L1, L2 Visa

Currently am in L1B. My Visa is expired and having valid I-94

My husband is working in H1B visa.
Is it possible to do change of status from L1B to h4 as a dependent under my husband's visa(my Visa expired)

If yes, when should I stop working from my current company?

Pls share your thoughts

Hey Guys,

I hope you all are safe and healthy.

I just wanted to get some insight on the visa status for those people whose visa was approved right before the world has been locked down but are unable to travel due to the pandemic. My L1-B visa was approved at the Chennai Consulate on February 11th and I was supposed to travel to US on March 15th, but my company decided to push my start date to avoid all unnecessary chaos and for my safety. Although, my visa is valid till November 2022, I am (like some of the other people out there) unable to travel at this point and might stay in India for a couple more weeks or months or however long the lockdown continues.

So, my question to you all is, what happens to the days I was not in the US? Will they cancel my visa for the days I was not in the US and extend my visa validity for the number of days I wasn't there? Or my visa validity is going to remain as is? Can someone shed some light on this please?

Thanks!

Hi Everyone,

                    First of all thanks to all authors who have shared their experience on this portal which has helped me a lot in my Visa interview preparation also special thanks to immihelp for maintaining this portal. Now here come my part to share my experience with you guys . I had my L1B blanket interview on 20th feb 2020 @ Us Consulate London the interview was scheduled for 8 am so I reach Consulate around 7:15 am there was no rush now here is the list of questions i have been asked

1) Which visa your are applying for?
2)Your specialization?
3) How many total year of experience with the company?
4)Have you been on H1B visa earlier?
5)Whats your current pacakge?
6) Roles & responsibilities?

Then VO said golden words your visa approved & got my stamped passport in 3 days. The important point which i would like to mention is here your confidence & dress(Presentation) plays vital role. Wish you good Luck.

I have been reading this forum for almost a year now and I believe the diverse contents in this platform can indeed aid an applicant. To cut it short, I am simply going pen down my experience as an L1-B applicant. 

I filed for L1B Individual petition on September 14th 2019 under Premium Processing Program. The original petition had a highly detailed support letter, stating my fine grained job duties at India and the proposed duties in US, there was too much technical information laced in every paragraph to establish the fact that it requires specialised skill to deliver on the US role, also attached patents, designed docs that I prepared, training presentations, customer interaction emails, product brochures etc.

However, USCIS issued an RFE on September 29th seeking some clarification on some presumed discrepancies and this was the toughest period to see through. For example, the RFE asked for salary information of peers to establish the fact that I am indeed specialised among the lot. I can't divulge much information on the RFE since it demands classified information about the company. In summary, we worked on the RFE with my supervisor, did several passes with my director and the final cut was reviewed by our top management. Took our own sweet time, to prepare all the necessary artefacts and responded to the RFE on December 23rd 2019 and the law firm/attorney did a great job in establishing the case citing the L1B Memorandum issued by USCIS in 2015.

Since it was a week of holidays in the US and most part of the world, the case wasn't moving on the USCIS website for almost a week, but on Jan 6th the petition got approved.

I opted for the Kolkata US Consulate while filling-in the I-129 form, so the I797-B notice of action mentioned the Consulate Notified as Kolkata.

As for the interview, the questions were pretty much common with L1 cases. We arrived at the Consulate well ahead of the appointment time. I wasn’t carrying anything other than the documents and passport, but I was stopped at the gate for carrying my car key which was remote controlled. So I had to get rid of that first. Entered the consulate at around 9:30am, appointment time being 9:45am. The wait was long in a waiting area, close to an hour after which we entered the interview wing. I believe they were understaff early in the morning with only 1 interview counter operating and another counter to scan the passport barcode.

VO: Your passports please
Me: Handed over the passports (mine and my spouse’s) along with the I-797B Notice of Action.
VO: Who is sponsoring this L1?
Me: <My company name>
VO: Why an L1?
Me: Explained that I posses specialised knowledge in the product, gained over last 3 years.
VO: What is specialized about your role?
Me: Told about my skillset in Computer Networking, Virtualisation and Systems Programming. I also made a point about how these skillset available in the industry is applied in a unique way for our product.
VO: How many people worked in this field within your organisation.
Me: 4 people comprises of the core networking team in our company in India.
VO: Only 4 people knows about this technology in the entire company.
Me: Yes, we being a startup only my team knows about the core module.
VO: Is any of the 4 members in US
Me: I said NO, all of them operate as part of R&D India
VO: What is your highest qualification
Me: Post graduate.
VO: What about you madam, what is your highest qualification and which field
Spouse: She told about her post graduation degree in Data Science. (The VO at this point seems to be have recognised this term and didn’t ask her any further questions)
VO: Why did you choose to be here for the interview.
Me: I told him I was visiting my parents in my hometown and I choose this consulate.
VO: That’s sad, you have stay away from your family.
VO: Can you repeat about the specialised knowledge you just mentioned in Computer Networking.
Me: I reiterated the terms, Software Defined Networking and Virtualisation
VO: Typed these terms in his computer.
VO: Which state in US and what’s you salary.
Me: Mentioned the state and my salary per annum.
VO: Did you ever apply for an US VISA erstwhile
Me: I revealed that I applied for B1 VISA at Chennai Consulate in the year 2017
VO: Do you still hold a valid B1 VISA.
Me: No, my VISA was denied then.
VO: Your L1 VISA is approved and it will be ready for your pickup in 5 business days.

After leaving the premises at around 11:30 am, I checked the US Visa application portal, it showed the status as ‘Issued’ immediately. I received a pick up notification the very next day through email.

My L1B visa request was denied in 2017 when I applied initially. This time it got approved.
If you ask me what has happened differently compared to the last time, I would say, preparedness. I was quite clear about all possible questions and how my answers should be articulated. The more VO understands your answers the easier it may be for them to decide, and it is obvious, they will not take chance to approve anything without completely understanding the case.

Me: Hi Good morning, how are you
VO: Good morning, I am fine. Can I get set of documents and passport you have got from the other counter
Me: (Passing the set of files along with our passports) Sure, please.
VO: Are you applying as an “Specialist”
Me: Yes
VO: Whom do you work for
Me: I work for “ZZZ” company. I provide service in the area of “YYY” for “ZZZ” company
VO: What is your educational Qualification
ME: Answered
VO: Was your visa rejected before, as I can see here ? (she was going through my application history)
Me: Yes. It was rejected 3 years before. I was not specifically told about the reason for rejection
VO: Was that a different client ?
ME: Yes
VO: Looking at my wife. Since how long you are married
My wife: “X” years
Visa officer kept on typing for almost 1 minute and put seal on the I-129S (I guess). “Your Visa is approved. Do you know from where y+ou can collect this ?”
Me: Thank you very much. Yes, I know the address to collect the passport. Have a good day ahead.
VO: You too. Bye.

Hi All,

At current circumstances of COVID-19 I have a query :

My L1A extension is in process, as per the website : https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/
Receipt date for a case inquiry has pass my receipt date, should I raise a service request for outside normal processing time” or shall I wait for some more time ?

I appeared for consulate interview in the month of Aug 2019 for L1 - A category visa for the role of Project Manager, but the VO approved L1-B and my I 129 S was stamped with L1 - B. However when I entered US, my I 94 was recorded as L1 A. When I visit https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/#/home website, it still shows L1 A.

When I go for next visa renewal, should I apply for L1A renewal or L1B renewal?

I was interviewed on 12th March for L1A visa based on my companies blanket petition. VO confirmed that my visa is approved and gave me two stamped copies of I-129s and took my passport.
However, when I check the status even today it shows that the application is under administrative processing. Does anyone who was interviewed in Chennai around the end of last week received their passport with visa?

I had written to UStravel docs regarding the status of biometrics as it was not cancelled in the portal. Below is their reply.

"We understand that you would like to know about your biometrics appointment status.

In response to your question, please note that as long as your appointment for biometrics is remains scheduled you may proceed for biometrics. for further information regarding consular appointments kindly check the red banner and follow the link given below:http://cdn.ustraveldocs.com/in/index.html?firstTime=No.&quot;

I understand it raises more questions than answers, but this is the current situation.

Hi All,

I had my L1 B Individual visa interview on 11th Feb in Chennai VAC,

After the interview, officer has retained my passport with them and handed over pink slip for more information which i shared on same day through email. I haven't received any proof for passport submission.

It's been 5 weeks and it's appearing same update in ceac website as AP.

My I-797 petition is already approved.

I am just checking the status on daily basis. If any one of you had any experience, please share. It will be big help.

Thanks