Successful stamping at Nogales

[David]

Hi,

My wife had a successful stamping at Nogales on Nov 1st. new H4-> H1. Here are the details. Didn't take Mexican visa and did not take the Banamex receipt even though my appointment was at 8am.

- Reached Mexican border by car @ 7.50am. Parked car next to MacDonalds $3.00.

- Crossed the revolving gate into Mexico. No Mexican custom officials present at that time. I guess it was too early for them.

- Took taxi to Consulate which is about 15 mins away. Paid $8. Please note the taxi driver may the only person who would be able to speak a little English besides a couple of officials at the consulate. Nobody else speaks any English once you cross the border!!

- My wife stood in the queue while I went to the BanaMex bank to get the receipt. There was no use standing in the queue without the receipt as the lady who was checking all the forms asked my wife to get the receipt first.

- Reached the bank. The bank opened at 9am. It took 5 mins to get the receipt as I was the 3rd person in queue. Paid $110 for the receipt.

- Joined the queue back at 9.30am. The lady asked for all the forms. I didn't know I had to fill out DS158 also. Thought it was only for F1,J1 and not for H1B. But the lady said everybody needs to fill out a DS158. So, while we stood in line filling up the form, other people who had the forms already filled up were allowed to go ahead. My wife ended up being almost the last in queue. Entered the consulate around 10am. Me and my son were not allowed to enter the consulate. Please remember to take DS158 .

- Ate lunch at Peter Pan Pizza. This is quite a nice and cheaply priced restaurant. They accept credit cards. Then waited at the neaby Walmart for my wife. It was a long and boring wait.Finally my wife emerged at 2.15pm. Her token number was 120 . All the people waiting for visa were Mexican and I couldn't see anyone waiting for a H1 visa stamping. My wife was told to check if the visa is ready @ 3pm otherwise she would need to come back after 2 days to pick it up.

- At 3pm we lined up. The visa was ready.

- Questions asked by the Visa officer.
1. Show I-797 .
2. What work will you be doing for the company ?
3. How's your previous experience relevant to the position.
4. Show me the company papers which show what business they are in.

- Was asked to pay in cash for the reciprocity fees.

- Took taxi back to the border @3.30pm . $8. There was a long queue of people waiting to go to the US. But this line moves very fast as the border guard just checks the card which these Mexican people carry. I thinkit is like a work permit card. Was asked to get a new I-94 which took 10 mins as there were only 3 people in that queue. Total time to get the I-94 was less than 20 mins.