L1, L2 Visa

Hi All,

Thank you every one for sharing your experiences.This is the excellent site for the people who are attending the visa interviews.I was attended on Feb 12 th for L1 B and got the visa approval.
My interview was in Chennai.My interview was scheduled at 1.15PM.My intervew was over within 2-3 minutes.When i approached interviewer i was bit tensed because the person before was got rejected.Then i went to the VISA officer.My interview went like this.

Me : Hello. How are you ?
VO : He didn't heard properly, but he put a smiley face at me.
Me : I handed over all the documents except originals.
VO : He verified around one minute and asked
     Since How many years you are working with this comany ?
Me : X years and x months.
VO : What is your current role in your company?
Me : I am into Application development,Testing(Make sure that VO should understand you are going for the application development. Dont use Maintainanace or support kind of words.)
VO : What is your role at onsite ?
Me : Application Development,Delegating work to offshore,Attending status meetings.
VO : Why you are the only person got selected among your team?
Me : I have been working with this company fro xx years and i got the specilazed skill training on ____ .I got the relevent experience on the technologies which our clinet is looking for.
VO :Put you right middle finger on scanner.
Me :I din't heard properly asked him to repeat.
    then it was done.

Then he signed some documents and Golden words came out "Your VISA has been Approved. You will recieve the Passport through the courier." Then I thanked the VO and came back.

Actually my interview was at 1.15 PM but it was over arount 4:00 PM.I was so hungy till then.So the people are having interview after 1 PM its better to take some food with breakfast.
My suggestion is dont feel tense in any way.Just keep cool Of course this is the common dialogue from everyone,but the fact is there is nothing to fear.

All the best guyz........

Hi All

Hai all....

Thanks for sharing ur experience, This forum really helped us for preparing for PA interview. Our PA interview was on 5th feb 2008 -1.45 at Chennai. myself n my husband attended the interview together for L1 and L2. We went to the security gate at 1:00pm but he asked us to come back at 1:30 PM. Many peoples were waiting for there turn, after waiting for half an hour we again went to security at 1:30 ,Then they verified our interview appointment time with passport and allowed us to enter inside. Before prescreening we waited for five minutes and then asked us to stand in a queue for prescreening.

In the prescreening they verified all the docs – DS156,DS157 for both of us and also they took finger prints for all finger .Then she asked us to go inside visa Lobby.

Inside the VISA lobby there was a separate queues for different types of VISA. For L1 only one person was standing in queue. I was bit nervous and then it was our turn to go to the visa officer for the interview. Here is our interview:

we :we both wished him good afternoon with smile and my husband passed the file
vo :asked me to keep left middle finger for the finger print,
myself : got confused as i was bit nervous, It was not clear what he asked. once again he asked me to keep the middle finger at scanner
myself: then i kept my middle finger
vo: asked how long u are with this company?
my husband: X years n X months
vo: what is your role in this project at US?
my husdand:I am going to work as project manager
vo: HOw long u have been married?
my husband: x month
vo: can i see ur wedding photos?
my husband: showed him the photos
vo: how many peoples attended ur marriage?
my husband:xxx peoples attended the marriage
vo: “Your visa has been issued and u will get the passport in weeks time”

Total time taken from consulate entry to exit is 25 min.
also I got the visa with in 3 working days from (Chennai to Bangalore))

Hi,

    Thank you everyone for sharing your experience. This really helped in preparing for PA though i was asked very few questions.

    My PA was at Feb 04 (12.45 AM) i went there around 12.10 and i was let inside around 12.15. Firstly in security gate, i handed over documents, then he verified all the docs and returned me everything.

    Then comes the document verification section (dont remember the exact name of this section) where i was asked to wait for 10 mins as most people went for lunch and few were verifying the documents. After 10 mins i was asked to stand in a queue where they verified all the docs, passport and arranged in order. Then they took finger prints of all my fingers. Then she returned back all the documents arranged in the folder. This is the place where i find difference between most of the posts. Most of the posts say that they will return the docs in visa lobby. Then i was redirected to Visa lobby, i was redirected to one counter where they took my DD and gave a receipt. Then redirected to the other part of lobby. I waited there for 15 mins, bcose more people were in the queue who had appointment time b4 me. Then i was asked to join a queue. Then suddenly around 5 guys were asked to another queue as that queue was getting empty.

while i was standing in the queue, chief VO was there and he was telling few instructions. They are

1) Greet the officier when my turn comes
2) Then handover the required docs only
3) Being confidence doesnt give you a visa

Inbetween he made few jokes which really brought my tension down.

Here is my interview

VO: Hi, how are you doing?
Me: I am doing gud, thank you, how abt u?
VO: good, thank you.
VO: Who is ur client?
Me: My client is xxxx.
VO: what will you do in US.
Me; I will be working on this project xxx. And this does this blah blah.. (after hearing the project name she was verifying something in the docs)
VO: wil you be implementing these tools in ur project?
ME: yes.
VO: How long you are with this client?
ME: x years and xx months
VO: How long you are with this company?
ME: x years and xx months.
VO: what is ur total exp?
ME: x years and xx months. ( she was making a joke while answering this).
VO: You visa has been issued. Please carry these two documents when you travel.
ME: Thank you very much.

 It was pretty cool, i did expect this to get over so soon and easy. My only suggestion is don't speak too much and explain too much. Speak as less as possible.

Regards
Satheesh

Hi All,

I've been reading this forum from 10 days before my actual date of interview. I should say that this forum is really helpful and all questions asked in the consulate can be found here.

My interview appointment was at the Chennai consulate on Feb 7th at 10am. I went to the security gate at 9:15am, but was asked to come back at 9:45am. I went there again at 9:40am and they let me in this time. There were a couple of security checks and then I was in the hall.

There are many counters in this first hall where they check your documents and take fingerprint scan of all ten fingers. I stood in counter number 4, where the lady checked all my documents, took fingerprint scans, and rearranged my documents, wrote something on them and gave it back to me. She asked me to go stand in the cash counter queue(counter 6). I stood at the cash counter queue where my L1 blanket DD of 20000/- Rs was collected by the person there and he stapled the receipt of it on my DS 156 form and gave it back to me.

Here is where I found a difference. I saw almost all people who posted here before me say that their documents were all taken in the first counter, and then they were asked to go to the second building(visa interview hall) where they had to wait for 30-60 mins after which their names were called and documents were given back to them, and then they had to stand in the visa interview queue.

I did not face this. I stood in the first queue where all documents were checked and returned back to me. Next was cash counter where only my DD was taken. I was then asked to straight go to the visa interview hall along with all my documents which were with me. So this was very fast for me.

I then went to the 2nd building with all my documents. The VFS person there saw my visa type and asked me to straight join the main queue for visa interview. I joined the queue, and after 10 minutes when we all neared the end of the queue, the queues were split and people were asked to join the smaller queues in front of each visa officer. so I also joined one of the queues in front of an officer. There were five people before me in this queue. I noticed that the officer in whose queue I was standing hardly aksed any questions. The persons who were standing before me for B1 visas were not asked any questions. Their interviews were over in less than a minute. This made me happy, and also because this officer was sounding really nice :) So in about 5 mins time, it was my turn to go to the visa officer for interview.

I go to the visa officer -
Me: Good morning (with a smile) and passed my docs to him
VO: Smiles and says good morning

He sees me documents for like 10-15 seconds
VO: Who is your client?
Me: I replied with my client's name

VO: How long are you in this company?
Me: 2 years

Vo: How long are you with this client?
Me: 2 years

Then he typed something in his computer, and wrote the visa validity dates on my I-797 forms, and says -

VO: Ok sir, you are all set. Your visa will reach you in a week's time. Have these two sets of I-797 forms with you and show them while you enter U.S.

Me: Smiled and said "Thank you! Have a great day!"
VO: You too

That was it! I could not believe my L1-Blanket interview would be so easy :) I was asked more questions during my B1 interview last year. This really was very easy and lasted less than a minutes. I was out of the visa building by 10:45am (took me just one hour for the whole process)

All I would like to say is, try to stay calm though I know there will some tension. But you can answer only when you are calm. The visa officers see how confident you reply and if you are replying to the point. They can make out if you lie.

So please tell the truth, stay calm, greet them with a smile and don't talk too much, just reply in short sentences to what they ask. If you do this, your interview will be over in less than few minutes. Only when you get tensed or tell them more than what is required, they will ask you more questions.

Contact me at [email protected] if you need more details about anything related to this.

Hi all,
I had very weird experience in Mumbai consulate on 7th Feb. We (myself and my wife) was having interview on 7th feb at 12 PM. We went there around 11.45 as there wasn't any queue we directly went inside. This is very IMPORTANT PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT THEY HAVE STARTED TAKING FINGERPRINTS FOR ALL 10 FINGERS SO NO MATTER WHAT HAVE YOUR FINGERS IN PROPER STATE. After security check we stand in the queue for fingerprints, due to cold weather out here in mumbai i was having little wrinkles on my fingers which created problem for me. Lady who was taking fingerprints couldn't able to have my fingerprints properly. However, after finishing up with prints, we sat in the hall and when our number announced here is how it went,

Me: Hey Good Afternoon
VO: Good Afternoon
VO: How r you doing?
Me: Good. And about you?
VO: Good
VO: You have problem with your fingers?
Me: Yes its because of cold.
VO: Ok Tell me why you want to goto US?
Me: Given Reason
VO: Have you ever been to US?
Me: No
VO: Do you have US Visa?
Me: Yes
VO: What kind of visa is it?
Me: Its a B1
VO: Where is ur current company located?
Me: Given address
VO: What will be ur annual pay in US?
Me: Provided answer
VO: How long have you been married? (Same question to my wife)
Me: Given answer

VO: Typing something in the computer for 2 mins
Me: I Smelled something is wrong.
VO: Sir, I am approving your visa but since your fingerprints are not proper you need to come here once again for it. Given me 221(g) with reason need better fingerprints

Overall it was good...but please keep in mind that all your fingers should be proper without any marks and cut. And this site helped me a lot in preparations.

Thanks and all the best to all.

A batch of 3 from the same company attended the interview recently on the same day. Below is conslidated experiences of all.

Important: We did not carry original approved petition(I-797). We had tough time convincing the staff in first counter. Luckily we were allowed to take the final visa interview. Please carry original petition.

Q. Please show me your original I-797

(We expected this question, but not the very fist one, started praying balaji, shirdi sai :-))

A. We are carrying photo copy. The original is with the company.

The facial expression of visa officer changed. Raising eye brows, banging the keyboard and we are tensed.

Q. What do you do?
A. I am into application development, testing, preparation of design documents and customer support for the applications developed in BPM tool called ____

Q. What is this tool?
A. Explained about the tool

Q. What type of applications you can develop with this tool?
A. This tool is mostly suitable for developing Finance and Banking related applications.

Q. What are the applications you have developed?
A. Answered accordingly.

Q. How long you are working with this company and the tool?
A. 21 Months.

Q. What will be your role in US?
A. Explained.

That's it. We heard the golden words: Your visa is approved. It is a very first interview of all of us and we have around 2 years of working experience.

Tip 1: Prepare well, especially role in India vs US
Tip 2: Project Description.
Tip 3: Reach consulate early to avoid last minute hurry.
Tip 4: Frame your words nicely especially explaining about specialized tools. Some of us couldn't explain the tool well (If you can't convince then confuse" :-)).

L1 Gang.

I had arrived 35 mintues before (mine was 8:15AM) and joined the Q.

1st Queue: They verified the docs and taken finger print scan.

When My L1B Docs are been verified they written as L1-B and pasted a smiley picture..!!! (For another person too...) But for a girl they didn't do so... No smiley and not written L1B (She was rejected, saying docs are not sufficient), i dont know the reason. Might be other members can assist you.

I gone to the second Queue: There a embassy person given a speech and said 5 things to do:

1. Smile and say Hello to the VO.
2. Give the documents down in provided area and give it in horizontal way (He said "Kelai" in Tamil).
3. What ever docs you bring won't be verified. Give needed docs.
4. Being confident doesn't matter, Understand what VO asks and reply.
5. Don't say Lie. What ever you say spell it clearly.

Also he was cool and made jokes to relax.
The Last to last person before me in my Q rejected. I was bit tensed but managed. When my turn comes he saw something in his comp. and returned back all docs and said to take finger prints again and join any Q. After my finger prints are done for second time , i joined same old Q. He was very straight forward.

My interview taken 1 min.

Q he asked are:
1. Yrs of Exp..?
2. Who is your Client
3. Which domain you are working.
4. What client do in these domain. (I said they are domain leader and named some of their product)

for Q3 i didn't get it correctly, so i aked him to repeat. Same for the Q.4

From the 'Q' I understood that in the first 30 seconds they will judge everything.

He signed few docs and returned the unwanted things and replied that i'll get passport in few days. I said goodbye have a nice day.

I have interview on 5th Feb mor. 8:15... If anybody have the same reply yo [email protected]

Hi

       Please see my feedback about my visa interview with the consulate on 29th January 2008.

Visa type: L1-Blanket

Interview details:
1.Q. How long are you working in TCS?
2. Q. Who is your client?
3. Q. How long are you working at Lehman Brothers?
4. Q. What project are you working on?
5.Q. What is your specialized knowledge?
6.Q. What did you do for past 1 year in Lehman Brothers?
7.Q. Tell me about your project?
The other two questions were based on the answers I gave for the sixth question. So totally there were 8 questions.

Your comments/Suggestions: The interview was for a duration of 10-20 mins from the time I went to the counter. For L1-Blanket visa, you need to know the basics of your project and should be able to explain the officer functionally and not technically. Also try to get the answer for the sixth question, which is important.