I have a VAC appointment at the Hyderabad center for H1B first time. I have only 1 VAC appointment, and no consular appointment. In the appointment history, for visa priority it says “Regular” instead of “Interview waiver”. As you mentioned you received an email from US help desk can...
The tricky part is for students, who applied for H1B with a pending/ approved Change of Status (COS) petition with USCIS. They are considered to be in cap-gap period. Basically, after their OPT period ends, their F1 status is tracked as cap-gap extension in the SEVIS system until Sept ...