Start and expiration dates on visa appt. website

Hello All,

I am filling out my personal information on the new visa appointment scheduling website and in one section (PETITIONER) it asks for Name, Start date, receipt number and expiration date. My H1B petition has been approved on the USCIS website but I am still waiting for the actual approval notice that was sent last week to my lawyer’s address. My lawyer mentioned that they filed my petition with a start date of 1st October 2012. Now my petition got approved on 15th October, 2012. At this point, I am not 100% sure about what will be the start and expiration dates on the approval notice.

Should I wait for the approval notice to arrive in order to fill these entries with more confidence or can I fill 1st October 2012 as the start date and 30th September 2015 as the expiration date at this point and change it later if necessary.

My concern is that the new system is not allowing me to see any interview dates or even visa fee payment page without filling out the above mentioned entries. Is it possible to skip these entries and get to the visa payment page and/or available visa interview dates?

Any help/suggestions would be most approciated.

Thank You,

Punit

Dear Punit,

Be patient. You must not fill up any date without actually seeing the petition. Petition expiry date is never exact 3 yrs. It will be earlier than 30 sept 2015.

Do not worry too much about interview dates.

They do not open too much in advance.

e.g. today for those who have filled the forms and paid the fees etc and are ready to take appointment ,Appointments at Mumbai post have opened only upto 8 nov.

Do not think that you can get appointment immedietely for whatever date you want after you complete the formality.

You have to be patient and keep monitoring the dates.

Many entrust the work to professionsl travel agent like me.

However you are free to do the things yourself but you have to have lot of patience

Deepak Deshpande , Nagpur

sudeep.travels@yahoo.com

phone 91-712-2420855