L1, L2 Visa

Hi Everyone,

I am in a tricky situation and need your inputs.

My company is processing my L1b individual visa under premium processing. I know that L1b individual completely depends on the way I do my paper work and how strong my case is.I have a query on skill set required for L1b - here goes my scenario.

I am team lead managing a team of 10-15 people. The skill set/tool I am working on is definitely a niche skill as there are not too many people around in the market with this skill set and it is a proprietary software. This tool "ABC" is from a company "XYZ". I am a former employee of "XYZ" where I worked on the tool and know its code framework and was involved in tool customization's for 1.5 years. My current company "LMN" became a integration/implementation partner for "XYZ" and I was hired by "LMN" where I have implemented this tool for 2 big players(Europe region customer) and trained more than 50 members on this tool till date. Now the third customer is from U.S and I have to move to the U.S and company decided to file my L1B.
Note: Though there are members trained by me they are not at the same proficiency level as me because I have the experience from "XYZ" company and I know the code framework of "XYZ" very well which others are not aware of.

Now my question is though I am the one out of two people in my company who has very good knowledge of this tool, will I be granted/do I have chances of getting through? I read somewhere that only if the company we are part of has developed a customized tool or something and if I have experience on that, then only there are chances of visa approval. Is this true? can you please provide more clarity on this?

Any kind of help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Ramesh

Hi,

My petition expiry date on I129S is 13th June 2019 but my Visa Expiration date on Stamp is mentioned as 1st June 2019 and PED is 11th July 2019.

Will there be an issue while travel because of difference in dates in I129s and other two?

First of all thank you for the immihelp website and people those who shared their experiences, Now this is my turn to share my experience.

My Case was like - my B1/B2 VISA application was rejected in past (multiple time) and this time my company applied for L1B Blanket Visa for me.
My last rejection was for different type of visa, so I didn't get any hurdles for L1 visa approval.

I Stayed in Crystal residency hotel, opp. to US consulate chennai, which is good for VISA application people to stay, VFS is also near from this hotel.

My VISA interview time was 11:00AM on 12/07/2016, We ( Me, wife & daughter) reached 30 min. early to the visa interview time, as my daughter was there with us, so we got priority for all processes like, biometric, fraudulant visa fee payment and visa interview, they stich one smily on my passport to get priority to us.
Thanks to consulate people!

I am from manufacturing industry, Swedish MNC and we had our subsidiary worldwide, so my previous travel (VISA stamps from schengen VISA or other VISA's) might helped me.

Documents required are -
I129S 3 copies
I797 blanket petition document (only first page) - 3 copies.
DD of 500USD
DS 160 confirmation page
passports
That's all, I took lots of documents but they have asked to keep only above listed documents.

So the Visa interview was like -

My Visa was on counter number 25, a young 35-40 aged man was there with great smile on his face, He greeted me first as good morning and visa interview started.

VO - GM
We - GM sir ( and I given him my doc's.)

VO - So, have you applied before for L1?
Me - No sir.
VO - ok

VO - Which company are you working for?
Me - Told my Indian company name.

VO - from how many yrs?
Me - 5 yrs. 1 Month sir.

VO - Designation?
Me. - answered

VO - Specialization?
Me - I have answered as per I129S document and I have prepared 4-5 sentences which were very crisp in common language (non technical), as VO may not understood my technical things, so to understood easily, I prepared the answer of specialization in very easy language.

VO - What does ur company do?
Me - told our company do manufacturing of air compressors.

VO - what compressors, is it data compression?
Me - I said No sir, it is air compressor and gas & process compressor.

VO - (with smile) He asked, ohh that machine which pump air in my car tyre?
Me - with smile, yes sir, that is also being manufactured, but I am working with gas & process compressors, which are bigger in size.

VO, ok, salary in USD?
Me - answered.

then he asked 2 Que to my wife.
VO - Mam, what is date of marriage?
Wife - answered.

Vo - how old is your daughter.
Wife - answered.

and that's all, and the golden words from VO, dir your VISA is approved, please take this 2 I129S, I will take passports and one copy.

we said thank you sir and left the counter.

Friends -
I have prepared a lot, as this was required to avoid fumble of words,
We have also done mirror practice, Immhelp website exp. helped me lot.
and I feel confidence while answering is must, we were answered by looking at the officer.

Thank you all and best of luck to all!!

It's my turn to give feedback who can be useful for others.

My case was a different case and i could not find even a single case like mine on this forum. So i feel its more important for me to share my experience.

I applied for L1A Individual in July 2015 from India. Till Feb 2016 nothing happened and then i got a RFE . Basis on my experience and research most of the times RFE in L1A is for Managerial capacities, which means one needs to explain the responsibilities in detailed manner. If anyone tells you to not modify the document too much, he/she doesn't have any idea about L1A. An RFE is issued because your responsibilities are not clearly articulated and USCS is looking for more details. Which means the more clear details you provide the more the chances are of clearing RFE.

Like most of other people i also though my chances are gone. But then i started working on my papers very carefully and i almost changed whole responsibilities section and detailed it out in a very logical and clear language to a very large extend.

I re-submitted my papers in Feb-2016 itself. In between i travelled to UK on work permit and in June-2016 I got the intimation that basis on my response to RFE, the petition is approved. So first major hurdle is cleared. On my original petition letter the consulate was mentioned as New Delhi.

But at this time i was in UK only. I tried to find out if i can appear for PI in UK only or i need to travel to India for the same. Also if i can appear in UK, does it add any risk to my L1 stamping. So i did my research within my organisation and outside also. I got the answer only to first part that I can appear in UK, however for the second question i took a risk. I could not find any feedback for London US embassy in this forum or any other forum. Even for the first question also there are few eligibility criteria i.e. You should have spend at least 3 months in UK on work permit and remaining time period on your WP should be more then 3 months.

I booked the appointment for London Embassy. I could see only two slots while booking i.e. 8:00am and 8:30am for any day. Not sure why coz i have seen people coming for 9:00am sessions also. I booked 8:30am slot and we arrived a day earlier to London since we stays outside London.

Interview Date:14th July
Location: London Embassy

We have reached at the embassy by 7:45am and there were already 2 lines for various US Visas. In this line they will check your Passport and DS-160. Post that you will go inside the embassy. Though we didn't carry mobile phone, but it seems this is the only US embassy in world where mobile phones(no tablet or Laptops) inside the embassy are allowed. I was aware of this basis on my research however i prefer not to take it. By 8:30am we were inside the embassy. On the reception the lady checked our DS-160 and passport again and gave us the token number. Please note that its important to take token from reception else you have to come down again. Post that we reached to the first floor. There is proper seating area, very small snacks counter, photo booth, big screen to show you the number and window details. We have waited for less then half n hour and our number came for first set of windows. At first I could not understand if this is the document and biometric window only or interview window as well. Anyways i understood later that its just for document check, scanning and arrangement, photo scan and biometrics. The lady asked for Passport, Original Petition letter, photographs and UK BRP card which shows the VISA validity of UK. She scanned the docs and prepared one file for Me, my wife and daughter and asks us to move to the other section where interviews were taking place. So we moved to another area and without loosing anytime we were at the next window facing the interviewer. Here is the Q&A Part.

Q.1. How are you doing today?
Ans: I'm doing perfect (Although inside it doesn't seems like perfect at all :) )

Q.2. Which VISA you are applying for?
Ans: L1A

Q.3. Which company you are working for:
Ans: <Replied with company name>

Q.4 How long you are working with this organisation?
Ans: 3 years

Q.5. And you are still working with YYYY Dept.?
Ans: Yes mam.

After this she started working on computer and then confirmed us that our VISA is approved and we will get our passports within a week. She kept our passports and original petition letter. No questions were asked to my wife and daughter. We were out in 40 minutes i.e. by 9:10am.

It doesn't seems like an interview at all. She asked these questions just for the sake of asking. It seems L1A interviews outside india are not that grilled one even the blanket one.

Few Summary points:

1. It doesn't matter incase you applied for L1 in one country and going for Interview in another country if you meet the criteria i.e. your company has registered office in that country, you have stayed at least for 3 months and you have min 3 months left on your VISA.

2. I have carried additional documents for UK like last 3 months UK salary slips, UK bank statements, UK address proof (Utility Bill) & UK Biometric Residence Card. They have not checked anything except BRP card. But its good to carry them.

3. Try and take 8:00 or 8:30 appointment since the crowd is less in these batches. I have seen long queues when we came out and pretty sure for anyone standing in those ques it will not take anything less then 3-4 hours overall.

4. You can carry mobile phone, umbrellas, small hand bags. Check for mobile phones always before your interview coz that can be stopped at any point of time.

5. Attending these interviews with family surely helps, i can't explain how. Specially your kids do something or other which brings smiles to people taking your documents or interview. My daughter kept asking them if she can scan her hand too and ladies at both the counter allowed her to do that just to make her satisfy. So if you have family try and process both L1 and L2 together.

6. I was not asked for any typical questions but still you should be prepared for few important questions like 1. What will be your roles and responsibilities. 2. What is your managers responsibilities. 3. If you are going to work from client location, does this means you will be working as sub contractor? (If by any chance you answer this question as Yes, you are gone) 4. How many people reports to you?

Few of my friends appeared for the L1A in india/Singapore were asked such questions and these questions are the ones which can make your case strong or week.

7. There are no photos clicked inside the embassy unlike india. So either you can upload photo while filling DS-160 or you need to carry a physical photo. You can also take a photo from the photo booths inside, but why to take risk.

Thats it from my side. Hope this will help guys who are looking for a similar case as mine.

Once again thanks to all the people who left their feedback and good luck to all who are going for this.

Interview Date : 12-July-2016
Location : Chennai

My interview slot was at 11 Am, reached exactly by 10 and the person maintaining the queue asked 11 Am slot people to go through the first hurdle.. So its advisable to reach exactly one hour before your slot.
Went through another couple of queues and finally entered the main building which again has a very long queue inside. Waited for almost 2hrs in the queue and finally was able to reach the officer.

Que: Which company are you working for?
Me : XYZ
Que: who is your client?
Me: ZZZ
Que: What is your highest qualification?
Me: Bachelor of Technology

He then asked me my approval notice, took a brief look at it.and said OK your Visa is approved.

Based on my experience L1 individual visa interview is equivalent to H1B visa as both the petitions are already approved and hence there is very very minimal chance for rejection.

All the very best to all of you.

Hi All,

O.K this is the time to give back to the community

To-day I have attended my L1 B visa and which got approved. Here are questions asked

VO: What is your company name
YYYY
VO: How many You are working?
XX Years and YY months
VO: What is your role
Sr. QA Eng
VO: What is your company and what it does
answered
VO: what is your specialization

Providing this answer in detail for QA/testing related people
may be used as reference Explained about the company and as i am into QA departmnet. Told like have extensive knowledge on the product and business. Interpreting high level requirements desiging detailed test cases, developing automated functional tests, multicomponenet integrated testes. Desigining and improving test automation framework to suite new business requirements

VO: What is your salary
XX per annum

To my wife
VO: When you got married?
VO: Is this the only son you have?

Thanks...hope this helps

Hi

Can someone guide me as to how much time it is taking nowadays for getting an approval (assuming no RFE) for L1B individual filed under normal processing.

The application was filed in June at Vermont

O.K, it is time to give back to the community.
I had my L1A individual visa interview on July 8th at Chennai at 10.30 am. I went with my wife and 6 years old and 6 months old kids. When I reached Consulate at 10, I saw a serpentine queue that was beginning from the bus stop near the Oxford library. I approached a person who looked like working for the Consulate and told him about my interview schedule. He checked the passport numbers in his tablet and let us go near the door. From that point onwards, we breezed through all the queues. Now to the questions.

1. Which Visa?
2. Please give your approved petition.
3. Which client?
4. What designation?
5. What will be the salary?
2 questions each to my wife and kid. After that, the VO said the golden words that the Visa is approved. Overall, it took just 45 minutes and we were out by 10.45 am.
All the best folks.

Hi All,
Had a query on the L1B visa.

My L1B was rejected last year in March 2015, and my organization is trying to re-apply L1B.

Will my past rejection impact my new application ?
Will it make any difference, if there is change in product of specialization is used.
(*I have 10+ years of experience and working on couple of proprietary tool of my organization.)

Last time, they said that my application was not clearly approvable but didn't give any return receipt like blue or pink, which people have mentioned.

Can you please give inputs, as i m currently tensed for the same.

Recently have got “ABC company's L1B blanket Visa” approved on June 6th.

Now My ABC Company and another "Private Equity partners" is forming new Joint Venture as XYZ company with effective from coming months. so my travel was postponed. As part of JV deal I will be moving or Joining to new XYZ company in few months.

Now after me joining new XYZ company, my new company is planning or will be process fresh L1B individual petition since they can't process and amend my existing L1B blanket visa of ABC company.

So have few queries related for the same.

Can i apply for fresh L1B individual as i am just 2 months old employee?
Any specific Eligibility criteria for L1B individual processing for less than 1 year company in India?
is it L1B individual has more approval rate ?