Immigrant Visas

Frequently Asked Questions - Immigrant Visa Unit

How do I request consular processing of a pending Employment-Based case?

On a case-by case basis, the U.S. Consulate General in Mumbai is accepting Employment-Based Immigrant Visa cases for processing when all the following conditions are met:

1. INS has already approved an E1 or E2 category Immigrant Visa petition and the applicant has an original Form I-797 (Approval Notice) of the I-140 and I-824 fee receipt,
2. the applicant is a resident of the Mumbai or Kolkata consular districts,
3. the priority date of the case is current or could reasonably be expected to be current within 60 days (we will not warehouse non-current cases),
4. waiting for the INS to process the change-of-status application would cause the applicant hardship,
5. the applicant has attorney-certified copies of all pages that made up the original immigrant visa petition,
6. there does not appear to be any indication that the case is fraudulent,
7. and our workload permits us to take the case.

If you believe that your case meets these conditions, have your attorney send it to the Immigrant Visa Unit, U.S. Consulate General, 78 Bhulabhai Desai Road, Mumbai 400 026, India with:

• The original I-797 Notice of Approval Form and I-824 fee receipt, complete forms DS- 230 (Part 1), and an email address where we can contact the attorney with confirmation that we have accepted the case.

DO NOT send any submissions to any officer or employee by name.  Doing so mixes business with personal mail and results in lost paperwork when officers transfer.

We are accepting E3 cases that meet the above conditions on a more limited basis, where it is clear that the applicant is highly skilled.  We would accord precedence to applicants who have already received H1-b visas in the same profession or for the same employer.

NOTE: This procedure only applies in change-of-status cases.  If USCIS has approved an Employment-Based petition and you had asked from the beginning to apply for the visa in Mumbai, then we must wait for the case to arrive from the National Visa Center.