Discussion:
From Murali
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I had a successfull interview in the Mumbai consulate.
As every body else mentioned it was a breeze. Let
me describe the details.
Hotel:
We stayed in Royal Castle in August kranti marg. It was
Rs1500 room. I will recommend this room to anybody
who has a kid. Reason being it is much more spacious
than any other room in the hotel and gives lot
of space for the kids to move around. There are three
other types for 1200/900/600. The 1200 is little smaller
and the the 900/600 are unlivable. They are very small
compared to what we got used to in US. The hotel staff
is very curteous. TIPS of 10/20 Rs in a day keeps them
pretty happy. There are two staff who are almost there
all the time Pandey-ji and Bablu. Both of them are very
helpful and soft spoken. Day time usually Mr Tiwari
is there along with the owner Mr Deepak. Deepak has
visited US and talks well and guides you. Mr Tiwari
has a smile on his face all the time.
Donot expect (like me & my wife) that the hotel will be
in a nice place and will have porch etc. This hotel
is on busy street (40feet wide) and has lots and
lots of traffic with jams now and then. This hotel is
on the first floor. Inside the hotel it is clean
but the streets are dirtier than I thought. By the
way any other hotel and streets other than a 3/4/5
star hotels are similar.
There are two restaurents. Hotel Shiv sagar towards
Kemps Corner(2 minutes) is decent and lot of
crowd at night. Another
one east down hill towards the grant road station
is Hotel Krishna on the circle. Both of them
are Pure veg managed by Karnataka Udupi guys.
Their sambhar and chutney with idly vada is
very delicious.
It is advisable to take taxi if you are travelling
to VT/Churchgate (bus nu 122). It will cost you
between 30-40 bucks. If you are travellig north
then train is faster and better. Do not travel
in train between 8-10 am towards vt/church gate
and 5-7.30 pm towards borivali/andheri/kalyan
as these are peak hours for commuters.
Medicals:
I did my medicals in Hinduja. I think people
coming for CP are unnecessarily worried and
come to India 4-5 days in advance(like I did)
I think it is not needed. If you are doing
medicals in Hinduja then you need only one
day. It takes 2.30 hrs in the morning and
2 hrs in the afternoon(worst case). You have
to be there at 7.00 am and fill out the
registeration form (new patient). You have
to pay 1400 for adults and 800 for kids. Then
go to the first floor and wait for your
name to be called. The reception will
guide you to the wing you need to go to.
They will very carefully fill out
the paperwork (they do not want to screw
up the docs, so be patient). The nurse
will then draw some blood. The attender
will take you to the next building for
chest X-ray. Here also you might have to
wait. After the X-ray you are all set
to go. They will tell you the time to
return for physical, usually it will
be after 1.30pm. Come back and sit
comfortably till your name is called. Doctor
will do a formal physical which will
take 10 minutes and then you are all set
to collect the reports. IT IS ALL DONE
BY 4.30 PM same day. I will advise every
body to go to Hinduja, so save the precious
VACATION time.
By the way one has to report to the OPD
which is on the east side of the road. I
think the west side is for in patient. This
check up is "executive health check" and I
did not see any 'executive'ness in this.
it took Rs70 and 1/2 hr from Royal castle.
Hotel Shobha (take a left at east building
gate and left again near the petrol bunk, walk
10 minutes) is also a nice place in Mahim
for breakfast and lunch on the day of your
medical. Again this is veg and Udupi guy's.
Interview:
We reached there at 8.00 am. PLEASE DONOT
goto RAJ Pavalion. Go straight to gate
15 minutes before the interview and
inform them your interview time and
MENTION that you are there for IMMIGRANT VISA.
The day I went there were 600-700 NIV
guy's and it was a crazy rush. People
from Raj pavalion were flowing in till
1.30pm.
You have to pay the apps fee $260 per
application. I talked to cashier and he
told me that we can get $$ DD from US
PAYABLE in US (NOT India). This is for
people who do not have time in India
before the IV interview. Getting DD
is not difficult. The forign banks
charge a lot, try to get from National
banks, there are plenty of them nearby.
There were three people collecting the documents
One young guy(very smart and polite) and two
ladies one old and one young (pretty). The young
guy called me and took my packet 4. He returned
230-II and 9003 prepared by attorney. They need the
one they sent us. We hand filled it before
we left US. He DID NOT look at any of my
originals. Out of curiousity I asked him and
he said " what we need is I-797 and the papers
your lawyer sent. They are complete and by
looking at you I can make out every thing is
OK". That was a surprise to my wife as we
had spent quite some time checking and
cross checking whether we have all the documents
in place. He takes the $260 cash receipt. To give
an example how simple EB cases are, it was taking
20-30 minutes for family based cases and it took
me 5 minutes to submit my documents. I do not
know whether every body's experience is same
as mine. I was the only EB case on 3rd July.
After 1/2 hr my name was called. A young
white guy was there are the counter with
smiling young Indian lady. He asked us
to raise our right hand and then we took
the oath. He asked whether my second son
is American, to which I said yes. He
asked me
1. Which company do I work for
2. What do I do there (I wonder whether he
understood what I said I do). I guess
it is just a formality.
Then he said "OK", the lady started filling
the blue slip. He asked to pay the money
turned and walked away. THAT's IT. I was
through.
It took me 2 hrs to pay the fees due to
the heavy NIV rush that day.
I came back at 4.30 to collect the IV
and the security said I was late. I was
supposed be there at 3.00pm. He gave me
a shock when he said IV officers are gone.
Then he went inside and came back and took
me inside. The same documents guy was there
and gave me the IV's.
I have tried to explain as much as possible.
If anyone of you have any questions please
feel free to ask me.
All the best to the guys/gals waiting for
IV interview. DO NOT get tensed. If your case
is clean then no problems at all.
Murali
Answer:
Good info.
thanx
Answer:
What is your cat. EB1, EB2 or EB3
Answer:
Congratulations here on your GC approval.
I had some questions, when we go with our wife, how much importance is given to teh dependent (wife), or the impetus is on us, and our paper-work. Do you think/know that what all background check do they peform for us (ourselves and wife).
Thanks for the help.
RKS
Answer:
It is not my GC. It is someone else's GC approval.