From: omair@plato.icsl.ucla.edu (Asim Omair)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan
Subject: H1-B Multiple entry visa
Keywords: asim@pak.sps.mot.com
Date: 4 Sep 92 19:33:56 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of California at Los Angeles, EE Dept.


                        Monterrey's (Mexico) Trip for H1-B

Last weekend, four of us went to Monterrey to get multiple entry H1-B visa and 
there was no problem. I thought that I should write our experience so that it  
would be useful for others.

       We rented a car on Sunday morning from Austin, and drove to Laredo (a  
little over 200 miles). It took us about 3 1/2 hours to get to Laredo (an 
important point for people who will be driving to Laredo, if you want to eat 
something on the way or have gas you would have to do that atleast 75 miles 
before reaching Laredo or in Laredo, because during that particular stretch 
there is nothing - not even rest areas). We reached Laredo around 2:00 p.m.
(Sunday) and then parked the car in the parking lot of a mall, which is
next to the International bridge and then walked across the bridge. Initially, 
we got confused about the bridge, since there is another bridge, but you cannot 
cross that on foot. If you are driving to Laredo then I-35 ends there and there 
is a sign saying that all tourists must turn right. You follow that sign and  
after a couple of blocks turn left towards the International bridge, and then 
turn right towards the mall. There is a huge parking (open) lot for the mall,
which will be on your left.

       Although we could have walked straight through without going through 
immigration, we thought that since we have proper visas, we should get our 
passports stamped. The immigration guys tried their best to find some fault 
with our visas so that they could get some money, and they did succeed, since 
two of us had the same visa number on our passports (it was the fault of the 
Mexican Consulate in Austin), and they knew that but we had to pay $20/-
although they had asked for $50/. I am quite sure that if we had tried to
bargain a little bit more we could have ended up paying even less,
but since there were four of us, we thought that it would be better to save 
time rather than bargain with those guys. By the way, $1/- is approximately
equal to Mexican $3,000/-.

       A little information about the Mexican visa. We went to the Mexican 
consulate in Austin, and they told us that since our F-1 visa has expired, we 
would need to get a business visa which would cost $89/- as compared to $25/-  
if the F-1 was still valid. In order to get the visa, we had to give them 2 
photos, a letter from the sheriff stating that we don't have any criminal 
records, a letter from the bank stating when the account was opened and average 
balance, a letter from the employer stating the purpose of our visit
(i.e. to get H-1B) and also we needed to show them a return ticket to Monterrey.

       Once inside Neuvo Laredo, we took a taxi to the bus station ($10/-) and 
from there we took a bus to Monterry ($10/- each). The bus ride took about 3 
hours and surprisingly it was quite nice and I was really impressed with the 
freeway (actually, I am surprised that nobody has tried to drive to Mexico, 
because I don't think that it would be such a bad idea, except that you need to 
know the directions and have insurance for the car in Mexico). Again we took a 
taxi from the bus station to Hotel Rio ($8/-). It's a nice hotel but a
little expensive ($60/-), but two of us had brought our sleeping bags and the 
four of us stayed in one room. The people at the hotel knew the reason for our 
trip (I believe a lot of Pakistanis and Indians go there) and they gave us 
directions to the US Consulate. Also, the bell-boy asked us if we wanted 
chappatis. The food at the hotel was quite cheap (the buffet was only $11/-)
and the restaurant is open 24 hours.

       We left the hotel around 4:00 a.m. and it took us about 15 minutes to 
reach the US Consulate. There were already quite a few people (about 50) 
present. We got confused, since an Indian guy told us that he was asked to put 
his name on the list, but when we asked the guard he told us to wait in line 
around the corner. What they do is that they put down the name of the first 30 
or 40 people and tell the rest to form a line around the corner and then around 
5:00 a.m. they call the names in order and form a line which starts
from the gate and reaches the beginning of the line which is around the corner. 
That Indian guy had reached the consulate around 2:30 a.m. and was 7th or 8th  
on the list. Actually, what one can do is go there early and put down his name 
on the list and go back to the hotel for a couple of hours and come back to the 
consulate before 5:00 a.m. They opened the door at 7:00 a.m. and we were asked 
to sit and wait for our turns. The office opened at 8:00 a.m. and everything 
went smoothly. When we reached the window, we were told to again
have a seat and wait for our turns. But one of us got lucky, and the guy 
who was at the window took his documents and told him to wait outside and they 
will call his name. The rest of us had to wait for about half an hour. They 
asked for my original H-1 and I showed them a letter from my employer. The guy 
at the window asked me a couple of questions, like what I studied in school and 
who I work for and what work do I do ? I guess that was just a formality. Then 
he told me to wait outside, the same thing happened to our Indian friends,
but they had to pay $100/- (cash or travellers check) for the visa, whereas we 
didn't. Until this point, everything had gone smoothly and it wasn't even 9:00 
a.m. Soon after, my friend got his passport but the rest of us had to wait for 
about 3 hours to get the passports back. We went back to the hotel and checked 
out (check out time is 1:00 p.m.) and came back the same way.

        On our way back, there was only one question on our minds and that was, 
will we find the car in the same condition we left it ? The car was safe and 
infact we had asked one of the security guards at the border and he told us to 
park there. It seems that a lot of people do that.

	I think that the following points are worth mentioning. First of all, 
there is one hour time difference between US Central time and the time in 
Monterrey and Neuvo Laredo, although they are in the same Longitude region (may 
be they don't change the clocks like the do in US and I guess the times would be
the same in winter). Also, one guy came to theconsulate at 9:30 a.m. and got his
H-1B at the sametime as us. Another point is that we took the Del Norte bus to 
and from Monterrey, as we were told that it's supposed to be better
than Greyhound and I was quite satisfied with it. Apart from four of us (2 
Pakistani's and 2 Indian's) we met one guy from India and one from Sri Lanka, 
plus a girl from Philippines and a couple from China (or some oriental country) 
and everybody got their H-1B visa.

        I hope that this info would be of some help and if you have any
questions, I would be glad to help you.
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