>
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 07:11:32 -0800
Nico and Paolo
I just had my H1-B renewed in January back in Bern at the embassy. There
were no problems at all and the only difference I noticed was that it took
an additional hour of waiting since we were required to go through the
interview with the consul. If you plan to have your H1-B renewed in Bern
make sure you get an appointment. Have a friend calling the embassy (the
number provided by the embassy only works within Switzerland) about 3
months before you will be there. That way you will be on the safe side and
you have a spot in the line. second, get all documentation, including
letter of support from your HR. If you are working through a lawyer have
her/him give you the whole package that was submitted to the BCIS. It will
contain all necessary documents and supporting material.
I heard stories about background checks, too. My attorney told me this
happens mostly to people that did not provide all the necessary
documentation or had inconsistencies in their papers, or are working in
sensitive area, like nuclear physics, research on pathogenic organisms and
infectious agents, etc.
Now if you do it from here, there is certainly the option of sending your
passport and approval notice and all to the State department. If I
remember correctly you have to send the package to St. Louis. I personally
would not like to do so, since you give away all your paperwork that
legalizes your stay here. If anything goes wrong you will have to go
through hell and back to get things back in order. My attorney was not
very positive about this option, either. Other options are to go to
Toronto or Tijuana for a day, which both have consulates dealing with a
lot of applicants for Visa. Or you just wait until your next visit to CH.
Since you have all the documents legalizing your stay and allowing you to
work here, there is no need to have the visa stamp (which is only required
for re-entering the country).
I would recommend the last option, and be prepared for the appointment and
meeting at the embassy.
With regard to the original of the I-797, I had this sent to me by my
lawyer (maybe you get it sent to you directly since you do not reside in
the US). Whoever did the application on behalf of you should receive an
original and not a copy. Make sure it was not sent to someone else at the
University. Some of my documents get sent to HR instead of to the person
dealing with immigration work or my lawyer. Only the gods of bureaucracy
know why.
Good luck.
Michael P Rudolf, PhD.
Scientist II, Cancer Therapeutics
Biogen IDEC, Inc.
3010 Science Park Road
San Diego, CA 92191-9080
Tel: 858-431-8481
Fax: 858-431-8715
e-mail: michael.rudolf_at_biogenidec.com
"Paolo Bosshard" <paolo.bosshard_at_epfl.ch>
Sent by: swiss-list-admin_at_swiss-list.com
02/24/2004 12:01 AM
Message Size: 4.4 KB
To: swiss-list_at_swiss-list.com
Subject: swiss-list: original approval notice (form I797) for H-1B VISA
Hi everybody,
I'm going through the last few steps of the H-1 VISA petition...
I already fixed an appointment at the US embassy in Bern but it seems that
problems are not finished yet.
They ask me for the original version of the I 797 form, which is the
approval notice from the US Immigration Office.
The problem is that my employer in the US, the university of Stanford,
only
got a copy of it, that has been forwarded to me.
Getting the original will possibly be a quite slow process, and my
contract
begins very soon (next week!).
Could anyone tell me if a copy of this form would be accepted despite what
they told me on the phone?
Or everybody had the original?
I sincerly would like to avoid spending again CHF80.- for a second phone
call to the embassy...
Thanks,
Paolo
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------
Dr. Paolo Bosshard
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
CRPP - Centre de Recherche en Physique des Plasmas
e-mail: paolo.bosshard_at_epfl.ch
phone: +41 (0)21 693 65 56
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Received on Tue Feb 24 2004 - 09:54:57 PST
