Despite all these hallas and fear and "one ear, two ear, and filed" ( ak kan, duie kan, maidan) talks, i decided to go and do my h1-b stamping. I went at the end of jan month, and the day after i landed @ ktm on monday, i went to get my interview date. they gave me option of friday or tuesday. I took tuesday 8:30 am interview date. On tuesday @ around 10:00 am i went to the window for interview. It lasted for 3-4 minutes, and then she told me to come on thursday to collect my visa (wednesday was holiday becaoz of their internal functions). then on thursady when I went to collect my visa, everyone got it except me. the lady @ window told me that there was some printing error issue and she told me to call after two hours or come tomorrow. then after 2 hours i called, and the lady on the other side told me to come tomorrow, and even suggested me to call before coming. Friday @ 9 am embassy called my house saying visa was ready and i can come to pick up @ 11, which i did.

Then after that i went to labour department @ banaeshwor to get my no objection letter. I spend 5000 Rps, and in 2-3 hours everything was ready. I gave a money to a guy over there and spend my 2-3 hours eating chattapatay ( there was a nice place where u get best chappapatay).

I spend three weeks in NEPAL

@Port of entry. the immigration asked me what is ur purpose of visit, and i siad I work here. WHats ur position, and what compnay. The whole thing lasted for about mins or so.

One Suggestion i would give to the ones that are going for H1B stamping:

- Get a Letter from your Employer especifically mentioning that you work 8 hrs a day and not more than that, and that you work 5 days a week and not more than that. you need to show this at the airport when you come back. Those guys at Baneshwor will make you a fake one, and you know its you and not them who will get into trouble if get caught.

- Get a medical certificate letter before you go to labor Department.

If you do this, you will save money. In my case since i didn't know i ended up paying the same amount as STUPIDA. 

I don't understand why one has to have the "no objection letter" from Labor Dept in Nepal. I never had to have one under H1B while travelling.  If you had had your H1B petition file in US while you are in US, I don't see the logic why you need to have the "no objection letter" while trying to have the H1B visa stamped.

I think its some kinda tag that government could make to know how many nepali workers are leaving country. In my case they (Airport) required a stamp from DOL and not letter itself. And as always it becomes "Hungama" when one has to go to Nepali Government Office, fill forms and stuff. Drama in the making....ha ha

My argument is why spend money on things that you really don't need. 

STUPIDA,

 

Thanks for sharing your experience...one question for you R u working as a Full time or  Through Indian consultancy..Crp to Crp...these are two different secenario..just want to know..coz in contract job  i hear there is some problem..

Chiya_tea. I work through consultancy. I know where you coming from, and all those fear. When you have a H1, you are a fulltime employee for your compnay, its just that you work at client sites. I recetly took the new memoredum published by USCIS on Jan 08 2010 to read on the planes. It is almost 24 pages. and nowhere I found that all the talks and gossips that ppl were talking in sajha and other places. The rules were there before too and all the definations were vague or understood. But now they have strictly defined this rules and to the point, specially Employee-Employer realtionship, particulary focusing on third party placement. SOme of the points were like to whom you report, who tracks down ur progress, what is the method of communiocations, and how often and many more.

POnn-Hill is right. But u know what all the hassesl is not worth it when you are there in Nepal for thress weeks. I just don't want to spend a week for a day work. SO I paid, and I think its simply worth the time and ease. But the irony was, the guy @ the nepal immgiration during departure didn't even bother to look at the stamp given by DOL. Ponhill made a excellent point , make sure that at your contrcat or letter from EMployer, somewhere it is stated that you work so and so hours in a day and the monthy or auunaly salary. Mero contrcat ma how many hours a weeks state garya thiyana, so the guy said u have to print a new contract ( don't worry they print the contrcat rt there, and i mean all kinds of contract). Luckly i had a print out of hours reported to my client, which I submitted there.

I took my own health-certificate, but the guy said they usually refuse to accept that. SO they printed out. Usually the cost would be around Rs 2300, But I just simply gave the guy Rs 5100. and in 2-3 hours I was good to go.

THough I got visa in no time, My interview was very detail, and she asked me a lot of questions.

Thanks STUPIDA,

Yea one of my fren from consultancy  got stamping so  all are rumor...thanks again..all the  best

I think NOL may be Nepal govt rule (to at least theoretically control brain drain or to control the unscrupulous workers who chose to work abroad while coming here in govt paid training/education program) . NOL could also be govt to govt agreement which was in paper long ago ( no country can theoretically employ a citizen of another country unless the country of origin agrees to it). Of course,  no one cares about it anymore. But it is a good idea to let Nepal know that you work abroad by using these NOLs. It at least helps others(researchers, policy makers) to get the data.

To Stupida,

Congrats bro. Is there any layer (vendor/recruiting company) between your Employer and Client you worked for. Did Port of Entry staff ask you whether you are working as a contractor at your work place?

 

To Chiya_Tea,

Did you friend have any layer between his employer and client?

Please let me know.

Thanks guys

STUPIDA,

Congratulations on getting the visa. I read your post, and although I heard that its difficult to get a visa from Nepal at the moment, it seems like lots of people are getting it now. I am specifically concerned about what kind of questions they ask. I work as a full time employee in a legit company, but my salary is 40k, and I work as a Web Developer. I am mostly concerned about the job category, and the salary range. Were you close to this or were you on a high end?

Also, could you mention some questions they ask - the detail questions that you were talking about. Hopefully, I can make out from there how my chances are.

Thank you in advance and congratulations once again!

@pack,

I don't understnd why u need a lawyer between my Employer and my client. There is no need abslutely. Yes I do have a bigger recurting compnay inbetwwen my emplyer and my clinet. Just one layer. My company is small and to get a direct clent its hard. I know a frd who works for my compnay who has a 4 layer, meaning there are 4 other small recurting compnaies in the pay-chain.

"Did Port of Entry staff ask you whether you are working as a contractor at your work place?"

I am not sure what u trying to ask here. All he asked was four questiions.

1.Whats the purpose of ur travel? or why you are visting here ( i don't remeber his exact words) - I said I am work here.

2. Whats ur compnay name - so and so

3. whats ur postion? - System Analyst ( though i work as SQL developer, My H1-B was filed at that time as System developer/Analyst

4. WHats ur address? so on so.

There is no such rule that u cannot work as a contarctor from other compnay. As a matter of fact many compnay now a dys choice is consultancies and contractor to reduce cost.

The new memrodum from USCIS on Jan 8 2010, defines clearly all these new rules when u work @ third party as a contrctor.

@objactives,

Lets make few thinsg clear here. I met 5 different ppl with H1-B stmping who said they got easily visa. few of them were like mine, went through these consulatncies, while other were direct placement.

 "I work as a full time employee"- I am full time employee too for my compnay, its just that I work @ client sites through my compnay . ........." in a legit company"- all company are legitimate, otherwise u won't get ur H1 approval in the first place. Its that some of these small consulat compnaies used to do  some mal-practise because of lack of definite rules and regulations from USCIS. Things are differnt now a dys since rules are defined strctly and with all the points.

, "but my salary is 40k" - I am assuming that u have H1-b approval. SInce u have ur H1 approval u have met the basic salary need for that position. otherwise u won't have ur approval. There is strict rules for salary range while filing H1. Unless ur compnay lied about ur salary during ur filing u should be good., and "I work as a Web Developer"-- Ur position and daily work activties should match ur title during ur H1-b filing.. "I am mostly concerned about the job category" - u should be fine on these., "and the salary range"- I make 65K. Were you close to this or were you on a high end?
SOme of the questions I remeber not in a partcular order ( though there were more).

1.Where did u graduate from>?

2.In what filed?

3. how many ppl work for ur compnay.

4. whats ur salary?

5.Whats ur position?

6.WHat you do at the present clinet?

7.Whom you report at your compnay.

8.How many hours a week do u work?

9, Do u do overtime>?

10How ofetn do u take vacations?

11. When was the last time u took ur vacations?.

12.How did u hear about ur compnay?

13. How big is the compnay.

14.How many interview did u have, and what kind?

15. There was a specif question regarding my H1-b ( since it took a year to get my approval)

16. There was another specfic question regarding my Pay-stuff. We have inhouse Pay-roll so our pay-stuff looks like a print out. (I was able to clarify why they lokk like that)

 

Hi Stupida,

The reason why i asked if you had layer between your employer and client is the new memo from USCIS on jan 8, 10 and i belong in that category. The memo says that you have to have "employer to employer relation" which if i understood correctly means that your employer should be in direct contact with your client (your employer to issue PO to your client) and get paid for the service provided not that your employer gets paid by a subcontractor/s (middle layers). This concerns me!!!

Probably you got lucky at the port of entry that they didn't ask you if you are a third party contractor to your client and you didn't let them know that at all. My Indian colleague's friend was deported after the Port of Entry official found out that he was working as a third party contractor. I heard two other similar cases.

I personally think that you shouldn't let them know if you working as a 3rd party contractor to your client even if they ask. Why take the risk when many are being deported?