L1, L2 Visa

Hello All.

Thanks for sharing the details of your experiences and process here. It has been immensely helpful for me over the past few months. I am putting up my experience from the past week.

My company (mid sized product company) had initially planned on an L1A blanket for me. I have direct reports (very small number) only in India and no direct reports currently planned in the US. In a conversation with the lawyer it emerged that L1A without direct reports in the US may be a problem. We then decided to go with L1B. It is a bit unusual case, because my future US job title is mentioned as engineering manager, but the visa category we chose was L1B. Current designation in India is engineer, but I have people reporting to me.

I was a bit worried about this odd combination of a manager title in US but L1B, and engineer title in India with direct reports. Hence, spent a lot of time going over various combination of questions/answers that may come up. Had a good set of answers ready to provide details on my specialization, including talking about my patent for the product.

The actual visa experience was quite simple though. It is very interesting to see that the company support letter does not even go to the VO. This along with any addendum pages (anything apart from first 8 pages of I129S) is removed by the first guy who helps you arrange the documents after you enter the visa office.

Questions were as follows --
1. What does your company do -- answered in a single sentence
2. Follow up question on an acronym I used -- answered in 3 words
3. How long have you worked with the company -- 4 y
4. Where will you be going -- answered with city name
5. What is your US salary -- 1xx,000 per yr
6. Another follow up question on the exact nature of work company does and the product I work on. VO was looking for a simple non-technical answer, but I may have gone too technical in choosing the initial terms. VO suggested a simple line and I smiled with VO and said it sounds good.

VO at this point said, please wait few few minutes while I approve your Visa. No questions/conversation with wife and kid.

Completed typing and handed over 2 copies of I129S and kept our passports.

Thank you all once again and wish you best in your endeavors.

Hi All,

I am currently holding Canadian PR that I had applied personally where I was the dependent and my spouse was primary applicant. I am currently in India and working for the same Indian employer.

My Indian company is now filing L1A blanket for me and I would like to know your views/experiences if holding a Canadian PR is going to have any positive/negative impact on my L1A application where I am the main applicant.

Any help is greatly appreciated. :)

Thank you.

Hello,

My company is planning to file L1B individual premium petition after the rejection of my L1B blanket petition. As part of this process, I was asked by our company attorney to give documentary evidences for trainings which I have undertaken and/or provided on my specialized knowledge. But unfortunately, I work for a product based company and my specialized knowledge is on the proprietary technologies/frameworks that our company uses and the domain knowledge that I have acquired by working on the product. I do have evidences for appreciations that I have got and multiple promotions that I got within the company.

Can you please let me know whether training certificates are essential in getting the petition approved?

I have also read similar experiences in this forum, but mostly I see people say to furinsh everything related to project etc. It would be great if I can get some help to know in bit more detail about the list o documents and the format in which the details have to be provided. Request your suggestions on the same.

Thanks a lot in advance.

Regards,
Sekhar

I went for my L1A blanket visa interview on 17th Sep with wife and kid. It was denied. Interview went as follows:
I wished her good morning, no response. Asked for passports. Pretty serious looking lady.
1. Which visa? L1A blanket (asked me for the docs)
2. Which company?
3. Designation?
4. Who I report into?
5. Location?
6. US salary?
7. Why are they sending you? I misunderstood this question as why I was chosen over others. My answer may have seemed like a specialization which is L1B and not L1A. I should’ve just explained my role. I expected more questions on my role.
She said my visa is not clearly approvable and I should apply in a different category. I wished she rephrased her question or asked me more questions to understand my role better.

Super disappointed but my company decided to file L1A individual visa under premium processing. They filed in October 2019. Got RFE in November 2019. Response filed in Jan 2020 (374 pages). Got approval in Feb 2020. Found an interview slot for April 15, 2020. Kept checking regularly and after a week found March 4, 2020 slot.

This is how the interview went this time. The VO greeted us warmly.
1. What’s the purpose of your travel? I answered it’s an international assignment and am applying for L1A individual. He asked me for my 797 approval notice.
2. Which company? One of the largest US banks
3. Designation? Senior Manager (analytics)
4. Who I report into? Senior Director
5. Are you born at ZZZ? I didn’t expect this. He asked again and I answered Yes.
6. Which location? Answered
7. Salary? $1XX,000 + bonus
8. Experience with company? 8 years
9. How many reportees? 6
10. How many indirect reportees? 3
11. (Showing me my China visa in the passport) You traveled to China? Oh, that was in 2015 for a business conference. He replied, glad it wasn’t recent and laughed (guess he was concerned about the virus)
Then he looked at my wife and asked
12. (To wife) How long are you married? 13 years (I started feeling confident now as questions got personal)
13. (To kid) Which grade? Answered
14. (To wife and me) Did you have any police cases or had to visit courthouse on your previous visits? We smiled and answered no. (I traveled 10 times in the last 7 years on B1 and wife traveled last year with me on B2)
VO: Everything looks in order and all your visas are approved.
We thanked him and walked away.

Pointers:
1. The visa process can be daunting and long. Hang on!
2. L1 blanket visa interviews are tough. The government has no documentation on you and the interview is the decider. Prepare super well and read about decision criteria on USCIS website. Research on why your visa can be denied and prepare against it.
3. L1 individual category is better as government scrutinizes your case and approves even before the interview. Hence the interview is more factual than judgmental.
4. Always go for premium processing. Else you can get stuck for a long time.
5. Prepare for the questions you see on this site but also prepare for drill down questions for each.
6. RFE is not bad. You can bombard them with so much documentation that your case will seem super genuine. For me, they asked degree certs, tax returns, org charts of my teams both in India and the US apart from a lot of other stuff.
7. I dressed in a formal shirt and jeans. Last time I wore a blazer too. It just made me more nervous and uncomfortable I guess.
8. Zone out while you are in the queue. Don’t listen to other interviews or rattle your brain with your prepared answers. You will just tense up.

Understand this well. The interview is just one small part of the process. You are selected for the role by your company which is a BIG deal. There are other things which are out of your control – like your salary and your role. If you don’t get the visa it should be because of those and not your answers. Just prepare well and answer truthfully.

If you have any questions, do feel free to contact me. I would love to help you guys.

Finally, this forum and the people contributing are amazing. It helped a lot.

We are flying in April and are hoping it will all work out.

Its pay it forward time:

Following is brief of my case history:
I was an AVP in Product Development company with 60 member team and 4 years ago my company moved me to US to start the PS - Solution Architecture practice as an Enterprise Solution Architect. I was a one man army then. 1 year into my US journey, my company was acquired and there was an influx of customers. Had to start building the team and they promoted me to the role of Practice Director and pursued L1A. My new role was a mix of People and Functional role.

L1B - Chennai, July 2016 - Approved
L1B Extension - Chennai, May 2019 - Approved
L1A - Chennai - Now

All my petitions were blanket.

Following are the questions asked:

Me: Good Morning, how are you doing today
VO: Good

Passed on my PP and 3 sets of 8 pates I149 and 1st page of I797

VO: Where do you work
Me: Company Name

VO: What does your company do?
Me: Started explaining and she said hold on :)

VO: What do you do?
Me: Started explaining how I started the SA practice with L1B, and the increase of workload because of the acquisition and the need to hire more resources. Told my new role in Building the SA practice and was explaining People Management side of it and she said again hold on :)

VO: So, looks like you have both People and Functional responsibilities as well
Me: Yes, very much in the foreseeable future.

VO: How long you have been with the Organization
Me: 9 years

VO: What keeps you motivated to stay so long?
Me: Learning

VO: What is your highest level of Education
Me: Master’s in computer science

VO: Were you on a blanket Visa earlier as well?
Me: Yes, I was on a L1B though

VO: How long have you been in US?
Me: 4 years

VO: What is your pay?
Me: X USD

VO: Do you work from your company location or client location?
Me: Company location

VO: Whom do you report to?
Me: I was telling the Name and designation, but she interrupted me again

VO: Tell me the designations till C level executive
Me: Told the designations

VO: How many direct reports do you have?
Me: 2 now, 2 are hiring in progress

VO: Any indirect reports
Me: My team does have, based on the projects. Right now, they have about 15 in total

VO: What is the total employee count
Me: Off late many acquisitions happened, and I lost count of it, may be around 2000.

VO: Ok

She picked the Stamp and stamped all 3 sets of I149+1797. VO was in a hurry, and was cutting short my answers

She did not say that my visa is approved, and I checked with her.

VO: Of course, and you know the drill with these documents right.
Me: Have a great rest of your day and stay safe

VO: Oh, thank you and you too.

Key was preparing a list of possible questions and your answers at least 10-15 days in advance. I started writing elaborate answers and as part of review (every other day) shortened the language without the cutting down the key words. This process went on for 10 days.

I was ready with my final answers 3 days before the interview and started doing mock interviews standing before a mirror.

Thanks for all who posted their experiences, and good luck for all who are seeking help.

Hi,
I had my L1 individual and L2(dependent) visa Interview on 05th March 2020 and here are the questions asked-
1) Do you work for xxx company?
2) How long you have been working there?
3) What is your salary in US?
4) Are you gonna work in client location ?
5) which is your work place? Which state is that?
6) what is your designation?
7) Explain your specialisation?
8) who is your client?
9) when did you get married?
10) Where does she works?
There was no question asked to my wife and after typing for about 3 minutes by looking at my I-797 she said your visa is approved and I can see the instruction in the green slip for collecting the passport and handed me the slip and kept the passports.

Time to pay back to this community.

A little background: I was in US for 4 years on L1b blanket, then came back to India. In 2015 I appeared for L1b blanket interview but my visa was denied. Then again in 2016 my L1b individual was filed but unfortunately that petition was not approved. In 2018 I again appeared for l1b blanket and this time again it was denied. The VO then said i can apply again in individual as my petition was denied and not the visa. So again in 2019 i filed my L1b individual and after RFE my petition was approved.
We (my wife and I)had our L1b,L2 individual stamping at delhi consulate. Our appointment was scheduled for 9.15am but we reached there around 8am. Luckily we joined the queue within 5 mins of waiting and went straight ahead inside the embassy after the security check. Waited there for 20 mins then we were asked to go ahead to verify the biometrics sample taken on previous day. There was a long queue for the interview. After waiting for about 20 mins we went ahead to the counter.

Following questions were asked:
Me: good morning sir
Vo: good morning, your passport please

Vo: Have been to US before?
Me: Yes

Vo: Was your l1 blanket rejected previously?
Me: yes

Vo: so this is an individual petition?
Me: yes

Vo: what is your total no of experience?
Me: XX years

Vo: and your experience with your current employer?
Me- XX years

Vo: what is your designation?
Me: answered

No questions were asked to my wife.

And after typing something for few seconds he said the golden words..Sir your visa is approved. We thanked him and came out.

My L1A visa got denied for an extension last year March 2019, so I moved back to India. My I-140 was approved under EB1 category.
Now if I’ll move back to US with L1B visa, Will my I-485 filing be considered under the same EB1 or will it move to EB2 due to change in Visa from L1A to L1B?

Sharing my final L1-A extension Experience.

Original L1A - April 2015 (3 years)
Second L1 - March 2018 (2 years) - Vancouver, Canada
Third L1A - Feb 25, 2020 - (2 years) - Calgary, Canada.

I have a EB-1C with PD 05/31/2017, with I-140 approved, and have GC EAD. I read through the forums, and learned that L1 extensions had become extremely tough. I was skeptical about the renewal going in.

My experience with the US Consulate in Calgary, CA was very pleasant. The security folks as well as the Vice Consul were very courteous. I went in at 8:30 AM for 9 AM appointment, and was out by about 9:45 AM. In terms of documentation, here is what I carried in:

1. I-129S, G-28, I-797 (blanket)
2. Support letter from Organization (This ran to about 20 pages, was pretty detailed with org structure, names of people reporting to me, etc.)
3. Marriage / Birth Certificates (For L2 - spouse and kids)
4. Past pay slips (from before I landed in the US)
5. Original Degree Certificates
5. $500 Fraud Prevention Fee

My company had prepared a pretty significant docket that included a number of other documents (e.g. Validation of my degree from India, previous L-1 documents, last 12 months pay slips, etc) that I was just told to take along with me. So I did not really go through all of those.

Biometrics took about 5 minutes, and we paid the $500 fee for fraud prevention at the next counter.

The Visa Officer had a few questions.

VO: Are you applying for an extension for L1-A?
Me : Yes

VO : How long have you worked for the company?
A : Total of 10+ years, of which close to 5 years in the US

Q : How many people report to you?
A : XX people.. and there are YY number of people reporting to them

Q : What is your highest degree of qualification?
A : Answered

Q to Wife : What is your highest degree of qualification?
A : Answered

Q to Wife : When did you get married?
A : 200X

At this point, I saw her go for the green stamp, and knew that our visas were approved.

Me: Can we collect our passports in 3 days? (In hindsight, I should have kept quiet, I wasn't thinking clearly)

VO: Should be, but it might take a week, depending on security checks.

VO then returned both my kids' old passports (expired ones with US Visa in them).

VO: Your visas are approved

Me: Thanks.

--

It took about 2 days (interview on Tuesday, 9:00 AM, passport in hand on Thursday 3:00 PM).

About the Calgary US Consulate:

1. Well maintained place, courteous security guards and staff.
2. They have lockers in place to store bags, cell phones, smart watches, etc.
3. There's a Tim Horton's coffee shop in the building, so one can wait (as most of us are likely to reach earlier than appointment time) especially in winter months
4. Parking is scarce, please plan to use the C-Train, it's free within the city and there's a train every 5-7 mins.

Finger Printing and Visa presentation same day. 8.15 and 10.45 slot.

For Finger printing - This in 1st floor and when I reached they routed me to ground floor for arranging documents . Felt weird as I had passport/DS160 and appointment letter in hand. go to basement and get it organised .. I thought may be my bad in missing so went down . They said why did you come down you have ? Again associate you have not arranged I said please do not joke and show me a place where you have to written to arrange a doc . He started again go to basement . I asked him boss what you need .. " He needs Passport and DS160 inside the passport ). Then I just tucked in all and let me inside. They are just rushing and with no crowd this is the behavior. Then my dependent photo was rejected saying photo is not clear ..But for me it was clear and perfect .Again they said try at consulate .. Infact they accepted it without any issues . Not sure what was the issue with lady
Not a great experience unfortunately as everyone says it was simple.

At consulate -- Reach just 15 min before if not they also act like heros stand in one line this side that side. Do not carry smart watch even non smart watch you need to put in scanner. Pockets empty .Cell phone outside

Organised my docs as per various posts still he asked to go and organize not sure it is attitude or ? Same in previous post (Arrange in 3 sets)
IS29/72 (First page)/DS160(Primary applicant)/DD.. Rest you can keep he will staple all 3 sets .

Counter 14-- Payment -- > 16A(Finger Print)-->Counter 15(If dependent is not in person for photo scan)-->16(For dependent).._> Exit to main queue (F2F VO).

Question were.

Which company you work for ?
How long you have been working here ?
What is your role at onsite ?
Do you have authority to switch roles or reportees
Do you have hire/fire ?
How many direct and indirect reportees

All passports in hand he was off for 4 min types and then came back again asked me what role and then started stamping and said I am approving and gave green slip. Regular smile

No questions to dependents.

Keep contributing and add experiences