L1, L2 Visa

First of all Thanks to the site for providing such a valuable information to the applicants.

I am from Chennai, and my interview was scheduled to Hyderabad due to unavailability of slots at the last moment.

Interview date - 23-08-2011.

VO asked straight forwad questions like..

1.) Gretting with Good Morning
2.) Client Name
3.) Exp in the current Organisation

Toggled lots of screens in his system, and said

I cannot approve your visa at this point of time as it needs have some Administrative Process.

Thn i was given a Blue 221(g) from and the passport returned.

Appreciated if somebody can let me know whats the process for this 221(g) form to my email.

Thanks

First thanks to this site that give some ideas and confidence in facing the US visa interview.
Last time I gave the interview for L1 Blanket but it got rejected and consulate said me to apply for L1 individual. Today morning my interview was scheduled at 10:15 am for L1 individual.
This time I was somewhat confident and gone through the Petition very strongly this time.
Interview started and questions are as shown below:
Me: Good Morning, Sir
VO: Good Morning, Please give me your documents and passport.
Me: I forwarded the documents and visa.
VO: Where are you going in US?
Me: Travelling to XX City, YY State in US.
VO: How long you will stay there?
Me: 1 month (said as per the documents)
VO: What you will do there?
Me: I am going to execute factory acceptance test at my parent company and I will cooperate with the system engineer, design engineer and quality leader to ensure the testing, validation and quality of the company Proprietary product is fulfilled with all safety checks. I am the person responsible for FAT and need to report to business stakeholders. (Ensure that whatever you are explain it should be in the petition)
VO: What does this FAT means and explain this?
Me: Explained as per petition details.
VO: Your visa will reach to you within a week.
Me: Thanks a lot sir.

Lesson learned:Carefully listen the question and confidently give the answer.Please go through the petition carefully before interview.

Below are the questions that was asked to me and my wife by the VO and the interview went about 5 to 7 mins.

Questions for me and the answers I gave:
1. How long you are working for this company. – 15 Months.
2. Where were you working prior to Intelligroup and what was your role. – Explained my prior Exp clearly and showed him my previous VISA copy of my earlier company.
3. What is your total experience and How long you been in this Managerial Role. – Total 11 years out of which 4 year at Managerial Role.
4. What is the nature of business of your company. – Explained about our company.
5. Which client are you going to work in the US. – Explained about Client.
6. How many employees would report under you. – 20 Employees.
7. What is the process of Hiring you follow. – Explained the Process as per the guidelines given by our HR team. (Chaitanya Veluri and Shivani)
8. What is the Firing procedure you follow. - Explained the Process as per the guidelines given by our HR team. (Chaitanya Veluri and Shivani)
9. Do you make the Hiring and Firing decision or you need some other approval? – I make the final decision in my project to Hire and Fire consultants.
10. From where you would execute the project, Client Place or your Company Office- From my Company's Office.

After questioning me he started to ask the below Questions to my Wife:
1. How long have you been married?
2. In which Hospital was your son born in the US? – Since my son is a US citizen and we took him along with us.


My suggetions to all who applly for L1A VISA - All that VO checks is your Managerial exp and your Confidence. Please listen carefully yo what VO asks and answer him back to the point completely so that there is no room for him to pick an incomplete answer and start posing more questions....

All the Best guys !!!!

Thanks to everyone posted their experiences in immehelp.

VO asked below questions to me :

1. Whats your experience in current organization?
2. Whats your specialization?
3. How many days training you took for this technlogy?
4. Whats your total experience?
5. Whats your client?
6. Whats your domain?

Finally, VO said "I am approving your visa...."

Regards,
Palani.

VO started Interview with my Spouse questions…..
• When did you Married
• Is this arranged or Love Marriage
• How it got arranged
• Is there any relation with your family and your spouse family
To me…
• Where do you stay in US
• How long are you with the current employer
• Previous to this where did you work
• What would be you doing after going to US

Many thaks to immihelp. I had prepared answers for atleast 25-30 questions. However, with-in 2-3 minutes only 5/6 questions were asked.
Interview:
VO: Which company you work with?
Answer: 3 years.
VO: How many years of managerial experience?
Answer: 2 years
VO: Do you have hiring & firing authority as manager?
Answer: yes, i can make recommendations to HR.
VO: what is your specialization?
Answer: I design mech. equipment as per client's requirement. (i prepared for this question very throughly, so started long, but with in 10 seconds, VO interuppted, saying enough on this).
VO: What is your salary both here in US/India?
Answer: xxx
VO: Who are your clients?
Answer: xxx, xxx, xxx
VO Interuppted: Mention only one.
Answer: xxx
VO: How many years you are serving this client?
Answer: 3 years

Golden words from VO: your visa is approved and you will get your passport in 7 working days.

Key Notes:

1. One is scarred to hell, so even though everybody says be confident, you tend to be nervous (esp. when career is at stake). But reherase as much as possible. prepare only one answer for each question. Multiple answers tend to confuse you and switching from one answer to another may create a wrong impression. However, pray and be assured.

2. Having a good branded company helps a lot.

3. There is hardly any need to take documents other than mentioned on website.

4. Listen to VO carefully and ensure that you are only answering what is asked for.

All the very best !!!

L1A Blanket Rejected at Hyd Consulate.

I had my Interview scheduled at 8:15 . Everythign went off well though there was a long waiting period after the finger printing was done. as i assume by general observation that all L1 are interviewd at window 13 only so it was very slow.

However general questions were asked .
1) How many years with current company?
2) who is the client I will be working for in the US ?
3) what is your Indian Salary / US salary ?
4) about the project that i will be going for ?
5) Number of team members?
6) from where in india were my team members from whether from mumbai ..pune indore etc?
7) other qualifications of my team members?
8) Where my husband is currently ?( I had a L2 before )

Thats it after all these questions he started typing and the stamped on my I129s form ..I thought it was done since i had answwered confidently . but he got back saying Maam you are qualified but ask your company to apply either a H1 or L1 individual for me.

Now i ahve initiated my H1 from my company.

My L1 A Blanket was rejected on 14th July at delhi Consulate VO asked me following questions

1.In Which Company You are Working in India
2.Do you have hire and fire authority ?
3.Whats your Role in US Company ?
4.Whats your Indian salary / US Salary ?
5.Whats your authority in the company ?
6.Have you visited US before?
No questions to my family - L2 applicant.

Finally VISA officer told me that "Your VISA is not clearly approvable you may apply for L1 A Individual or H1 Visa . He handd over blue slip to me.It was really a nighmare for me as I could not make out what went wrong during the iterview.

My company applied for the individual petition on the same day and after USCIS approval I again applied for VISA under L1 A Classification.

Here I must mention that I was Quite confused while filling form DS160 about the question " Whether your VISA was rejected earlier ? Since VO put a stamp of not clearly approvable I was not sure whether it is a rejection and answer to the question is Yes or No. I asked to US Helpline the responce was " its not rejection case and hence write NO " I asked the same though e mail to helpline and responce was " You fill the form as per your understanding and tell the case to the VO during Interview"

Finally I responded to above Question as Yes and written the explanation as " My VISA was not clearly approvable and I have been asked to apply through L1 Individual category "

Due to this failure I became more cautious this Time I collected all the FAQs from this site and prepared Answers. I circulated this answers to my USA attorny also and obtained his openion. The list of these questions are at the end of this posting for your reference. I had prepared and did mock sessions with my wife and prepared fully for the interview .

on 19th Aug I apperaed for the interview at Delhi Consulate . This time my preparation was thorough and I was feeling highly confident till arriving at Interview window. I was little nervous by looking at window number . It was Window number 17 the same window where my VISA got rejected in last month.

Interview officer called me

Me: Good Morning ( I handed over my documents to VO)
VO: Good Morning ( took the docs started typing something on screen )

VO : Are you with your family ?
Me: Yes , This is my Wife YYYY and daughter YYY

VO continued to stare at her screen for some time without asking any question for along time.
My tension was at high point by looking at her as she stopped typing and continuosly staring at the computer screen and thinking something. Me and my family waiting for her questions but she was not asking any questions.

After few minutes she looked at me and said

VO : Your VISA ia approved and you will get your passport within 5 working days "

Me : Thank You

No questions to me and my Family .

It was really good experience for me and my family.

Finally I am verymuch Thankful to this site and the people those have posted their experiences. Its really useful and gives you fair idea about the interview.
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Compiled FAQs

• Which Company You are working for?
• How long you are working with company?
• How many years you will stay at USA
• What is your role in India and what is your role in US?
• What is your role in the company?
• What do you do there (Company)?
• What is your specialization?
• Do you have Hire and fire authority as manager?
• Did you hire anybody recently?
• Suppose you are not happy with your team member’s performance then what will you doing?
• What is your Clients name?
• On What project you will be working for?
• What is your Team strength?
• Why you required at US ? Why can you not do it from here?
• What is your Indian Salary ?
• What is your US Salary?
• Is this your first trip to USA as a Manager?
• Have you been at US before?
• How long you have stayed in USA before?
• With which VISA you travelled earlier ?
• When did you travel to USA last?
• What was your purpose at that time?
• What is your project Name?
• What is your Project? What is your role?
• Explain about your project?
• Is your Blanket Rejected earlier?
• Whom will you report in USA?
• Where you will be working in US?
• What is your educational Qualification?
• How many people in your company having the same skill? Why only you are going to USA?
• How many people reporting to you now?
• Your team strength?
• Is it first time for you come to consulate?
• First time VISA applicant ?
• Is your wife going along with you?

FAQ for L2
• When did you get married?
• Is it love marriage? Arranged marriage?
• Are you happy with arranged marriage?
• How the proposal came?
• How it was arranged ?

Thanks immihelp and all those who posted their experience on this site.

My previous L1B VISA got expired and my company decided to file a new VISA for me. My interview was on 16th Aug at Kolkata consulate. Looks like everyone was getting their VISA. Below is the conversation.

Me: Hi, good morning.
VO: Good morning.

VO: Who is your client?
Me: XYZ

VO: Where is he located?
Me: At XYZ location

VO: How may years of experience you have? Is this with the same client?
Me: I have 4 years of experience and it is with the same client. I've been working with this client since I joined my company.

VO: Where is your family?
Me: My parents are here in Mumbai and my wife is in USA.

VO: What do you do at offshore?
Me: Sir, I don't work at offshore. Currently, I'm on my onsite assignment since Nov 2010. I was scheduled to give training to my team members in Mumbai and my VISA got expired at the same time. So my company decided to file a new VISA for me.

VO: Ok, your VISA is approved.
Me: Thanks. Have a good day.

Tips: Be calm, positive and confident.

I would like to thank to this site forum.

Finally, my visa got approved b gods grace. The below questions were asked to me and my spouse.

1. What is your specialization.
2. Total experience and my current company in xxx
3. What is your role.
4. What is your INR Salary.
5. How long you have been Married.
6. Is it love marriage or arranged marriage.
7. Reason for going to US.

Be confident and be cool