H1B, H4 Visa

Successful stamping at Chennai consulate on 21st Nov

Many thanks for this wonderful site. I have been reading this website regularly for the last 4 months and got good amount of Information about collecting documents, preparing yourself for the interview and lots of Visa officer questions as well.

One of the consulate security person told on that day there were totally 1400 candidates have come for visa. Chennai consulate is the one which is most busy than others in India. I think the reason could be because of three IT cities falling under this region.

anyway, i will be skipping all the scanning and doc. checking portion. However there should be couple of things should be noted here.

1) My interview time was 3PM and i went to the consulate at 2.20PM and joined the long queue. After few minutes, VFS persons called all 2.30,2.45 and 3PM candidates to come forward and enter inside the consulate. So, its better to go just 20 or 30 minutes before your interview time, however in many cases people have been allowed much time before their appointment time.

2) when you stand inside in any queue inside the consulate, notice have been pasted in the wall. Please carefully read them and it will help you to act appropriately.

3) If you had to stand in the long queue inside and sweat a lot, please refresh yourself after you enter into the consulate. there are rest rooms available inside and you will feel better with less tension.

4) Don't think of luck at all. this could be 1 or 2%, All visa's are issue based on three things of the potential candidate,

they are i) Your Eduacation & university of study, place
ii) Your current company ( a Major factor ) and years of work experience (IT and non IT)
iii) Your Prospective US company and its good will. along with that how much you know about ur US company and how confident you are.

These are the above three things were asked in many different ways in all visa interview experience posted in this site.

when my turn came, i was asked these questions,

VO: hello, how are you
me: Good evening, doing fine sir.
VO: Whats you education
me: I have done MCA from MKU ( in detail , always tell about place of study )
VO: where do you work and tell me your background
me: i work for YYYY and have 6.5 yrs of experience...
vo: stopped me in the middle and said, that's nice... ( mine is a well branded fortune 500 company in US)
VO: what do you do at my US company
me: i will work on YYYY project on YYYY technology
VO: interrupted and asked about project name, he searched for project and company name in google or their database ( not sure on which, most prob. on google )
me: i told the complete project name.
VO: immediately, he said, OK, i approve your visa and you will get it couriered in 2 days.
vo: he pushed my i797,i129 and LCA and tood only my DS forms and passport from the blue folder.
me: said thanks a lot and left from the window with all my papers.

As others say those words are really Golden at that moment. Actually, i was expecting more questions and ready to show the docs that i had, but it was like giving me shock with happiness. I smiled and left the window as everydone does in happiness at that moment.

things to remember:

1. When i was standing in the queue, i saw many people were given visa who answered properly to the questions and showed document properly not wasting the vo time. Many people fumbled and giving wrong answers and wasted vo time. that irritates them, they didnt deny visa to anyone but givng second chance in the form of 221g.

2. Please have all the docs arranged in folder and take out frm your polythene and put them in the table where you stand for interview. that shows and gives a feeling to vo that you have essential docs to show vo if they ask for. thats the body language sign that you can give to them.

since my current company is a very famous US company and good brand name, he issued me visa. VO look for quality people to grant visa.

however, if you work for some unknown company and going for some unknown compnay, dont feel negligble. VO do gives a chance to present yourself and convince them. I have seen many were showing docs and finally got their visa approved.

Its all about how you react at that time of interview. Be prepared for all questions that were posted in this site.

I think these are the imp. questions that anyone should answer well.

Current role,
current job desc ( remember that current role and job desc are two diff things ) answer it properly,

role u will play at US:
US job desc:
US company details: turnoover, employee list, no of projects, no of clients, location, HR and tech persons.
ur project details: ansswer well about ur project and other details like budge, market analysis, prospective clients and better have projected related docs, do not creat those docs by urself, try to get it from ur employer.
Financial docs: federal quarterly return for 2007, 2006, annual tax returns, w2 forms for all employees, unemploymet wage report.

i think i have given good amount of info what most of the other people gave in this site, it will help for all future h1 aspirants.

thanks again for this site.

Senthil