L1, L2 Visa

Hi,
My company has filed L1B blanket VISA for me I need to complete DS160 and attend interview in next 10 days.
In DS160 it is mentioned in Previous Work/Education/Training Information section
NOTE: Provide your employment information for the last five years that you were employed, if applicable.

Here need you help
I have been working in current organization for last 3.5 years before that 2 years I didnt work for any company. So shlould i mention this gap in DS160 or should i mention my old company and work details which I worked 5 years back?

or should I mention as freelancer in gap time?
If some one knows please comment on this.
thanks
Ram

This forum was really helpful in preparing for the interview. Sharing my experience here.

We had an appointment at 10 Am and we reached just 5 minutes before and went inside immediately, there was no waiting time as we were on time. Once inside, we sorted the documents and got it verified. After that we were asked to move to a different building and there was a queue to make payment. We carried cash to make the payment to avoid hassle of card not working, internet down etc. So payment was done is 15 minutes. Then we were asked to join the queue for interview. There were approx. 50 candidates before us. Our turn came, visa got approved and we came out by 10:55, exactly in one hour from the time we entered.

Visa Type: L1B blanket & L2 for wife
Visa Date: first week of November, Chennai

Me: Good Morning officer. How are you doing?
VO: She responded with a smile and asked to give passports and documents.

VO: Which company do you work for?
Me: Gave the Answer.

VO: What will be your designation?
Me: Told.

VO: What is your highest qualification?
Me: Told

VO: What will be your US salary?
Me: Told about base salary and bonus

VO: For how long have you been working with this company?
Me: 5 years 6 months

VO : What is your specialization?
Me: Fumbled in the beginning(even though I was prepared) but covered up to a great extent. Visa Officer was showing interest(nodding) in what I was saying and typing all this time.

VO: What do you currently do?
Me: I gave a detailed answer of my current project.

VO: How long have you been working on this project?
Me: I said 6 months and continued with justification how my experience in other projects will help in making the project I am going for successful.

VO: When long have you been married?
Me: I Told the exact date. She actually meant to ask my wife.

VO: to Wife - What is your highest qualification?
Me: Told

VO: to Wife - So I see you work for ABC company?
Me: This was a tricky question as she wanted to verify whether right person has come or not. My wife said she works in XYZ company. TIP: if you can’t hear the office clearly, ask to repeat rather than saying Yes to everything.

VO: Congratulation, both visas are approved and gave me two stamped copies back and said that passport should be ready in 5 business days.
Me: Thank you, have a good day.

We checked with security if anything else is pending. He said no and we came out.

Tips:
* It is okay to be nervous on the day of interview, but preparation helps as questions are mostly standard.
* If you are married and traveling alone, be prepared to justify why you are not taking your spouse(it was asked to someone before me)
* Reach maximum 15 mins before interview, no point going early as other who came early were waiting outside.
* Don’t worry about what questions are being asked to candidates before you and their visa status(Approved/rejected), most probably you will not go to same counter as there are ~10 counters.

Sharing the experience for the group.

Oct first week L1A petition approved
L2 - Processing time was 9 months in texas
we need to apply for EAD for L2 hence went to India for stamping.
Put our papers in Dropbox
After a week got our passport back with 221g White Slip with Interview
Went to interview after 2 days.
Interview cleared....
Got the Passport in 5 days.

Overall this process took 3 weeks.

Hi,
My husband had filed his L1 visa extension on March 10th 2019. We had filed L2 and EAD also with it. Later in July we changed to premium. He received an RFE. The RFE was responded and the visa was approved on Sept 20th. But L2 and EAD is still pending.Its been 9 months as of now and my visa is being processed at Texas location.When we checked the visa processing times it is showing around 8 to 10.5 months. Is it normal for L2 visa approval taking this much time?
I have seen few discussions/experiences in some blogs that people who had applied after March have received their L2 approved.
Please let me know if anyone have any information about the processing time. And if there is any way I can expedite it.
Thanks

Hello Everyone,
Thanks for posting your experience here, it was really helpful.
I was very much scared , as the same VO had rejected two L1 Blanket petitions just before me, so all my confidence went down the drain just before the Interview.

My experience (starting directly from the Interview):

Me: Good Morning
VO: Your passports and documents please.
VO: (While scanning the passports) Which company do you work for?
Me: Gave the Answer.
VO: Will you be working for the same company in US?
Me: Yes.
VO: What will be your designation?
Me: Told.
VO: What will be your US salary?
Me: Told ( Upwards of 100K)
VO: For how long have you been working with this company?
Me: 4 years, 10 months.
VO: ( To my husband who was there with me for L2) When did you get married?
Husband: Told the exact date.
VO: ( To my Husband) Do you have the marriage certificate?
Me: Since I had it in my file, I gave it to her.
VO : ( To me) What is your specialization?
Me: Fumbled to a great extent while saying the first line, but continued it pretty well.
( Visa Officer was all this while reading something on her Computer)
VO: ( To my Husband) Do you have the wedding photographs?
Me: Gave her 10 photographs, 2 with the family each side, and few of the wedding ceremonies.
VO: (to me) Can someone else do your work in your team.
Me: Answered as No and then gave an explanation that only I can do it because of my experience.

VO: ( to my husband) How many people attended the wedding?
Husband: 350-400
VO gave her first reaction, she was shocked to listed such a huge number.
VO: ( to me) What do you currently do?
Me: I gave a generic answer of what the team does.
VO: ( again) What do YOU Do?
Me: Gave her specifics of my role and job responsibilities.
VO: Started looking at the petition and picked up the stamp, I knew this was the stamp of “NOT APPROVED” but she did not say anything. As soon as she was about to stamp the papers, she stopped, looked at the stamp, looked at me , smiled and said Ohh! Wrong stamp and that is when I smiled.
She gave me two stamped copies back and said that passport should be ready in 3-4 business days.
All the hard work and Interview preparations finally paid off in the 3 minutes of the interview.
Tips:
Don’t LIE in the interview about anything, VO knows what is there in the petition and they are quite learned professionals. They also keep on reading on their screen about the things that we are saying.

Immihelp helped a lot in preparation, went through forums and noted down unique questions, and prepared for them along with the list published in immihelp. Time to give back..

Went for L1A (individual petition) interview for self and L2 interviews for spouse and kid.

Important:
1) Photos have to be less than 6 months old.
2) Passport should have 6 months minimum validity.
3) Get all documents as instructed in the interview confirmation.

At the consulate:

We reached at 7:30 am for 8 am interview; and they let us right in along with the 7:30 group (stroke of luck).

Initially they checked everyone's passport, and kept each DS 160 inside the relevant passport.

Next had to go to a counter where they scanned the photographs, and then sent us to another counter to get our fingerprinting done.

Then had to wait for the interview.

Interviewer asked the following questions:

1) What does the petitioner do?
Ans. Responded in 2-3 sentences giving specifics about the company.

2) What is your role in the company?
Ans. Answered in detail, she interrupted midway and went to the next question.

3) How long have you been working in the current company?
Ans. xx years.

4) How much total experience do you have?
Ans. xx years

5) Do you have hiring and firing authority?
Ans. Yes, manage the division and have hiring and firing authority.

6) What is the budget that you manage?
Ans. -- mil.

7) How many direct reports will you have?
Ans. -- people directly reporting to me.

To spouse:
What is your highest education level?
Ans. CPA from the US

To kid:
How old are you?
Ans. -- years old.

Then she asked that she will cancel all the old visas, she stamped across for all the passports, and then said that our visas were approved, and we should get the passports in 3-5 business days. Also asked to see original marriage certificate and kid's birth certificate.

Its been 2 business days including the day of interview, so waiting for passports.

Good luck to everyone! Good preparation gives a lot of confidence. Also, good to have papers organized. Though we were not asked for anything, we had all papers duly paper-clipped and post-its for key papers, just in case we were asked. Also carried few wedding pictures, pictures of current and US offices.

I have listed my 221g experience in 221g tracker- https://www.immihelp.com/experience/433580-L1A-221G-at-Calgary.html#div_439573

Below is in detail experience-
My interview was on 22nd Oct 2019 for L1 and L2.

Counter-1- Documents were sorted and kept in order. For some reasons, my spouse picture returned as blur. So the officer said to provide new photo only if the visa is approved.
Counter 2- Paid the fees
Counter- 3- Interview

VO- What do you do?- Answered in 1-2 sentence in which i mentioned about my DRs.
VO- How many DRs you have?- 12

Then, he started stamping dates on my petition, cancelled visa, returned 2 sets of petition and bundled their copy of petition with our passports. He started typing and reading on the computer. Then he took our petition and had conversation with another officer in the background showing front page of I129S for few minutes (~5 mins). As he was talking, i saw my petition in which he has stamped the dates with approved dates.
Later came back and started reading and typing things in his computer. He asked to return the petition copies and handed over 221g (yellow slip) with a comment about L2 photo to be submitted. No other boxes were checked. He said-
one thing you can do today is to submit the photo and other thing they will do some processing at return back which may be quick or may take few days. They retained our passports.

Since then, it was waiting period for about 10 business days and check CEAC website and different intervals during the day until Nov 4 the case got updated

Nov 7- the status changed from Admin processing to Issued

Nov 8- Received the passport

It is just a waiting game and remain patient until your case has been touched. During the period,i was going through different forums reading about 221g experiences. It is just a blackout period you need to go through until the case gets updated. You wont get any responses to your questions.

Hi folks,

Need your help to know the following:

my spouse doesn't have sur name in passport but only have Given Name.
while filling DS-160 form, do i need fill Given Name as FNU and Sur name as name given?

or sure name as LNU?

please help..

Below is my experience in short
1. Petition filed in Feb 2019
2. Received RFE in April
3. Responded to RFE immediately
4. Petition approved in June.- https://egov.uscis.gov/casestatus/landing.do
5. Visa appointment at Mumbai Consulate on sept 5th (interview exp shared below.)
6. Received 221g-adminstartaive processing after interview.- status changed to administrative processing. https://ceac.state.gov/CEACStatTracker/Status.aspx?eQs=WwjqOlbeRYzCYubaSQI+RA==
7. Received email to submit passport on 30th Oct from ustraveldocs.
8. Submitted October on 31st in Mumbai
9. Visa Issued and Stamping done on 5th November- Status changed to Issued- https://ceac.state.gov/CEACStatTracker/Status.aspx?eQs=WwjqOlbeRYzCYubaSQI+RA==

Visa Interview experience
On reaching the counter I wished him good morning. His response was cold (GM).
I passed the passport. He saw 797 on my side of the counter and asked me to pass it too.
I could not hear him clearly 1st time. Stares at me for few seconds and asks me again to pass the 797.
I said sorry I could not hear you clearly and gave him the doc.
 
Asks me ..Are u ok?
I said ..Yes I am fine.. I am just not able to hear clearly.
Then he said
THIS IS MAX I CAN BE LOUD coming closer to the mic.
Questions
1. Where are you working
Answered..
 
2. What are you going to do in US?
I would be working on implementing and configuring my company's proprietary tool *** with client’s system.
 
3. Tell me your company name again. (asked again. I don't know why)
Answered again. He was checking something in the system
 
4. He again asked me to explain what are you going to do in US.
Said most of the points under duties mentioned in support letter
 
5. Annual salary
Answered
 
6. How long are you working with your company?
3 years and 9 months to be precise
 
5. How long are you going to stay in US
Approximately 2 years (as mentioned in ds 160)
 
6. Why so long?
As I would be serving multiple clients I will require time to analyze and coordinate
with them to understand the complexity of their system and thus the tool can be accordingly integrated.
 
 
After this he took almost 1 min looking at his system and gives me Blue slip 221g and pamphlet (both attached in email)
He said your appl needs more admin processing and you will be communicated to submit your passport in few weeks.
 
I asked him- Is there anything wrong with my application?
He said no- It needs more adm processing.
 
I said- thank you for your time and left.
 
In this entire conversation he hardly looked at me and I could barely see his lips moving when he asked me all questions.
He was too low.
 

I personally feel my organization being a healthcare based and not that big shot MNCs. I received 221g.

Hello All,

I am in a situation where I am not able to understand if I am asked to follow a correct path or not. Hence, will need help from folks who had faced similar issue in past or have knowledge in this matter.

I already have a valid L1B Blanket visa which was issued on name of my current organization (Issued - Dec 2017, valid till Dec 2020) and I had travelled on the same in 2018 for 11 months (Jan to Nov). Now, I have been asked to travel again for 1.5 years in Dec 2019. However, my company had started a process of new L1B Blanket because my job title and description has changed (still falls under specialized category). I had asked if we should go for an amendment instead of a new Visa. To which, I was told that it will take almost same time and since I am in India, I should go for a new one and also the new Visa will be stamped for 2 years (valid till end of 2021)

My concern here are -

1. Will I be issued a new visa knowing that I already have a valid Visa for one more year or will they send me back asking to file an amendment
2. Is it True that new Visa will be stamped for 2 year (based on extension pattern). My company feels I will need to stay more that a year (15-18 months) and it makes more sense to go for a new one.

Thanks in advance.