L1, L2 Visa

Thanks for every one for sharing their experiences through this form. I spent enough time in my preparation collecting the questions from this site.

Here is my experience.

As and when my token number flashed on the screen I stood and went to the counter. VISA officer looks very jovial and was wearing North Indian traditional dress. In front of me there were two people and looks they are for not for L1B. There VISAs are approved in seconds and I wondered! Next step is mine and walked towards VO.

VO: Hi Good morning....How are you doing?
Me: Good Morning....Am doing good TY.
VO: Took my passport, petition and scanned it to see my details in computer...He started looking the screen for 2 to 3 mins without asking a question..
Me: Looking at him without loosing my confidence and without turning my head
VO: Looked my petition papers and asked you work company ZZZ?
Me: Yes
VO: Who is your client?
Me: YYYY X
VO: Talked on my client business progress with me that he already knows... as my client is well known airline industry
Me: Yes the progress is good to the company
VO: How long you been working in present company?
Me: x years y months (meet more than L1B base exp requirement)
VO: What your company do for the client?
Me: We use company ZZZ/YYY proprietary framework and tools to develop and enhance my client YYYY process using YYYY system.
VO: What is your salary in US?
Me: YYYY X USD
VO: Started typing something in computer and moving mouse repeatedly for almost 2 to 3 minutes..
Me: I was little bit tense and with hope to hear the result from VO, kept looking at him without loosing patience and just was trying to read his name in mind on his ID card to loose my tension...
VO: Started writing something on my two sets of petition, looks he do not have stamp in the counter and said I am sorry your VISA is not clearly approved and your skill is not listed as specialization skill under some section AAAA. Ask your manager to process right kind of VISA.
Me: I tried explaining my specialization framework and tools and use of that to my client and he again listened patiently.
VO: Said again sorry sir your skill is not listed as specialized skill and smiling and said I need to take the interview to the people waiting in the queue.
Me: I said Thank You and left the counter

My advise:

Spend lot of time in documentation that supports you as a specialized resource and expose more on your specialized skill describing the technologies used and projects you worked in your company using this skill and also roles and responsibilities. The skill should be very rare and try to expose that your development experience on the skill and why only opted and why not others.

Also I feel US salary and India salary should be high but not matter mostly, just to scale you as specialized skilled resource in the market.

I see VISA approval is predefined and VO approves based on the inputs from your docs and try to say what you mentioned in petition, supporting docs and DS160 crisply in simple layman words. VOs are very good people and very friendly, dont tense by seeing them...

Finally donot take negative cases seriously in this form as the experience is not yours and it is others who is different from you....Always think I will get VISA repeatedly...

Now I have good information on L1B VISA and please write me if you need any more queries to [email protected]

I wish All the best for your preparation and VISA. God bless you... :)

Thanks
Suhasra

I have 12 yrs of experience, wanted to share the transcript of the conversation, these were the questions asked by the VO at counter 22 in chennai.

What would you be doing in the US ?
I would be working as "xxx" for the company "yyy" in the US , managing large to complex software application development projects.

how long have you been in this company ?
nn years.

What is your salary in inr ?
xx INR / annum

What woudl your salary be in the US ?
xx USD / annum

how many direct reportees would you have in the US?
5 in the US
how many direct reportees in india ?
3 in the US

would you have any indirect reportees ?
yes, 10 in the US, and 16 at offshore, but overall reporting into me.

Hold on second...

he goes to consult with the other VO in window 23, and comes back to say the bad news..

"sorry, you have done ayhting wrong, but your visa is not clearly approvable" gives me a 221 g (blue) form and marks the clearly not approvable option.

In my view, I dont know if I have done any mistake.. in my view i think the break in the convesation happened only after the reportees part... so I am led to think that this number is not enough for an approval. Can any one help here ?

Hi ,

My L1B - Individual extension was denied recently. Would it be appropriate for me to go for L1B - blanket once again?

I work for an MNC. I have 9.5 years experience. I have travelled to US on my earlier visa for 3 times. 1st time for an year then 2 months and now 4 months.

Can any one help me.

First of all I want to extend my sincerest greetings to all the forum contributors, it was such a great help..I am hoping my experience would help someone -

OFC Appointment and Formalities -
1. Try to reach max. 15 minutes before your scheduled appointment, there is no waiting area except the road and since Chennai is hot and humid you may not want to wait for hours in the open.
2. The OFC office is in a very busy area, you may face rush so timing is key so incase you reach early or you want to avoid being late, you can spend some time in nearby restaurants.food joints etc which are on a parallel street walking distance from office, ask for the college near by and then hang in around there.
3. The OFC now takes your pictures for printing on visa, so hard copy of pictures are no longer required - You may want to still keep them just incase.
4. No bags are allowed, keep the minimum no. of documents in a clear polythene bag or folder- Mobile phones and wallets are ok.
5. Incase you are going with a kid or toddler who is camera shy, take a few pictures as you would do for your visa, this may save you a lot of hassle at OFC incase the child is not in a good mood to pose.
6. Rest of OFC process is smooth -
6.1 You enter in, Security check.
6.2 Your passports are stuck with a sticker that has your DS-160 confirmation No.
6.3 You are given a token.
6.4 Token is summoned to a station.
6.5 Your identity is established though basic questions (Name, DOB etc.)
6.6 Pictures and Fingerprints are taken for applicants above 14 yrs of age
6.7 DS-160 Confirmation page is stamped and then you are dismissed.
7. Some other tips -
7.1 Avoid any cuts or chips to your fingers, no henna etc. as it will create problems during fingerprinting..
7.2 If you wish to look like a dude or dudette on your visa groom yourself in the restroom near the elevator. :)
7.3 If you are appearing for a group interview, print individual appointment confirmation letters this will save you a ton of hassle.

Whole process was very smooth...

Questions were
1. Client name
2. Inidan Salary
3. us salary
4. Your responsibility on client site
5. what is special about it?
6.why any other person cannot do this?
7. have you done this kind of work before?

no questions for L2
after done with the questions with my husband VO smiled a said those golden words "don't worry ..approving your visa"

Thanks a lot to this forum..it helped us like anything...

I really thanks to this forum, It helped me lot..

Over all time taken 10 min.

1. Which company you work for?
2. How long are you working with YYYY ?
3. What is your speciation?

My suggestion are..
 
1. Wish the interviewer
2. Be confident and clam.(when you are in Q , don’t look at other counters)
3. Practice in home with question and answer (mock interview.)
For software testing people Black box and white box testing will not come under specialized skill

I got my L1A and L2 approved recently.

It just took 10 mins. for us for whole thing.

Q1. Which company you work with?
Ans: xxx Company

Q2: How many people report to you?
Ans: xx number

Q3: How many at onsite?
Ans: x number

Q4: What's your salary in India per annum?
Ans: xx lakhs

Q5: What's your salary in US?
Ans:xx Thousand

He was checking something in his computer for 3 mnts. I interrupted him and asked if he wanted to check my org chart for that he said "not required, it is almost done".

And he stamped and gave me 2 copies of I129S.

Preparation do help..but I think at that time of interview we give answers honestly.

No questions for my spouse.

God Bless this forum and all the contributors.... It is really helping everything to prepare very well before the interview.....The experiences shared
by everyone for both approved and rejected cases helps a lot.....Thanks for creating this forum :-)))))

Thanks to this website and all the members who posted their experiences.

I had heard many rejection stories of L1 and was little anxious about getting it. I have 10 years of industry experience in embedded domain and was kind of confident that I will get it. Then I fumbled in to immihelp website just four days before my interview and in fact started getting nervous after reading all the experiences.

So I printed the questions for L1, prepared answers for almost all of them and tried rehearsing them aloud. Briefed my spouse about the questions she would be asked.

Ofc was just formality on Day1.

On Day2 we went 20 mins before out scheduled time, we were let in ahead of the queue because of the kid.
Then after the initial process of ordering the documents, finger print matching and paying visa fees we were made to stand in the queue for the interview. To my surprise there was no token issued. The facilitator just asked me to stand in queue which was shorter compared to others.

Our VO was a lady. . The VO in our adjacent queue looked like he was Indian origin. He was asking questions very loud and was finishing the interviews too fast. Either approving or rejecting. Our VO was very calm, not speaking too much mostly looking in to her comp screen and was taking her time for every interview.

When our time came we greeted her and she returned the greetings.

Questions:
who is your client?
I could not hear her properly as she was speaking away from her mike, i asked her to repeat twise and then she leaned to the microphone and asked again. I replied with my client name.

What is your project?
I explained the project in four sentences and stopped. She was looking in to her comp and typing something.

Who is the current employer?
I answered.

Whats your Indian salary?
I answered

What are your responsibilities at work?
I started well answering this question and in the middle I think I goofed up. So she stopped staring in to her computer, turned to me and looked in to my eyes for 5-6 seconds. Then she asked the next question.

Whats ur project?
This time I answered more elaborately and linking my past experience to the current project.

Can you spell your project and the connection from the past project?
I spelled both the projects. She typed something vigorously in to her computer.

Just for a moment I thought If I goofed it up.

In the next second she said I am approving your visas. You will get your passports shortly.

Then she asked my wife if all of us are travelling together to which she replied yes. We all greeted her good day and left the counter.

My two cents on L1:

I think the VOs there are there to approve our visas. They don't have any business to reject if the case is genuine.
 So unless we goof up with the unnecessary tension we should be able to get the visas. Just being confident and answering straight will help.

All the best for yours turn :-).

Our interview was scheduled at 9:30 am on 12/2/13 and we reached the consulate at 8:45am, however the process was on first come first serve basis not on the basis of your appointment slot. We had to wait for too long however it was very well managed. Our turn for face2face round with the Visa Officer came at around 10:20 and to our pleasant surprise it was an Indian guy. My husband was asked the following questions:-

1. What is the strength of your company ?
He works for a mid sized product based company

2. Who is your client and what do you do for them?
The VO seemed to be impressed with the Client name as it was a leading fortune 500 FMCG company

3. Have you ever travelled before to US and for how long?
He had travelled couple of times

4. Where you will be based out of? How long do you intend to stay there?

5. What is your highest level of education and from where?

And he asked me only 2 questions , how long we have been married and do we have any kid.
Then he kept our passport and there came the golden words
"Sir, your visa has been approved!!!!!"

And we left with smiling faces. All you need is to be patient, attentive and confident.