It can be a stressful wait for US non-immigrants who travel back to their home country and choose to get their visa stamped. I empathize with the experience as I have gone through the process twice in the last 2 years. The first time I went through it was more nerve racking simply because I went through it for the first time and the time to hear back from the US consulate in Chennai was longer than what most people in my boat experienced.

Why dropbox?

The idea behind the dropbox system is to allow H1B non-immigrants who frequently extend their visas to have a faster turn around time for visa stamping which can be quite critical for some individuals and small companies. It allows you to by pass the interview process all together which can a slightly more involved and strenuous process in itself.

Clarifications

First I want to clarify a few things that people falsely assume when applying for dropbox based stamping

  1. You DON’T need get your visa re-stamped if your current visa is valid when you enter the states even if you are with a different employer than the one stamped. All you need is the approved I-797 with new employer along with a valid H1B stamp
  2. Its always a good idea to carry the original I-797 approval notice when you travel internationally. I once had a conversation with a CBP officer who gave me this tip when I showed him a copy.
  3. Dropbox DOEST NOT need an appointment. You can go to the chosen location at any day (within 3 months after you receive the dropbox waiver confirmation)
  4. You can do the dropbox in a country other than your home country. The only risk is that if things take time or there is delay you risk being stuck in a foreign country without a valid passport and may also be subject to the visa restrictions for that country. For some folks this risk is acceptable and I have rarely come across folks actually experiencing unreasonable delays.
  5. Please check your complete eligibility for the dropbox

Preparation

So you have an upcoming trip to your home country or have an international trip after you H1B stamp expired. Based on your individual preference you can chose to do it in your home country (as part of your trip) or in a different country. Regardless of which location you choose the documents you need to submit are the same and the only impact it might have is on the overall processing time. In a country like India where there are a lot of H1B holders this process may be in the order of weeks but in other countries like Mexico or Canada it might be in the order of days. Here are the list of things you need

DS-160

This is probably the most time consuming part of the process. The form can be located in the ceac website where you can start a new application and save for later. Remember to save the application number and answer to a secret question and you will need them to resume filling out this long and druelling form that requires you to fill in everything from your college period and every international travel in the last 5 years. I recommend you save half a day for this exercise. After you complete the form you will receive a confirmation page with a bar code and summary page. Be sure to download it in a PDF format

Dropbox interview waiver confirmation

You can then head to the cgifederal website that requires you to register and create an account. After you login, head to “New appointment / Scheduled appointment” eventhough dropbox system doesn’t require an appointment. Please be patient as the website walks you through the process and finally declares that you don’t need an appointment and directs you to a payment page. The payment is the trickiest part of the process. It requires you to have a valid indian bank account. If you don’t have one time to call your friend / relative who does and ask them to help out. This procedure is exactly same as the demo / instructions in this youtube video. The step that is not covered in the video is how to log into the bank website like ICICI / HDFC and add beneficiary with the IFSC code as indicated in the payment page. The TIER code you get is unique to you and once you make the payment the code will be actived and an email should be sent to you. I noticed that in my recent dropbox experience that the email was never sent to me and when I logged back into the cgifederal website and continued all the way to the “receipt number” page it simply showed a popup that the code is activated and asked to use it. Bingo!

Copy of I-797

This one is straightforward. Your employer would have given you a two page document called “I-797A” that has the “Notice of action - Approved” text on it. Please take a physical copy of these two pages. Its ok if you take the first page of both sheets on a back to back single sheet.

Passport size photo

I get my passport photo from walgreens which is pretty quick (in 15 minutes) and they always know the required size of the photo (2x2 inches) and quality. Remember to not wear glasses. No smiling either. You only need one photo but they will give you a set of 2. Have the other one as backup.

Passport with all Visa stamps

Last and the most important document is your passport with all prior visa stamps. If you have more than one passport with prior H1B stamps please take them with you. In my recent experience with stamping they returned prior passports at the counter. But it is always good to carry them with you. If your H1B is still valid and you need a new one they will strike the old one with “Cancelled without prejudice” stamp. But that will be done as part of the visa printing process. So don’t worry about it for now.

Thats it! You are all set for your international travel. But don’t celebrate now. Stay calm and read on

Dropbox Process

After you land in the foreign country the first thing you should consider doing is head to the dropbox location you selected and submitting the documents (mentioned above). The best days to submit documents are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday as the days closer to weekends tend to get busy with lot more applicants. If you are lucky you should be in and out in 10 minutes tops. The person at the counter will stamp your interview waiver form with the current date which you can use later use to get your passport back. Then begins the waiting period. If you have chosen to pickup the passport yourself (which I prefer as I don’t trust the mail courier service with something as important as my passport) you can check the status of your passport in one of the following ways

  1. Send an email to passportstatus@ustraveldocs.com with your passport number in subject and body. You will received an automatice response with your passport status. I have usually seen one of two responses : “Delivered to Post” or “Ready for Pickup”
  2. Check the ceac status page and plugin in your DS-160 application number to get status of the passport as popup. I have usually seen “Case Created” after you submit the documents, then “Administrative Processing” and finally “Issued” at which point you should check the passport status as indicated in 1) or 3)
  3. Check the cgifederal website . After you login you should see a lower right tile which says the status of your passport. Once your passport is ready it will say “Your passport is ready for pickup”
  4. Finally once your passport is ready ustraveldocs will send an email to you indicating that your passport is ready for pickup. So watch out for that with something like,
Your document(s) have been collected from the US Embassy/Consulate 

The passport number being returned is

After your passport is ready for pickup you can head to the same place you gave your passport and show an ID proof along with your passport number. I assume (not sure) that for non-home country pickup you can show something like US state ID or driver license. They will be able to pull up passport based on passport number and give it you.

The Stress

The scariest and the most anxious part of the dropbox process is the lack of information about duration of time. Depending on your personality and your duration of stay in foreign country it can cause a lot of stress having the potential to ruin your vacation especially with recent spike in long administrative processing times. Try not to let this ruin your quality time with family or vacation time. Only thing you can do is check the status of your passport and rush to get your passport. If you plan to travel to other parts of the country you can collect it when you are back to the location where you gave it. They are usually flexible in holding the passport for a short period of time (although I am not sure what the maximum limit is)

Hope the information and tips above helps with your smooth dropbox stamping process. You can reach me at the contact information below if you have any question