L1, L2 Visa

Heart filled thanks to all Members to post their experiences. They helped me in preparing mentally. It was a mental block, but glad that VO didn't grill me much and it ended well.

Went to the counter, greeted him Good Morning nicely with my wife and Baby.

VO: So you are working for xxxx company?
NJ: Yes.

VO: How long you have been working with them?
NJ: Answered xx months.

VO: So you will be going to xxxxx?
NJ: Yes, (added state name)

VO: What’s your current salary?
NJ: xxx Lacs per Annum

VO: US salary would be?
NJ: xx K per Annum. (VO verified the same in I129 Form)
Long Pause…

VO: You are good to go.
 
I had already been on L1 for 2+ years, and several times on B1 as well. May be that helped, Also my company is very well renowned and VO looked to be a regular customer of it :P

Well, all was not good before the interview. Here are my tips for case to case basis:

• If you are not taking DD, then Do not trust your Credit card. Take cash as backup as well.

My company asked me to pay the 500 USD fee by Credit card. Some previous employee had an issue with Either DD payable at or USD Exchange rate. In morning, I verified with my bank that I have enough cash balance in my CC. But to make things worse, their machine didn’t read the card. Hence I was asked to go out leaving my wife & baby, to get cash. Unfortunately, had only 1 debit card and No nearby ATM of that bank. Chennai autowala are worst for non-tamils (No Offence). I had to shell out lots of money, to get the Cash. Officer was kind enough to put me on priority list for interview.

• Do not hesitate, to ask for favors to consulate folks.

Since we had a 6 month old baby, I asked at consulate and OFC and did not have to wait long for my turn. You will be certainly be given preference to other folks in your time slots.

• Long B1 stay – did not matter in my case.

I have stayed for 12 weeks and 10 weeks on B1, but during last 2 years (not 2013). We had few rejection cases in 2012 End, but not in 2013 that I know of in my Company. So it’s not a total blocker. But yes, it is highly advisable to have a time gap between your long B1 trip and L1 interview.

I firstly wish to thank all the individuals who posted their experiences in this forum.

On the day of the interview, I was asked to pay the DD for Rs. 28,500 to a cashier at one counter and then was directed to another counter where there was no queue. The Indian guy sitting at the counter was short and stout and his job was to assemble the papers required for the interview.

My company had arranged three copies of the required documents with binder clips. Each copy had the I129S, I-797, BEP letter and org charts organized neatly for easy reference. The form I-797 blanket petition supplement had 33 pages as my company is one of the Fortune 500 firms with a presence over 100 countries.

This guy first asked me when I had gone to the OFC. I felt it was unnecessary as the DS-160 form I had submitted clearly mentioned that date but I still answered politely. He then took off all the binder clips from the bundle I had submitted and shuffled the papers haphazardly. He tore just the front page of I-797 petition along with the I-129S from the first set and stapled them with the DS-160. He then pushed the rest of the papers which were messed up expecting me to clear up his mess. He incoherently muttered about providing two more copies of my petition and then called over the person who was standing behind me. Before I could ask him what he wanted, he rudely waved his hand asking me to stand aside while he called over the next guy. Apart from this guy, there was no one in the queue for this counter.

I took the I-797 petition from the remaining two copies and waited patiently till this person was done with the guy standing at the window of the counter. I felt the VFS guy should have completed processing my documents before he called over the next guy. However, I still controlled my patience. After the guy behind me left the counter, I handed over the remaining two copies of my I-797 back to him. The VFS guy said I was wasting his time and asked for the I129. I had to look for these from the mess he had handed me a few minutes ago. His behaviour pissed me off and I wanted to give him my piece of my mind. However, with the interview still to go, I decided not to create a scene and left the counter. I also felt like giving this loser a tight slap.

First of all, this piece of cr$p sitting on the other side was not doing his job properly, expecting me to do his job and on top of that, taunting me for not doing HIS job properly. If he wanted just the first page of I-797 along with I129S from all three copies, he should have either mentioned that clearly or done it himself.

With this bitter experience, I left for the adjacent building and waited for my turn. The American visa officer was interviewing candidates in front of me in Tamil (yes, Tamil with an American accent and he was very fluent in it!)

My turn came and the questions asked were as follows.

(1) Which visa have you applied for?
(2) Which company do you work for? Who has filed this petition?
(3) What is your designation?
(4) Who do you report to?
(5) How many people do you manage (both direct and indirect)?

After that, he said my petition was not clearly approvable and that the L-1A visa was for only senior managers and executives. He also said that there were other ways I could go to the US and asked me to inform my company that it should file my petition in a different visa category.

I thanked him and left.

My background:
MBA degree from a reputed business school based in the US + 8 years of work experience of which 2 were in India.

The officer neither looked at the org chart nor the petition letter explaining my role in the US.

Good luck to all who will be appearing for this visa interview.

Hi Friends,
First of all many thanks to folks who have shared their experiences which gives an insight and confidence to those who are appearing for the dreaded interview( touted as the most crappiest and most difficult interview in current times)

I have 5 years of management experience in both India and various other countries in Europe and US. But, still was anxious because of the sheer high % of rejections that were happening since past few quarters. Following is the interview snapshot that went on for 10 minutes( normally the interview times are between 2-3 minutes)

Interview
Me: Good Morning VO
VO: Good Morning
VO: Please give your document bundle
VO: Which client you are going for?
me : ZZZ
VO: Which state you are going to?
me: YYYY X
VO: What are you going to do over there? (This was a blunt question)
me: I will be going as Program Manager to manage the program suite comprising of X number of applications and will be responsible for program execution and program budget. etc etc
VO: How big is your team there?
me: 18 at onsite
VO: Can i have your ORG chart?
Me: I gave VO my org chart ( She spent 5 minutes holding that and then got up from her seat and went to a colleague's desk), came back and then spent 3-4 minutes again looking at org chart and typing something in the system.
VO: Are all these associates in your team at onsite?
me : I said yes
VO: Spent another 1 minute in typing something on the screen in front of her, my heart was beating at 200 beats per sec
me : After an agonizing 1 minute of silence and a marathon 10 min interview time, she pulled out a blue form 221g stating that " your case is not clearly approvable"

Conclusion : Based on my experience, i dont see a logical justification on why i was disapproved . Spoke to many other folks around 6-7 L1A aspirants, all got rejected without any clear justification.

Anyways, wanted to share my exp with you guys. Wish you all the best for your interview and be confident when you go there. Rest is all luck :)

Thanks a lot for this forum.The inputs were very useful

I went to the consulate 45 minutes before the time slot and since there was very less queue,I was allowed inside.
I had my PAI on 20th March and this is what happened (atleast the critical part)
Just 30 seconds interview with 2 questions (more sort of a conversation)
Is this visa for L1-A individual? Me- yes
What will be your designation in the US? Me- YYYY as per I-129
Approved, please collect your passport in 2-3 days. Me- Have a good day :)

I was dressed formally suitable for Chennai weather (no tie,blazer).Be confident !!! All the best.

Thanks a lot for this forum..it really helpful…
Today I had my L1B blanket PAI at chennai and my visa is approved
I went to Chennai consulate before 30mins to my appointment time and luckily there is no big queue..i was allowed directly and verified my documents, paid check and waiting in the queue for PAI. I token number came within 20mins.

Interview:

Me: Good morning
VO: Good morning
VO: Which type of Visa you are applying for? (Blanket or Individual)
Me: Blanket
VO: Who is your petitioner?
Me: YYYY X
VO: What is your total exp with petitioner?
Me: 6 years 2 months
VO: Why are you going to US?
Me: YYYY
VO: Asked again, what is your total exp with petitioner?
Me: 6 years 2 months
VO: What is the project?(asked twice as he could not able to understand)
Me: ZZZ
VO: Who is your client?
Me: YYYY
VO: He asked a cross question, to understand what exactly am doing for proposed project
Me: ZZZ
VO: Who is this intellectual property that you have knowledge on?(customer or employer)
Me: YYYY
VO: What is your Indian salary?
Me: YYYY

That’s all….Finally golden words “your Visa is approved”

I was dressed normally without blazer and tie..
Be confident and don’t fake anything….

All the best!!!

Appearance, appearance and appearance....no matter what people say about how its vain and blah blah, that's the only thing that talks for you, about you, way before you open your mouth. Please invest in yourself, groom yourself and buy nice clothes for the appointment. No matter what, when you dress the part, you start feeling the part and DEFINITELY ups your confidence which decides on how you talk to the VO.
Anyway, I spend 12K Rupees for my interview. Though I have closet full of clothes, i bought a new Pant, shirt, shoes, pantyhose, silver chain with a pearl pendant to go with my pearl studs/earrings and an expensive silk scarf (square scarf). I groomed myself (eye brows, waxing and basic face massage).
For the interview I wore the scarf under the collar and made a knot (youtube for the different styles and pick one that works for you). I wore pearl necklace (single strand) and a very simple silve bracelet and a silver watch. I had glasses with Tommy Hilfiger frames. So, my point is make yourself presentable and make others believe that are worthy a L1A.
Questions asked:
Q. Were you denied a visa?
A. Yes, XX visa was denied but that was long time back. (FYI, i was denied a dependent visa 10 yrs back. I told the truth).

All the procedures after you enter the consulate is regular stuff that VFS does. The VFS guy who verified my docs, BEP letter and DD etc took whatever he needed and threw back the rest of the papers. That really pissed me off. I looked into his eyes and asked him to arrange them and put the clip. He apologised and arranged my papers and gave it back. My point here is don't allow others to treat you like cr$p.

When my chance came, the VO took his own sweet time to type, donno what, in his system. During that time, I took out my org chart, project roadmap (for my program) etc. ready to show it to VO in case i get questions related to reportees or my projects.
Questions:
Q. Do you have clients?
A. Yes, we do. We serve YYYY ZZZ (list of clients). We serve over 14,000 financial institutions.
Q. Will you be working at client location?
A. No, I'll will not be working at client location. I'll be working out of my employer location at ZZZ.
Q. Whats your Indian salary?
A. YYYY lacs
Q. Whats your US salary?
A. YYYY K dollars
Q. How many report to you in India?
A. 11 reportees. 5 direct and 6 indirect. (I had the org structure ready. I showed it to him).
Q. How many will report to in US?
A. 8. 3 direct and 5 indirect. (I showed the org chart. He took that and looked at it for sometime)
Q. Who will you be reporting to?
A. VP YYYY (He looked at the chart again)

He typed something and stamped my docs and said it was approved.

Tanks to everyone who has shared a wealth of information.

My VISA was approved.. here are some additional notes thought would help everyione.,.,

Prior to travel question:
1. Do I need to return I94? ? I dint return it and on return back, it was collected during by immigration officer.
2. Do I need to exchange currency?
a. Use your credit card, but check on the transaction fee with your bank. There was no fee on my Amex, but VISA card there was transaction fee.
b. Taxi driver take US dollar, so no issues.
c. If at you need cash, with draw from ATM the charge is less compared to exchange rate 7 dollar fee.
3. How do I pay the 500 dollar fee?
a. Cash of 500 USD. (I had a confusion whether USD or Canadian Dollar)
4. Where to stay?
a. Hotels in Gatineau are comparatively cheaper and close by to embassy also.
5. What is Loomis?
a. It is part of DHL and you choose any one.
b. Choose the one close by the Embassy.
For VISA interview:
1. Dress code – There is no dress code. My take is to be formal.
2. Now the temperature should be fine, when I went it was snowing and had an early morning interview. It was cold and freezing. Did not have my jacket, please take them. Had a wait time of 5 minute outside.

Question was pretty standard plus I have almost 20 years of experience, direct employee in a leading company and have a pretty large team in US (20 members).
I never gave a single line answer except for the first question.
1. Do you work for XYZ?
2. What is your role?
3. Who is your client?
4. What do you do for the client?
5. What is your position?
He looked at me and said it is approved.
The day I went almost all the interview was success except for a person who had only work contract for 3 months. Good luck guys!!

What to do in three days?
I went to Niagara. Had friend and they gave me couple of options, you can explore it.
1. Take Via Rail (if you book early they have a web deal)
2. Take the greyhound (online price is cheaper)
3. Rent a vehicle.

Hello everybody,
I need people who have had stayed previously on B1 visas for 2-3 months & impact of it on their current visa due to previous B1 stays, come forward & post their experiences. I see only few of them mentioning about B1 visits, so i sincerely request people with such an experience let people like us know so that we can prepare accordingly.
Thanks

Thanks to immihelp and fellow members for the wealth of information. I just wanted to add few points I noted that might help somebody.

OFC: Make sure that the sticker they paste on the back of your passport is accessible during your consulate visit. They scan it before admitting you into consulate.

Chennai consulate: I went to Chennai consulate, 15 minutes ahead of my appointment. As happened to somebody else here, I ended up at the tail of a half-a-kilometer queue. If you are facing the consulate, this queue is to the left. People with appointments 1 or 2 hrs after mine were all standing ahead of me. My appointment time came and went, I was still no where near the entrance. Half an hour past my appointment time, a security guard came and asked all the people with appointment time around my own to go with him. He made us to stand in another queue (to the right of consulate) that was shorter. Finally I entered the consulate 45 minutes past my appointment time. I was not worried because before going into the first queue I asked a security person at the front if this is the queue I have to stand even if my appointment was only 15 minutes away and he said 'yes'.

Many people mentioned that after security frisking, you go to a counter where they arrange your documents. For a blanket L1 visa, the only documents they rubber band together are your pasport(s), 3 copies of I-129S and 3 copies of I-797. That's it, no support letters, no college certs, no nothing. You'll have to carry all those supporting documents separately and be ready to quickly draw them out and show them to the VO if asked.

Be careful about what you fill in your DS-160 and I-129S. Apart from asking you and looking at the stamps in your passport(s), those two forms are probably the only source of information about YOU for the officer. The VO ofcourse has access to all cases pertaining to your company's blanket petition.

The interview itself was simple enough for me. Not a single question was asked that was not posted here already. No supporting docs were asked. If you have been to the US on L1 before, you may expect questions on that.

I was dressed in simple formals with no tie or blazer. You should be presentable first and foremost and comfortable in what you wear.

Hi,

First of all thank you very much to this forum and all contributor here to make other's way easy.

Though people have mentioned their experiences about OFC and PA before. I would like to reiterate my experience during VISA interview.

OFC :
On 14th March We had our Biomatric, but because of some technical issues it was delay by 4 hours. I had appointment 10:00 AM in the morning but I got my turn at 2:00 PM. and that was very very long and hactic day as with family you have to stand in the queue for more than 4 hours, and my daughter is just 2 and half year old, She was totally tired. But once my turn came up at 2:00 PM we came to know that finger prints and photo would not be possible today, only unique barcode sticker on all passport and initial registration would be done. and we were told that fingerprints and photo would be done on visa interview appointment day itself.

PA :
On 15th March we had our PA. and whole process was very very smooth , as we were with kid we don't need to stand in any queue. Firstly they have checked DS-160 and all passports(including expired/cancelled) at the entry gate. during this time they put one sticker which carries unique number(starts with 'P' Or 'N') which would be used for different queeu inside the embassy.

Once you enter embassy there was a document check again and full body scan. there would be one security person who would check you physically to make sure you don't carry and unwanted stuff. Bags/Laptop/Mobile/Pen-drives and all other electronics devices are not allowed inside the embassy, but if you are with kids, they allowed bag which carries my documents and food and other stuff for my kid.

Now there would be all document check, there would be total 12 windows, follow in the queue as per number displayed on the TV. Once your number appears, that window would check all your end to end documents to make sure everything is in place. they would make one bunch which carried, all your passport and all other petition documents. and they take finger prints on that window also.

now you need to go to other building to submit your DD.once you submit DD they would be giving you acknowledge receipt.

After that you need to be in the queue to appear for PA with Visa Officer.

My 2 Cents on experience for L1B.

A) Nothing matters other than followings
- Your actual specialized expertise(that you mentioned in your BEP Letter, PRD and DS-160), you should not deviate from this while giving answers. your answer must be around what you have mentioned in above documents.
- Confidence is the only key.
- Represent your answer in full sentance and keep it upto 2-3 clear sentances. Don't answer in mono-sentances. try using words that convey and convience Visa Officer(VO) that you are indeed falls in the specialized category.


My Interview Questions.

(We both greet the Visa Officer and he greet in return).

Q: So Who is your current employer ?
A: Answered Appropriately.

Q: Who is your client?
A: Answered Appropriately. (As my client's name pronounciation was a little tough[also depends on accent] he asked me my client's name thrice).

Q: So What do you do ?
A: Answered Appropriately.

Q: What is your indian Salary?
A: YYYY Thousand Per Annum. (Its very impotant to ANSWER in "hundred thousandS" which is US counting system as well, They would not understand Lacs)

Q: What is your US Pay ?
A: Answered Appropriately. (Its very impotant to ANSWER in "hundred thousandS" which is US counting system as well, They would not understand Lacs)

After this questions, VO was typing something for 15-20 seconds and was not looking at me at all. Somewhere deep in my heart I was knowing that I am throuhg the VISA interview. He started stamping and signing the all 4 copy of I129S form.

Then comes the words that We were waiting for. VO Said 'Your visa is approved.' , I am giving you 2 copies of I129S, Give one copy to your HR and Keep one Copy with you , you would need when you enter the US.

Then he look and smiled at my family and said Have a great day. Good luck. and we filled for courier forms for delivery and leave embassy happily and smile on our faces.

Regards,
Mehul K