L1, L2 Visa

L1B visa was scheduled for interview on 3rd Jan 2012 under BEP category. Visa got approved, but it is under administrative process under section 221G and I will get my visa anytime between 4-8 weeks. Go through old questions, no new question are asked till today. At last it is all in VO hands to issue visa or not. Give the best from your side.
Thanks http://www.immihelp.com.

I would like to share my experience of my L1-A visa interview.
Finally with the help of Immihelp, I got it.

I've been prepared very clear and solid. By the time i reach counsulate office, i'm on my own. The process started this way

Me: Good Morning Officer, How are you today?
VO: Doing great, How are you?
Me: I'm fine, Thank you.

VO: What is this **** *** (company name)
Me: Anwered in 10 words. SO and So

After looking at his computer of my petition he started coversation
VO: What is your Qualification
Me: Bachelors in Computer Science

VO: Which company you are .... (Questions not completed)
Me: **** **** * (told comapny name)

VO: Holded and said let me complete. Are you going to work inhouse or at client side
Me: Inhouse

Again started looking at petition and Said:

Confgratulation, you Visa got approved, you will recieve your passpost in 5 Bus day.

Me: Thank you, have a good day.

Here Immihelp formula, eye to eye contact and fresh look with smart clothing hellped a lot.
All the best, Happy immigration

Thanks,
Diamond star

Hi all,

My L2 visa got approved today. I must say the new US consulate office is very good also the employees are very familiar and help full enough to get cool and confident.

The questions asked were:
1.) why you want to go.
2.) where your husband lives there
3.) why didn't applied together
4.) how old your marriage
5.) what your husband does there
6.) how long he is there
7.) how many guests were there in your marriage
8.) can i see some marriage photos
9.) Do you have any child
10.) How many rounds you had taken in front of fire in your marriage.

And finally VO said yours is approved. You will get your passport in 4-5 days by courier.

TIPS: Don't loose your confidence and balance by seeing someone get rejected. Ignore if the questionnaire of another applicant is audible to you.

All the best.

Hi Guyz,

I got my L1B approved in Chennai. Questions asked were

Duration with the company ?
Current Salary?
What you'll be doing in U.S. ?
What's your specialized knowledge ?

Thanks Immihelp for all the help.

My L1b visa got approved today in Chennai consulate.The interview was quite ok. The following questions were asked.

1.Total experience
2.Salary
3.Work i will be doing onsite
4.Area i will be working on and my specialisation on it

Some quick tips:
1.Ensure you have a latest photograph of you for application.Mine was 6 months old and they didn't accept it. So had to spend 1/2 hr extra to get new prints in consulate. An applicant there was called thrice again before his photo got ready.All this adds unneeded anxiety. I found quite a lot of people there taking new photo prints.

2.Technical jargons make VOs very uncomfortable.Need to keep it simple.An applicant before me was continuously grilled for several minutes just because he was mouthing several technical terms.

3.Prepare your answers before hand on how to explain your area of work, how it is being applied and your specialisation on it. This should enable you to answer rest of the questions easily.

First let me clarify something I have found during my 11/2 stay at Visa consulate chennai.

The officers there are not in any intention of rejecting the visas. They are there to listen to us and decide whether to approve or reject.

So please prepare well and answer accordingly. Dont Panic. The below are key criteria required for getting your L1 Blanket Visas approved.

1. Having good experiance witht the company and Client.
2. Having reasonably good salary.
3. Have good domain knowledge and specialized technical knowledge. (please prepare well to explain you specialized knowledge in detail and in layman language)
4. Testing is not considered a specialized knowledge. So please avoid the term testing and try to use the terms S/W implementation and Product release (which any testing team would finally help doing).

Below was my experiance at Visa consulate.

My slot was at 8:00 AM in the morning and I was there by 7:45 AM. People of both 7:45 AM and 8AM slots started standing in the queue and the staff guided us. We need to show the interview letter and DS160 confirmation sheet and get our Verification Numbers. Remember this will be the number by which you will be identified and called for further verifications.

I then moved for security checkups where security personnel will keeping enquiring about mobiles, Data cards, CDs etc which are strictly prohibited. After security check you will be guided to a hall where you will be waiting for document verification till your number is displayed on the LCD screens available there.

The verification officer will create a bundle of all the required documents that you need to handover to VO. They will then collect the fingerprints in a different counter and will guide us to the next building.

After waiting for our turn in next building we will be guided to the counter where we need to pay our fee. (Again keep looking at the LCD monitors for your number). After paying the fee you will have to wait for your turn for the final round.

I got my number and went to my queue at around 9:05AM. The officer looked very serious and was talking to a F1 applicant. I realized that this guy doesnt care to smile and is not going to leave me so easily. But after enough enquiries he is approving most of the visas.

Me: Good Morning
VO: Good Morning. How are you??

Me: I am good. How are you??
VO: Not so bad.

Vo: Which company do you work for??
Me: XYZ

VO: How long have you been working in the company?
Me: 4Y 10 Months

Vo: Who is your client?
Me; XYZ

VO: Started looking at my passport and found my expired L1B page. Then asked me, looks like you visited US before. How long were you there?

Me: Yes, I was there for 9 months from Jul 2008 to April 2009.

Vo: Cancelled my Visa and aksed me the purpose of the visit.
Me: I am going there to work on a system software upgrade project.

VO: Your specialization?

Me: I gave abbreviated usage of the coding language we use.

Vo: What does that mean?
Me: I explained him.

Vo: Is that a third party S/W??
Me: No.

Vo: What is the software you use then?

Me: I explained.

Vo: Those are too many acronyms. If you use any more acronyms I cannot approve you visa. (He was very uncomfortable listening to the acronyms)?
Me: I apologized and explained him in detail about the software application and the project I am going to work on.

VO: In this domain what is the software You develop used for. Is it Finance, billing???

Me: No it is claims processing.

Vo: Does your company have proprietary tools that you use?

Me: Yes I explained them. Made sure that I immediately expanf the acronyms of the tools we use.

Vo: He smiled and said. I approve your Visa. You will get it in 5 days.

Me; Thank you/

VO: Sir, dont use acronyms we dont have knowledge to undestand them.
Me: I apologized again and thanked him.

All this barely took 4 min but it took a day for me to realize that I got through.

Remember please be confident and prepare well with 3 to 4 answers realted to your specialized skills and domain.

All the best...

I had:
B1 valid
L1-Individual which expired last month
This time went for Company Blanket

He asked these Qs:
1. Which company
2. What you do for them?
3. What products do you work on ?

After this he got into argument of I do not understand YYYY (which i said i am working on) - I explained it does YYY then he agian said I do not understand this either.

I said forgot it - I started explaining very basic as I would explain to school kid. Then he somehow understood - I felt.

4. How many times did u travel before?
5. Why so many times?
6. How long you going now?

After this he started typing in system and said he approved me in specialized knowledge in blanket. But he put me on Admin processing which will take 4-6 weeks.

So key is: -
If you already have travelled before - be in position to tell what you did and how long you travelled. Also do not get into technical jargons of your company. First explain in simple language if he insist then you can get into technical language.

For wife:

Nothing he asked... as I already had heated situation with him.

And top of all:

Do not get de-motivated with rejection comments in this forum or if you see somebody rejected in your line - they have there own set of issues to be rejected.

If you are qualified for this visa and required doc support - then it is your visa - Just go get it - they are there to give you what you need.

All the best !!

Hi Guys,

My Interview for L1 Blanket schedule at 10:30 on 23rd December. Questions mentioned below.

Which Company You are working for?

How much Exp do you have in current Company?

What is your specialized skills?

Where did you work prior to current company.

VO finally told that your VISA approved and will get it in 5 days.

Be cool......

Hi guys,

Got my L1B(Individual) approved at Chennai consulate. They are scrutinizing each and every L1 case. Especially for Blankets.

I assumed for L1 Ind, it shouldnt have taken much time.But the Vice Consul, was trying to understand and i had to prove what makes my knowledge 'Specialised' . Here are the Questions asked

- Whats your specialised knowledge ?

- How long in your current company ? - More no of years, added advantage

- Which location, how many employees at onsite, whats the Client.

- Explain how specialised knowledge is different than general knowledge.

First of all, thanks to all those people who have posted their experiences on this site which was of immense help.

I had my L1 A Blanket Visa interview in Chennai consulate scheduled at 8:30 am. Went to the Chennai consulate at 8 am. Pre-checks were complete pretty quickly. Then I went to the main seating area where the visa interview takes place. Here, there is a separate counter/window where they check and take the demand draft before the interview. To be called to that window, it took a considerable long time, almost 30-45 minutes. The lady checked and took the demand draft and then I had to wait for my token number to be called for the visa interview with the officer. It was a very nervous wait, even more nervous after seeing some people's application getting rejected. Finally, my turn came and below was the conversation.

Myself: Good morning
Officer: A very good morning sir, how are you doing today?
Myself: I am doing good, thanks. How are you doing?
Officer: (Smiling) Doing good. How long have you have been with YYYY company?
Myself: YYYY years
Officer: How many people would you be managing?
Myself: I would be managing YYYY managers, with a total team size of ZZZ
Officer: Would you be managing them at onshore or offshore?
Myself: I would be managing them at onshore
Officer: When did you last travel to the US and on what visa?
Myself: <Gave the particulars>
Officer: Your visa is approved. Thanks, have a good day.
Myself: Thank you. Have a good day, a merry Christmas and a happy new year
Officer: Thanks. Same to you too.