L1, L2 Visa

I had my OFC scheduled on 10th May (Sunday) 3 PM and the Visa interview was on 11th May - 2nd slot .

OFC : I reached there by 2:30 only to be greeted by a serpentine queue . Took us an hour to get into the gate . I had a rude surprise there as my name in DS 160 was entered as LNU , <My Name> . This is because I don't have a Surname in my passport . The verification guys did not allow me to enter and asked for DS 160 to be changed to FNU, <My Name> . The auto drivers there are waiting just for such an opportunity . They drove me to a Xerox center not more than 2 mins away and a lady there provided computer to correct the form details . This comes at a hefty price through of 600 INR for print out and 150 for the auto . So, please make sure that if you don't have a surname , your name is provided as FNU, <Name> in DS 160
The verification was a breeze after this although I was very worried as my interview schedule still stated LNU , <name>

Visa Interview : I reached by 8 and there was a smaller queue here . I will skip the process part as its covered very well by others .
Inside, I was directed to the riskiest of all interview officers . As I stood in line, I saw him reject 7 candidates in front of me . Most of them for L1 B visa . And rightly so . If you are going to US for req gathering, apply under H1 !!

Me : Good Morning sir
VO : Stern silence and papers please
I hand the papers over to him and he types away for some time

VO to my wife : Whats your qualification
Wife : BE

VO signs and approves and hands over the form while retaining passport and one copy of the form . This did come as a huge surprise to me . But hey , no complaints :)

My profile : 10 years exp with BE and MBA from a TOP 10 B School . 5 years post MBA experience
Role : Product Manager in one of the largest ( in terms of revenue ) in the world .
Sal : 2.2 mn INR in India and 120k $ in USA

All I can gather from this experience is that if you are a genuine case for the visa category, you will get it no matter what . Remember 7 rejections in the line in front of me !

Best of luck

Thanks to this all for sharing informative information and tips!

Please find my experience with US Consulate at Chennai on May 11, 2015

Me : Good Morning
VO : Good Morning

Then VO reviewed all the document ask who is your customer?
Me: YYYY ZZZ

That's it ....
 
Then came the golden words, your visa is approved.

Be bold and confident.

All the very best !!!!

Hi all,

I work for a major banking client from India. I have developed dashboards for them in one of their business areas, only i am aware about the code written to develop those dashboards since i have developed them. For any changes or issue in the dashboards client is totally depended on me to do that. Dashboards are developed in one of the widely used tool used in IT, but the data and business logic used to develop the dashboards is specific to client only. I am working in this project since 3 yrs.

Now client has asked me to come to US, i have total of 7.9 yrs of experience, i have no reportees at client location, i have 3 direct reportees in india working in the same project. Should i go for L1A or L1B. Individual or Blanket?

Please help me i am really confused.

Thanks,
Bhanu

Dear All,

My L1B Blanket got rejected on April 2015 , with comments not clearly approvable.

Can I file L1B- Indv ? Is there any cooling period that should be allowed pass on before I proceed with L1B-Indv visa ?

Please advice.

Hello All,

Sorry, i am posting my experience quite late but this forum was much helpful in this success.

I with my wife & Son got VISA approved in JAN 2015 and interview was included all basic question (Company profile, My Role, Reportees, Salary, Education level) which is already present on forum.

I believe that most important point in interview is your confidence. If you are confident and even missing some details or mismatching it with petition data then still you are good (Obliviously, it is not recommended at all).

All the best to all members who is going to face this in coming future.

Thanks,

Pankaj

Dear All

Firstly many thanks to this forum and I owe a lot to this forum for my L1A Blanket approval. I attended the OFC on 21-April and PA on 22-April.

Some experts in this forum suggested about not adhering to a dress code, but this is purely my view and take this only if you feel its relevant. Since its L1A, i wanted to put up the best possible attire to the Officer and I felt this is critical.

I wore a Brown colored Blazer for the OFC and wore Black colored Blazer for the PA just to show that I do show that 1. I do have multiple Blazers 2. Didn't want the Officer to get a different image of wearing a T-Shirt for OFC and Fully suited for PA. This would give a wrong impression that he is just dressing for this occasion. Again purely my view. Might be very trivial, but wanted to bring this out in case it helps someone

PA Experience

I went with my wife and daughter. Wife and I rehearsed on the various questions and decided on the best possible way to put forth the answer. We did mock interviews between ourselves (Might sound silly, you bet we did :-), thirdly we also gave some basic instructions to our kid - Greet the officer, Officer might ask for name, please do answer - these are nitty gritty things which will work well in our favor (My daughter is 2.5 years old).

Our PA was at 08:30 AM, we reached at 07:45. They let people at 08:00 AM. We were way behind the queue, but a security officer saw us with our kid and asked us to go directly inside.

Post security check and some basic verification, we went to the other building where we were greeted by young staff members who were very courteous and helped us arrange and bundle them up. He took the principal applicants passport, folded the three I129 one after the other followed by the Receipt, below that
dependents passport and placed a rubber band around this.

This is really good and all we need to do is, hand them over directly to the officer.

There was an old lady ahead of me (Around 60s) and the officer was talking to them in Tamil. This was amazing. The lady had a very poor case and I think their daughter didn't prepare her well for this and hence her application got rejected. There might be umpteen number of rejections you will see right there in front you, but please never be disturbed by those. This is very important

Then came my turn. We both greeted "Good Morning Officer". He said "Very Good Morning", So this is YYYY (Pointing to my daughter). We said Yes.

At that I told my daughter to waiver her hands to the officer and she gave a flying kiss (which was a heavy bonus).

Officer - I understand this is L1A Blanket, please understand this is a critical Visa and I need complete justification to approve this. Hence I'll raise some questions and I request you to give me answers which will help me evaluate you.

Self - Sure Officer, we perfectly understand and we will answer them to the best of our abilities

Officer - Who is your Customer ?
Self - ZZZ

Officer - Since this is an internal subsidiary, he asked details on this customer.
Self - I explained in a sentence what the subsidiary is and how its related to my main organization

Officer - What is your role
Self - ZZZ, Take care of YYY Functional Area

Officer - Can you elaborate a bit more
Self - Elaborated in 2 sentences.
Question 6 When are you planning to leave
Answer 6 Explained
Question 7 How many years are you planning to stay ?
Answer 7 3 Years
Question 8 Can you tell me in USD, what would be your salary
Answer 8 Provided only the figure
Question 9 How is the reporting structure, how many reportees do you have ?
Answer 9 I will have 5 direct reportees at Onsite, 5 direct reportees at Offshore
Question 10 What is your highest degree ?
Answer 10 Said I'm an Engineer. Then said Its Bachelors of Technology in Mechanical
Question 11 Overall Experience in TCS
Answer 10 Explained
Question 11 Hello Madam (To my wife), What is your Highest degree ?
Answer 11 I'm an Engineer. Then said Its Bachelors of Technology in Electronics
Question 12 Have you worked in US before ?
Answer 12 Yes and Explained where all she worked briefly

My biometrics and interview happened on the same day (both before lunch).

OFC/Biometrics - 8AM
Interview - 10AM

The VO didn't ask me any questions. Only one question to spouse: "What is your highest level of education?"

That's it. Visa was approved and the petition copies were stamped. Total time at interview counter: 60 seconds.

I owe a lot to this forum. It really helped me a lot in my L1A blanket prep. Just registered to share my experience.

Interview questions -

Me - Greeted VO
VO - Didn't greet back, instead asked if he can see my passport.
Me - Handed over the passport and other documents I-129, etc

VO - Which company you work for?
Me - xyz

VO - What is your job title?
Me - Did you ask the duration of my stay? (I didn't get what he actually asked. Lot of noise from other interviews around, so you should pay attention carefully)

VO - No, what is your job title?
Me - Oh, I apologize. Couldn't hear that. Answered with my role details (don't complain about noise)

VO - Whom will you report to?
Me - Answered with my boss' title and brief responsibilities

VO - Who will he report to?
Me - Answered with his boss' title and brief responsibilities

VO - How many reportees? (typing something on his computer)
Me - N

VO - How may of them are direct?
Me - M

VO - Started stamping and signing my I-129 copies. Handed over two copies of stamped I-129 to me and kept passport and a copy and finally said the golden words.
"You may now leave sir, your visa is APPROVED. You will receive the passport by post in 2-3 days"
Duration of interview was 5 mins max.

Important tips:
1. Be super duper confident and don't look desperate to get visa (very important)
2. Be calm and composed and don't look tensed.
3. Listen to VO carefully.
4. Answer to the point. Avoid long sentences.
5. Provide consistent answer. VO may ask the same question with different wordings again.
6. Book a cab for 4-5 hours if possible. It will cost you some Rs. 800, but will save a lot of your energy which you need the most while facing the VO, especially in Chennai weather.

Wish you all the very best!

If your company is sponsoring you please try to push for Individual category rather than Blanket as Blanket cases are scurtinized strongly and has higher chances of rejection unless its a genuine cases.

Remember, whatever, one may say a genuine case will always get approved.

Take care to ensure all your documents - eductaional qualifications, work experience certificates, current and proposed job responsibilities are are accurately stated.

Once the individual L1 A petiotion is submitted for individual you have to wait for a formal approval. Once it gets approved, you need to submit a DS160 form and then get a slot for VISA stamping.

For VISA stamping only 3 main documents are required your passport, DS 160 and Appointment confirmation for the VISA stamping.

In my case I had lost my earlier expired passprot and was apprehensive whether my VISA stamping will go thru. So, I ket a FIR copy of my lost passport handy.

I was asked 4 basic questions:

1. Where are you working?
2. How long have you been working here?
3. What will be your office address?
4. What is the purpose of travel?

Be sure to greet the VO at the start of your interview.

VISA was approved.

This forum has been immense help in preparing me for L1 interviews. I have been to consulate for H1 but never on L1. Read and heard all rejection stories and was skeptical for getting approval.

Had OFC and Consulate interview on same day 17- Apr- 2015. Took nearby hotel to ensure my commute is minimal.

OFC:
OFC was scheduled at 8:00 AM in morning. Took auto at 7:30 and was there by 7:40. Guard separated 8:00 and 8:30 lines. Entered premises by 7:50 and was out by 8:10. They checked DS-160 confirmation, passport and appointment only.

Visa Interview:
Consulate interview was scheduled at 11:00. Started by 10:30 and reached by 10:45 AM. Though there was huge traffic, thanks to Ola cab, he made it possible. Don't carry any mobile phone or even water bottle. They don't allow them. There was no line. Got though security clearance. If you are wearing blazer or coat, you would be asked to remove it for security check.

Couple of lines were formed for finger print and DS-160 verification. After verification, you would be asked to segregate first 4 pages of I-129 and I-797. Make three sets of it. Better prepare them before going there. They asked us to pay fee of $500 and get receipt.

After paying L1 fraud prevention fee, we were asked to get into a single line. There were 5 - 6 counters. Most of them were tense and trying to keep calm and brave smile on their face :) Saw few VO officers were issuing blue slip for most of them after grilling them with questions. Finally my turn came and stood in line specific to a counter.

Me: Greetings to VO
VO: No response. Took my passports.
VO: Why are you unbundlling it. Give me those papers !!!
VO: Tried to scan barcode on passport. What are these 3 passports for.
VO: Take away these and give me only recent one. Come back in line after you get this sorted.
Me: Thanks and Sure will come back.

Removed my old passport and got back to line with only new passport.

Me: Greetings to VO
VO: No Response. Already had his hand near counter asking for docs.
VO: Read I-129 and was staring at screen.
VO: Whats your hihgest level of education on my spouse
Spouse: YYYY
VO: Who is your client?
Me: X Y Z
VO: Took stamp pad and stamped on all three sets of papers. Gave back docs!!
Me: Took them back and walked out of building.

Generally US VO will have curtesy of greeting back and talk nicely even if they reject. This guy was an exception. He was harsh, rude and felt he was doing a favor. Regardless he approved visa but with validity of less than year.

Note: You don't need to present old passport stappled to new one if you have. Give only old ones.
Don't wear blazer or heavy stuff. It doesn't guarantee any thing. Poor chap in full suite standing in front of me got rejected.