It all started with my H1B Petition getting approved within 1.5
weeks after it was filed with USCIS on Dec 2020. Ironically, it took more than
3 months for my employer to file it with USCIS. And in that time period, lot of
things happened – Trump lost the elections, a US court reversed the DOL’s rule
to hike the salary of H1B applicants (by close to 100%) – I wouldn’t have been
impacted by this anyway as my LCA was drawn much before the rule came into
force (abruptly), etc.
If I cover every single aspect of what happened between Jan
21 to Aug 21, it will be too big of an article to write or read. I will try
keep this short and crisp, but at the same time trying to convey the essence of
everything.
Onward Tickets:
1.
Decided to go on leave and applied for it. After
that, never bothered to check the nitty gritties of visa stamping process. All I
bothered was to get tickets for cheapest price! From Jan to Mar this is what I did.
2.
Booked the tickets in Lufthansa for cheapest
price. Was ecstatic. But realized the mistake later – travelling to India via
Germany is fine even with expired US visa. But travel back is problematic even
for the exempted category travelers, due to confusion prevailing at that time.
3.
Spent several days calling them and pleading to
cancel and issue full refund. Frustration reached peak levels. After a point, I
just let it go. Anyways I can travel to India… challenges of travelling back
can be dealt later.
4.
But thankfully, Lufthansa themselves cancelled
the flight from Bangalore due to pandemic. But neither they sent email nor there
was any call. Thanks to travel group in Telegram, I came to know about it and
immediately called up the airline and got the refund issued! Problem #1 solved
by itself.
5.
I didn’t book tickets again till first week of
June – due to so much uncertainty prevailing after April 30th travel
ban proclamation. Finally, after carefully analyzing the inputs from Telegram
groups, decided to go for the overly pricey AI. Problem#2.
6.
AI too cancelled the flight exactly a week
before! Worst part – even today I’ve not got the refund they promised.
Finally---------
7.
After what seemed an eternity lost in finding other
cheaper flight option, I managed to book on Etihad on June 6th, for
travel on June 11th! A record of sort I thought – for having managed
to get cheap tickets for international flight on the week of travel!
Visa stamping appointment:
1.
From Jan till march, except ticket booking and
other work, I never bothered to check about visa stamping appointment. I
assumed that we would have to go to Chennai anyways and I can do that later.
Every now and then I just checked the portal and saw that “first available appointment”
was in next week or so. Another mistake? Let’s see.
2.
A call with Mohit one day helped me to know that
due to pandemic, USCIS has extended the visa interview waiver option from 3
years to 4 years now.
3.
In order to take advantage of it, I need to book
appointment by end of June last week itself.
4.
Immediately I logged in and started looking for
appointments – I came to know that “first available appointment” info in the
home page was misleading info. No one knew what that was as one can never find
appointment around that date!!
5.
To my disappointment, there was no slot
available in Chennai within June end. None in Mumbai or Hyd too –locations closer
to me. Only 2 locations had it – Delhi and Kolkata! Went with Kolkata. Thought I
did another mistake booking the appointment so late, by believing the “first
available appointment” trap.
Finally----------
6.
There were no mistakes anywhere. Booking the
appointment late helped me to get benefit of extended interview waiver policy. And
booking in Kolkata was huge, huge benefit. Biggest of anything else. How? The
third wave of pandemic forced all 3 consulates to shut the operations till June
end. The only 2 that operated were – Kolkata and Delhi!! In that too, Delhi
started earlier to Kolkata by a week or so.
7. The time period from April 30th till Last week of May was very depressing. At one side the news of Pandemic wreaking havoc and on another side the news of consulates shutting down, issuing 221 g, cancelling scheduled appointments. Several times I decided to cancel the travel plan and each time I ended up cancelling not the travel plan, but the plan to cancel the plan😊
8. How can i forget this. On the day of my appointment at Kolkata, I left my Hotel room at 9.30AM itself for my 12.30 PM appointment, thinking that they will let me in early. But I was denied early entry and was told to come back 30Mins before my appointment time. For next 2 hrs, I roamed around the central Kolkata by walk, getting drenched completely in my own sweat due to the humidity! Thanks to Covid, no temple was allowing devotees. So my plan of visiting famous temples of Kolkata didn't happen.
9. 18th June was my apointment. While handing over the documents, the person told me that the photo was not meeting the requirements. It should have been in white or off-white background, whereas ours was in Gray background. Plus there was a smile on my wife's face in the photo. Person was kind enough to offer me 2-3 hrs to get new photos if I wish. It was not so hard for me to make decision - there was covid lockdown at both Kolkata and Mysore. So neither can my wife take her photo and send me the softcopy nor I can take photo of myself in this unknown city during lockdown. So I said i'm ready to take risk.
10. Next week Thursday I recieved call from Kolkata. I was surprised. I picked the call and the person told me that he is from Kolkata VFS and he called to inform me that my DS 160 was not loading due to some technical issue. My wife's loaded fine. He was too kind. He requested me to fill a new DS 160 and share it next day. He apologised for it!!
11. Now comes the interesting part. While filling up the new DS 160 I was referring to my old DS 160 and noticed that in the old form I had mentioned my highest qualification as "High School"!! Had the form loaded fine, I would have been rejected the visa easily!! I got shiver down spine.
India
1.
Well, what to say. Everything that we planned,
we accomplished. But just that the order in which it was accomplished was laid
down by God. We just went in the direction he took us. What is there to fear
when he himself is holding our hands all the time.
2.
Initial 2 weeks – Lockdown ensured that we couldn’t
go anywhere out of city. So, all the local work was done – Bank, post office,
Locker work (which saw my mom falling down and getting her pelvic fractured),
Rekha’s Aadhar updates, House cleaning and setup, Satyanarayana puja etc.
3.
Travel started from 3rd week onwards.
Took blessings of ever smiling and divine – Sri Raghavendra swami at Mantralaya.
So, it was God’s intent to start our pilgrimage with blessings of Guru.
4.
Then the God gave us his Darshan at the abode of
Venkatachala hills. Walk-in Darshan was stopped at Tirupati due to covid. So,
God himself made me to call the Kashi mutt Guest house who himself guided me
how to get the special darshan tickets by booking the Kalyana seva tickets,
without I asking for it. (300 Rs ticket used to get sold out like hot cake within
mins. Kalyana Seva will get two 300 Rs tickets).
5.
After that – next week was full-fledged travel –
refer the photo in Google album for full details. I can never forget the
driving experience at Sigandhoor.
a.
Most of the places we covered, had opened up
just Sunday of that week
b.
In Udupi, we enjoyed having darshan of the Lord
multiple times. Even met my fav pravachana acharya – Vidwan Krishnaraja
Kuthpadi.
c.
At Anegudde and Hattiangady temple, the Maha puja
was done right when we arrived. Anegudde Ganapati even blessed us with Flower
prasada during puja.
d.
DOUBLE LUNCH – yes, my first ever double lunch
experience. At Kundapura, we had nice North Indian lunch at NR Nandini
restaurant. After that we reached Hattiangady, where after the puja, we had
Lunch prasada of the Lord!
6.
Met Varadh Maam, Vignesh Nayak Maam, got so many
pujas done.
7.
June 13th till Aug 8th – passed
like a movie trailer. What was happening, who was controlling…
Return Tickets
1.
The sad part of any vacation – returning.
2.
Etihad had cancelled all its flight operation -Thankfully.
I got free cancellation and full refund for my July 27th flight. I
called up my office and requested to extend my leave by one more week – till 8th
Aug.
3.
Returning to US in August is costly affair – as the
schools reopen in the month of Aug. Tickets were selling at an avg price of 1.2
Lacs per head!! Even that was difficult to book.
4.
Sat down to book the tickets on 5th Aug.
Nothing was available for less than 1.5 lacs. And I couldn’t book that also as I
didn’t have such balance limit on India credit card, and on US cards I was not
able to get the OTPs sent to US number.
5.
Got fully tensed. What next? I had promised to
return on 8th Aug to my company. Called up one manager and described
the situation. He said he will try to get approval for me to work from India
for a month, within which I will have to book my tickets and travel back. And I’ve
to work in night shits (US shifts) during that one month.
6.
Though it looked like a solution, I was worried
with the side-effects of working night shifts. Entire Day was spent
contemplating various scenarios.
Finally
7.
Friday morning – God made me to give it a shot
early morning itself. Thankfully it worked – was able to book tickets for 50k
per head on British Airways!!
8.
So, here I’m. Breaking my own record set just 2
months back (onward journey tickets were booked a week before). International
flight tickets were booked 2 days before the travel date, at economical price!
9.
Thankfully, UK had just announced on 6th
Aug that they will allow fully vaccinated transit passengers from 4a.m on 8th
Aug. My BA flight reaches London at 1.30 pm on 8th Aug – this fits
the definition of hair gap?
Covid lockdowns & hardships:
1.
First 2 weeks, there was partial lockdown in
place – during which we got most of the Govt/other official works done – Bank,
Lockers, Visa stamping.
2.
From 3rd week onwards, Lockdown was
relaxed up to 90% - during which we completed all the pilgrimages, Homa (can
never forget the divine experience of sitting at late night Homa at Ravindra
Acharya’s home at Udupi), shopping, doctor visits etc.
3.
Last week – Lockdown/curfew was reimposed on
weekends – impacted us only for one day i.e. 7th of Aug. 8th
of Aug anyways we traveled back to US.
4.
So all in all, Lockdown was not a major issue for
us during the trip, except that we had to get the torturous RT-PCR test done before
any flight journeys, Jingu included.
5.
During the month of May, when strict lockdown
was being imposed Pan India, I had told myself that I’m ready to sit idly at
home. For the entire vac. No matter what, I will travel. Only point of anxiety though
was visa stamping. For that too I was trying prepare my mind – I had taken all
imp stuff like files, documents etc. with me.
The entire trip was nothing less than a divine experience. What
seemed like problems at several steps, were getting solved by itself. And each
time it got solved, I was reminded of Gita lessons – we have to just keep going
through it all, wherever the Lord takes us, completely detached from fears,
illusions, anxiety, worry etc.
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