H1B, H4 Visa

HI,

I had my H1B visa interview on 12-12-12. VO greeted me and asked are you from 'my comp name'? I replied yes. then she asked
who is your client?
which city you are travelling to?
whats your highest qualification?

it took less than 30 secs in the counter. but the overall procedure took ~ 120 mins...
All the best for those who are attending PAI

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday on Dec 13th, I have completed my OFC . Not required to go before 2 hours. Make sure to available before 30 mins. This is very very simple one which will complete in 10 mins.

I had my interview Today Dec 14th 2012 at Hyderabad location. The interview was very very cool. I was bit tense when i reached the interviewer place but its really not required since interview was very very cool and the interviewer was very friendly. Following questions are asked by the young man.

1) How long you have been with your current company?

2) Whats your project name?

3) Which place you are going to work?

 Mention City and State name here

4) What is your client name?

Good luck...

Thank you immi for your help. :)

Hi all..
I had my interview on Dec 13th at Chennai consulate. the interview was very cool.
VO was a young american lady

Following qns were asked.

Are you with "my company name"?
which client?
which place?

thats it. I was at the counter hardly for 30 to 45 secs. She didnt even ask me the documents.
Good luck to all who are going to attend the interview.

Hi All,

I had my OFC on 13th Dec.Make sure you guys reach only half an hour before.We reached almost 1.5 hours before and struggled under hot sun and chennai humidity.Please carry and umbrella in case travellng with Family:) was helpful for me....

OFC will take 2-5 mins...done for the day..

Next day Interview @ 8 am...reached Counsulate @ 7...Since I was travelling with my wife and10 months old baby..they allowed us inside without queue..otherwise make sure you reach only half an hour before to avoid waiting in queue on footpath outside embassy...

Gents wallets are allowed...Mobiles,cosmetics like cream,mirror etc not allowed..

You have a counter to deposit only valuables like mobile on footpath outside embassy...

After all security checks doc verification...reached the second building for interview..

Questions asked by VO:

VO: GM..
Me: GM sir..

VO: DS160 and I797 please
Me: Passed them with passports...

VO: Which Client?
Me: YYYY XX

To my wife:

VO: Madam your highest qualification?
My wife: YYYY ZZZ

Thats all then came the golden words:I am approving your visa..you will get text sms in 7 working days..

Filled the courier form for passport delivery..300 each applicant...

Hope this helps other..

Thanks and All The Best...

Hello All,

I had my OFC appointment on 10th and interview appointment on 11th Dec at Mumbai. My wife accompanied me for her H4 stamping.

OFC:

We carried passports, appointment schedule and DS160 confirmation page. After security check we were given tokens and as per the sequence # we entered into a cubicle and furnished our finger prints and photos were taken.
It took 15-20 minutes in the complete process.

Interview at consulate,

Our interview was scheduled at 10 AM but we reached there by 8:45 am and were allowed to go inside. There was an intense security check (alike airports). No mobile, CD, pendrive and camera are allowed. Its better to carry all the documents in transparent folders.

Thereafter, we were made to sit in a waiting area and co-ordinators checked and arranged our documents in a certain manner. For H1 stamping,they checked I797 and DS160 confirmation page and put them together in a bunch.

After waiting there for around an hour, we were allowed to go inside at around 10 am. There we were given a token and again fingerprints were verified.

Now starts the wait for interview. there are screens put up displaying the current token number being processed. our turn came in an hour's time. Questions asked to me by officer:

1) what's your highest qualification?
2) your specialization in undergraduate course.
3) What's your current salary in India.
4) How much will be your salary in the USA.
5) Which is your client in the USA.
6) When did you get marry.

no questions were asked to my wife.

with this, he told us that our case is approved.

We paid for courier delivery at the exit counter and by 11:15 am we were done with the entire process.

 
This forum helped me a lot for this interview. Thank you all.


Regards,

KKS

Hi All,

I had my H1 and H4 visa stamping dome today.

I went with my spouse, we were married 10 months ago.

I was pretty late to the embassy. Had my appointment at 10:00 am today, but reached the embassy at 10:05 am.

Ladies were allowed to carry hand bag ONLY if they go in with kids.

My wife is pregnant, still they did not allow her hand bag. Had to deposit on the platform stall where they print tokens and keep your bag/mobile.(Queue for that too, the cart guy asks for your DS 160 and appointment form :( )

Then security frisking, and you go in.

Step 1:

You will be issued a token at a counter

Step 2:
According to the token number you will be called for document verification.

Step 3:

After document verification, you have to do finger print scanning.

Step 4:

You will be asked to go to another building, where you will be called again with the same token number.

THIS IS WHERE THE ACTUAL INTERVIEW HAPPENS.

(Till this point it is only VFS guys(Indians) will be issuing tokens, verifying documents)

Here is how my visa interview went;

ME: Good Morning
VO: Good Morning

ME: How are you doing?
VO: Am fine, thank you. How are you ?

ME: Am doing good , Thanks.


I was wearing my company ID

VO: You work for YYYY ?
ME: Yes

VO: Who is your client?
ME: YYYY X

Visa officer then turned to my wife and greeted her

VO: How long you were married?
My Wife: 10 months

VO: Is it arranged or love?
My Wife: Arranged

VO: is this a happy marriage?
My Wife did not get the question so I answered, Yes pretty much :) (Not sure whether she is ;) )

VO: Did you read the white booklet?
ME: I browsed through it but not read it completley

VO: Smiled and said ''Thats fine''

Then he kept both the passports with him and said YOUR VISA IS APPROVED and YOU WILL GET IT IN 5 BUSINESS DAYS :)

Came out happily, but forgot to pay the DD for courier :(

I was not allowed to get back again by the security.

Luckily, there was a person from YYYY company who was very kind enough to take my DD and courier address inside and give it to the Premium Courier counter.

Overall, it was a good experience.

This is the fifth time I am applying for US visa.

2 H1-B did not go through the lottery in 2007, 2008

L1-B Individual - RFE - Petition rejected - 2007
L1-B Blanked - Rejected in Embassy - 2008

Did not expect I will be asked only few questions :)

Be confident and Maintain eye contact. You will get through for sure. And lastly, smile :) It really helps.

Thank you IMMIHELP for providing a virtual preview of the process before I actually went for the interview.

Dear All

I have some queries like ….
somebody getting case number and somebody not getting case number
which one is the positive sign or critical and one more thing
somebody getting administrative process and somebody getting additional documents submission
here which case is critical and which will take longer time…
if anybody have an idea please share the same. It will more help to others.

Thank you.
Shridhar

I had my OFC on 10th December. I already had my fingerprinting done on 15th November. But I was asked to reschedule my actual appointment to some other day as it was admin day in Hyderabad. Hence I rescheduled and printed an appointment confirmation letter with the old DS-160. OFC saw that I brought the same DS-160 which I had used on 15th November and asked me to reschedule both my OFC and appointment again. I talked to 3-4 people and finally they allowed me. Reason was I did not attend the actual interview and my DS-160 was not used up. They did not take my fingerprints but let me go as a post no-show.

Actual interview was on Dec 11th. 11:00AM. I went there 1 hour ahead of time. 10:30 batch people were standing in line. We were asked to wait. After they sent the 10:30 batch people in, we were allowed to stand in line. Stood in line for about 20 minutes before we were sent in.

They checked the appointment confirmation at the gate and let us in. Once inside we were asked to sit. After sitting for about 10 minutes, a guy came and called our names. He checked our DS-160 and we were sent to security. After passing through the security, there is another waiting area. There the officer asked my I-797 and pinned it with my DS-160 and appointment confirmation. Then we were asked to go to a counter. There they checked my DS-160 again and confirmed my H1-B petition. After that I was sent to the finger printing confirmation counter. After that was done we were given a token and asked to wait in the waiting area. After waiting for about 15mins my token was called and I was asked to go to counter 15. VO was an Indian looking guy in his late 30's. I sat before the counter as the VO was interviewing others.
He rejected an F1 candidate, approved one tourist visa, approved one B-1 candidate. Then I was called.

VO- Hello, How are you
Me- Fine, How about you? (passed my passport, DS-160, I-797 and appointment confirmation letter)
VO- Tell me about your company
Me- It is a product based company
VO- So you don't work for a client
Me- No
VO- Where are you based?
Me- YYYY X
VO- Can I see your paystubs
Me- Sure (I was searching my files for the paystubs, I had loads of documentation)
VO- So what is your designation?
Me- (Still searching) I am a Software Engineer.
VO - What do you do for your company?
Me - (Still searching) I design software, develop software, test software (too much of vacation time and I gave this stupid answer :) )
Me - Finally passing in my paystubs.
VO- He glanced through the paystubs and said, your visa is approved. Have a nice day.
Me - Thank you. Have a nice one.

That is it. In counter 16 there was a white lady. She rejected 2 F1s, approved one F1 and one H1-B. One guy whose F1 was rejected argued with the officer saying that people with percentage less than that of him are getting approved. True to his word, the guy who got his F-1 approved had 10 percent less than the guy who had his F-1 rejected. But he had a good GRE and IELETS score and had good universities and overall a good attitude. I guess the key is good documentation and how you present yourself.

Hello Group,

Can we schedule the OFC appointment @ HYD and VISA appointment @ Chennai / Delhi consulate, did any one gone through this scenario, please advise.


thanks.
Raju.

I was in USA on L1B with Employer "A".

My L1B visa with employer "A" and I-94 expired on 25-Apr-2012
"A" filed L1B I-94 extension early in Apr.

Employer "B" applied for my Fresh H1B with CoS request.- Apr-2012

Received RFE on L1B - Jul-2012

Received RFE on H1B asking for project details - Sep-2012

RFE response sent and Changed H1B to PP -Sep-2012

Received another RFE on H1B as there was RFE on L1B - 15-Oct-2012

Response sent for RFE on L1B - 20-Oct-2012

Response sent for RFE on H1B - 03-Nov-2012

On 16-Nov-2012 L1B Extension denied and H1B visa approved with consulate processing (CoS denied)
I left USA on 25-Nov.

I am planning to go for visa stamping. I am worried as this is fresh employment with small employer. I have a letter from employer and details of in house project.
What all documents I will need to minimize rejection?
Additional information
The company is in operations since 2004. It has 39 employees and has gross rev of ~$2 mn. As I am going to start employment on reaching USA is it going to work against me? Also, do I need any documents from current employment? Can you suggest if there are any specific documents which I should carry for interview

Is it worth risking rejection?