kristinhogarth

Looking for a little advice here if anyone can help.

I am currently working on a H1-b visa, however....The H1-b in my passport is from My old Employer. I filed for transfer back in December 2004 And it was approved. Since I have never left the US I have have had no need to do anything about it. The problem That I now see happeneing, is that I have booked flights to go to England (Flying Christmas day, returning January 7th) and I really cannot take any more time away from work than that. According to my lawyer, I MUST go to the embassy in London to have my passport updated. If i remember rightly the first time I had my visa put in my passport, i had to wait for them to mail it to me which took around a week. With it being christmas and new years, I worried that I won't get my passport back in time to catch my returning flight.

Has anyone else been in this situation? Is there anyway at all I can do this whilst in America, to save me all of this hasstle when I go home?

Any information would be very much Appreciated!

Thanks

Jerseygirl

US Embassy in Canada or Mexico. Have you tried the US Visas forum on BE?

dbj1000

We were back in the UK for two weeks in May. We had our relatives in the UK book us an appointment at the Embassy on the first day we were there (you can only call the booking line from the UK). We waited around 5 hours in total at the Embassy (1hr outside, 4hrs inside), answered questions for 45 seconds and then paid the expedited courier fee to have the passport returned in three days. There was an even quicker option for people who could prove that they needed the passport back within 24 hours, I believe, since the guy in the queue in front of us was paying around 50 quid for the service.

Our passport turned up after two days. It has to be delivered either to you in person, or to someone holding a piece of ID of yours. In our case my father, armed with a credit card in my name was all that was required to take receipt of the passports.

If you can pre-book your appointment for the 27th (if they're open) you should have your passport back well before you leave on the 7th.

You really don't have any choice though, and your employer needs to understand that. If you don't get the new stamp in the UK then they need to give you time off to go and get it in Canada or Mexico (preferrably Canada!) before your UK trip.

AdobePinon

When I was in your situation, I got mine in Vancouver. Check up on the current rules - they change them once in a while. General idea is i) make infopass appointment on the web, ii) go to embassy for interview and visa. When I did mine (Dec 2001) it took one morning.

I did it that way for two reasons: i) the US Embassy in London has never heard of the phrase 'customer service', and ii) I've twice had visas delayed because of 'threats' to the embassy in question.