L1, L2 Visa

Hi All,

Thanks to the forum for providing great information.

We entered US consulate at 10 am y'day morning for our 10:30 am appointment and we were out by 11.15 am.

Q's asked to me :

1) Which company do you work for ??
2) Who is your Client ??
3) Where will you be travelling ??
4) What is your US salary ??
5) What is your role in US ??
6) How many reportees do you have (both direct & indirect) ??

to my wife :

1) What is your highest qualification ??

Then he said "Your Visas are approved".

Thanks once again to you all for sharing your experiences and have confidence when you go for interview.

All the very best !!!

Thanks a ton to everyone for their posts and the forum. Info available here is incredible. Who ever is applying for L1B pls pls go thru this site for experiences and practice all the questions available here.

My interview was at Chennai on 5th Feb 2015 and at 8:30 am slot. Reached the consulate by 7:30 am. Huge crowd outside and very long queue. Make sure you stand in the correct line. Half an hour before a separate line will segregate from main line. After that the process is fast and smooth.

Security check completed. Headed to a big hall where the staff helps you to arrange 3 sets of I-129S and I797 with DD and passport. They will tie a rubber band and you need to stand in the queue at a counter dedicated for DD submission. Submitted the DD and started to see the screens for my token. In 2 mins my token flashed on the screen.

VO was interviewing a family (Husband, wife and baby girl) and I believe its was H1B. I peeped and saw that VO was a pretty old lady. All the time VO was playing with the baby girl. I felt bit relaxed that the VO is cool head. VO approved H1B to the family and dependent visa H4 to the lady infront of me. This boosted my confidence. Now its my turn:

Me: Good Morning officer
VO: Very Good Morning
VO: Pass your docs
Me: Gave the 3 sets of I-129S and I797
VO: Which company do you work?
Me: Answered
VO: How long?
Me: X Years
VO: Which client:
Me: Answered
VO: Who are they?
Me: Answered
VO: L1B is a specialized visa. So what is your specialization? (Asked me to speak in mike so she can listen)
Me: Explained my company's proprietary tool (XYZ)
VO: What is XYZ?
Me: Explained my company's proprietary tool (XYZ) in detail
VO: I do not feel it is a special skill to approve L1B visa
Me: For a min my heat was in my mouth. Some how I bounced back and said It is special because it’s my company’s proprietary tool and cannot find in the market.
VO: Then explain and convince me how is it going help your client?
Me: Explained in simple sentences with out technical words so she can clear understand.
VO: Did you develop the tool?
Me: No. Am the SME and extensively trained and successfully executed many projects.
VO: How many of you were trained?
Me: X people
VO: Then why only you are selected?
Me: Answered
VO: Good. Your visa is approved. I will take 1 set of your docs. The other 2 are identical. Give 1 set to you r HR and carry other set while traveling.
Me: Thank you office. Have a good day!

Tips:
1. Prepare answers for the questions available on this portal
2. Prepare for the scenarios because VO will confuse you for sure.
3. Be confident and make good eye contact and speak with good tempo.

Thank you all those who have posted their experiences here. Now its our turn.

Our visa (L1A - blanket) interview was on 9th Feb. I had prepared based on all tips and experences posted here.
Still was tensed as some were saying direct reportees are required. I don't have direct reportees, but only dotted -line reporting
I went with my wife and 2 kids.

My interview was very cool. Greeted VO and gave passport and documents.
The questions were:
1. How long have you been working with ABC?
2. At which location you will be working?
(He started typing in his computer).
3. Your title says ... Can you explain in detail what are your roles and responsibilities? (He continued typing in computer and was
not looking at me while I was answering).
He stamped in all 3 copies and said. "Its done. All visas are approved." !!

No questions were asked to my wife and kids. Even he didn't look at them.

This forum is the best one to prepare for visa interview. Best of luck to all future applicants..

Hi All - Can you please help me by providing some information regarding L2 to H1B

Currently I am working in US on my L2 EAD. My employer is an Indian company. I just want to know few things

1. Can my Indian employer file a new H1B petition for me?
2. Is there any clause that I have to be in India for filing a fresh H1B application?
3. Do I need to wait for the EAD expiry in order to file a new H1B petition?
4. Do I need to go back to India for filing a fresh H1B application?

Thanks in advance

So we had our appointments on 4th Feb / 5th Feb for biometrics and visa interview.

DAY 1 : Ended up early due to my mis-reading of the traffic situation. Was waiting in the sidewalk for more than an hour. Tip : If you have a child and you are able to leave the child with somebody please do so. Will help you a lot. The day 1 was pretty straightforward... Sidewalk queue -> Enter building. DS 160 checked -> Security check -> Bar code affixed -> Token given -> Give your bio metrics -> Exit. 15mins from entry to exit.

- Dress comfortably. Formals / Casuals. Depending on your comfort. Chennai VFS office does not have Air Conditioning. So you will be sweating it out.. literally.

DAY 2 : Day 1 made me wiser and landed up 5mins prior to appointment time. Bingo.. you just walk in. Fairly painful security check process. Again if you can leave the child with somebody please do so.The steps goes something like this in Chennai

- Wait on side walk well before the consulate building and get passport checked before allowed through the barricade
- Depoisit your personal belongings. Note : No bagds allowed.. carry all your documents in transparent plastic bags. Infant / child food allowed, Wallet allowed. Dont carry things like mobile, CD, USB, Car key chains etc. You can depoisit most / all of these in the depoisit counter. Nominal charge of Rs 10.
- Cross over the consulate entrance and come back to get your DS160 stamped. Beats me on why this is required.
- Get frisked and enter the building
- Documents / belongings scanned. The literally rip apart the covers and destroy your document organization. So be careful and recheck your docs once more here.
- Enter another door and move to another building where the actual visa counters are situated
- Counter 1 - Your passport scanned [barcode affixed on Day 1] and token given. Ensure the visa category is appropriately captured by the person in the counter
- Move to Counter 2 : Verify your finger prints and wait in the 1st waiting area. Here the VFS staff are there to help you. Get your documents organized. They just need your passport, DS160 and petition / 1st page of notice of action in the pack to be handed over to VO. Nothing else... so you can save time if you have just these already done. If you have to pay any additional fee you can do so now. DD / Cash / Credit cards only. No debit cards. All done and now you are officially in the queue for interview. 30 to 40mins till here. It was insanely crowded. If you have a infant with you they try to prioritize you immediately into the next step.
- Counter 3 : Interview and you are out the same way as you came in

Tips
- Again, dress comfortably. Dont go as if you are heading to a beach or party. Formals / no formals is your state of mind. I saw people with formals getting rejected and people in Jeans / T- shirt getting through.
- Relax. Do whatever makes you comfortable (ofcourse within the boundaries of what is allowed in the consulate walls :-) ).
- Preparation helps. Make sure that you are able to substantiate your case. L1A is managerial / executive.. dont make it sound like a individual contributor role. Remember the theme is you are managing a team, managing budget and you have the authority to hire / performance ratings etc. If the opportunity / assignment is important for you spend the time to prep for it. Be consistent with what is written in petition and the visa type.
- Organize your documents so that it is easy for you to retrieve when asked. You dont want to spend 1 minute of the 3 minutes interview in searching for the documents. Labelling them as primary support and secondary support helps.
- Takes generally 2 to 3 working days for the status to change from "Administrative Processing" to "Issued" and maybe another couple of days for passport in hand.

Good luck and all the best.

Thanks
Anand

Hi All

Firstly i would like to thank all of the members for the volume of information available in this website, which helped me to successfully prepare for the interview.
I went throught some posts and prepared the common questions asked and it improved my confidence tremendously.

Some tips:
1. Please arrive early, my cab screwed up in the last minute and i had to arrange for another one in the last minute. These things make you really tensed and do plan for some contingency in time.
2. When i was standing in the queue, i observed the VO and listened to all her questions, this helped me to understand her slang lot better as you are mentally more prepared to face her
3. I greeted her with a smile and she did the same, which did really relaxed me(and calmed by heart beat down!!)
4. Avoid mobile phone if at all possible, but if necessary there is a desk where you can handover your mobile/belongings for a nominal fee(Chennai visa office), but it takes additional time to get it for the interview - no problem if you arrive early.

Now for my interview:
1. Who is your client?
2. What is your U.S Salary - i explained the fixed and variable part
3. Which state would you be travelling?
4. How long will you be in U.S?
5. Who do you report to?
6. Answered with the designation and she asked whom your reporting manager report to?

Then she read the screen for few minutes and said, "Your visa is approved" :-).

Just be super confident and dress for the occasion(full formals preferable).

I said have a good day and she repeated with a smile. :-)

All the best for all who read these posts..Just be sure you will get it, the confidence shows in your answers!

My company lawyers had warned me that L-1B extensions after the initial 3-year period are difficult to justify and have low approval rates. Was naturally skeptical as I walked in for the visa interview at the Chennai consulate.

The VO at the visa interview was a middle-aged white lady, in equal parts pleasant and mildly stern.
Questions asked:
* What is the company you work for?
* How long have you worked with The Company? How many years in India and how many in the US?
* What location will you be working at?
* Is this a client office? (In my case, The Company is a product dev company - answered accordingly)
* What product and technologies do you work on? (explained, dropping a few acronyms in the process)
* What does acronym XYZ stand for?
* What does The Product do? Can you explain what it's used for?
* Who are some of the clients using The Product?

Then turning to my wife:
* How long have you been married?
* What's your highest educational qualification?
* What's the nature of your work?

Finally, after a tense period of silence while the VO sifted through papers - "Sir, your visa has been approved".
The whole process at the consulate took about 1:15 hours including wait times in queues. Overall, barring the nerve-wracking suspense before the decision things went quite smoothly.

Few general tips about the L-1 visa interview at Chennai.
* Do not arrive too early unless you enjoy jostling around in queues. We arrived at 9:15am for a 9:30am appointment and breezed through just fine.
* Do not carry documents in envelopes. The security check folks examined every leaf of paper by removing individually from envelopes. More envelopes = more time to clear security.
* Be well-prepared to talk through details of your work.
* Wear smart but comfortable clothing, suited to the warm Chennai weather.

My company lawyers had warned me that L-1B extensions after the initial 3-year period are difficult to justify and have low approval rates. Was naturally skeptical as I walked in for the visa interview at the Chennai consulate.

The VO at the visa interview was a middle-aged white lady, in equal parts pleasant and mildly stern.
Questions asked:
* What is the company you work for?
* How long have you worked with The Company? How many years in India and how many in the US?
* What location will you be working at?
* Is this a client office? (In my case, The Company is a product dev company - answered accordingly)
* What product and technologies do you work on? (explained, dropping a few acronyms in the process)
* What does acronym XYZ stand for?
* What does The Product do? Can you explain what it's used for?
* Who are some of the clients using The Product?

Then turning to my wife:
* How long have you been married?
* What's your highest educational qualification?
* What's the nature of your work?

Finally, after a tense period of silence while the VO sifted through papers - "Sir, your visa has been approved".
The whole process at the consulate took about 1:15 hours including wait times in queues. Overall, barring the nerve-wracking suspense before the decision things went quite smoothly.

Few general tips about the L-1 visa interview at Chennai.
* Do not arrive too early unless you enjoy jostling around in queues. We arrived at 9:15am for a 9:30am appointment and breezed through just fine.
* Do not carry documents in envelopes. The security check folks examined every leaf of paper by removing individually from envelopes. More envelopes = more time to clear security.
* Be well-prepared to talk through details of your work.
* Wear smart but comfortable clothing, suited to the warm Chennai weather.

Hi,
I sincerely thank this forum. It helped me a lot to prepare for the interview and prepare a list of questions that the VO may ask. My interview was on 5th Feb 2015 in Chennai. The questions asked were:

1. Which company do you work for currently? - ABC
2. What would be your company in the US? - XYZ
3. Who is your petitioner?- XYZ
4. Why is the petition filed in PQR name?
(some other name that my current or US company. I explained him the org hierarchy and showed him the same . Actually, PQR is the parent for XYZ and XYZ is the parent of ABC)
5. What is your specialization?
6. How are these used in the projects?
7.Then he wanted me to explain about one of the tools ( which I mentioned in 5th question).
explained in two lines that how and in which phase of the project this tool will be used.

Then came the golden words "your visa is approved"

Thanks,
Abhik

Hi ,
 
I am on L1B Visa which expires on Sept 14 , 2015. My company recently got acquired by another competitor company & the acquisition is currently under review by Department of Justice.
I recently had a meeting with my companies attorney & according to them i would lose my L1B Visa as soon as the acquisition is completed & below is the reason i was explained.
 
In India I worked for a company named : "Company A India Pvt Ltd", which is fully owned subsidiary of "Company A incorporated "USA.
 
I moved to US on L1B visa to work for company " Company A LLC "which is also fully owned subsidiary of "Company A incorporated".
I got the L1B visa as "Company A India Pvt Ltd." & "Company A LLC " were related via "Company A Incorporated".
 
Now , another "Company B" is acquiring " Company A LLC ", for which i work currently.
According to my companies attorney, after the acquisition , since there wont be any relation between "Company B" & "Company A India Pvt Ltd", i would lose my L1B VISA & wont be able to file for an extension , as these companies dont have "qualifying relationship"
 
We are considering option for filing for H1B , however there are only 50:50 chances with H1B because of lottery selection.
 
Is there a way to file for L1B visa extension in my above mentioned scenario.
 
I appreciate any help your guys could provide here.
 
Thanks,
UM