line, which was very long and fast moving. Within 10 minutes got cleared thru US customs and back to US border.

Note:
The rule is very clear - For Indian nationals, there is no border trade zone agreement with Mexican govt, so any Indian national DO NEED a VALID MEXICO VISA to Tijuana, Mexico. The other aspect, whether anyone checks you for a mexican visa at border, is a different angle of thought. If caught, due to some reason (say an accident or getting a 221g in US Consulate in Mexico and they identify that you do not have a valid mexican visa - You could be deported to India and the company who is sponsoring you for your US Visa (say h1B) could be black listed too. These are not my opinions or views - these were the exact words stated by a Mexican officer in Mexico
consulate. I do not want to take any chance, so wanted to do it legally and correctly. So beware of wrong suggestions & opinions floating around.

If you have any further questions, do not hesitate to ask questions.

Thanks for all those who posted their stamping experience at Tijuana, without that, i wouldn't have even thought of visiting Mexico. It was really very helpful.

If caught, due to some reason (say an accident or getting a 221g in US Consulate in Mexico and they identify that you do not have a valid mexican visa - You could be deported to India and the company who is sponsoring you for your US Visa (say h1B) could be black listed too.