L1, L2 Visa

I would like to thank all the members of this form for posting their experiences. I was rejected 6 times (4 times F1 and twice B1/B2). My 7th VISA application(B1) was approved . This time my VISA category was L1A and it was approved.
Interview was very very simple.Myself and my wife went for the interview together.

VO: Hello
ME: Hello Sir, Gud mor , Hru ?

VO: Which company you are working for ?
ME: YYYY company

VO: What does that company do ?
ME: Explained him the nature of business.

VO: What do you do for that company?
ME: Explained him in couple of sentences.

VO: Is your petition blanket or individual?
ME: Individual.

VO:Hru doing (to my wife).
MyWife : I am doing good sir.

VO: Your VISA has been approved. Enjoy your stay.
ME: Thank you Sir.

Whole process took not more than a minute.My suggestion for the candidates who are attending VISA interviews is to be confident and to be cool.Blazer and tie will not add on anything for you to get your VISA approved.Confidence is the KEY.Clean shave and a decent formals will be more than enough.

All the best.

Raghu Vamshi

First of all, I would like to thank other members for posting their experiences. They help alot to the future applicants.

I've been logging here more than FB recently.

My exp.

Tue, 23 Apr'13
Mumbai OFC

I finshed in 15 mins, the DS 160 confirmation check, usual fingerprinting process.
Also, I guess you have to collect the 'get your passport courier-ed' form there only.

Fri, 26 Apr'13
Chennai Consulate

This was my first time in chennai and yes it is very humid, a handkercheif is must. My apt was at 11, I reached the gates at 9:45 and was able to get in by 10:35 or so.
You will get a sticker pasted on your passport which will have to token number.

Document Verification counter
Keep you I129, I 179s and passport seprate and ready, it will be bundled together by a rubber band.

Fingerprinting counter
Next is the fingerprint checking counter and then you proceed for the interview

Visa fees counter
Pay the Visa fees and then wait for your turn to come.

THE Interview
The ordeal starts here, I had prepared like a gazillion times in front of the mirror but when I saw the crowd and counter, it just felt like BUTTERFLIES in stomach. I tried to relax and tried remembering my answers, waiting for token number to flash.
The token were appearing in order but my token was skipped and the number after me started flashing, more butterflies. I went and spoke to a executive and he told me that these numbers are not necesscarily in order.

Finally, after an agonising wait of 15 mins my token flashed and I went and stood in the line in front of counter.
I was slightly hear able to hear about what was happening at the counter and I heard sorry and stuff, extra butterflies.

By this time, I was hopelessly nervous but I still tried to maintain my calm, VO signalled me to came in front and

VO: Good Morning, How are you?
Me: Good Morning Sir, I am doing well, thank you.

VO: So you work for YYYY ?
Me: Yes

VO: So I see you are going to YYYY X?
Me : Yes

VO: So, What are you going to do there exactly?
Me: I design tech solution for YYYY , in that I basically take care of an internal tool, which does this and that......

VO: (Interrupting me) You are giving me memorised answers.
Just tell me, what you are going to do in your own words and he smiled at me.
Me: Started repeating the same thing, slowly.

VO: Okay, Dont worry relax. and he started stamping on my forms (That was my YAY moment)
I am issuing you the visa, have a great trip to the US.
Me: Thank you!!

I felt that the visa was kind of pre approved and you just have to give your answers honestly and properly.
The VO's are really nice people and are not there to reject the visa's

I hope this helps,

Sorry for the typos, I wish you all the best!
Rgds

Hi I had my interview today for L1-B visa they asked only a few general question asked to submit the anti fraud fees also signed my I-129S forms and said you will have to show them to the immigration when you land in US, But after that gave me a letter and said your case is under administrative proceesing and it will take 4-6 weeks for that.
Can anyone tell me if he has passed through such a experience and what was the outcome of it..

First, for immihelp, kudos to you for providing a platform for people to share their experiences..!!

Second, Thanks a lot to everyone who keeps updating this forum with their valuable suggestions and their interview experience..!! It helped a lot to me..!

Day 1: Biometrics.
(Very Important) Make sure that your first name and last name is consistent in passport, DS-160 and appointment. If there is any mismatch, you will not be allowed to OFC and you have to re-submit DS-160 again from scratch with respect to the name in the passport.

If everything is proper, hardly 15 mins job..!! No problems at all..!! It's totally not required to go 30 minutes earlier than your appointment time. If you do so, you have to wait on the road. Just 5 mins before your appointment time is enough.

Day2: Interview.
Reach embassy before 15 mins of your appointment time. You will receive a token number before entering embassy.

Counter1 - Officer (Indian) will verify the documents and bundle the documents together with a rubber band. DS-160 confirmation, passport, and 3 copies of L1-Blanket petition Form I-797 & Form I-129S (first 3 pages). Highly recommended to keep each copy of the forms separate so that you won't mess it out at the counter.

Counter2 - Officer (American) will verify whether you have completed your Biometrics or not. Just a minute job. No questions.

Counter3 - Cashier - Pay the Visa Anti-Fraud Fee (500$) and get the receipt.

Counter4 - Visa Officer (American) - Interview time.

Here goes the list of questions asked to me.

VO: Good morning. (He was looking so happy and all the time he was smiling)
Me: Very good morning. Thanks. How are you?

VO: I am good. Thanks.
Me: (smile)

VO: Which company you are working for?
Me: ABC

VO: How long you are working in ABC?
Me: 1 year 4 months.

VO: What's your total experience?
Me: 4 years.

VO: What you are special at? (A mandatory question to allmost all whoever applied for L1-B)
Me: I am expertise in design and development of the X application which is developed for ABC and blah blah blah (2-3 sentences. Recommended not to use the word 'proprietary', else you will be asked more questions).

VO: So, you do the development of this application?
Me: Yes. Also, I perform integration tests on the system.

VO: What's your salary in India? (Always tell in lakhs).
Me: X lakhs Y thousands per annum.

VO: What's your application is for?
Me: Application does blah blah blah and this is developed for ABC Healthcare (2-3 sentences in brief about your application and mention the domain).

VO: How long you are going to work in US?
Me: 3 months.

VO: (Typing something in the monitor and then started signing and sealing on the petition forms). Okay, I am approving your VISA. You will receive your stamped VISA in a week's time.
Me: Thanks a lot.

VO: Please carry 2 copies while you travel to US. If you miss any of these, you will get into trouble.
Me: Sure.

VO: Very well then, enjoy your stay in US.
Me: Thanks a lot. Have a nice day.

VO: Thanks. Bye.
Me: Bye.

As soon as I heard the golden words, I was on cloud 9 with happyness. :)

Based on my experience, I feel like it's all pre-decided to approve visa or not based on the details you have mentioned in the petition & DS-160, company you work for, your experience, your work domain and for the client you are going to work for.

However, prepare well for the interview. Be confident. Don't be nervous. Never tell lies to the Officer. Make sure that watever you answer, it matches as per the details mentioned in the petition.

That's it from me. Thanks for reading. Hope it will help you.

All the best folks. Have a great day.

First of all, i cant thank enough everyone on this forum. Its one of a kind and very very helpful.

First thing relax and dont get worked up, otherwise even though if your documents are in place you might miss out because of getting worked up.

OFC is pretty straightforward no problem at all.

The visa interview was the following

Which Company do you work for ?
YYYY

Which city would you be relocating
YYYY

What is your specialized skill?

YYYY

to My wife
How long have you been married
YYYY

How old is your kid
YYYY

Sir your visa is approved. Thats it me all smiles and thanked the VO and left the center.

All in all the ordeal is about 30 minutes.

Also remember that practicing in front of the mirror goes a very long way in getting your confidence up.

Hope this helps
Niket

Hi All,
This Visa process (starting from the day of applying to today, the visa stamping interview) have taken a toll on me..
Any way, I would like to thanks all of you who shares their experiences here, and believe me, this forum has been my daily visited page. i must have visited at least 5 times a day to see, if any new experience has been added. :). Its been really a great help in preparing the interview questions and ur all experiences.

OK, Lets start my story now.
My Company has applied L1B visa for me before 2 months, and it has been approved without an RFE. my employer really got surprised to know this (as they were habituated with getting the RFEs for all the visa applications).
and finally we scedule the visa stamping date . we schedule for two dates. one for bio-metrics and another for Interview(19th Apr 2013 and 22nd Apr 2013).

Bio-metric day(was pon Friday) at OFC was really very smooth and before my scheduled time. my time was 10.00 Am but i reached at 8.30 am (to avoid Mumbai traffic actually) and i came out from OFC at 8.45. it was very fast and smooth.
1) Finger prints
2) Photo Taken by the officer ( I wasted my 4 photographs i had photographed for this visa interview :) :))
3) stamped on DS-160 form and returned back
and a wide smile on my face while i was returning from the office.

Now My Visa stamping interview Experience :
My sleep time has been reduced due to un-necessary tensions and i have mocked the interview at least 20 times in these two days(satday and sunday) in front of mirror. but it really helps and only raised my confidence.
Finally the day has come, and i woke up at 4.00 AM morning and didnt able to sleep futher. ,my timing was at 10.00 am and i left my house at 8.00 AM and reached at consulate office at 8.30 and standed in line. and got the entry very soon. but My advice is not to reach before 30 mins of schedule time. its totally a waste of time by sitting there on the heat. I had also ready this advice here in blogs. but u know i am one of those over-cautious first timer who loves to waste his time.

Any way after a long wait, i got into the office, they have pasted a slip with a number(like N-521) on my passport. Now i
had to wait for my turn by looking at the screen, which was flashing the numbers and corresponding windows. and the number was flashing now with window number 25.

I went to 25th window , i was the 3rd person standing on the line. it was an american officer taking interviews. but i
observed he was approving the visas to all my front liners. my turn came and i went near the window.
my heart was beating very fast, i tried to control. and here was the questions :

1) Which company you are working for ?
Ans : told my company name ( he asked this twice)
2) What is your specializations ? ( he was looking my face and interrupted to ask about my application)
3) what is your product name. (I replied twice, as the spelling was a bit tough)
4) where will you work for your client ( i told the city name) but i should have told him my company name. but due to

nervousness i forgot and just stated the City and state name).
but it seemed he was less interested to know all these details
5) are you married ?
Ans : No, I am single.
6) did you get the work-right pamphlet ?
Ans .Yes

Here the Golden words came from him, Sir, Your Visa has been approved. it will take 2-5 days to receive your passport. I am keeping your passport here. I said thank you .

But the way my interview went, i just surprised( it took only 3 mins for this interview).I felt this visa was pre-approved. Interview was just a formality.
I had read here in this forum, that after approval the VO will give me some kind of forms with stamp.
but he didn't give me anything. I asked him twice , is there anything else I need to submit, do i need to go to another

window for any further process . He said, no, thanks you, ( even the person was standing in front of me, had asked the same question to him twice after his approval, Ha.. Ha... :) ).

Any way finally its done, I came out with a diet coke from the office and choose to pick up my passport from OFC location( didn't choose the courier service). and got the way to my office.
Now, I am waiting for my visa-passport to be ready.

Thanks for your help and patience to ready my story. i am sure it will help others.
Have a great interview.

First of all thanks for this wonderful forum which helped me prepare for the interview and letting me know what to expect on the big day! All the advice given by fellow applicants here are worth a mention and I am skipping all those things and coming straight to OFC and Personal Interview.

I had my OFC scheduled at Mumbai on April 12 at 09:30 am and I was out by that time. It's easy process and VFS guys are really courteous and will guide what to do. They verify your passport details with the DS-160 confirmation page and appointment letter for the OFC. Then they guide to main window (which looks like the interview window at the consulate) for biometrics and photographs.

We had our interview at chennai consulate on April 15th at 09:00 am. We stood in the queue at 08:30 am considering the heat of chennai. I advice applicants to stand atleast 30 mins before your interview time. Here again they will verify your DS-160 confirmation page and passport, they frisk you and your documents after which they will allow you inside the building.

I had to go to totally 3 windows for documents sorting, biometric scan and main interview. They stick a sticker with a number which will be your number for rest of the time while at consulate. Keep looking at the large TV screens for your token number and window number.

I got my turn after waiting for nearly 45 mins. The officer was an Indian who was approving the visa infront of me for a student, a elderly gentleman and for us.

Questions asked:

1. What kind of visa is this? Individual or blanket?
2. Who's my employer?
3. Where am I going?
4. What's your Indian Salary?
5. How much you will be paid in US?
6. What's your role?
7. What's your specialization? This is most important as he was directly looking at me and was cross checking with lot's of supporting questions to get the clarity.

Questions to my wife:
1. When did you get married mam?

That's it. He said our visa was approved and gave 2 copies of petition with seal on it.

We then filled out the form for the courier service and we received our passports very next day. Yes within one day we had our passports with us.

I think all you need to be sure of is "Specialized Knowledge" and why it is unique. VO's are there to approve our visa and are really nice people with quick thinking. Go enjoy the moment and don't be nervous. Also prepare very well with mock interviews and answers for all the questions from this site.

All the best!

Hi,

Thanks to this forum for guidance in preparing all the required Q & A.
I had my visa interview @ 8.30am on 18th April 2013.
I was with my dependents (wife and 2 years old daughter). With small kids you really get preference in the queue.
Here is what the VO had for me.

VO : greeted me good morning sir how are you doing?
me: i am fine thank you how are you? (My heart beat was high since my number came as soon as paid the fraud prevention fee).

VO: Relax sir take your time.
me: yes sure thank you.

VO: For which company do you work sir?
me: YYYY i was still huffing;

(My kid and spouse came from behind; my kid was eating snacks)
VO greeted my daughter with smile, but she was busy eating her snacks. Then my wife said to VO, she is busy eating her snacks. VO said with a broad smile thats good good very good, eating is a good thing!
 My wife allowed me to calm down and took control here.

VO: Sir why are you going?
me: Answered appropriately (I had prepared what to say, but i said what came to my mind and not what i prepared it was the instinct).
(while i was answering the VO did not looked at me at all and she was busy doing something on her computer and with papers that i gave her).

VO: Why is this knowledge specialised?
me: explained.

Then to my wife
VO: Mam, what is your Qualifications?
me: my wife explained appropraitely.

(VO said lets complete this quickly sir and again typing something in her PC.)

(Now VO is looking at me and asked below questions)

VO: how long you have been working with this company?
me: answered no of years in this company.

VO: What is your total experience?
me: xxx no of years.

VO: what is the expected duration of stay?
me: explained and justified why 3 years.

VO: I am approving your visa sir!
me and my wife thanks so much.

VO: Enjoy your stay is US sir & mam (to me and my wife)

We thanked her again and left.

For my case at least it seemed, it was pre-approved, because i think she was hardly interested in what i was answering and more looking towards my wife and daughter, as she knew i guess what she had to do already.

This was very smooth than i anticipated, it could not have got better than this. I was very tensed prior to the dicussion rather i should say, than interview. Anyways thanks to all the posts in this forum. I also did a mock with my friend who does not know my profile and answered to convience and make him understand what i was doing for many hours, which helped me to be confident.

as long as your case is genuine and you have already worked on the specialized knowledge.i.e. you know what you are going to do then you should not have any problems.

All the very best!!!!

I was well on schedule and appeared before the VO, who was a Lady officer. Below is the Q & A that happened:

VO: Who is your client?
Me: Replied with correct name

VO: What will be your location in US?
Me: replied with correct location

VO: Which company do you work for?
Me: Replied with current company name

VO: What's your current Salary?
Me: Replied with exact figure

Then one of her friends interrupted in between. She returned after few minutes

VO: What's total experience with current organisation?
Me: More than n years

Then she turned back a bit for a while and returned

VO: What would you do in US?
Me: Mentioned the role in US and the tool I have expertise.

That was all I was asked in precisely 5-6 minutes (including the interruption time in between). And finally she stamped with "Not Clearly Approved" and advised to apply for a different category.

Looks like they don't actually listen and understand what we say. It all depends on their mood. There's was one more VO (guy) was at the other counter who had interviewd & approved Visa for 3 candidates, who were appeared before him. But this lady was already busy at the back of her mind.

Never mind, will try again after some time.

I appeared for the VISA interview in Chennai on 15th. It went pretty well. This site helped a lot in anticipating some of the questions. VO was friendly. Here is how the interview went:

He checked the screen and the documents. Then the questions:

How long have you worked for this company?
What does your company do?
Who are the clients/customers?
Why the name of your company is so different from what it does.
What is your current salary?
What is your role here?
What is the specialized skill that you have?
How long will you be going to USA?
Will you be employed by ZZZ, USA or by the clients?
Will you be working at ZZZ, USA or at client site?
To my wife - What is the birthday of your husband?

Then, 'your visa is approved. You will get your passport in a week'.