DEE_UK

Hello All,

Hope someone can help relive some on my stress! I fly to the UK this Wednesday from SFO... I'm on a H1B... And I cannot for the life of me find my passport!

I have a copy of my passport, have the address of the British Embassy in San Francisco - just in case during the next few hours I cannot find my passport!

I wanted to know whether anyone else had gone through something like this? Once they had their new passport issued, what did they need to do to get their Visa stamp? How long did the process take? Did you have to go back to the US Embassy in London (I'd think so!)

Thank you all. I really hope I'm able to make a another post saying that I found my passport!

Dee

lj2

I needed to re-apply for my visa after I washed my passport and got a new one.

Trip to the US embassy in London ...

DEE_UK

Thank you lj2. The British Consulate in San Francisco were great! I'm in the UK now, waiting for my new passport to be mailed to me. I can then make an appointment with the US Embassy. What did you take wiith you to your appointment? I have copies of all the paperwork which was used for my previous filing.

Dee

nettlebed

I had my UK passport with my H-1B stolen when I was in Lisbon in 2002. I managed to get a new passport from the Embassy there, and flew back to the UK. I had my company fax the paperwork I had used for the original H-1B filing to me, which was sufficient for the US Embassy in London to issue me with a new visa in about 20 minutes. They already had access to all the information that I needed anyway, and the only thing of importance was my affidavit that my passport with the H-1B had been stolen.

I was lucky enough to be with my USC wife who went into the Citizenship Services section at about 4.20pm on the Monday, and arranged an appointment for me at 9.00am the next day!

In other words, since you have your paperwork and can prove who you are, I doubt you'll have problems.

lj2

In addition to the appointment letter and MRV receipt, I needed to have new forms DS 156 and 157 all signed again by my Company. I wasn't allowed to just use the old info - I took it to the interview and they never even looked at it. I also needed new photos as my old ones were over 6 months old. I'm L1A though so unsure of the differences...

The interview was a single question though, so much more of a breeze than previously!

PS - I applied for a new I94 before I left the US (costed 300+) completely unnecessarily. Don't do the same!

lj2

Oh, and you may wish to make the appointment now with your old passport number, then call to update the passport number at a later date. Might save you waiting for an appointment and this is what I did with no problems at all.

Just make sure you call to update passport number in advance.

DEE_UK

Thank you! Were the Embassy able to give your passport back in 20 minutes? If this is so, then its great! I hope things have not changed since 2002!

DEE_UK

Oooh - I didn't even know this could be done. Great piece of advice. Thank you!

nettlebed

Yes. I went in with my passport at 9.00am and had it back with the visa in it by 09.20am.

DEE_UK

I received my old UK passport back on Monday, so made an appointment with the US Embassy for Wednesday (the same week!) My new UK passport arrived on Tuesday!

The Embassy were unable to process the Visa while I waited on Wednesday, plus they said they had issues with their machine. I received my passport back on Thursday!

And now, I'm back in the USA. Big thank you to lj2 and nettlebed for their responses!

nettlebed

Welcome back! It's amazong how quickly these people CAN move when they want to