Are US Consulates in India taking appointments for new H1B visa stamping?
Hey, I got my H1B petition approved and will change from F1 to H1B status on Oct 1. I'm planning to visit India in December, but I'm not sure if the US Consulates there are open for H1B stamping. The website seems to have available appointments, but I read that some people's appointments have gotten rejected even though they qualify for the exceptions listed on the website. So I'm not sure about the best thing to do in this case. Is anybody in the same state as me and/or know anything in this regard? Any personal experiences will help. Thanks!
Safe option is to stay in the country and postpone your trip if you don’t have any emergencies. I am also on unstamped H1b since Oct 2019(CoS from F1). Had plans to visit India in Dec’19 but put it off for some reason and that proved to be very lucky. Since many friends of mine who went to India were forced to stay back and convert to Indian payroll due to the travel uncertainty from CoVID.
+1 It's not worth leaving right now unless you re absolutely sure you can come back on the same documentation
I am, Chennai and Delhi have emergency appointments only, Mumbai Consulate seems to be taking appointments on a case to case basis. I think you can comeback without stamping. So you would just have to go again when Pandemic ends!
Why do you think he can comeback without stamping? No visa at border is a no-no. No country lets other countries' citizen enter without a visa unless there exists such provision and I don't see any provision
My HR told me there is a provision due to COVID, that you can come back using your F1 Visa, I am not very sure though