L1, L2 Visa

I'm working for a reputed IT services company and submitted my DS160 3 weeks back.
My company is not able to find any upcoming open slots for my interview at Chennai location.

As per them only slots are avaialble for December month. Can anyone please help me in understanfding on how much time does it takes to find a slot at the earliest ??

or can I look for slots for myself from any website ??

Regards

Day 1 (Mar 10, 4 PM):
Went for finger printing and photo session along with my wife and kid.
Went through queue at VAC . They check passport, DS 160, appointment letter.

Day 2 (Mar 11, 9 AM):

Stand in the line at 30 mins before time. After passport verification, appointment letter they allowed us inside. We sat for 1 hr on chairs and waiting for our turn. Then we have allowed into VO queue.

I greeted VO officer. Good Morning

VO: So you are applying for L1 A visa.
me: Answered

VO: How many years of experience you have?
me: Answered

VO: How long you are with YYYY company?
me: Answered

VO: How many people report to you?
me: Answered

VO: What is your role & responsibilities at offshore?
me: Answered

VO: what is your role & responsibilities at onshore?
me: I started to describe about different roles. When I am talking about people management, VO asked about is your job related to Human resource department? then I tried to explain I am applying for L1 A visa, and about different duties of Project management role with respect to people management. then VO discussed with his colleague. I dont know what they discussed about. I am bit nervous during this time.

Then she turned to my wife and asked below questions.
VO: what is your qualification
me: Answered

VO: Will you do job at US.
me: Answered

Then she seen at my son and smiled and written some thing in the system, and asked about I797 form and typed something in the system and said golden words.. your visa is approved.

We said thank you.

All the Best to every one.

Day1(Sep 22):
Went for finger printing and photo session along with my wife.
Went through like a breeze at VAC. They check passport, DS160, appointment letter.
 
Then they paste a bar code sticker on the back of passport which has all the information like interview date & timing, visa type. For L1 individual they paste L1.
 
Following which they ask some basic questions from passport in the counter.
 
Day 2(Sep 23):
Was standing for nearly 1.5 hours for security checks, other validations and in the queue.
 
Now to the main interview counter.
 
Gave the passport and the approved petition to VO
 
VO: So you applying for L1A –Individual with ZZZ?
Me: Yes
 
VO: What is your designation at ZZZ?
Me: Answered
 
VO: How many reportees at onsite?
Me: 6
 
VO: Whom will you report to?
Me: Boss name and designation
 
VO: Who is your client?
Me: ZZZ

VO: What is your salary in the US?
Me: $$$
 
VO: Have you applied for L1 visa before?
Me: Yes
 
VO(To my wife): How long have you been married mam?
Wife: Answered.
 
VO: Ok, Your visa is approved. You can take your I-797(approved petition).
 
Since it was individual petition , as has been told by many in this forum they asked only generic and straightforward questions.
 
The waiting part in the queue was really a pain and made me a little nervous. Once it went near the VO counter I gained my composure.
 
All the best to everyone!!
 

Below are the questions for me
1) How long you have been with this comp?9 years and 4 months.
2) Travelling to which location? Sanjose, california.
3) who is the client?ZZZ
4) How many direct reportess at US? 5.
5) what is their designation? 2 Project Manager, 2 Tech Lead, and Senior consultant.
6) whom am i reporting to?Delivery Head,
7) whom she is reporting to?Group Head of Delivery.
8) what is the nature of the project? Explained the Project details.

He interrupted and asked me about my designation.
    I said Project Manager.

Finally he gave a blue slip and said not clearly approvable.

In my case luck didn't favor me. i dont know what went wrong. I didn't lie for any of the questions. It was a good experience. go with a open mind. we are not going to lose anything.
Will be filing for individual soon. hopefully i might get in that.

Best of luck to All.

Hi,
My L1B blanket visa was denied yesterday. The VO said that the visa is not clearly approvable. He stamped my two I129S forms and gave them to me along with my passport. When I am checking the ustravel docs portal today, the status in the dashboard says that the passport is with US Embassy/Consulate. However, I was given my passports back. When I check the visa status online, it mentioned administrative processing and did not say REJECT.
Is this normal way? Will the reject status reflect in next couple of days or there is some confusion here. Please advise.

Time to give back to the forum from which I have benefitted a lot. I gave an interview for Blanket L1A on 22 Sep. Sharing my experience, some recommendations and suggestions here for the use of others.
Stay: Based on a friend’s recommendation I stayed at ‘The Spring Hotel’, for proximity sake. Hotel is basic with decent amenities. Its not more than 10 mins walk away from both VAC and the consulate. The closest hotel to Consulate is The Park. Just have to come out and cross the road to reach the consulate.
Experience at VAC: ‘Fingerprint building’ is what it is known as with the locals. Entry to the building is from its rear end! Yeah weirdly enough. As expected a security guard checks your appointment confirmation letter and lets you in. There is a private photocopy and cyber center in the basement to help those who have got incorrect details in their DS 160. I am sure they charge a bomb. Next, Walk up to ground floor, another security guard asks for appointment time, confirms you have no bags or pend drives or phones etc. Be aware Not to carry phones or pen drives or even backpacks. That is right, even back packs with just the papers are not allowed too. If you do carry, you will have to keep it in a private locker in the basement for a fee of 50 bucks! That’s a rip off. Two women in ground floor confirm names and passport numbers on DS160 and let you in. Appointment timings are really a bummer here, there were people with 5PM appointment at 2PM. Anyway, next take the elevator to first floor. Security Check. Show your DS 160 and Passport, collect token number. There are about 9 counters in the floor. Token number and respective counter number is announced in a TV, just like in banks. At the counter : The lady asked me for my full name and DOB for confirmation. Then took my photo and finger prints of all 10 fingers. Done and get out. 15 to 20 minutes from entry to exit.
At the Consulate: First check point on foot path. A guy checks the passport number and makes an entry into is Tab. Continue walking on the heavily guarded footpath. One more check of passport and DS 160 on the other side of the building entry. Then one security guard checks if your clothes will tear off or if you skin will rip off. All and any of your effort for a crisp ironed clothes go down the drain here. You are allowed inside. Another security check, this time x-ray enabled. You are allowed inside a waiting room, and a one with fans. Looks like all Blanket L1 appointments are given morning slots. Nearly everyone around me at that time were applying for Blanket L1. Very few B1/B2. Two ladies ask you to take out the 8 pages of 129S and front page only of 797. They then staple them together (3 separate sets) and put them inside the passport along with DS 160. Next up, go to the next building and stand in another queue. A man at a window/counter confirms all the document numbers again and collects the $500 DD. Go to next counter where finger prints are confirmed. You are sent to another zig zag queue. While in this queue you can hear almost all of everyone’s interaction with the VO. We spent over 45 mins in this queue. I was dressed in formals and a tie. Quite many had come in a proper English suit too. But clearly that dint matter. Approval or rejection dint correlate to what people were wearing. While in the queue, like everyone else my wife and I had been keeping a tab of what is being asked, which officer is being kind or in good mood and who is giving a tuff time to applicants etc. These officers clearly have a lot of patience and give you multiple chances to be clear and sure. And IMO, they are there to give you a visa, unless you screw up badly or are faking or have got things really wrong. Like one person had gotten some document with end date updated as a day before start date! Nevertheless, at the end of the queue it was our turn go wait at the window. The applicant ahead of us finished his turn and moved away. We were gestured to come ahead. The moment of truth.
VO: How are you?
Me: Doing great, how have you been today?
VO: Good, Thank you. May I have your passport and documents please.
Me: Here you go.
VO: What company do you work for.
Me: ZZZ
VO: How long have you been working with ZZZ
Me: n years.
VO(while typing): What team do you manage?
Me: ABC team.
VO: What does the team do?
Me: Explained in two sentences and layman terms. No jargon.
VO: Oh, I have heard that there is a lot of need for this profile these days.
Me: Yes.
VO: (smiling) there has to be right, that is why your company is moving you there.
Me: Yes. (thinking if this meant Visa is approved?)
VO: How many people will report to you and how many under them?
Me: X number of people report to me and none reporting to them.
VO: (to my wife) What is your edu qualification?
Wife: zzz
VO: Do you plan to work in US?
Wife: yes
VO: Okay, make sure you get employment authorization before you start working.
Me and Wife: (Thinking, Does that mean we are in? ?) yes, sure.
VO: I will ask you one difficult question and Maam you shouldn’t help him. When did you both get married?
Me: I cannot forget this date and be alive. Its on xxxxxx.
All of us have a big laugh. She stamps our papers and gives to us and said the visa is approved. We turn around, and I see everyone in the queue were looking at us and smiling. I am now at the Chennai railway station waiting lounge writing this, and still smiling.

I have to say I was given a very good attorney from my company, to file my petition. He had spent quite some time with me on phone giving advices and doing mock interviews. I work for a very big S/W giant who can afford the best people in business. Not everyone might get equally good ones. So, sharing some advice here. Most importantly, Make sure you are very clear on what your role is, org structure is etc. Do a couple of rehearsals before you go. They are surely going to ask you about your role, what your team does and what you will do. These questions cannot be missed. Prepare a 2 to 3 sentence crisp answer without putting jargons or heavy words in it. Remember the officer in front of you might not even have seen Visual Studio in his/her life, might only know C as an alphabet. So prepare your answers as if you are explaining your role to your grandmother. Don’t go on endlessly explaining your day to day job or about a patent you have filed or your thesis. Infact, one officer today did tell one applicant ‘I don’t have all day, please explain in brief’. Communicate your role clearly in terms that connect to your application i.e. if L1A say you manage the team or if B, then say you have specialized skills. Don’t mess up by saying you specialize in managing etc. It will only confuse the person who has to hear applicant pleas every day.
Hope this long post serves useful.

Below are the questions for me
1) How long you working for ZZZ?
2) Who is your client?
3) US Salary?
4) What are you going to do for this client?
5) How many reportees? Direct/Indirect
6) Designation?
7) Will you be reporting to Client Partner?
8) How long you are going to stay in US?
 
To my wife
1) Highest Qualification
2) Are you planning to work in US?

And finally she asked me my marriage date..
Thanks & All the best to ALL..

Hi All,

I have appeared for L1B VISA stamping on 9th September. I am sorry on my part since I couldn't able to post the questions till date.

I was really tensed and got biased with various experiences and sayings from my friends that L1B is very difficult to get it approved. However, I would say it's really not that difficult and with proper preparation for a week or two with accurate content in your hand would really make it possible.

Experience on the Day of Interview:
My Interview slot is at 10AM in Chennai on 9th September. However, I made it to the Embassy by 8.45AM and went straight in to the line since there is no restriction from the guards. It took almost 3 hours for the complete process. But only pain is to wait for all these 3 hours in a line and standing under the sheds!!!

Here below are the questions that I have faced:
1. Which company you are working for?
2. What is your Specialization?
3. What is the tool UTMS?
4. Are you going to get paid in US Salary/ Indian salary?
5. What will be your US Salary?
6. Are you going to work at client location/ parent company location?
7. Since when you are working with your parent company?
8. Since when you are working with this particular tool?
9. Are you Single/ Married?
10. Do you have kids?
11. Are you going to do dependent VISA for them?
12. Which city are you travelling to?
13. How the clients will get benefited with this tool?

I am not providing answers to any of the questions since answers for these questions are already available in the site and few of them are really subjective.

Hi guys is it really hard to reply what you answered to ambassador.
Not just "answered" or "said" you here anonymous so if they asked you how much you will earn in US, and you answered 100k , it would be great for other people to know how much you said. Then we can decide with which salary more chance to get approved or how long people work in company to be acceptable, etc etc etc

Hi All,
I attended my L1B – individual visa interview and it got approved.
Date & Time slot: Monday, 19th September - 10:30 am
I reached around 9:15 and by 9:45 they let me enter. I was done by 10:20.
Documents required:
• DS 160
• One copy of I797
• Original Passport
I was under assumption that L1 is toughest of all so I prepared for some generic questions such as specialization, why me and about company product, but to my surprise none of these were asked to me. Interview went really smooth and within 2 minutes she approved my visa.
Questions:
After we exchanged greetings, I handed over my passport along with I 797 to her.

VO: Is it first time you applying for L1 or any other visa?
Me: For L1 first time, and I have B1 already

VO: How long are you associated with this company?
Me: 2 years and 6 months

VO: What will be your salary in US?
Me: $XYZ

VO: Can you briefly tell me about your educational qualification?
Me: Engineering --> job --> PGDM (MBA) --> job

So your highest qualification is PGDM (MBA). Thank you sir, you’ll receive a text from us to collect your passport within 2 days. Have a nice day!
My colleague had similar experience for L1B-individual. Not sure what helped us - our detailed job profile, or Analytics industry profile which is special in itself or probably they don’t ask much questions for L1-B individual.
PS: At Delhi consulate, outside there is a private counter where people can keep their electronic items (50/- per item)
Other tips
• Keep calm – it really helps
• Don’t bother much about what happened to the person/s ahead of you. My VO rejected two applicants (B1-business) in front of me
All the best everyone!
if anything else is needed from my side, would love to help.

cheers \m/