L1, L2 Visa

Thank you everyone here for posting the experiences. They were very helpful. Sharing my experience:

A day before the interview: After reading the experiences here, I took the tip and decided to write down the answers on a paper and it actually helped. I would recommend doing this activity atleast a week early, although I did it a day before.

IMPORTANT POINT: During interview, keep your points short and know when to stop. The VOs maintain straight face the entire time and my VO did not even nod. Hence, for one of the questions, I spoke more than what I should have (that's what my wife told me :D). So stick to the important points only and stop as soon as you have stated 2-3 points (if the VO has not interrupted). The more you explain, the more difficult it gets for you to stick to the points and you may end up saying things you have not prepared for and the VO can grill you on that.

Read all the L1B experiences on this forum to understand the process. Nothing different for biometric and the visa processing fee than the other experiences. Sorting the documents before going for appointment can save some time, but at that point, time is the least of your concern. You would be down with nervousness anyway and won't mind people going ahead of you!

I paid by cash since I did not want to take a chance of the card blocking the transaction(since it is in USD). I had already informed my bank of the upcoming transaction, but chose to pay by cash anyway. One less thing to worry about.

While in the queue for actual intervew, we observed some people getting rejected and others getting accepted. Don't think too much about it. You can't choose the counter you can go to, so just accept the fate and stay calm.

About me: I work for a product company. Salary is north of 140K. I have B1 visa already but have not travelled.

Me: Good morning, Officer!
VO: Good morning, can you handover the docs?

**handed over the docs**
VO: Where do you work?
Me: Told

VO: Where will you be working?
Me: **, ** (city and state)

VO: What is your salary in USD?
Me: "xyz dollars. <pause>This is the offered salary". (She did not mention current or offered. I had a confusion for a split second and hence I told "Offered salary" after a small pause)

VO: How long have you be working with you current company?
Me: 2 Years 3 Months

VO: What is your specializatoin?
Me: (At this point of time, i forgot everything I had prepared due to nervousness. And I started giving an impromptu answer). My answer included the term "Distributed systems"

VO: What is distributed systems?
Me: Told
(Note: Frankly, although I can explain what distributed systems is, my immediate worry was to keep it as simple as possible. I started explaining making sure I don't fumble. One trick is to slow down your pace of talking and take time to think and at the same time ensuring that there are no long pauses. Also, don't repeat your sentences. When you think you have spoken enough, stop! On this answer, I kept on going because I thought I had to explain the entire concept of Distributed Systems :D They just want to know you are not bull **** , so stay concise and again, STOP WHEN YOU THINK YOU HAVE EXPLAINED ENOUGH.

VO: What do you do with distributed systems?
Me: (I was slightly confused at this point. I thought I did a good job on the last answer) This time, I picked an example to explain. As I said about 1-2 lines, she interrupted.

VO: What do YOU do with distributed systems? (This time she emphaized on "YOU")
ME:(That's when it stuck me) Explained my role with distributed systems. This answer was also impromptu since I had prepared for "what is your role?" but not for "What is your role with distributed systems?"

After this, there was a long long pause. She was typing something. And then she goes ahead and stamps the forms. and she says "Your visa is approved...."

She did not ask my wife a single question!

Tips:
1) Prepare the bullet points for your current role, specialization and future role and make sure you are not faking anything. Had I not been working on Distributed Systems and had I just faked it, I would have been **** bricks when she grilled me on that topic.

2) When you don't understand the question, say sorry and ask again. Don't assume the question and end up giving wrong answer.

3) Look for follow up questions when you write down the bullet points during your preparation and prepare for those questions as well.

4) Your DS-160(and support letter) is like a resume and they can ask you anything on that. So you need to be well aware of the things you have mentioned, even if you have not prepared for them before hand. In my case, although I had not formally prepared for question on Distributed Systems, i could answer everything since i actually work on it. So put only those things you are specialized in

5) Don't fumble and don't complicate things. Speak slow when you are giving an impromptu answer. This buys you some time to think about what you are saying.

Again, a lot of it depends on luck. All you can do is prepare well. There are good chances that you might forget or you might not be abe to state things correctly. As long as you have stated the truth on your documents, you should be able to give convincing answers.

All the best!