Business Visa - B1

Hello All,

First of all, thank you very much for this lovely community, it helped me a lot in this process and it is a time for me to contribute back.

My Profile:
Married
Have traveled to UAE twice and Thailand once.
3.5+ Years in current company, overall 7 yrs of exp

I had to wait for approx 20-mins before my turn as there was a very lengthy interview that was going on. There was some confusion between the VO and the person who was giving an interview. I can remember at least 5-7 people had given their interview on to the next counter in the meantime.

The interviewer was in his mid-50s and at least what I had observed for those 20mins while waiting, he was very patient and was trying to explain to the person what was the problem in his documents and what was missing. That sort of gave me a bit more confidence.

Here it goes….

Me: Good Morning Sir
VO: Good Morning, passport, please.
Me: Sure, here it is.
(He then scanned my passport and then kept on looking at the system for a few mins.)
VO: So what is the purpose of your visit?
Me: I’m going to visit our company headquarters to attend training and meetings which are related to the new product that we are developing for XX domain. (I actually had 2 more lines to add but VO interrupted me and said OK.)
VO: You had applied for Student Visa in 2012?
Me: Yes sir I did.
(This was my greatest fear as I applied for a Student Visa twice in 2012 and it was rejected, I also mentioned it in my DS-160. I started telling myself that now get ready for some really tough questions. After I answered it, he said something, I couldn't hear it properly and couldn't decide if that was a question for me and do I have to respond to this. I preferred to keep quiet and he also didn't react like he was waiting for anything from my side. I could hear a few words like “now things have changed….”. Maybe he was talking about the period between these 2 visa applications)

VO: Did you apply for any other visa?
Me: (Assuming that he asked about my previous travels) Yes sir, I went to UAE twice and Thailand.
VO: No, I was asking about US visa, did you apply for any other type visa before?
Me: Ohh sorry, no Sir.
VO: So you are working for XX.
Me: Yes I’m working for XX.
VO: You are a Lead?
Me: Yes sir, working as Tech Lead.
VO: So you are going for 1 week?
Me: Yes, for one week sir, starting from 8th Dec and will be back on the 14th.
VO: How many people are you leading in your team?
Me: Sir I’m leading a team of 8, 5 Dev and 3 QAs.
VO: Will you be visiting/meeting any client?
Me: No sir, I will not meet any clients. I’m visiting our company headquarters.
VO: What is your designation?
Me: (This was a surprising question as he himself asked me earlier that if I’m a lead) Yes sir, working as a Tech Lead.

Then he started typing on his screen for approx 30sec.

And then the golden words…...your visa is approved and you will receive it in 3 days, have a great day!

Me: Thank you so much, sir.

No documents asked! I received my passport on 8th Nov.

What I think about this whole process:
By looking at the questions, I can clearly see that he was just trying to confirm details from DS-160, no cross questions. Most of the questions he asked to me, had answers in it, I just rephrased them back. I worked a lot on my Ds-160 and had updated it at least 5 times, just to make sure that everything is perfect and correct, especially my duties/role in current and previous employers. It should match with your designation exactly. It may be because of the extra time that he has spent with the earlier candidate, just a guess. I think that DS-160 holds more weightage in this process than the actual interview.