L1, L2 Visa

Hi

I had a blanket L1B Visa from 2015 to 2017. My Blanket Extension for L1A was rejected in Chennail in 2017 Sept. After which I went back on older stamped VISA and applied for Individual L1A at USA. Recieved RFE , clarrified and was then immediately Approve from 2017 to 2019. The VISA was not stamped.
I was planning for a Jul 2019 trip to India and hence extended the L1A again, it got approved from Oct 2019 to 2021.
I went to Chennai Consulate on Jul 25 2019 for Stamping.

1. They pushed me up in the queue right from the Gate outside as I had a 6 year old making wierd gestures and making a scene with the muddy weather outside. They sent me in the front.
2. Even inside the Consulate no queue , directly went to the front of the queue as advised. Very nice experience.
3. Went to the window. She takes 3 passports. Tells me to go to another Window and come back directly to her.
4. I go to the other window and they check my 2 approved petitions. Current one till oct 2019 and another one from oct 2019 to oct 2021. She checked something for 5 mins and sent me back for interview.
5. I am back to the window and the student in front of me was questioned for Financial support. his parents earned 80K per month INR and he was showing 58 Lak cash in the account. The office was not happy and rejected it.
6. My turn now.
   
   Me: Handed passport. " Good morning. I am back from the ride to Window 15"
   Officer: Ya i hope it was motth
  Me: Yes very much Madam.
   Officer: So You work for "ABCD". Hmmmmmm.
  Me: Yes Mam.
  Officer: Do you work with clients?
  Me: Yes its a mix. With a major client and many others as well.
   Officer: OK . 2 mins typing. Whats your salary?
  Me: 135K plus bonus close to 60K

Officer: after 2 mins. Your VISA is approved. Please read instructions on how you will receive the passports.

She did not talk to my wife or kid at all. It was very easy.

   

 

 

Hi Guys..my experience was unique. I had PIA on 17th, the VO had some standard questions which I answered without any problems, she asked me about my DUI way back in 2006 I told her that was one off and have been a law abiding alien. She approved my visa stamped my 129 and kept the passport.

Week later I get email to collect my passport from VFS location in Bangalore,I went the next Day and collected it ..I flipped through the passport to check if name category was printed correctly surprise surprise...my visa is missing instead I find 2 pages folded inside the passport, 221g and another form for psychological examination.

221(g) states tht I provide all police and court records along with medical exam results, my question to anyone who has been through this DUI 221(g)situation can you please tell me how I can get the police and court records?
My DUI is 13 years ago, I only have the case expungement document issued by my attorney in 2012.

I have my VISA approved and it was delivered to my address after couple of days of my interview(also for y wife and Kid.) I am wondering if I will get some more documents from Consulate or only Stamped VISA is the only thing we received after the approval?

I am having H1B visa stamping in my passport which is valid till mid of next year. My company had applied for L1A Blanket visa now as I am staying in India for last 1 year. Want to know if my H1B visa stamping will be cancelled before the start of L1A Blanket interview. If my L1A does not go through, will I be able to travel back at least with H1B? If anyone has similar case, please let me know.

Hi All, i would like to know what is general processing time by attorney after i submitted all required documents/ questionnaire etc. for L1b blanket .

Hi All,

I have read on few posts in this forum where candidates appeared for their L1 / H1 interview at consulate in Mexico / Canada. Are Indian passport holders permitted to attend interviews at US consulates located outside India? What are the rules surrounding that?

Hi Team,
I got a mail from my attorney stating

------------------------------------------------
“The California Service Center has approved the following I-129 Petition for NonimmigrantWorker that had been filed under the Premium Processing Program”

Details:
Reciept number:
Tenure etc...

the form i-797 approval notice will follow in the mail
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Before this mail I got another mail stating that there is an RFE and i need to upload few documents for preparing the support letter.

Is my visa approved or is it still yet to be approved? how should i take it.

Hi All,
I'm working for a IT company at chennai. My L1A Visa petition got approved recently and awaiting to get a n interview slot . It seems like waiting time to get interview slot is minimum 60 days except Delhi councilate ( 30 days). My questions are :

1. Is it applicable to attend interview with any councilate office when my base location is chennai.
2. If so, which location is best with more chances of getting Visa approved.

Thanks.

Hi All,

I want to thank this forum for the time people took in sharing thier experiences. Now it's time to share mine.

My appointment was scheduled at 8.45 AM in Chennai. I heard from earlier threads that 15 minutes earlier to the appointment time is sufficient. Since i don't trust the chennai traffic, i started earlier at 7AM from home and reached there around 7.45. My wife and myself stood in the queue and we went inside at 8.45.

Our belongings are scanned. We already arranged the related documents in required order so we went inside pretty quick.

The order is as follows,
- First 8 pages of i129 followed by first page of i197 - 3 sets
- DS160
- DD for $500 for Fraud detection
- Passport

When we went inside there was again a long queue. Though it was not mentioned in the appointment details about having seperate photograph, i took some copy of my photos for VISA (size 2" X 2"). To my suprise, they started calling out people having the photos to bypass and come inside. We saw a very long queue of people waiting for the photo but i was asked to move out of queue and proceed with payment. I already have a DD so just gave the same to the counter and got the receipt.

Now we were asked to move to different queue, where i gave my photo along with the passport. It was done pretty quick as well. Followed by this i completed biometrics in another queue. Now all done, ready to face the interview.

Since most of the people are waiting in queue, the panels were almost empty. I just went to the panel immediately after biometrics. No waiting..direct to the panel.

At the interview:

Me : Good morning
VO: No response..Passport and related documents please
Me: <Gave the documents>

VO: L1A or L1B?
Me: L1B

VO: Which location?
ME: <answered>

VO: What is your experience with the company?
ME: 7 years 10 months

VO: What salary
Me: <answered>

VO: What specialization?
Me: Told about it in 2 lines and stopped. (I was expecting she will ask follow up question about the tool)

The lady started typing in the system and said your "VISA is approved". No questions asked to my wife. We came out around 9.30.

I am from the top product based company. I beleive it went through fine because of my experience with the company. I made a lot of preparations for the interview. while preparing, I typed the answer in the notepad and repeatedly looked for follow up questions. Similary i also made sure my answer doesn't provoke many follow up questions.

That's all my experience. Happy to answer any questions. All the best folks!

Want to thank this forum being an one stop hub for L1/L2 visa , Needless to say I have benefited a lot being a member on the forum ...

History

H1B -2009

L1B -2015

B1-2018

My OFC interview was on 16th July and VISA interview was on 17 July . For the uninitiated OFC interview is a breeze you just need to carry your DS160 and appointment confirmation letter with your passport . Everything else is additional here

You can carry your phone ( They will ask you to switch it off)

OFC process is to take your thumb impression and finger print . Mine slot was 1:15 PM , I was there by 12:45 AM and they let me inside and the process got completed in 10 minutes . 1 PM I was standing outside of the VFS office.

VISA interview -17th July . This is interesting as I had US VISAs before but felt the queue was painstakingly long this time .

My interview time was at 8:45 AM and I was there by 8 AM and it was raining . I kind of predicted the weather and was carrying an umbrella with me , if you are not having an umbrella , there are plenty of option to buy but the will not be easy on pocket, carry changes ( Many vendors were reining in the rain )

Documents for VISA interview

Company gave me I129s , I 797 and a big file with lot of documents( which were kind of unnecessary) and asked me to carry originals of degree certificates , mark sheets , offer letters ( again not necessary).

Only thing that matters are

- I 129S ( 3 set)
- I 797 ( 3 set)
- DS160
- Appointment confirmation
- L1 VISA fraud detection
- passport

Anything else will only task your hands !!

Fast forward , I am in the queue for the consular officer interview Time around 9:30 AM, There were two person ahead of me , I tried to insulate myself from the discussion, I did not want to have any prejudice for the officer . The person just before me was a senior manager with a very high package in the US , he was accompanied by his spouse . The package was so high the consular officer could not resist the temptation of asking him if he belongs to the exquisite 'C suite ' . His visa got approved .

One thing what left me baffling , till that point , officer was not having the stamp with her . She said to the person I will get the stamp to stamp your I 129S. In the worst case if she was taking interviews from 8 AM , imagine the rejections what would have happened so far , but again that is extreme , I think may be for that counter she would have started late , There may be handful of people before this interview !!

Anyway my turn was the next ,I greeted her and she asked me to give her the documents .

Questions

Officer :You were having L1 before !!

Officer :When You came back from US ?

Officer: Where are you travelling next ?

Officer : Whats your designation

Officer : US salary

Officer : Specialization

Officer : Why you

Officer : Are you going to work for client or ZZZ( YYYY my company)

Officer : How many months ?

Officer : Why so many months , what are you going to do next

Then there is a silence she started stamping my documents , Your VISA is approved, have a good stay in the US

Me : Thanks officer , have a good day !!

My 2 cents for the people who are having the L1B interview

- Officer does not have a bar of how many L1 he/she can approve in a day , If your case is true to L1B's norms, the chances of getting the VISA is very high .
- If officer thinks it does not conform to L1B requirement then he/she will be unsure of giving the VISA and ask you to work in other category , so you need to convince them why the skill is a rarity in the US
- dress well , It always helps to build a first impression other side
- Greet them well
- Go with an easy pace no need to rush to your answers

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All the best !! Last word L1 is not the end of the world , so even if does not happen , think there may be a better opportunity , trust me I have seen that

Not sure if I will go for another L1 or extension this may be my last L1 , Thanks again to this forum

Interview