Business Visa - B1

Dear All,

I would like to thank Immihelp and all others who posted earlier, Please see the below conversations with Visa Officer (VO),

--> Asked me to come (Was waiting for his call once counter is cleared)

VO: Good Morning Sir!! How are you?
ME: I'm good! Thank you Sir :) How are you doing?

VO: I'm good :) Passport Please
ME: Yes, here it is.

VO: Why are you travelling to US?
ME: To visit our office YYYY for Business meetings and Trainnings on YYYY technologies

VO: Where you are travelling in US?
ME: California

VO: How long you gonna stay there?
ME: It is for 3 weeks Sir

VO: How many years you're working in this company?
ME: 2 Years 11 Months

VO: What is your designation?
ME: Senior Software Engineer

VO: How long you're working in this desgination?
ME: It is same 2 Years 11 Months

VO: What is your salary sir?
ME: YYYY X/Month

VO: Are you married?
ME: Yes I'm married

VO: What is you wife name?
ME: YYYY X

VO: What she is doing?
ME: YYYY X

VO: Have you travelled to Brazil?
ME: Yes Sir!

VO: For what purpose?
ME: To work, since I had Brazil Tech Visa

VO: Have you worked for the same company?
ME: Yes worked for YYYY XX

VO: YOUR VISA IS APPROVED SIR !!!!
ME: Thank You Sir!!! Have a nice day.

*END*

1. Refer Immmihelp and prepare yourself in front of Mirror, this helps me a lot!!!
2. Be confident and please speak loudly that brings him a good impression on you.
3. Try to answer in a line or Make it short and clear.
4. Don't create any silence/Break in your conversation.

All the best everyone!!!!

Regards,

Abdul

My first experience for VISA.

Thanks for Immihelp and all members, the experience shared here helped me a lot to gain the confidence and what kind of questions being asked. I would love to share my experience here hopefully it would help some others who are applying for the first time.

Suggestions:
Be confident in what you answer and please be honest with DS160 form, which would help you to answer without any fear or tense.

Dont be blank at any question, answer something which would support it.

Only answer to the point and be precise.

Biometric - 31st October 2016, which went very smooth with lot of people to guide you .

Consulate Interview - 07 November 2016, 10:00 AM
Queue for 10:00 AM slot started @ 9:30 AM.
so be there atleast 30minuts prior to your appointment time.
Staff would guide you on further process.

It was very long queue for 9:30 and 10:00 AM appointments, I waited for around 45 minutes to reach the biometric re-verify counter. where a Foreigner would be verifying the biometric again.
once done, i have waited for more 45 minutes to get to the VO.

My turn came @ 10:55 AM, VO was very sweet young lady who greeted my very nicely and i responded back with smile.

VO: Please pass me your passport
Me : Sure, passed the passport.

VO: Purpose of visit?
Me : Client invited me for a Technical Review of the Datacenter for cloud migration.

VO: Why only you in the company ??
Me : I manage this client and i have knowledge on multiple technologies of cloud.

VO: Who is sponsoring this trip ?
Me : Employer

VO: How much experience do u have with current employer ?
Me : 19 Months

VO: Do u have client invitation letter and who is your client ??
Me : Yes and Answered

VO: What your employer do ?
Me : Answered

VO: How many days you will stay ?
Me : Max 10 business days

VO: Which place are you going ?
Me : San ramon, california

VO: What is your designation ?
Me : Senior Software Engineer

VO: How much you get paid?
Me : Answered

VO: Have you travelled to US before ?
Me : Answered

She was silent and started typing for around 15 seconds, I thought she will give my passport and then she asked below

VO: Are you single/married ?
Me : Answered

VO: Do you have family in india ??
Me : Answered

VO: She came up with the golden words, I will keep your visa and have a good day, bye
Me : you made my day, bye bye

All the best everyone.

Hi All,

   My Visa got rejected. I appeared for first time. There was no reason for rejection. All are Simple Answerable questions. like below.

At Chennai Consular Office:

Me: Good mng mam,
VO: No answer , Asked me passport please.
Me: I gave.
VO: purpose of travel?
Me: To attending business meetings with our client YYYY .
VO: your designation?
ME: Staff Software Engineer.
VO: Staff Software Engineer??????
Me: Yes mam.
VO: Which Company u r working for?
Me: I am working for YYYY
VO: Where you are travelling in US?
Me. San Jose, CA.
VO: Whats the Strength of the company?
Me: Around 4000 memebrs
VO: whats the team size?
Me: 15.
VO: Sorry, we cannot issue the VISA right now. Your application has been refused, please look into form 214b is here.

She did not ask me any documents. But I went with all documents. I am married and I am blessed with new born baby. I could prove that I am strongly ties to home country. But she did not check me into that. Please can some one suggest me whether I can re-apply? If I apply again If it denail again what problems I may face in future ? please kindly let me know.

Regards
Satya.

I am a US citizen and business owner. I spend most of my time in India on a multi-entry visitors visa.
My girlfriend is from the Philippines. We will meet in India after she gets her passport.. Not sure if it will be a 30 day Visa on arrival or traditional visa. I go back to USA every 4-6 months for up to 4 weeks at a time. I have a cruise reservation in April which I would like her to attend with me. I am also considering meeting her in Singapore prior to coming to India for touring and showing additional travel history.

I am not sure how to approach the USA visa. She is working in Philippines but will quit after coming to India. She opened a bank act and we have been funding monthly since November. I don't plan on getting married but will support her financially. I don't know whether to take the employee/employer approach or say she is my girlfriend. The later may cause rejection. I do plan to be outside of the US most of the time and would like her to accompany me wherever I go.

Please advise

Hi All,

My B1 got rejected twice and am not sure about the reason. Both the time i was handed over 214B for rejection. questions were very simple and i could answer them very well.

Q. Purpose of travel.
A. Business Meetings

Q. how long
A. 2 weeks

Q. have u ever been out of india.
A. NO

Q. Since how long you are working with current employer.
A. 3 months

Q.total exp.
A. 9 years in IT

Q. post
A. IT consultant

Q. Qualification
A. B.COM

Rejected twice. Almost same questions.

Now, the questions is, Is it because my education is not relevant to IT .. ?
Or is it because i just have 3 months exp in current employer.
Or is it because i havent travelled outside of india.

Can someone guide me on this.. ?

I would like to share an experience.

At the window right before my turn the applicant I saw who was an old lasdy, her dress looked like she belonged to a small village and her appearance looked like she was from some poor family. She didnt even knew english or urdu ( 2 major languages spoken in pakistan), She only knew sindhi and VO called a sindhi translator. And now the interview started

1st and last question VO asked and thats it. Why do you want to goto USA?

Lady speak in sindhi and being translated to VO

Applicant : My daughter lives in USA xxx state/city and she is going to have a baby and its in our culture that when our daughter give birth to a 1st baby her mother visits her and stays with her for few months.

Next thing I saw that VO was explaining her that her visa is approved and from where and how to collect in detail.

It is quiet clear no matter how you are dressed or from where you belong. one must have pure and solid true reason to goto usa. Above interview it self shows that no other question is asked and visa is granted

Hello Everybody, I would like to share my experience with all of you.I was granted visa in 1999 with my family/parents. I have visited USA twice in 2001 and 2002 when I was single. I got married in 2008 and I applied for visitors visa in 2012 with my wife and son hoping that I would be granted easily as per previously granted. unfortunately they rejected my visa upon baseless reasons.

 Back in 2015 october. I planned to apply again.

Our community was having a 10 day convention in october 2015 which I was intending to attend. I filled out application forms and pay the fees. Now the online system allows us to select the dates only after payment is made and the date earliest I was getting was falling the 9th day of our convention. So the main reason to goto usa is going to get invalid automatically.

US Embassy all around the world already knew that some kind of conevntion is going around these dates in houston and they saw an unexpected visa application filled from our comunity people and 90% of them got granted visa for attending the convention. But in my case I was too late to apply as interview date was falling right on 9th day of convention and i am expecting the VO knows I have now no reason left to visit.

on the interview day I got there on time, Every thing in place they called me inside for documents check up. 1st mistake my photographs background was not appropriate. I was asked to fix it up and get back in 1 hour or chose another interview date. Big decision what to do. 9 am in morning where to get photograph fix at this time. Not knowingly I agreed to get back with correct photographs in one hour time and continue with interview. Luckily i found out a shop in morning and on urgent basis got photographs and headed back to Embassy. By the time now almost every one was done and I was almost last on in line. Nervous about what will I say why I want to go now as I didnt had any plans to visit any time soon. Just wanted to attend the convention.

While waiting in line I could see other people cases in windows and so many rejections so many stories. To every one their very first question is Why Do You Want To Go To USA. Many solid people with solid background being rejected out of no reason which was making me more and more nervous. So now finally my call came up and i went to window.

VO: Good Morning.
Me Good Morning...

He asked for passport and took pinger prints

1st Question VO: Tell me about your Travel History
Me. Been to Usa UK Canada Iraq Iran Bangladesh Malaysia Singapore Saudia UAE Sirilanka etc etc

VO: Oh you been to Usa ok ok when did to been there?
Me: Sir last time 2002.

VO: Okay so its been13 yrs... ( then started typing something..

VO to my wife: Is your travel same as your husband?
My wife: No sir different.

VO: Why do you want to goto USA ( the big question )
Me: Sir our community is having a convention over there in houston for 10 days and because we got interview date so late now we cannnot attend as tomorrow is the last day. Now we might go for pleasure visit later some time not sure when my son school vacation is on.

VO: Tell me about you business?
Me: we manufacture xyz

VO: how many employees:
Me: sir xxx on our factory and xxx on our front sales shop

VO: What is your montly income?
ME: Sir its business sometime its higher and sometime is lower but on average itsxxx (rememer I had to say the same amout of income I declared on my forms)

VO: Is the your monthly turn over?
ME: No sir our monthly turn over is number in xxx..

VO: Okay Where do you Live?
Me: I live at xxx area

VO: Who is in cupertino?
ME: My dads friends (ok ok and continued typing for few minutes)

And finally the Golden Words. Sir your visa has been approved. Collect your passports from xyz location after 2 working days.

Didnt saw a single piece on any kind of document I bring along with me like bank statement etc.

I learnt in the end is that make your interview better is simple as it is possible. Donot give more information than asked. Give upto point answers and say the truth. Most of the time they already know they just cross question us to check our intentions. I even got to know that after filling out forms our back ground is also being checked including our financial details like if we file tax returns etc etc central govt data give them all required information.

Hi All,

I went to my B1 Visa Interview in Mumbai on 18th Oct 2016, Biometric went smooth on a day before, the final VO interview was on 18th.
I was well prepared with the Questions and Answered that were supposed to be asked in the interview, was Confident enough to ans what may come.

After a long wait and standing in the slow moving queue, i finally entered the VO Interview room.

At first the Lady did the Biometric again and gave me my Passport, i again stand in the queue waiting for my turn to come.
Its a human nature that you start observing the people sitting on the other end of the glass window, and start making wish for the desired VO, same happen to me.

I wished that not to go for Window # 37, and for my surprise i was given the same Window.

I stand in there for the person to finish his turn, and VO gave a reject slip to the person in front of me. I was scared .....

VO waved the first two fingers of his right hand to call me... Bit Scared again......

Me- Good Morning Sir...
VO- Can i have your Passport
Me- Sure, here you go.

Vo- Purpose?
Me- Answered in two lines, brief about the meetings..

Starting searching and tying on his PC.. Long silence....

VO- why cannot be done over Conference Calls?
Me- Answered, in two lines and told him that need to observe their current practices..

Starting searching and tying on his PC.. Silence again....

VO-Where do you work?
Me- YYYY Technologies

VO- How long you have been worked there?
Me- 5 and a half years.

He then went and called another VO, both were discussing something and looking at the screen, and I was feeling my Heartbeats as if the heart was on the table....

VO- Do you have children?
Me- I am blessed with a Girl.

VO- Do you supervise anyone?
Me- Yes, I have two analyst under me.

Again silence.......

VO- OK, I am keeping your passport with me for Admin Processing and we will get back if we need any information on it, Thank You.
Me- Thank you, Sir...

And I left the room....... with no Slip or anything, he did not asked for any document.....

Two days after my Interview, I got an email to collect my Passport.
Along with the passport was a white slip asking me to submit Police Certificate from regional Passport office.

I got the PCC and send my Passport with that document to the Consulate Office...

The Status as of 28th Oct 2016 is "ISSUED"

Waiting for my Passport to come with the STAMP on it..

OBSERVATION :

1) You need to be Confident, and listen to the question before answering it, do not hesitate in asking the question if you did not get it first time.
2) Be dressed in your formals, no need to wear Ties and all.
3) I am a Muslim so have a Proper Long Beard, make sure its properly maintained and you are looking best in it.

All the Best Guys.....

I would like to know what could have gone wrong in my interview. I am in a travel club that does holidays at subsidized prices and I just booked a January cruiseship from Orlando to Bahamas which was only $600 for two. My interview was 27/10/2016. Here is how it went.

Appointment time :7am
Biometrics: 7:20am
I started the intervie at 8am.

VO. Hello
Me: Hi, good morning

VO: So you are going to Florida?
Me: Yes, i am taking my cruiseship from Florida to Bahamas and back

VO: cruiseship?
Me: yes

VO:Who is funding your trip?
Me: Myself

VO: Where do you work?
Me: I work with XX international.

VO: What does the company do?
Me: It is a research company conduction social and behavioral reseach

VO: How much do you earn per month?
Me: $1,100

VO: Is that gross or net
Me: Net

VO: What is your estimated budget for this trip?
Me: $3,500 (Note: I was including flights and all accomodations and activities after the cruiseship coz i was planning to stay for 15days while the cruise is 5days)

VO: Can i see your bank statements
Me: sure, (I gave her my statements - They read $465)

VO: Where did you go to college?
Me: I did my undergaduate in XX university and my masters is in XX university

VO: where have you travelled to apart from Kenya
Me: I meantioned the 4 countries including South Africa 3 times

VO: (looking at the statements) Your trip cost is like half of your savings?
Me: It is just an estimate and the cruise i have already paid for it. I still have two more months to make money before my trip in January.
VO: But this is like half your savings!

VO: Are u married
Me: No

VO:Any kids
Me: NO

VO: Any relatives in the US
Me: No

VO: Unfortunately I cannot give you the visa BUT listen, this is not final, it doesn't mean you cannot apply again, this is just for now and you can always apply again. (she looked so friendly and actually moved to the glass counter telling me this)
Me: Is it becasue of the bank statements?
VO: ah we look at several factors including where you have travelled to and also strong ties
Me: Ok, thank you:

What could have gone wrong? I am genuinely only going to the US for the cruise and a few activities in Orlando. She did not ask for any document apart from the bank statement. I want to reapply, what can i strengthen? Kindly advice.

My first experience for Visa.
Thanks to immihelp and all members, the experience shared here helped me a lot to gain the confidence and to get idea on what kind of questions are being asked. And this inspired me tobshare my experience here

Suggestion: Be confident in what you are answering.
Only answer to the point, only provide details when asked.
Don't stop at any question, even if you are not clear what to answer, be confident and say something related which they can digest and get convinced.

Biometric : 26th Oct 2016
Interview : 27th Oct 2016, 9:00 AM

Queue for 9:00 AM slot started at 8:30AM.
So be there atleast 35-40 minutes prior to your appointment time.
The staff would guide you on further procedure.

My turn came around 9:15AM , VO was very sweet lady who greeted nicely and I responded back with smile and good morning.

VO: Please pass me your passport.
Me: Sure (and passed the passport).

VO: Why are you going to US?
Me: To attend business meetings and Training sessions for <xyz>.

VO: Your designation.
Me: Team lead Quality Assurance

VO: How many people you handle?
Me: team of 13 QA.

VO: What your company do?
Me: IT firm providing Software development services.

VO: What's your Annual salary?
Me: xx.xx

VO: Have you ever travelled outside of india?
Me: no, this would be my first time.

VO: Have you ever travelled by plane?
Me: Yes, to xx location in india.

VO: For how many weeks are you going to stay in US?
Me: 4 weeks

VO: What are you going to do for 4 weeks?
Me: Would be attending meetings and Training sessions for xx certification....
And while I was answering this question, she said 'Your VISA is approved' and kept the passport with her.