L1, L2 Visa

I & my spouse/child have attend interview on 06th - Marc and our visas got approved.

Here are the questions asked by VO:

1. Who was your client
A) XYZ
2) what is your Indian Salary?
A) XY Lacks per annum
3) What is your US Salary?
A) XY K USD per annum
4) What is your designation
A) Program Manager.

He started stamping on my petition copies and came to know that he is going to approve my Visa. He did check in the system for 30 secs and finally said your visas are approved and your passport will be delivered in a week.

Regards

Background: My case was slightly different as I was joining my previous employer to lead a department. I have 10+ years of experience and a master’s degree in management.
I applied for an L1A for myself and L2 for my wife and kid. Since my kid is an infant he was not required to be present for the interview

The Interview:

VO: Who do you work with?
Me: I work with xxx but the petition has been filed by my previous employer yyyy whom I worked with for x years
VO: How much experience do you have?
Me: 10+
VO: Who are you joining?
Me: yyy
VO: Oh yes you told me that before. Sorry.
Me. No problem
VO: What will you be doing for yyy?
Me: (answered in one sentence)
VO: How many direct reports?
Me: 2. Sorry. Actually 1 direct and 1 indirect. I am a functional manager responsible for strategy and while people management is an essential part of my role, working with management on the business strategy is the core.

To my wife:
VO: What is your highest qualification and what do you do?
Wife: answered (works for a tech company)
VO: Are you planning to work as well?
Wife: No

To me:
VO: You and your kid will get your visa in a week’s time.
To my wife:
VO: You will get your visa a little later. It just has to go through administrative processing but nothing to worry about, your visa will follow soon after. Just that it will take a little time (handing over the pink slip) Please sit in the waiting area and somebody will call you for additional details.
VO: (returned two copies of the petition) Give one copy to your HR and another at immigration.
Us: Thank you officer

We waited to be called. My wife gave additional details at another counter. We recd our passport on the 3rd day. My wife’s came in on the 14th day.
Administrative Processing: Though we were happy that we got the visa, the fact that my wife had to go through the administrative processing left a small hiccup. The administrative processing could be due to various reasons but if you have stated all your facts right, you should give it some time and you will receive the stamped passport in time. I had been tracking the visa status of those who were pending and I noticed that most visas got issued within 10-14 days with most of the others being approved in about 21 days. The passport shipment email came in first and the site was updated the next day.

My L1B Individual was approved today. I waited almost 2 hours at the consulate before finally my turn came.

Below were the questions asked:

Which Company do you work for?
A: YYYY PLC
For how many years have you been employed with the firm?
A: X years and XX months to be precise.
What do you do for your company?
A: Explained my current job responsibilities in detail.
Where will you be put up in US?
A: Answered
Where will you be working out of? Your company’s name?
A: Answered
Is that the head office?
A: Yes
For how long will you be in the US?
A: X years
What will you be doing in US?
A: Explained my responsibilities in detail about the project. (She asked me to explain again in simpler terms)
What will be your Annual Salary in US?
A: $ZZZ
Are you married, single or have any kids?
Do you know that your petition will expire in 2014?
Have you got your rights pamphlet?.
 
Then came the golden words... "Your visa has been approved"

Today L1A Blanket was approved at Chennai Consulate for me, wife and daughter.

OFC was quick yesterday. However the ordeal at Consulate was really painful with having to stand outside for almost 2 hours. Our appointment was scheduled at 9 AM. We reached there at about 8.45 AM and there was already a mile long queue. Had to wait for about 2 hours before they started allowing the 9 AM batch inside. Once inside, the process was fairly quick and came out by about 12 Noon.

I had lost one my my old passports which I had mentioned in my DS-160 and hence I was called in many counters asking for explanations before I was called for interview. I did not have any proof of my old passport nor any FIR or other papers.

Interview was ultra quick, just few questions to me and absolutely nothing for my family. Below listed were the questions and answers. Everything was over in about 3 minutes.

1. Where are you going?
Ans: <City name>

2. Which client?
Ans: <Client name>

3. What are your responsibilities?
Ans: I will be heading the architecture team for the account. Will be responsible for defining overall software architecture across various programs. Client is undergoing a major transformation program. I will be helping them in defining the architecture roadmap, perform technology and vendor selection, and mentoring of the project architecture team.

4. Did you say 'across programs' ?
Ans: Yes.

5. What is your Indian salary?
Ans: 35 lacs per annum

6. Are there any reportees to you?
Ans: Yes. Overall team of about 17 members. 10 of them onsite. 5 direct reportees who are senior architects and consultants with 10+ years experience.

7. Whom do I report to?
I will be reporting to the practice director who heads the client account.

8. Smiled at my family. Then said "Your visa is approved and will get your passports in a few days".

Got the L-1B and L2 approved after the following qns & I think mine is one of the simple interview

1. Which company are you working for.
2. What are you working for the company?
3. Is it a hardware or software job?

The experiences shared in this site was very useful and following are things I learnt from this site:

1. Each case is unique. So do not get nervous by seeing the rejection experiences
2. Rejection experiences are very useful and I used them to remind myself to revisit the documents and preparations and that gave good confidence.

The Key things I noticed based on mine and my colleagues experience is

1. Specialization and clarity in presentation
2. Confidence

During the interview, as we went with Kid, we were given token in "P" category and we did not had to wait in any of the queues.

Thanks to all those who have shared their experiences. Was a great help preparing & having a rough idea of what to expect. In the end they were gentle with us. Our interview went as follows:-

How long have you worked for the company?
XX years

What is your new role?
Manager and <title> of yyyy

Moved on to my wife

When were you married?
date XX years ago

Any children?
yes, X

How old are your children?
ages given

Will they be travelling with you?
yes, explained that they were not with us as they have US citizenship.

I am recommending your application for approval. You should receive your passports back within X days.

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.