Business Visa - B1

A little Blog about my interview, if it helps you - 1st experience at the US B1 Visa Interview


Me: Good Morning Ma’am

Visa Officer : Morning ! Can I have your passport Please


Me: Sure !



VO, goes through my application for a few seconds, Says, New Jersey ! Mmhmmmm !



VO: What is the purpose of your Travel

Me : We have a production Release on 1st of April, So I am going to attend the Release Review Meetings, will monitor the issues and Collect the feedback and Requirements too.



VO: How long do you plan to stay ?

Me: A week



VO: What Is your Designation ?

Me: Lead QA Engineer



VO: How long have you been working with this company?

Me: this is my 4th year



VO: What is your annual Salary ?

ME: XYZ



VO: Could you come again please, What exactly is your role in this Visit ?

ME: We have worked on a product for 2 years and developed it for Pharmacists our end users so I am going to meet them…(interrupts me and asks the next question)



VO: So, you are going to meet the clients ?

Me: they are our own employees working in the US Office. So I am going to meet these Pharmacists and the Product Owner and gather the feedback/Issues for a smoother release and collect the requirements too for next phase and distribute it to my team here in India.



VO: Alright ! Your Visa is Approved.

Me: Thank you, Have a good Day.

Hi All,

I need some help here with respect to next step I should take,

My L1B blanket was rejected last year in July month
My L1B Individual is already applied in last Dec 18
My B1 got rejected in March 19 i.e. this month

My company wants me to again apply for B1, When I should for B1 again.. Please suggest..
I am not sure if this is correct time to apply or not...

Please share your feedback asap, it will be really helpful for me..

Hi again,

This was my first time in the US

I entered the US on Feb 23 and at port of entry (PoE), I was asked questions like what is the purpose of travel and when I intend to return; to which I answered Conference and will return back on March 6 after conference. I was even asked Invitation Letter from conference which I showed...Now he gave me the port of entry stamp of admitted with 6 months validity and B2 mentioned...I asked him this is B2 stamp and he said it doesn't matter visa is B1/B2. I returned back on 6th March and I have entry stamp in Zurich, Switzerland and no exit stamp from the US...

I know US doesn't do exit stamps, however, all I wanna ask if this B2 stamp at PoE will cause any problem in future entry, even though I entered on B1...I have no idea why he gave me B2...

To people I have talked to say, since he was giving me 6 months entry thats why B2 was given, B1 entries tend to be shorter than 6 months

First of all Sincere Thanks to this forum!! It helped me a lot to clear the interview.

My B1 Visa interview time was 9:00 am . So I reached there by 8:45 am. But still the Queue was very long at the main entrance door. We are not suppose to carry luggages/executives bags etc. Only the required documents are allowed. (There will be lock box facilities outside the consulate run by the local shops. We can handover them for a ordinary nominal charge). So dont enter the consulate at the last moment. It will be good if you reach the main security entrance 30 mins before.

I wore my company Id visible.

Though I prepared a lot for my interview through this forum, I could not correctly answer to the VO questions as it was my first attempt. VO was an young lady. I was struggling internally as what to answer for what question. As the 'Purpose of interview' was same as ' whats the need to travel now'.

Me: Good Morning madam!! with a smile
VO: (No response, no smile!!)Why do you visit US?
Me: For Business Review meeting and technical discussion on X, Y, Z tools
    When I was about to finish the word 'Review Meeting', VO immediately asked , 'What review meeting', so I answered I will me meeting the Business leaders & technical team on the tool). She didnt looked at me as she was typing some thing.
VO: Whats your role in this meeting?
Me: I was lil confused between my designation & role and told my as YYYY and I am an S/W engineer (Suddenly she looked at me as whether I am speaking with face to face or
    maintaining eye contact). I too was giving proper eye to eye discussion though she didnt maintain eye to eye contact.
VO: How long are you in ths current company?
Me: 5 yrs 7 months
VO: Could you help me understand again the reason on this discussion as what you will you do over there?
Me: I clearly told that next month April 2nd week we have production release, last time production release we faced issues, so I will be travelling to give/get updates on the
     issues and I clearly mention that I WILL RETURN BACK TO INDIA TO PROVIDE THE MEETING/DISCUSSIONS RESOLUTION POINTS TO THE TEAM, so that the next coming production release will be smooth.
VO: Are you an team supervisior ?
ME: I am a team lead ( though I was not a team lead :-) )
VO: how long are you in this organisation?
ME: I told 5 years 7 months
VO: Is your company a Finance related organisation?
ME: No, My project is finance related project. Its an Insurance project.
VO: Are you married?
ME: Yes I am married
VO: Who will bear the expense of the trip?
ME: My Company
VO: Your Visa is approved sir
ME: Thank you madam!!

My observation: The first 30 seconds info to VO is vital. Mostly it will be related to 'Purpose of travel'.
                       The way of representation is more important. If its short & crisp it will be good
                      Since its B1 Visa, they may be looking for experienced persons with more number of
                      years in the same company. They should feel that you should return back to India.
                     Also if you are married and if you are travelling alone, chances of returning
                     back India will be more because of your family.They didnt ask me any document.

                I started preparing for interview only a week before through this forum. Wishing you all the
                 best guys!!

Why are you going ?
To attend the business meeting with company stakeholder and customer in state1 and state2 . (Should have added locations)
Were you on L visa before ?
Yes mam (I could have added yes but that visa was applied 9years ago and expired.) kept mum to keep is discrete. I never thought she will take this as negative. I felt she never looked into system to look at my travel history.
Anyone else from your company travelling with you ?
No, I am the only one travelling.
How long you have been with current company ?
Close to 1 year (I could have added total 1*years experience)
What is your salary ?
2*lakhs per annum before taxes and provident fund deductions.
How many days you are travelling ?
I will be travelling for 10 business days and total of 14 days.
What you do ? What is your title?
I am software architect and i help customer of my company to design software systems.
What is the agenda ?
Given the agenda where everything was business meetings and requirement overview.Told about ** builds HVAC, building, industrial requirements and this project is about document managements. And we manage those documents based on approval system etc. I am going for this project where we will be reviewing two departments requirements around the document managements.
Why you ?
I have been working on one project which is finished. We are into requirement details of second project and I have asked to go for betterment of the project due to knowledge acquired by me from previous project.
What will be the outcome ? Once you come back what happens?
I as architect i will prepares blue print of the design and then project goes into implementation. (I could have said then blue prints will be passed to project manager who will look into new schedule).

Then finally Sorry you are not eligible for this visa.

Do you think it could have been anything different ? Please help me for future applications in case applied.

what kind of verification will be there in B1 Visa

Hello friends, my visa denied on 20th Feb, I applied for B1 visa for the conference, I am the owner of the company, my company is a reseller of one the largest company from the US, I got the invitation from that company to attend their conference which is about education and information about their own products.

I want to advise from the expert that what went wrong and how to prepare for next time,

They have asked me 5-6 questions only and rejected.

VO: Why are you going to us?
Me: I am going to attend the conference organized by X company, being a partner with them, my company has been invited by them to attend the conference (I was expecting that question, so I have memorized all words)

Vo: Do you have an invitation letter?
Me: yes

Vo: Show me
Me: Sure and handed the official invitation letter from the company.

Vo: What do you do?
Me: I have ABC business, and we provide services for xyz (this services related to the X company ), I also told 4-5 other services which my company offer but it is not related to X company

Vo: How long?
me: for 8 days (I have told exact dates.)

Vo: Have you been any other country before?
Me: No.

This was the last question and he handed over me 214b it say

 "that you were not able to demonstrate that your intended activities in the US would be consistent with the classification of the nonimmigrant visa for which you applied."

My Background
Profession: Business
Marital: Married with kids
Age: 38
Income: 15 Lakhs
Travel history: zero, no travel history
Interview language is chosen: Hindi, however, I have given al the answer in English (My English is not fluently, I was afraid that if I choose English and if I could not understand his ascent, It will problem so I have chosen Hindi)

Can you please let me know what was wrong? only travel history? If yes I have a chance this year to visit one of the countries from London, Spain, Japan, which will be good to make some travel history?

HI , i took my B1 interview in chennai , while answering the questions some how in nervousness i told i will be working on a feature for couple of weeks along with other trainings , my visa got rejected . now my company wants me to try again and what is chance for me , will i always be seen a candidate for reject ? can some one suggest what i must do . it is important for me to be in US to get trained in work else it hinders my work back here . i am really worried.

I m not saying this coz i was rejected twice . But my case was stronger than the guy who was before me in queue. They gave all technical reasons mine was a simple training. They offered visa for a guy who was travelling longer than 2 weeks. I was only traveling for 5 days. Im married with kid settled in hyd. I feel its based on if they approve a visa then they reject the next case so that they can maintain the number of visas issued per day. Please let me know if any one has observed this trend

Biometric on Jan 30
Visa interview on Jan 31. VO told the Visa has been approved
Administrative Processing status from Jan 31 to Feb 11
Issued status on Feb 11
Got the passport with Visa stamped on Feb 12. Validity 10 years