H1B, H4 Visa

To give you little back ground: I was into my 5th year of my H1B, I got my first H1B stamping from X1 Company and after going to US, I changed to X2 Company and was
working with them for 4 years for now. I was working for same client for last 3 years on EVVC Model and got client letters from all the middle layers.

Here is how my interview went.

I had appoinment at 8:45 so went to consulate at 7:30. But they started calling time wise first 8 AM, then 8:15 AM, 8:30 and finally my turn 8:45.

At 8:30AM they had called people who slot is 8:45 AM, I would say plan to be there just half an hour before your schedule.

First check: When you go to line they are verifying your documents (Passport, Visa Appointment letter)

Second check: Verifying DS-160 and HDFC fee receipt, they are sticking the bar code on your passport.

The above would take 10 mins

Entry into Consulate: Security check

Thrid check: Verifies you DS-160, Visa appointment letter, I-797 and passport. Punches your DS-160, I-797 to your passport
(Carry photo copy of I-797, if you don't have it then they are going to attach the original and you will get it only with your passport)

Fourth Step: Gives you a token, which is attached to your documents punched to passport.

Fifth Step: Finger prints and Passport returning address
(If you want to change the address of your passport returnm, you can do it here in the counter)

Once your finger prints are taken, you will be asked to sit opposite counters where VISA interview are going on. Once your token number comes
you will be called to goto the counter.

For me I went to a lady and she approved earlier two persons who attended the visa, that gave me some confidence.

Here is how it went.


Me: HI Good Morning,
VO: Good Morning

Me: How are you doing today?
VO: Doing good, thank you and How are you?
Me: Doing good.


VO: Which compancy you work for?
Me: YYYY XX

VO: Do you work off-site or on-site?
ME: on-site

VO: Is this your first trip out of US
ME: No madam, its my H1 extension. ( she was looking at my passport for Visa stamping page)

VO: In your passport you had different company
ME: Yes, I joined another compancy after going to US.

VO: She was looking at my I-797

VO: How long you have been working for xxxx
ME: More than 3 years

VO: Are you working off-site or On-site
ME: I was working On-Site for client YYYY .

VO: So you client is YYYY , What project are you working on currently
ME: Gave a short explanation of my project for min

VO: Who do you report to on on-site
ME: I report to my Manager from xxxx (Employer company) Mr: YYYY . She was entering all the data in computer in the mean while.

VO: Then the golden words, Sir your visa is approved and you will get your passport in a week time in courier.
Me: Thank you Madam

VO: Have a nice day
ME: you too

My I-797 Original is with US Consulate, what happened is during document verification, they are verifying DS-160 confirmation page and I-797 and puching them
to passport. So when we go to VO, after the interview they are retaining passport if VISA is approved and not removing the I-797.

I asked one of the Indian officer over there who is helping to get people in line for VISA, they mentioned it will be returned with passport and nothing to worry.

Guys, confidence plays a major role in your visa approval and have all the details handy. If you are working on EVC or EVVC model prepare for all the questions.

Try to book your slot in the morning hours where VO will be fresh and chances are good for your visa.

Hi All,
 Thanks so much for sharing your experiences which helped me a lot to prepare myself for the same.

My h1b interview exp goes as below.

Mine was scheduled at 9.15 AM on 5th Jan , i reached chennai consulate at 8.20 and after standing for 5 mins in the queue they were calling my batch.

Mine was a BEP case , so thought the process wouldnt take tough, but that was the other way.

After fininshing finger print and document verification, i've been asked to go to the other building there i was waiting for my number to be get called , i was bit nervous. Finally my number called in counter 16.

There were 2 guys before me in the Q, one for L1 and another for H1 , for the H1 guy they gave a slip and for the L1 guy they rejected it , so pity of him, he already had his b1 visa, there seems to be some violations in his previous travel on B it seems , the consular officer had cancelled his B1 on the spot and Rejected the L1 application also.

Now my turn. A little bit of my background.. actually i too had a B-visa which i obtained when i was employed with an organization X, but didnt get chance to travel in X. I quit my job and joined Y company(An indian MNC) whose american office is now currently processing my h1 visa.I had travelled with the B visa here in Y and stayed for 3 months in US , though my I-94 validity was 6 months.

VO: Hi good morning !
Me: Hello good morning, how r u doing today?

VO:Am doing gud, thanks. Which company you are coming from?
Me: I'm from company Y.

VO: who is the client?
Me: <Client_Name>

VO: Location?
Me: YYYY X

VO: How long u r with ur current employer
Me: XX months

VO: What project is this all about?
Me: YYYY for a bank

VO : Is it ERP or CRM?
Me: Not that it is different

VO: How many people are there at client site from ur company?
Me: XX

VO: How many at offshore
Me: XX

VO: what do the offshore people do here?
Me: They work on different regions systems (APAC,WEUR)

VO: what do the onsite people do?
Me: solving NA customer queries.

VO: how long have you been in US on ur B-visa ?
Me: 3 months

VO: 3 Months on B-Visa?
Me: yeah.

VO: why such long duration? what were you doing for 3 months?
Me: I was attending business meetings and gathering requirement from the product partners

VO: Business meeting for 3 months? can you explain me the activities u have done on a typical day in ur stint there?

Me: Told him what i did (i forgot that i should stick on to meetings on B1 ) but somehow couldnt manage telling lies all along, so told him what i was doing actually .

VO : what i understand based on ur speech now is u were doing close to productive work, which a person on a B-visa is not supposed to do. if you do any kind of productive work on a b-visa ur visa will get cancelled, but i can't asssure that whether it will be cancelled or not, since ur work was close to that. Ok sir ur passport will reach you within a week, (and he said something about my H1 which i couldnt understand properly) . Tell ur HR people that they should not send you on a B-visa for so long duration.

Me: with lots of confusion in my mind( said thank u and have a nice day to him )and left the counter , Now i had multiple questions in my mind 1.whether my h1 is approved or not? 2. Whether they are going to cancel my B1 or not? 3. Whether they have taken back my passport to issue a H1 visa or to simply cancel my b-visa and send the passport back to me?:-(

Answers for all these questions had come today when i got my passport with H1B stamped with 3 years validity and B1 visa was untouched. :-)

So my advice to all those who had a long trip on B-visa please prepare yourself with enough of lies which should give them a picture that u really were not doing any productive work and were attending business meetings and gathering requirements something like that. I would rather say i had luck on myside that day.



Regards,
ROCKSSK.

VO: Good Morning? How Are you
me: Thanks doing good, how are you

VO: Which company are you working?
me : XX

VO: Who is your client ?
me: XX

VO: Who is your reporting manager
me: RX, he is from X and i discuss with him over the phone

VO: What is your salary
me: xx,xxx

VO: How much experience you have
me: X

He types in the computer for few minutes and takes a green slip and tells me that my salary is low for my experience and he needs an explanation from the company.

Has anyone experience this ?

What is the next step ?

How long is it likely to take ?

Thanks,
Vinodh

Hi,

This is my second post. In my previous post I have given all the question related to my interview. My visa was approved but was kept in administrative process.

Date of Interview :15th Dec 2011(Pink Slip)
Passport Received: Jan 7th 2012.

Not contacted Consulate within this period.

Questions asked on the other counter by indian lady, which I missed in my previous Post.

Q. Do you have any siblings?
Ans. No

Q. xxxx Is your first company ?
Ans Yes.

Q. Can you please show me the previous passport (Cancelled Passport)?
Ans. Showed Cancelled Passport (Name was miss spelled)

After 23 days at last I got my passport with visa stamped.

All the best for other who are in administrative process. Dont lose your hope. You all guys will get the passport. Be patient and do not try to contact consulate.

My parents attended for B1 Visa in Heyderabad second time at it got approved. They asked following question,
VO: Who is in US?
Dad: My elder Son

VO: For what company he is working?
Dad: YYYY company

VO: what is your second son doing and where he is?
Dad: He is software engineer in YYYY company in YYYY City.

VO: What is your profession?
Dad: Farmer

VO: How many Acres land you have?
Dad: XX

VO: What you doing?
Mom: House Maker

VO: Yout visa got approved and you will receive your passport in a week.

Thanks for immihelp.

Hi All,
I attended PAI @ chennai embassy on 6th Jan.


The questions asked during the interview were the following.

Q. Have you been to US before?

A. No, this would be my first travel to US.

 
Q. What is your client name ?

A. Answered appropriately.

 
Q. Experience with your company ?

A. Answered appropriately.

Q. Experience with the client ?

A. Answered appropriately.


Q. What are going to do in US ?

A. Told about my responsibilities in the project.

 
Q. What kind of application you would be working on ?

A. Answered appropriately.

 
Q. Have you ever applied for a VISA for US?

A. Answered appropriately.

 
Q. What would be your salary?

A. Told, the figure which was there in LCA.

 
Q. Which place you are going to work in US?

A. Told what was mentioned in LCA (She cross checked)

 
Q. What is your highest degree?

A. Answered appropriately.

After this, She typed something , took a white pamplet, gave it to me and asked to read this before traveling to US and said "your visa is approved , you will get your passport in a week's time"

One thing which i observed was, there were some more people from my firm who came for their stamping and all of us were called
at the same window.

The whole process took around half an hour.

All the best guys.


~Arvind

Dear Friends,

   My H1B interview was on 3Jan'12 at Hyderabad consulate, as in month of July my L1 got rejected so was bit worried but H1 was a Cake walk.

Questions asked were general:
1> Which Company and how long
2> Roles and Responsibilities
3> Which City and State

The Most Important as per me which you should take care is the below question
4> who is your day today reporting manager(RM)?

Well friends please be sure that name of RM you are mentioning should be in US at same location where you are going and should be on payroll to your company Please dont take any Client Manager name. You can work at client location but your RM should be from your company and should be US.

Rest was good it hardly taken few minutes and got the desired words "Your Visa is approved". but for those 2 minutes i waited for 2 and 1/2 hour in queue :-)

One more thing the Office is called as CO(Consular Officer) not VO ... my penny to further discussion.

Rest is good Best of Luck to all other aspirants.

Regards:
  Naresh Sabhnani

Hi All
I always wanted to add my experience here someday and give my small contribution to this site which made me help gain confidence, by reading other ppl experiences , to stand in front of that window and get a visa for my self.

Well i am also adding my exp so that all those out thr craving to understand the climate at Delhi consulate may have some relief.

Per my observation its Good these days here and almost 95% ppl are getting their Visa's unless there are serious issues with their documents or attitude.

Its not just about the questions asked its also about you, by that i mean if you look confused that's fine , you dressed very simple or may be badly that's fine but what is not fine is : "You don't know why are you here and what is expected of you when you go to US"

Ex: You should always have complete information of the type of visa you are coming for and all its details like for H1 it will be valid for the time mentioned in your I-797 and that if asked that would you bring any dependents later and ans is Yes than you should know that your H4 can't work there so never say that they'll work in US. Or that you want to stay as long you can in US etc..

Ultra casual ppl were rejected so dress in formals atleast dont dress very informal i suggest rest you can wear anything, know your client and its work well, know who will u be reporting to and that in no case you are under client guidance if yours is an E-C model which is true for all big MNCs in India, so never say u'll work for your client but you work for your client on behalf of your Employer.

Know your salary ,by heart all the monthly,yearly incomes in both Rs. and $.

Address of contact person and the place where you'll live.

Try to have an answer as NO when asked if you have any relatives in US otherwise it will un necessary change the direction of the interview also will force them to seek more info about those ppl and bringing you a 221G.

Yes final thing, it of course helps being confident but if you are just of my age and have not seen the world yet going for a visa interview first time (or second time like in my case 1st time my L1 B got rejected) so the confidence would just not come whatever you do.. saying is easy but naturally it it doesn't come.

So what else can rescue you is : Prepare your questions well that is the only saviour and may bring some confidence.

To prepare your questions i understand that every detail you entered in your DS-160 is a question and you must know the answer by heart. Other than this you have to make them feel your importance at US office so choose your words in a way that reflect that you are the only person available to do that work on your comapny's behalf and that your client want it done as soon possible.See that when you are asked if anybody else can do this work on your behalf you must have a concrete answer for NO and why only you are chosen few answers could be you have more experience than others in your team, in particular application, others are not eligible for visa right now, or you have few other skills as well which may be helpful in this work and others dont have etc..

I guess that should be all. Well i was not asked any of the above yesterday when i went for my visa :) but i know all this from 10 months of my experince of preparation of visa interview.

on april 5 2011 i was rejected L1 B , then i was asked all questions (i mean many)
So this time on 6th Jan 2012 appearing for H1 B i was just asked 2-3 questions, PFB :

VO: (a very good looking handsome and huge guy standing rather sitting on his chair) granted visa to almost all before me , 2-3 married girls came for dependent visas, and also few others came for their visa , dont know L1 or H1.

Well so as soon the girl before me finished before i could say any thing he very warmly said Hi to me so i smiled and said Hi Morning and checked my watch it was still not 12 :) and said yes its morning till now.

Gave my docs (passport, first page of I-797 and i guess BEP letter also, all stapled together)

Asked my client name : i said
Then got busy with system and made me shiver all the while standing at that window giving confusing expressions.

Any way then asked is it the same as L1's : i said yeah

So the responsibilities and type of work is still the same : oh yes, same

Again got busy with computer then , are you married : oh no

Thats it : I am approving your visa and you may get your passport back in a week's time. i said thank you.

Now comes the confidence and no earlier than this so i asked while i was leaving the window, you are standing all the while (he got confused so i asked again) then with a smile said yes oh yes.. i said its painful you should sit. Started laughing and i left :)

So for me i would say my previous L1 rejection saved me but thats not for everybody so prepare the questions well thats the only key, though they want to give you visa's especially when its H1 so be relaxed and do not give wrong answers and force them to grill you deeper and end up with a disappointment. rest should be fine.

All the best :)

US COnsulate: New Delhi- December, 2011
Case: H1b Direct employee
Interview lasted : 1 min

Questions:

VO: With a smiling Face. How are you madam . Can I have your documents please.
Me: Excellent and How abt you Sir .. With a Smile. I am here for my Work Visa Stamping and Passed my Passport and I-797

VO: I am Fine, Thanks .So you Work at YYYY ZZZ.
Me: Yes, I work at YYYY X at there Headquarters At YYYY

VO: Is you company Public Company.
Me: Yes, It'z on Stock Exchange as YYYY with currect Share value of YYYY and it'z Global Company with 18000 Employees across the world.

VO: What Kind Of work you do?
Me: i am SAP BW/BOBJ Subject Matter Expert.

Vo: I see your Visa has been rejected once.
Me: Yes, My student visa F1 got rejected in 2006.

VO: and then seems like it got Accepted in 2007.
Me: yes, Please

Vo: Where did you do your Schooling from
Me: YYYY X and then he spoke a word on Football and I continued the chat about Football

VO: So you did your MBA?
Me: No I did Masters in Information system ( and while i was speaking my degree VO was writing on my Interview appointment sheet)

He smiled and said your visa got accepted and you will recieve your passport in one week .

Be confident, Speak Fluently. Dress professionally. My visa Officer was very strict as acceptance ratio was 2:10. Take proper documents especially Client letter if you are through Consultancy.
For Direct employees - You will not be questioned much.

All the Best

5

Hi,

I went for H1B new on last September 30th. The interview went fine with usual questions. Finally VO issued 221g on my case and asked to go other counter. One Indian officer was there at another counter and asked about by brother’s details and asked me to check the status in Chennai US consulate portal. No other details were asked from me.

I didn’t contact anyone during this waiting time. As mentioned in the 221g I have sent a mail to Chennai consulate mail box by updating "90 days Elapsed" in the subject. I didn’t get any response for my mail except auto reply with some general information. After couple of days my status has been updated as ISSUED in the Chennai US consulate site.

Visa type: H1B
Interview date: 09/30/2011
Status: 221g issued without any details asked from my end.
Wait time: 98 days

Finally approved after a long frustrating waiting period.

All the best to everyone for your visa stamping process.