H1B, H4 Visa

Hi all,
  First of all, thanks for everyone who has shared their experiences on this website. It really helped me prepare for this interview. Here is the summary of what happened on both days.

OFC (18th dec)
This is a straightforward process, you just have to carry DS 160 confirmation, appointment confirmation and passport. My appointment was at 10am, the queue was moving quickly. First we go through a security check, please make sure you don't bring any electronic devices or bags here. Plastic unsealed bags are fine, guards were quite friendly here. After that we went to a different room where couple people were thoroughly checking DS 160, appointment confirmation and passport. Once they put a bar code sticker, you go for actual fingerprints and photo. Here the guy assigned a counter, once my number was called, he asked me to put four fingers of both hands one by one and two thumbs later on, then he takes a picture. That's it! you are done for this day. Barely takes 10 minutes.

Interview Day (19th Dec)
My appointment was at 10am, their system broke down in the morning so we still had some people from 9am interview in our queue. After they fixed it, one of the consular stopped by and apologized about it and thanked everyone for their patience. They started it within 10 minutes. First you are sent for security check, straight forward, don't bring any electronic items. After that you are sent outside where a guy checks your passport and asks you to take a seat in one of the rows, there was a queue in my row but it moved fairly quickly. We were sent to another building where the actual interview takes place, over there they check your fingerprints again and assign the interview counter.

Me: Hello maam, how are you?
VO: Fine, can I have your passport and I797, please?
Me: Handed the documents.
VO: Can I see your old passport, please?
Me: Handed my old passport.
VO: How long have you been working for this company?
Me: X year and y months.
VO: Were you on OPT with this company?
Me: Yes
VO: What's your designation?
Me: Answered that
VO: What's your annual salary?
Me: Answered that
VO: What's your highest qualification?
Me: Answered that (I saw she was cancelling my old visa on my old passport, pretty much a hint that visa was approved)
VO: Are you single or married?
Me: Single
VO: Have you read the white pamphlet?
Me: Yes
VO: Your visa has been approved, you will receive your passport within 3-5 days. (She returned my old passport and I797 form)
Me: Thank you so much!
(My VO was pretty cool. She was cute too)

All the best to those going for visa stamping! thanks again to everyone sharing their experiences here!

Hi,

First of all thanks to everyone for posting their experiences in immihelp.It really really helped us a lot in preparing for our interview.
My husband and myself attended the interview for H1,H4 stamping.
Our interview was scheduled on Dec 18 - Biometrics and Dec 19 - consulate interview.
Biometrics went on well and the big day has come which we were waiting for so so so long.
There were mixed feelings in mind when we were waiting in Queue as our employment is through a small company in US.
We have been in US till March on L1 and L2 Visas for a reputed MNC, and we never knew that getting H1 through small companies is that painful until actually experienced it.
My God... it was like a suspense movie and we almost lost our hopes as the whole interview process was around 2.30hrs.. but finally Baba is great ..He heard my prayers..
The interview went on like this
VO: GM sir
Ans:GM sir

VO:which company are you currently working with
Ans:XYZ and the petition is for new employment with ABC.

VO:which comapny is that?
Ans:ABC

VO:how long have you been working with the current employer?
Ans:XX months

VO:what is your designation?
Ans : YYYY X

VO: Do you have your resume?
Ans:i dont have it currently with me and if you provide me some time,i would be able to quickly print out my Resume. (this happened to be the only document missing wth us, this is what called as luck..:):))

VO:i actually don't need that.

Questions to me

VO:how long have you been married?
me:x years

VO:do you have children?
me:answered accordingly

VO:where is your husband's petitioner office located?
me: YYYY YYYY X

VO: we need some time for administrative processing.Please wait in the Lobby.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
we were waiting there for almost 50 min and only my husband was called after that to a counter where an indian(looks like he is the helper of VO) is sitting over there.
Below are the list of questions to my husband again.
Interviewer: whos is your client?
Ans: YYYY YYYY X

Interviewer: why do you want join such a small company?
Ans:For International exposure and better career growth

Interviewer: you are serving as a Tech Lead in your current company and you are opting for a programmer Analyst role with your future employer.
How can you justify the term "Better career growth"?
Ans: I have Lead experience of around 2 years in my total career of 6 years and since my new employment is with a small company, the responsibilities would be high which gives me the options to grow faster.

Interviewer: Looks like your annual pay in your past employement in US is high when compared to your future employment. how will you manage the expenses?
Ans: I have lived in that area before, and my expenses were around 2500 $ per month.With the current given annaul pay, i am sure that i would manage my expenses and also save some bugs.
Interviewer: how did you know about this Employer?
Ans: I was referred to this company by my friend who is working for the same project and same company for the last 1 year.
Interviewer: is your friend still working in the same company and same project?
Ans : Yes
Interviewer:where will you be working?
Ans :I am going to work from my employer's Head quarters YYYY XX.
Interviewer: how many people are working in your project and how many of them are working from the location which you are going to work?
Ans : YYYY X people are working from employer's Head quarters and YYYYY people are working directly in client Location.
Interviewer :How many employees are working are there in your company?
Ans: YYYY X

Finally he redirected both of us to the same VO who interviewed us initially.Our brains bulged and our nerves were about to break as the VO was peeping in to his screen for so long.
Added to this there were two rejections before us with similar cases and we almost lost hopes.

At last..... we heard the Golden Words from VO "YOUR VISAS are APPROVED".
 we concluded that we need some luck and lot of blessings irrespective of documents we carry.

we were asked for only I797 and I129 for the whole interview and nothing else, and we have around 6 kgs of documents with us...:):)

All the best for your interviews.

 

OFC - 17th Dec
Consulate interview - 19th Dec

Today i had my consulate interview in Hyderabad.

Below is the conversation had with VO:

Me : Good Mrng sir..How r u doing..
VO: Give me ur Passport and I797?

Me: passed the same

Vo: Who is employer?
Me: xxxxx

Vo: What you do for your employer?
Me: I do work for them as xxxx for their in house project.

Vo: R u going to work at client location or employer location?
Me: At employer location itself

Vo: Share me the project stuff and also the docs which mention the same by your employer
Me: Shared Project desc...Project letter.

VO: Pls share all the employer related docs including Tax returns
Me: . Shared the same

VO: Pls wait in the lobby will get bak to u
Me: Waiting @ lobby

After 40Min Some one called my name and asked to go the same VO counter.

VO: Asked me to give my passport
Me: I already shared docs sir..U told me to wait in lobby...

VO: Ohh..sorry where is ur docs rounded himself and asked me to put left hand fingers for biometric.
Me: done

VO: Asked me to wait again for some time in lobby
Me: Waiting again..

After 30 min some one called and taken me into some other counter..There some other girl wished me and told ur case in administrative processing sir we require some more time.

She shared me the white paper by checking administrative processing section.

I didn't expect my case to be in this stage..But still my bad luck

Please let me know if any one knows about the administrative case - How much scope for approval?

All the best to all H1B applicants for your interview.

Regards,
Sai lee

Hi Guys,

I need your valuable suggestions.

I applied H1B visa through a small organization and its an external company three years back and got rejected. But I applied new H1B through the same company.

Whether my new H1B impact any thing because of old was rejected.

However i have all supporting documents.

Thanks..

This forum has helped me a lot to prepare for the interview, thanks to the forum

I got my H1b visa approved, below is the process I have gone through and questions I have faced
 
Once we are in, after waiting for 15min in the lobby they asked us to stand in a queue where they will issue token number(will be pasted on your passport) if you are going with wife and kids they will issue only one token for all.
 
Once that is done its time for security check wallet, belts, everything you carry(do not carry sealed envelopes) make sure you unseal them.
 
Once it is done its waiting time for you to see your token number on screen, for me waiting time is 30-45mins, my token appeared on screen, before me there were two F1 rejections which increased my pulse and tension too, now my turn
 
Handed over my passport, I797B original and my wife’s passport
 
1.)Which state in US?
2.)For whom will you work in US?
3.)Where are you working now?
4.)What is your role?
5.)Is it internal project?
 
She was typing almost for 2minutes and said golden words “your visa is approved”.
 
No questions to my wife.
 

Well I had read through a lot of posts on here so decided to share my experience. Overall it was pretty packed considering I had my fingerprint on Sunday and then interview on Monday

Day 1 - Fingerprint

Reached the OFC at around 2ish for my 3.00 PM appointment. Only thing needed here is DS-160,Visa Appointment Confirmation and Passport. Brisk and short - they take photos inside and figerprints and whole process takes 15-20 minutes.

Day 2 - Interview -

Well this was quite packed to be honest. Reached the Visa Ofc at 7.45 for 9.00 am appointment and already we had a huge queue. The people are segregated based on times once you reach the end of the queue. We where let in at approx 10. Inside security is super strict with regards to what all you can carry.

I did not realize it but I had sealed VTU transcripts (not needed so I really wonder why I carried them ). But yeah make sure your folders do not have any unwanted stuff - this will only waste time and I had to run outside to open the sealed envelopes. You cannot open it inside so be careful.

Anyways after all the security hurdles I finally went in inside and verified the fingerprints and then waited for my token number to be displayed.

Interview - hardly even lasted a minute - my case is a reputed company directly hired in the USA. It is a well know product development company so I was quite confident I will not be asked much questions

VO : So why are you going to the USA

Me : I work in compant xxxxx as a Firmware Engineer in <location>

VO : Since when are you working there

Me : 1 year and 3 months

VO : Your visa is approved

Overall interview was as expected. If you answer the first couple of question confidently and look into the eye , VO is more or less convinced.

Received an email today passport is ready to pickup. Good luck to other H1B applicants.

P.S : One of my other friends received 221 g in Hyd Consulate - same position and company. So it could be just a matter of luck but I guess reputed companies generally do not have any issue !

Firstly I thank Immi Help and the members for sharing their experiences which helped a lot in facing the Interview without getting tensed.

OFC Appointment ( Bio-Metric) : My OFC Appointment was scheduled on 15-Dec-2013 at 15:30pm at Chennai. Since i took an appointment along with my Family, i reached their 15mins a head and checked with Security if i could proceed inside as i heard of priority being given for families with Kids. I was allowed to move into the OFC accordingly after checking the appointment letter.

Remember that if you are attending along with your Kids, please check with the security or the concerned person attending the applicants a head of the queue. They will not come to you personally and check if you have kids and allow inside.

Coming back to point, i had issues with my Appointment letter missing my Full Name and my wife had two DS-160 forms as we had to amend some details.

Trust me, there wouldn't be any issue if your DS-160 form receipt and Passport Name matches.

We further completed the formalities of getting the bio-metric done and were back in 15mins.

Appointment at Consulate:

I had my appointment at the consulate at 8:30Am and have reached just on time to avoid standing in the queue as advised in the earlier posts. Again i checked with the security if i could get the priority to get in as i had my kid along with me. They just copied the bar code on the passport which was pasted during bio-metric and allowed us inside for security check.

Security Check : This was the horrible thing in the whole interview process. Security guard just removed all the documents which i have kept in order and re-shuffled them after scanning. I was in a dilemna since my folder had the documents pertaining to my wife and kid too and they were all shuffled, Felt very about that and requested the security guard to give me time to arrange for the docs as he was trying to push us inside.

At last i moved the next counter in the consulate where they re-take the finger prints and all went well. Meanwhile my token number was announced for interview. I reached the counter and greeted the officer, handed over the passports as requested and then went our conversation:

- Who is your Employer

- Where are you Travelling

- Who is your Client?

- Are you travelling to US for the First time?

- What is your Salary

- Could you please re-spell the client name

Then to my Wife:

- Are you going top work in United States ?

Then he updated something on his system and handed over the US Rights Pamphlet and told that the VISA was approved.

Hi guys ,

I need everyone valuble suggestions ,

MY Husband applied for an H1B and planning to go for Visa soon.However his F1 got rejected 3 years back ?will it impacdt the H1B ?

I am going as a H4 along with him and my B1/B2 also rejected 3 years back ?

SO does it impact the stamping ... however we have all the supporting Documents to prove

Why does everyone end the line - THEN CAME THE GOLDEN WORDS - VISA IS APPROVED

seriously is this called GOLDEN - hard to understand

Hi All,

I have one question , actually I have to go for OFC and H1B visa interview next week in Delhi. And I can see lots of news about Diplomat row: between India and US. The Delhi police removed barricades outside the sprawling US embassy in the capital and angry India takes reciprocal steps.

Just wandering if these steps is going to effect my OFC and visa interview next week . Looking forward to get appropriate answers .

Thanks ,