L1, L2 Visa

Hi all,
I had my PA on 29th Oct 2008 in Chennai and the entire process was pretty cool and easy. You could go to the consulate just 30min before the appointment time as they only let in people at their scheduled appointment time. So even if you go early you need to wait in the long queue unnecessarily.
I heard that there were many L1 rejections in recent times but as long as you have all your documents available, all forms correctly filled and fully confident, I don’t think there would be any reason for visa rejection.

My experience with the VO was as follows:

The VO had rejected the visa for the candidate who was in front of me as he was unable to explain to the VO as to what purpose he was travelling and they had an argument for around 5mins. The VO looked totally frustrated and irritated.

Me: Good morning! How are you doing? [With all smiles and maintained the smile throughout the interview]
VO: [No response] Can I have the documents please?

[Looked through the set of documents]

VO: I see your visa has been rejected this year.
Me: Yes, I had applied for a B2- visitor visa when I was in UK

VO: Reason for rejection?
Me: I did not have strong ties with UK and they asked me to apply the visa from India.

VO: I see you have a Bachelors degree in Engineering?
Me: Yes

VO: Can I see your Degree Certificate?
Me: [Passed on the degree certificate]

VO: What are your specialized skills?
Me: I am specialized in requirement analysis, test planning and test execution using my company proprietary tools YYYY and YYYY.

VO: You will receive your passport in 5 working days. Thank You.
Me: Thanks!!! Thanks a Lot!!

Following are the other questions which I prepared for the interview, hope it could be helpful for the rest who are applying for a L1B visa:

1)Why are you going to US?
I am going to US on a temporary assignment to work on the project YYYY for the client YYYY.
2)Who is your client? Where is your client located? What is the client’s primary business?
3)How long have you been working for your company?
4)How long have you been working for the existing client?
If it is your first assignment answer the following – “This is my first assignment but I have been working for a similar client on the same domain, technology and specialization tools for the past X years and Y months.”
5)What is your role at onsite/offshore?
6)What are your project responsibilities at onsite?
7)What specialized tools knowledge do you possess? How long have you been working on those tools?
Always mention your roles and responsibilities along with the tool usage. Something like below:
“I am specialized in Requirement analysis, test planning and test execution using my company proprietary tool YYYY and YYY.”
These tools must be your company proprietary tools and cannot be any languages like C, C++ or applications like DOTNET, Java or mainframes.
The following responsibilities are advised not to be mentioned to the VO
•Application Development
•Production Support
•Maintenance
•Understanding/Introducing new technologies
•Automation Testing
•Offshore/onsite coordination
8)Describe the functionality of the specialization tools in your project?
9)Who has developed the specialized tools?
10)Will you be implementing these tools in your project?
11)What is your team size at onsite/offshore?
12)What is your salary at onsite/offshore?
13)What is your domain knowledge and the duration you worked on a particular domain?
14)Who was your previous client? Previous project details/Duration/responsibilities?
15)What are your qualifications? Date of completion?
16)Why have you left your previous project and opted for this project?
17)Why should you be selected to travel onsite?
18)Is it a development/testing project?
19)Who will you report at onsite? Who is your manager/supervisor at onsite, which company and where is he located?
The onsite manager must be from your company and not from the client company and must be in the same location where your petition was filed.
20)Why can’t the work be done at offshore? Why can’t the existing onsite folks do the work?
21)What is the duration of your stay at onsite?
22)Have you been rejected for a US visa before? If so, what was the reason for rejection? When and where did you apply for the visa?
23)How much time will it take for you to train someone else on the tools? Why can’t you train the clients with these tools?
24)What is the project name? Describe the project details?
25)Is the project an In-house project?
26)What does a programmer analyst/test analyst/system analyst do?
27)Where and with whom will you stay at US?
28)How many people will report to you at US?
If it is for a L1B visa the answer is “None”. This question is applicable for L1A visa ones.
29)When will you be travelling to US?
30)Are you married? Where is your spouse working? How long have you been married?
31)If spouse is in US then the following questions are applicable – Company and location of your spouse? How many years has your spouse been in US? What is the expected duration of his/her stay in US?
32)What is your role/specialized skills in the project?
Specialized skills are different from Specialization tools. Some of the specialization skills could be design, requirement analysis, configuration management, performance testing etc.
33)Why only that your company proprietary tools are required for the project?
34)Tell me about your company? Company profile?
35)Why have you chosen L1B rather than H1B?
- “My educational qualification and knowledge on specialized tools have qualified me as a candidate for L1B visa”
36)What is the significance of using the specialized tools from onsite instead of offshore?
“Better visibility of the project activities to the client and provides an efficient way to track the project execution”
37)When did you join your company? Joining date?
38)Who would you be working for - the petitioner or the client at onsite?
It should always be Petitioner and never the client company. The petitioner will be your own company.
39)Who is your employer? Who pays you the salary at onsite?
It should always be your company and never the client company.
40)What was the criterion for your selection by your company? Why were you selected among your project mates?
41)What are the countries you last visited?
42)What is your client location?
L1 visa is an intra – company transfer seeking a temporary admission to US to be employed by a parent/branch/affiliate/subsidiary/sister company of your company. This means that you cannot work at the client location but you can visit the client premises to discuss project related issues.
The most probable answer for this question would be “I would be working at my company branch office. The project might require me to travel to the client location to use the client facilities but I would still remain an employee of my company YYYY (name of your company).”

The above answers are just sample answers and you could tune them as per your project requirement. All the answers need to be in a single statement and crisp.
All the best!!!!