L1, L2 Visa

I have been following this forum for the last two months and its my turn to write my experience. I attended L1B visa interview on 28th of Apr,2014 along with my wife and one year old kid. After security check, we were given a tockent number and asked to pay the demand draft at the counter. Then, we were sent to the place where interviews were happening. We were asked just one question each and granted visa.

To me:
What's your specialized skill ?
-- I explained the specialized skill I work on, how long I have been working on this and how it is going to be used in my future project. Make sure this specialized skill is your company's in-house product, and not a third party product.

To my wife:
What's your highest educational qualification ?

Notes:
1. I am from a product based company, and hence I am not sure what additional documents are required if you are going to work for a client. Make sure you take additional documents as required.
2. My case was new L1B blanket and hence all the documents I mentioned below are more relevant to L1B blanket.

Documents required for OFC:

1. Passport(s) - Current passport, and most recent passport,if any.
2. Appointment confirmation
3. DS-160 confirmation
4. For kids, one photo of 2x2 size(US Visa photo specification)

Documents required for Consulate(These are the docs I carried, you might need additional documents as required):

1. 3 sets of original I-129S and I797. These are provided by the employer.
2. Additional documents provided by the employer like support letter etc..
3. Passport(s) - Current passport, and most recent passport,if any.
4. Appointment confirmation
5. DS-160 confirmation
6. Anti-fraud visa Demand Draft in favour of "U.S.CONSULATE GENERAL,CHENNAI" payable at Chennai, if you are attending interview at Chennai.
7. MRV bar code print out.
8. VIsa fee receipt - NEFT transaction prinout suffices.
9. For kids, one photo of 2x2 size(US Visa photo specification)
10. U.S Offer letter
11. All Original educational certificates
12. Marraige certificate, if you are attending with your spouse.
13. Birth certificate, if you are attending with kids.
14. Pay slips for the last 6 months
15. Form-16s for the last 3 years
16. 6 months Bank statment
17. Contact information of manager and two emlpoyees
18. Organization Chart
19. Resume

Tips:
1. If you are going to OFC in Hyderabad, do not take any electronic items including mobile. They do not allow anything except the documents. Also, there is no parking facility at OFC in Hyderabad, and hence it is best to take cab/auto instead of car.
2. At consulate or OFC, there is no dress code at all. Wear whatever you feel comfortable.
3. Be confident and speak fluently with the consulate officer.
4. It is highly important to make sure your petition reflects your specialized skill and you explain the same to the consular officer. The main thing you need to prove is you indeed possesses specialized skill.
5. I suggest you to go throught at least past 6 months experiences posted in this forum and prepare for all the questions posted, especially regarding the specialized skill.
6. It doesn't matter if you are a developer,tester or DBA . It's only that you need to prove you posseses specialized skill that is unique with in and outside the company.
7. You need to prepare some data points that prove you unique within your organization and why you are the only guy selected for this position.

All the best everyone!

Last but not least, this forum has been a great help to me in preparing for my visa. Thank you very much everyone who contibuted to this forum!

I'll continue to watch this space for next few weeks, and hence if you have any questions, feel free to reply to this post. I'll be very happy to help.

I had my interview today at 10:30 AM chennai.

Me : Good morning
Vo : Good morning

Vo : Asked which company i was working in India?
Me : Answered

Vo : Are you going to work at the client location?
Me : Informed that i would be working for the parent company.

Vo: How long have you been working in the company
Me: Answered

Vo: What is you specialization?
Me: Explained in detail

Vo : What would be your salary in US?
Me : Answered

Vo : I am approving your visa
Me : Thank you very much

Be confident and make sure you have your petition/i129 is prepared properly.

All the best !!

I will be travelling to US on L2 Visa and will be applying for EAD after reaching. Could someone please share the latest experience for the same. What are the required documents and how we can avoid RFE to come. Also, how much time will it take

This is my experience.

VO: Good Morning
Me: Good Morning

VO: Which company do you work for?
Me: Answered

VO: For how long have you been working for company?
Me: For 6 years now

VO: What is your specialization?
Me: ZZZ, explained, detailed

VO: What will be your US salary?
Me: Answered

VO: You are being payed way high than normal wages? Why?
Me: My salary is at power with a person in US with similar experience, education and skill

VO: This is not the right VISA category that you are applying for, get in touch with HR and ask them to apply under the right visa category.
VO: Please take this form and give it to the HR for correct visa type.

Result: Not clearly approveable.

Moral of the story: It's luck, just 50 50 chance

Thanks,
Thoku

Hi All,

I have attended the L1B visa interview on Dec2nd in Chennai.

Questions asked:

1) Is it blanket or individual
Blanket

2) Company name
Answered

3) What will be your salary in the U.S
Answered

4) What is your specalization?'
I started explaining and she too started searching simultaneously for something on her desk...

then I asked: Do you want me to continue?
Her reply was more shocking: "If you want to"

and then she said that my visa cannot be approved and I should contact my HR to file it under different category.

my fate was decided in just 2 mins...

L1 is pure 'Luck' thing...

Hi All,

I have been reading all the nice stories and some not-so-nice ones of L1 Experiences here for quite some time.

I had my L1A Blanket PAI in the first week of April,2014.

The appointment was at 7.30AM in the morning.

I was the 2nd interviewee for the lady VO.

The questions were all routine and has been often elicited here, so was easy to answer.

1.Which Company
     YYYY
2.How many Years have you been in the company ?
    YYYY
3.Who will be your client ?
    AAAA
4.What is your current designation ?
    Project Manager
5.How many onsite reportees would you be having ?
    5
6.Are your reportees like leads or what ?
    1 Architect, 2 leads, 2 Sr.Analysts
7.What is your manager's designation ?
    Sr.PM

Sir, The US Immigration Laws are very strict about the L1A Blanket category, your Visa is clearly not approvable :( :(
Please ask your HR to apply in appropriate category.

So what is the take-away from this writeup ?
Please refer to this post : http://www.immihelp.com/experience/61337-L1A-blanket-approved.html

L1A - Blanket is NOT for PMs it is for higher ups... people may point out that there are many instances when PMs have got it (I have also noticed that ) .. but may be they were just plain lucky :) , may be the VO's breakfast was really nice ;)

And one more thing... a Visa denial is not the end of life ... its just start of another journey :) .. I do repeat those words ;)

All the best :)

This is regarding the RFE which i got from USCIS. I got an RFE on March 29th and my company has asked to submit the documents which they needed.

Mine is L1 Individual regular. My questions are,

1) How long USCIS will take to process and provide the decision the petition.
2) what would be approval rate?

If any inputs, kindly reply.

Thansk,
Manikandan

We had our interview for L1B & L2 Visa at Chennai consulate on 15th April. Thanks to all of you for your valuable inputs in this forum.

We have been following this forum, since we applied for Visa. Its of immense help in preparing for the interview.

We had our bio-metrics on 9th April in Mumbai and interview on 15th in Chennai.

Interview last for only 5-6 minutes.

For L1B:

1. which company you are working for?
answered

2. For how many years you have been working with this company:
Answered

3. What is your specialized knowledge?
Answered

4. How your specialized knowledge will be useful for this project?
Answered

and then for L-2:

1. For how long you have been married?
Answered

2. what is your highest educational qualification?
Answered

3. Are you working?
yes

4. Are you going o take leave?
yes. taking break from my current job.

5. show me your marriage certificate.
shown.

looked carefully at the certificate. and then the golden words. Don't forget to take the documents along with you when you travel to US. I'm approving your visa. :)

We said thanks and have a nice day to the lady officer.

Be confident. There is no harm in greeting the officer with a smile.

All the best

I had my interview today. I was asked the following questions by the immigration officer at the Chennai Counsulate.

VO: Good Morning
Me: A very Good morning to you sir (with a smile)

VO: Which Company do you work for?
Me: work for company x?

VO: What does the company do?
Me: A brief description of the company.

VO: How long have you been working for this company?
Me: 2 Yrs 7 Months

VO: Whats your current salary?
Me: Salary is xyz Rs

What the highest degree you have received?
Mention highest degree.

Will you be working on the client side?
No, I will be working with the Company HQ.

Will you family be joining you?
They will be joining me after a couple of months,.

Who is in your family?
Wife and 2 children. (I had filled 1 child as my wife was expecting the second baby, the baby was born a day before the interview)

He then proceeded to stamp the documents.

Few tips: Take the interview seriously Prepare for it.. Be consistent with your answers. Answer to the point.

Hope this helps. All the best to all the applicants.

Guynextdor

 

Hi,

I have my L1B interview next week.

I have couple of doubts regarding the demand draft that I have taken for
L1B anti-fraud visa. If anyone has any idea, Can you please clarify them ?

1. Is the demand draft from ICICI bank eligible for this ?
2. The name of the payee has been printed as "U S CONSULATE
GENERAL,CHENNAI" on the demand draft . Is that fine or is it supposed to be
"U.S." instead of "U S" (i.e dots(.) are missing in my DD)