L1, L2 Visa

This is continuation of the Post written just before this.
Actually I will be going to appear for L1 visa in few days....So ahve those doubts

Pls help me out.

Hi All,
I have some doubts for which I need detailed answers as I am not able to think what exactly to Answer..:(

1. What is your specilization?
My Doubt : what should I answer ? whatever is written in my petition is enough or more to be added.

2. Roles and responsibilities?
My Doubt : Shall i answer whatever written in petition ?

3. Whats special you have, why others can't go US?
My Doubt : What exactly should i answer ?

I am really confused on these questions and worried too :(

Many thanks in Advance...:)

Hi All,

First of all i would like to thank to the moderator of this website for running such a great website to help people. I would like to share my L1B visa saga and some important notes.

On 17th December 2009 I appeared for the Visa Interview at the US consulate in Chennai for L1B with my company's Blanket petition. That day it was raining heavily in Chennai. Luckily i had read in this blog just a day before i attended the interview that its raining in Chennai and was mentioned to carry umbrella. So i had carried umbrella. After standing in the queue outside the consulate for 15 mins i was allowed to enter inside. After the initial screening I entered the hall where they take the documents and arrange it in the file and give. The staff over there who manages the queue is very helpful. They guided me to counter where there less queue. Once i reached the counter the officer over there asked me to give my documents. I gave her one set of I129S and form D156 and D157 as I was not aware that I had to all the 3 copies there only. She then suddenly said "Sir" with a shocking tone and I was half dead there only. Then she said sir you are applying under L1 Blanket and you are required to submit 3 copies of the petition. Later I gave her the balance 2 copies of the petition. After going through the documents she said sir the spectacle is blocking your eyebrows in the photo so you need to get a new photo. She asked me to take the photo from the person who takes the photo inside the embassy. It took 15 to 20 minutes for me to take the photo and get back to her. After that she put all my documents in one folder and gave me the folder and asked me to go the counter 12 in the second building. I went to the second building and went to the counter 12 and paid the FPD fee of 24000 and took the receipt and went to the next hall to stand in the queue. I was standing near the counter no 4 which was closed and interview were going on in other counters. All of a sudden when just one person was before me the counter no 4 opened and the person infront of me went to that counter. He was a professional photographer I guess and his English was not that fluent. The visa officer was asking him some questions and this guy was not able to respond to him properly and I could clearly make out that the Visa office was getting irritated. I was praying to god that I should not go to him. But unfortunately I happened to attend the interview in his counter only. This is how the interview went.
Me: Good morning Sir
VO: Good morning (With Irritated Face took my documents)
VO: Who are you working with?
ME: xxxx
VO: What is your specialized knowledge?
ME: Financial Reporting and Accounting Using ERP's such as SAP, SEM and BO
VO: Do you work for a project?
ME: No
VO: Do you work For a Client?
ME: No, I work for xxx itself.
VO: Do you work on Financial Systems?
ME: Yes
VO: Whats your Educational Qualification?
ME: Bachelor in Commerce
VO: Sorry Sir, i am not able to approve your L1 visa with the reason "Your Blanket L1 application is not clearly approvable under section 8 CFR 214.2 (I)(ii)(D) and INA 101(a)(15)(L) and gave me the from 221g with the above mentioned reason checked and asked me to work with HR of my company and reapply for suitable visa.

He dint provide me any specific guidance on what I need to do. So I was puzzled so much that I dint know what to do next. Later I contacted my company’s attorney on the interview outcome and he suggested that he will do a congressional enquiry. So after some 15 days he sent the congressional enquiry to Chennai consulate and the response from the Consulate was not very useful.

Since the congressional enquiry was not very helpful my company’s attorney sent an enquiry to Deparment of Homeland Security to enquire on the same. The response from the DHS was that we need to apply for L1 Individual Petition.

My company’s attorney was not very much in favor of L1 Individual petition and he asked me to go again in L1B Blanket visa for interview. So on March 4th 2010 I attended again on L1 Blanket petition at the Chennai consulate. This time the visa officer was very helpful. He looked into my case and said sir your previous blanket petition is still valid and you cannot apply for visa under the same petition until it expires. And suggested me either to wait till the blanket petition expires (that is 1 year) or apply for L1 individual petition and come back with the form 221G which he issued me after this.

After this my company applied for L1 Individual petition with premium processing on 23rd March 2010 and the petition was approved in 4 days itself. It took a weeks time for me to get the original I797B petition from US.

After getting the petition I attended the Interview on 8th April at the Chennai consulate and this how the interview went.

Me: Good Morning Sir
VO: Very good morning with a smile on face
ME: handed over the documents
VO: After looking at the first few documents he started typing something in the computer and turned to me after a minute and said, Sir you have already applied twice under the blanket petition and your are not supposed to apply for L1 Visa again.
ME: I was totally shocked with this statement
VO: and you don’t have a individual petition also
ME: After listening to this I told him sir I have the individual petition approved copy in the file
VO: Oh is it and checked the folder and apologized for not checking properly
ME: I said no problem
VO: Asked me to keep my right hand middle finger in the scanner
ME: I was so tensed and instead of keeping right hand I kept my left hand 
VO: Sir Right hand
ME: I am sorry and then placed my right hand
VO: He asked me how long are working with ZZZ
ME: I couldn’t hear him properly and asked him to repeat once again
VO: He asked me again
ME: I said I am working for 4 years
VO: Started typing in his comp again for a minute
ME: I was fully scared what will happen
VO: Turned to me and said Sir your Visa is approved and you will get the Visa within a weeks time.
ME: I was totally shocked and was very happy

I said thanks and started moving. In the happiness I had kept my form I1797 there only and VO called me and asked me to take it. I said thanks again and came out with full happiness.

Lessons Learnt.

1. If Blanket visa is rejected under section 221G for don’t apply under Blanket again. Its not going to help you anyway. Apply under Individual petition and go the consulate with the Individual petition. With individual petition 99% visa will be approved.
2. If you have any enquires and don’t know whom to contact, don’t ever go to VFS helpdesk as they will either say follow the instructions in 221G or we don’t know. Their regional contact number will always be busy and if you email them they will ask you to contact the regional contact center.
3. If you have query contact the consulate with this number - 04428574000 and the extension number is “0”. The will be able to provide you better instruction
4. Before going to the consulate again make sure you mail your case query to [email protected] and get a confirmation from them as to when you can walk into consulate for the interview. Because they might ask you saying who asked you to walkin to the consulate today.

I hope my experience will help the readers of this forum on the possibilities with L1B visa interview. Wish you all the very best and good luck(Luck is very much needed ;-))

Regards,

Karthik

Hi..

if you have more than 2 years of exp in the project..you have to say that u have done some thing in your project..in the application..and u r further going to US to integrate or implement or cutomize it.

for example..if you have 2 yrs of exp in your project..you can say that u have developed a module in the application for last 2yrs and u further going to do some thing...as i stated above..

You will not have any problem if you have at least 2 yrs of exp in same project..

else if you have overall exp of 2 or 2.5 yrs..and project exp of around 6 months or no exp in the project for that you are going US...

then you can say u did implementation on the previous project(s)..which is simillar to what u r going to do now at US...(like the previous project is an integration of application modules...and in this project you are going to do the simillar kind of integration.

all they want to know is u have something to explain on what u r going to do at US...and u need to convince them that u have done something offshore that makes the need to get you US to do this job...

All the best

Hi all, firstly I will like to thank everyone in this forum for such usefull posts. It really helped me a lot to be confident.

My VISA process was very smooth, interview lasted for not even 2 mins.
I was just asked why I am travelling to US. Thats it. Then came the golden words.

Tip: Be confident and rest all will fall in place.
Current Status: Estatic (Because "PAPU PASS HO GAYA")

First of all, Thanks to the moderator of this forum. It helped me a lot. VO asked the same standard questions to me as well. I have seen few folks got rejected infront of me since they have no idea about for what purpose they are going to travel.

VO's are very clear and they would like to know two main points ultimately.

What is the project about?
What is your role in this project.

Prepare for these questions apart from the following standard questions.

What is your specializations?
Why not others?
What is your role in client interaction?
Client's profile?

If you have more than 4 years experience, you would get for sure if you explain them about the dependency.

They may ask some cross questions from your answers, prepare for everything.

Thanks.

Hi Folks ,

I would be taking L1 b interview in couple of days ,Can u guys let me know whether 2.6 yrs of exp is Ok or good enf to clear the interview ....

Is there a any chances for rejection just becuase of 2.6 yrs(My Engineering branch is Computer Science)

Hello All,

My L1 blanket got approved yesterday at Chennai consulate. Mine was scheduled at 9:15am but waited for more than couple of hours because of huge rush and finally attended the interview at 11am.

And coming to the questions in the interview, its again almost the same you can see in most of the posts here. To my luck i have interviewd by the big fat lady many of us here was saying, as usual she was asking more number of questions but few different questions which i find was,

VO.What is your salary when you joined this company?
Ans: Its the same what i get now
VO.You didn't have any hike in these two years?
Ans: No, I didn't
VO. Did you had promotions?
Ans: No, I didn't. I'm expecting one this year for which the review has already been done.

I dont' have any idea on why these questions popped up.Other than that the usual ones,

1.Who is the Client?
2.What is the project is all about?
3.Which technologies you'll work?
4.Whats your experience in that?

And finally my visa got approved. Thanks to http://www.immihelp.com/

I can tell that my case is a tough one to get it approved.

I am B.E Instrumentation gradute, have 4 yrs of work experience. I am going to work on client site.
I have applied for L1 Blanket last year and got rejected.

More over, my company has prepared I129 forms with the use of the PRD and CV, that I have submitted.
In that, it is mentioned with lots of tech jargons and tools name, etc.
So I cannot talk about what ever in the petition, i will sure get it rejected again. And I was afraid if I say some other thing, and again my visa might be rejected, stating that what i say is contradicted to the petetion.

So now, I have lots of fear, that I heard some myths like, only computer science education, L1 Blanket is not for client site. Also, I have already got rejected.

I have gone thru security processing, and entered the lobby.

There in the counter, scan of 10 fingers are taken.

Then I was guided to move to next builing, there I paid the DD in a counter.

then I was guided to next lobby, where lots of people are waiting for the visa interview.

I have reached the visa interview lobby at 7.55, where as VOs came one by one at 8.00.

some of us are asked to stand in the queue. And my turn came.

I have to go to the VO. She is the fat lady. I have learnt about her in this forum, and I thought I have little chance.

Me: Hi Good morning (smiled)

VO: good morning.

VO: So you are working for the xxxx?

Me: yes I am working for the xxxx.

VO Who is your Client

Me: yyyyy

VO What?

Me: yyyyy

VO okay. What are you going to do for your client?

Me: I am going to integrate the functional modules...

VO functional what?

Me: functional modules....that I have developed so far in the kkkk application area.

VO is this modules not developed by your team?

Me: well, I am a senior programmer analyst, and I'm mentoring my team mates in developing these modules.

VO have you developed all the modules?

Me: Yes...

VO all modules in whole system?

Me: No. I have developed a major part of the modules.

VO you said you developed all the modules?

Me: I have developed a major part of it, but have knowledge in all the modules in this application.

VO So you are going to work on the modules you have developed?

Me: Yes.

VO Ok you visa is approved.

Me: Thanks Mam.


If you see above question..I have never smiled and nervous through out the interview..because lots of thing are runnong in my mind.
Also, I was not doing it upto the perfection.
I have contradicted my statement in between, but I have managed it with some success.
she is not able to hear some of my word. she asked the client name twice,
But in my case, it is impressive, only because I am going to work on some modules that I have developed...

So guys...this is the specialized knowledge...u need to show up that u have done something in some application..and you are going to integrate, implement, cusomize further on that application. Here u send a message..that only u can do it.

My answer has avoided further questions like

What is your specialization to do this project?
Why you? why not someone can do that?

Myths:
VO in certain counter will do lots of rejection.
wrong..I can see rejections and selections in almost all counters. No VO would only reject, and no VO would only approve. It is based on what u r saying at that time....

And if a ques came on like "r u working in client site?"
Answer it like, yes, and I will be supervised by my company onsite lead.

Finally, VOs have some patience..you can ask the question again..you can say something to manage what u have sai...but you keep on talking about something irrelevent..u have more chance to get rejected.

I can see people not prepared for the interview getting rejected..for what u r going to do? one was saying that client is going to do this...VO stopped and asked the ques again..he got nervous..and he said something that sound like normal IT work..and he got it rejected..

Also for one person..he said i will work on the blackberry..VO said...you can only work on the application in which black berry is running...

So choose your words correctly..and prepare well for the ques like what r u going to do? what is specialized skill?

you can impress and score only in the above two ques..you need to tell that u have done something good..and your are going to enhance it at US..

Also prepare for the ques like, why cant u do it at offshore?

and its better to have smiling face, not showing your nervousness..but definetly what u r going to say really matters to get the visa or not...

dont say tools as your specialized skill...I heard a VO saying that anyone can get trained and use the tool..i cannot accept it as specialized skill.

similarly, dont say some thing like you are trained on this domain, or in this technology...if you can be trained..anyone can get trained...

all that come through your work expereince in the project should be shown as specialized knowledge...

thanks for this forum..and guys who shared their exp..which is verymuch helpful. All the best for those who are thriving to get visa.

Thanks for Immihelp portal,
I have attended for L1 A visa at Chennai on 6th April.
It was really good experience.
Questions
---------
1)How long are you with this company
Ans. Tell them ---Years --- months
2)How long are you with this client
3)Roles & responsibilites
4)Why only you are selected for this position
5)Team size
6)Can you Hire & fire