L1, L2 Visa

Today I have attended L1B VISA interview with US consulate at Chennai. Unfortunately My L1B VISA has been rejected.
I would like to share the conversation. So that, it will be helpful for others in future.
Following are the questions they have asked and my answers[Exactly what I told]
1. Hi, Can I have your papers please?
Ans: Good Morning, Sure
2. What company do you work for?
Ans: xxxxxx
3. How long you have been working with your current company?
Ans: 3-years and 3-months
4. Who is your Client?
xxxxxxx
3. What is your specialization?
Ans: I have specialized knowledge in Plug-in Registration tool, which is Hexaware in-house tool used to extend the functionality and to integrate CRM with other systems like Finance, Resource Management.
4. Is it ERP related tool?
Ans: Yes, it’s a XX in-house tool used for Integrating Systems.
5. Im Sorry, currently im unable to approve your VISA under L1B , Ask your HR to process it in different category..
It’s a tool to integrate the Systems and it is a platform independent.
6. We can use some other tools also to Integrate ERP Systems. Im Sorry, It is strict rules that we receive from Govt for ERP related tool we cannot approve your VISA

Hi All,
  First a big thanks for this site. This Site really helped me in preparing for my Visa. I got my L1B (Blanket) visa approved yesterday (13/12) in Chennai.

I am from a Semiconductor Industry and I am not a SW developer.

Below were the questions asked by VO and my answers:

VO: which company are you working ?
Me: <<Answered the same>>
VO: How long have you been working ?
ME: 5 years.
VO: Whats your total experience ?
Me: 7 years and 6 Months.
VO: What do you do for your company ?
Me: <<Explained my Job duties in very simple layman words, didn't used any Technical words. Explained in just 2 sentences. Used the same words that were used in my I-129 Papers.>>
VO: Whats your Salary in US ?
Me: *** K US dollars per annum.

Then the magical words came from VO's mouth .. "Sir, I am approving your visa, and you can collect the Passport in 3 working days"

That's my Interview. He stamped on my three I-129 papers and said to carry the same during my visit.

Few Tips:
*** Be Calm, never get tensed.
*** Have eye contact with the officers when answering the questions.
*** Just answer, whats written in your I-129 papers, use the same words that are used in your I-129 paper, that's very very very important.
*** I feel the visa officials would have read our petitions and Papers well ahead and they would have decided to grant Visa or refuse it before our Interview. If our Petition and papers are not prepared well, then we may face some tough questions like "Why only you have to Travel ?" "Why cant this Job be done by any US employee ?" and they may seek justification for our skill set.
In my Case, my Petition and Paper work was strong enough that it didn't raise any doubts in VO's mind on my specialization skills and hence my questions were lighter.

All the best guys..

Hi,

Thanks a lot to this forum. Had lot of useful information from this site. Unfortunately i could not capitalize on it :(

Anyways, the question asked were pretty much repetitive :

Which company are you working for?
What is your current salary?
In which place are you going to work?
What are your day-today activities in your company?
What are your duties in your client location?

I somehow got tensed for unnecessary reasons.
I failed to convince the VO that my skill set is unique.

I do not want to blame luck or something. I feel i am completely responsible.

Anyway here are my tips.

Never try to rush up with your answers. VO do not mind spending couple of minutes extra for a person.
Answer slowly at a pace you are comfortable with.
Do not practice strict answers for each questions. We may end up forgetting certain things in that interview tension.
Just rehearse yourself for set of questions given in this forum.
That is more than enough.

Last Tip: Sleep well on the night before interview. Wake up fresh, be confident and say to yourself that , its not going to be the end of the road.

Dear all,

First of all i would really want to thank all of them who have contributed their inputs in this forum ... and also to my Senior Prashant who have advised me to follow this forum ..
This really helps a lot for a person preparing for the interview .. Your inputs have helped me a lot ...

I have applied for L1 B Visa and got it approved ...

Following were the questions asked for me?

1. What is your Indian Salary?
2. What would be your US Salary?
3. Why are YOU going? --> Here this question has two requirement .. why you are going and why only you are going

After that VO was typing something in his computer, as suggested i was not looking at was he was doing
but was looking at him to check whether he would ask me next question

Then the magical words came "Sir, your visa is approved, have a safe journey"

What I noticed is Visa Officers are really good and have lot of patience to listen your justification/answer.
So do not hurry to tell something wrong, take time and provided the required information that they are looking for.

Trust yourself and your hard word ..it would really pay you ..

once again .. Thank you

Hi All,

Thanks to all the members of the immihelp for sharing their experience it helped me to a very great extend in building my confidence, now it is my turn to mentioned about my experience.

I have a very tensed experience before I went to the OFC. I fixed up my appointment a week ahead and was confident that I will get through since the company I worked process very few L1 visa ( one or two visa a year) and none have been rejected so far.
Suddenly one day just about 5 day for the OFC date I had an injury on my left had right on the finger print. There was a blood clot and I did some research that it would take 2 to 3 weeks to heal. When I check the appointment there was no dates till Jan 22. I think the VO go on vacation for Christmas.
Went to skin doctor and got some medicines, there was big round blister on the middle of the finger print, luckily the fingerprints skin was intact. I kept praying to God and kept applying the cream 24 Hr.
On the day of the OFC everything went fine and person in charge of taking my finger print did not even ask to clean the hand, it went of smoothly. I taught that it was a miracle I cleared the OFC part.

Next day was the visa interview, I think many have mentioned the process so I will not repeat and go straight to the questions.
Here the VO on counter no 13 takes random hand finger prints, here I tried to hold all my documents in the left hand which had the problem and to my luck she asked for my right hand which was in good condition.

My token appeared on the screen for one of the visa interview counter, The VO seems very well experienced since many other VO used to come to her for clarification and doubts.

VO: What type of company is xxxx
Me: Answer the question
VO: What is your project
Me: Answered the question
VO: Is your project HW or SW
Me: My project has platform development which has HW / ASIC and SW Dev
VO: Are you going to xxxx company or a client?
Me: Going to xxxx company only
VO: What is your Indian salary?
Me: YYYY pa + annual bonus
VO: Were in US?
Me: My company HQ in SJ, CA

TO My Wife
VO: How long have you been married?
Wife: answered
VO: What is the age of your son?
Wife : Answered

Your VISA has been approved, “let me catch up with the paper work”, she signed the I 129S and stamped it. Told me to carry one during the port of entry and give another one to my company HR.
We thanked her and left

Take away from the interview
- I don’t think they care about your dressing, dress neatly that should be enough
- Very important to look into the eyes of the VO, I felt like she was just staring into my eyes to know the truth.
- Confidence and fluency in English contributes to your success
- Company reputation also plays a big role in denial or approval

Dear all,
First of all I would like to thank all the contributors to this forum. It indeed helped me a lot in preparing everything for the interview. I, along with my family had my L1A interview this morning which was approved. Following were the questions asked:

1: Which company do you work for?
2: What do you do in your company?
3: What would you be doing in the U.S. for your company?
4: Which city are you going to?
5: How much would your salary be?
6: Name a few clients that your company has?

The whole interview lasted around 5 minutes before the VO informing us that our visa was approved.

All I can say is be confident, trust yourself and know your job.

First of all thanks to this website,as it helped me really a lot in my visa interview preparation!
I had my consulate interview scheduled at Hyderabad consulate today,process was managed very well and for that i will thanks the consulate.
Do not reach the consulate before your slotted time,as they will call you based on slots from the queue(so i had to wait for 1 hour,as i went ahead of my schedule).As soon as you get ur call,,the security will arrange the documents and will verify your name from his list...then u will proceed ahead to waiting area.

In waitin area,they will call your name to proceed ahead for document verification(this is 2nd time verification),here they will access ur documents are well and then the officer will send you for finger print verification at anothe counter.

Once you are done with finger print verification..u need to proceed to waiting arena,where u will be allocated a Token number slip,and status of current token will be displayed as well as announced on LCD.

Once you hear your token number...proceed to the counter for visa interview...questions for me..

1)what is your specialization
2)total experience in current company
3)why u?
4)which company u work for?
5)roles and responsibility...and thats all
hard the golden words....your visa is approved(was a bit tensed as just in front of me,one guy got his student visa rejected)

my advice:-

remain cool and calm
maintain eye contact
answer well...and be well prepared on ur petition

Thanks to this site,it helped really well during my vis ainterview preparation

Visa Official: Hi, how are you?
Response: Thanks for asking, I am doing good. How are you doing today?
Visa Official: What visa are you applying for?
Response: L1 B
Visa Official: Where do you work?
Response: I work for YYYY
Visa Official: How long have you been working with your current company
Response: It’s been over 2 years now with ZZZ
Visa Official: What is your current salary
Response: YYYY ZZZ
Visa Official: Who is your customer
Response: YYYY
Visa Official: What are your current roles and responsibilities
Response: Currently I am working in off-shore implementation support. My role over there in this project is Senior Business Analyst and I take care of all functional requirements with specific to supply chain modules
Visa Official: Where is the customer located?
Response: City of Industry, California.
Visa Official: How many people currently reporting to you
Response: The role which I am currently performing is more of Individual Contributor, so there are no reportees, however, I will be closely working with technical & testing teams to get the work done.
Visa Official: Where you will work in the US
Response: City of Industry, California.
Visa Official: What kind of work you will do in the US
Response: I will be working closely with the Business users for collecting the Master data Conversion requirements and I will be defining the business rules and workflow in YYYY X tool with accordance to their requirements.
Visa Official: What will be the job responsibilities in the US
Response: I will be responsible for implementation of YYYY X Tool and my core responsibility will be to ensure that the data loaded via YYYY X is compliant with YYYY Company’s Standards
Visa Official: What will be your salary in the US
Response: YYYY X$
Visa Official: Why do you need to travel to US? Why can’t the work be done from your home country?
Response: XX#XX is largest diversified suppliers to the foodservice industry, so whatever master data in #manufacturing and distribution are Client Sensitive data which will not be shared or accessed outside YYYY PREMISES
Visa Official: How long do you plan to stay in the US
Response: For an year
Visa Official: What kind of specialized skills you have?
Response: I have a good knowledge in the YYYY X tool. Just to give you more information about YYYY X tool, YYYY YYYY YYYY YYYY YYYY YYYY YYYY YYYY YYYY ZZZ
Visa Official: Did you develop this tool?
Response: I was the solution architect for this tool. I created the architecture and the good thing is, I had a chance to implement this tool in my last client successfully. There were 4 Developers and 2 testers involved
Visa Official: How long the development does took?
Response: Almost one-and-half years.
Visa Official: I believe the YYYY X tool exist for long time, is that right?
Response: Yes you are right, the reason I told you one-and-half years was specific to the enhancement / add-on functionality which I architected and incorporated in the tool.
Visa Official: YYYY X is developed using YYYY X right?
Response: Yes, but it it’s based on platform independent model, so works well with any YYYY integration.
Finally the Golden words, Your Visa is approved J
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My opinion and the primary reason for the visa approval?
Answering in a short &crisp way ie., not being too elaborative, unless it is required.
My suggestions for clearing this interview,
Don’t get tensed.
Please don’t assume that, VO doesn’t know anything about the tool, so instead of saying the same answer as everyone does, “I architected/designed the tool” , Please say that, you architected/designed a particular functionality or enhancement in the tool. This will make them feel that, you are genuine about what you have done.
Listen to the question carefully. If you are unable to understand the question, ask them to repeat the question. Please don’t take chances by feeling bad in asking them to repeat the question.
Do remember the purpose of the Visa you’re applying, so whatever responses you give in some or other way should be related to the specialized tool that you have chosen.

Hi All,

Thanks a lot for sharing experience at OFC and VISA Interview. It was a great help.

At OFC - They check your DS160 confirmation, Appointment Letter and Passport.
We dont need to carry any other documents.

Please reach before 35-40 minutes of VISA Interview, no need to be there before an hour.

Questions asked at VISA Interview.

1. Why are you going ?
2. How much is your Indian Salary ?
3. How much will be your US Salary ?
4. What is your Specialization ?
5. How much is your experience ?

And then the VO said "I am issuing your VISA, Have a great day !"

All The Best and Be confident. Please do prepare well for your Specialization,
once the VO is convinced he will not even let you finish and will ask another question.

Good Luck !!!

Approved at Hyderabad on 12/12/12.

I went to three counters first and last fourth counter for interview.
Counter2: (1st building)
Vo: Asked my DD, passport & I129s,I797 docs
Me: Given
Vo: I do see the YYYY company in I129s, YYYY X company in I797 both are different?
me: YYYY X company is my parent company, recently YYYY X company acquired YYYY X company.Petition filed by YYYY X company & petition payment done by YYYY X company.
Vo: ok and again asked r your company having BEP, if so please give the letter?
Me: YYYY X company have BEP but YYYY X company don’t have this because full integration is not done between b/n YYYY X company & YYYY X company.
Counter6:(1st building)
VO: asked my left hand 4 fingers print and asked passport,I129s,797s checked & done:
Vo: asked to follow next building for next process
Counter5(2nd Building)
VO: Asked my DD,passport & I129s,I797 docs
me: Given
VO: Given CASH receipt for the DD provided and said wait for counter no# for Visa interview.
Below are the VISA questions i faced during an L1 B interview at US Consulate at Counter19-last counter(l2nd building)
Me: Good morning with smiley face
VO: Very good morning
VO: What is your company's name?
me: YYYY X company- a Computer science company
Vo: What is your indian salary in lakhs?
me : YYYY Lakhs/annum
Vo: Who is your client?
me: United airlines. Said about this in brief(3-4 lines)

Vo: What is your Specialisation?
Me: Having experience in development of Data generation(DGEN) tool,this tool is a YYYY X company own properitery tool which is used to create test data(Flight tickets,PNRS,etc) for mobile applications project by interacting with Apollo GDS(global distribution system),CIDB databases of United airlines. ----------- i explained about this tool in brief

Vo: Any certification/documentation to support this tool?
me: This tool is a in-house training,properiatry tool of YYYY X company, no formal training for this tool but in L1 documents showed clearly justified specialized skill is mentioned and i showed that docs.
Vo: He observed that docs, watched computer screen (maybe he compared or not) and said your VISA is not clearly approved?
Me: I am trying to convince him .....labla lablaaaaaaaa
Vo: Ask your HR to file another type of VISA & returned I-129S with "Not clearly approvable" stamp, returned the passport
Me: Thanks (with sad mood in heart) :( --- I supposed to say happy Christmas to him but I am not &#61514;
Suggestions:
1. Be confident & eye contact should be maintained with VO officer
2. Don’t prepare too much & go like a cool guy
3. Don’t expect 100% success rate ,pray to GOD along with your confidence
4. DEfinetly luck also a success factor for this type of US visa’s