TIPS to know

• Arrive at Tucson airport no later than 7:00 PM as the shuttle services close at 8:00 PM
• Check the forums (murthy.com forums) to find the current situation at the consulate.
• Prepare for the worst case and pack your clothes and scandals.
• Talk to your agent as soon as you can and know exactly what services you need from him rather than taking the whole package.
• Contact any friends through forums to see if you can plan together and save money.
• While going to the appointment, do not carry cellphones, electronics, chap sticks, extra belongings as they may not allow them into the consulate.
• Most cell phones work in the Lobby, but be cautious as most carriers charge $1 per minute. Some people paid hundreds of dollars without knowing this fact.
• 
  **Traveling to Canada, Mexico for less than thirty days.
  If you have an expired H1B visa stamp or if you have an expired U.S. nonimmigrant visa of any other type (e.g. B, F, J) and you have a valid I-94 card stating your current valid H1B status, your visa will be considered automatically revalidated when you re-enter the U.S. from Canada or Mexico as long as ALL of the following are true:
  you have only been in Canada or Mexico for less than 30 days
  you have with you a current I-94 card stating your valid H1B status
  you do not apply for a visa while in Canada or Mexico
  you are not from one of the countries currently considered by the U.S. to be state sponsors of terrorism (as of 11/11/02 this includes Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Sudan, North Korea and Cuba)
  For this automatic revalidation to apply to you, you must be careful to keep your I-94 card when leaving the U.S. to enter Canada or Mexico for a trip of less than 30 days. Present you I-94 card along with your valid passport, original Form I-797A (H1B Approval Notice for your current position) and a letter from your employer confirming current employment in the position described in the H-1B petition.

Recent cases @ Nogales

Most people were visiting Nogales just a week before their India trip and were struck here and have to cancel/postpone their trips. Some people were really in bad shape as they had their own marriages scheduled. Please plan accordingly and be ready for the worst case scenario in case you have no option to skip the appointment at Nogales. Hopefully things will get better soon.

Case 1:

One of the H1-B holder from a big sized company was asked to wait for the PIMS update and after the update has been done, the visa officer asked him to call his company owner. The company owner attempted to talk to the consular officers and conference with their attorney to answer all the questions and provide any documents they needed but they didn't agree for it. Finally, the owner/CEO of the company came to Nogales, Mexico and attended the interview with the consular officer and below are the questions he was asked:
How do you pay the consultant? Why did you send your employee to Nogales for stamping? Why don't you hire Mexicans in your company? How much do you pay your consultant? Checked the following documents - quarterly tax returns, company agreement with the vendor (if not direct client), company pictures and some other company related documents. They recommened not to send employees to Noglaes and to send them to Canada for stamping and finally gave the visa for the H1-B holder.

Case 2: Currently the PIMS is taking around 5 working days and a group of 5 people got their visas after 5 days.

Case 3: One guy was waiting for almost 12 days and finally called the DOS and raised a ticket and also called up the consulate to check the status. As it took even more than the expected 5 to 7 working days, they gave it to him on the same day, ie. 12th day.

Case 4: Couple of guys got their PIMS cleared in 2 business days, but they were put on hold for security clearance which is expected to take any where around 2 to 4 weeks.



Will keep updating the cases as we know. You can post your case here in the comments section and help others.

PIMS check

There is a new administrative process called PIMS (Petition Information Management System), which has been introduced recently and the consulate centers have started implementing it since Dec '07. This new process is causing a delay in issuing visas especially for H1 and L1 categories. Most of the times, they claim that this PIMS check will take around 5 working days (the American consulate in Mexico celebrates both American and Mexican holidays), but there are some cases where it took even more than that. The main objective of the PIMS is to verify the employer information and your identity in the company.

To avoid these delays, please send a scanned copy of your I797 to nogalesvisas@state.gov atleast two weeks prior to your appointment date so that the consular officer has enough time to update the PIMS and have it ready before your arrival. Even before this, you can call the respective consulate office and check if the PIMS data for your company is updated in their database.
The contact number for Nogales Consulate is 011 - 52 - (631)-313-4820 (Nogales, Mexico number) and DOS (Department Of State, US number) is (202)-663-1225
When you call them, press "1" and then press "0" for an operator.

Below is a sample email that you can send to the consulate with your H1-B scanned copies.

Dear Consulate Officer,

I am Abc (your name), working as a Programmer Analyst(Your designation as on your H1-B or LCA) on H1B with xxx(your company name). I scheduled an appointment at Nogales Consulate for getting my H1-B visa stamped on (appointment date) and my confirmation number is below:

xxx: NOG 00 00 00 00 00 000099999

I would like to know if my PIMS check is already cleared for my I-129 petitions. I am attaching scanned copy of approval of I-797 as pdf file to this mail.

Attachments: 1. xxx1 H1.pdf


Hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,
xxx

On the day of your appointment

• On the day of your appointment take a cab at the hotel and ask for American Consulate (Consulado Americano) which is around 10 minutes drive and you will be charged approximately $7 USD.
• Once you reach the consulate, you will be checked for the correctness and completeness of your documents while standing in the line outside.
• After your documents are checked, you will be allowed to enter inside where you will have a basic security check. They will not allow remote car keys, combs, cell phones, any electronics, flash drives, any food/drink, any sharp objects, chap sticks etc. There is a store nearby who can save them for you. You can just give them a $1 and a Muchas Gracias (Thank you very much).
• Next, you will be directed to a counter, where you will need to submit your I-797, DS-156, DS-157 and DS-158 forms, Banamex DD, passport and you will be given a token number.
• When you token number is displayed on the screen, it will also display the counter number you need to visit (just like in DMV).
• At the counter, your info will be entered into the database; finger printing and picture will be taken.
• Again, you will be asked to sit in front of the counters to be called by the consular officer.
  This time, the same token number will be used to call you for the interview by the consular officer.
• Once your token is displayed on the screen, you will have to visit the displayed counter for your visa interview.If you are issued a visa on the same day, you will need to pick your visa in the noon at around 3 PM else you need to check with them on when your visa will be given.

From TUCSON to Nogales, Mexico

• You need to fly to Tucson airport (TUS) which is the closest to Nogales, Mexico.
• If you rent a car, drive from Tucson to Nogales, Arizona until the border; park your car at the border for around $5 a day.
• Or you can also take a shuttle at the Tucson airport to reach Nogales Mexico border which will cost you approximately $10.00 USD. All the shuttle services close at 8:00 PM, so it’s better to be in Tucson airport by 7:30 PM or before. For any cab/shuttle services after 8:00 PM, they will charge you around $100 to $150 USD.
• At the border you will have signs to Mexico and walk into the round gates to enter Nogales, Mexico. (The US-Mexico border divides Nogales into two and the city in US comes under Arizona where as the other part in Mexico comes under Sonora, Mexico)
• Take a cab and go the nearby hotel, which is Fray Marcos De Niza. The cost for one night is approx. $54. Ask for a room with WI-FI access as only some rooms have that.