L1, L2 Visa

Hi all,

Both myself and my husband are working in a renowned IT company based in Bangalore from last
12 years now. We both work in the same organisation.
Fortunately both of us have received job offers from our US office now.
We have 2 small kids (boy and girl, 4.5 & 3 yrs old).

please see, both our job duties are exactly the same (Quality Leads), only the product that we work and teams we are joining are different.

Our company has filed separate L1B blanket petition for us and we are done with all the paper works.

The next thing we need to do is scheduling our interviews but we are finding it very tricky and not able to decide on what would be right/wise combination to go for the interview.

1. Should we both go as seperate L1 applicants taking 1 kid each with us
OR
2. Should I (mother) go as L1 taking both kids as dependent and Father going for a separate interview alone
OR
3. Should one of go as L1 taking the other spouse and kids as dependent. Spouse to apply for L2 to L1 conversion as a next step
4. Should we both apply for a slot one after the other, stand in the same line and let them know that we are a full family planning to relocate both as L1B ?

COULD YOU PLEASE ADVISE US ON RIGHT & WISE COMBINATION TO GO WITH (1/2/3/4 ABOVE) SUCH THAT WHICH HAS GOOD SUCCESS RATE FOR BOTH.

PLEASE REPLY TO US ASAP

THANK YOU SO MUCH

Regards

This site was of immense help in my preparation. My L1B blanket petition got approved yesterday at Chennai Consulate. Here is the conversation:

VO: Please give me your passport and petition
me: [given]
VO: Is it an L1A or L1B?
me: It's a B
VO: What do you do at YYYY company?
me: Explained in a single sentence
VO: Ohh. What is that for?
me: Explained
VO: I see.
[kept typing...]
VO: How long are you planning to stay?
me: 3 years
VO: Where is your office in the US?
me: [mentioned]
[kept typing...]
VO: Your visa is approved.
me: Thank you very much!

No questions to my wife or 4 year old daughter. The same VO was admonishing the previous applicant by saying something like - "No one would answer this question like that. No one would say I would work for a proprietary tool etc. ". Ultimately, he approved that visa too. My key take away is to prepare well, but not by-heart the answers. Keep the answers as natural as possible.

One question for the experts here: The VO told me that my visa is approved and also stamped on my I129S forms as approved. However, the CEAC website shows that it is currently under administrative processing. What does this mean? And, how long does it take?

Hi, anyone here who had their L1A individual visa approved after stamping with a salary range of 80-90k usd ? Thank you

I applied for a L1-A individual earlier this year in May and was served an RFE to which we filed replied by end of August. My approval arrived in mid September and I went for the visa interview on 4th Oct.

Visa interview experience:

1. Is this a blanket or individual?
Individual
2. And its an A?
Yes
3. So you work with xyz?
Yes.
4. How long have you worked there?
4 years
5. Where are you going to work in the US?
San Jose, California
6. What will be your designation there.
Sr. Product Manager
7. What's your highest educational qualification?
B.E.

She kept typing and said your visa is approved. Kept my passport and handed me a blue slip. The whole thing probably didn't even go full 4 mins. I got the passport on 6th Oct.

Take an early morning slot to avoid overflow from queues.

Hi There,

I got my L1B individual petition approved. I had a question about the interview location - I work in Hyderabad and wanted to opt in for the Hyd consulate instead of going to Chennai. My i797 form mentions Chennai as my consulate on the approval notice. I wanted to check if I can take Hyd as my interview location? Do I have to ask USCIS to Notify Hyd consulate? Or can I directly book my interview date in Hyderabad? Please can someone let me know.

Is there someone who has done this?

Thanks!
AK

Hi,

I have a favour to ask please.

I applied for a L1B specialised skill visa and received a RFE which is quite exhaustive. The questions are all surrounded establishing specialised skills. I work for a smaller organisation with no immigrations team to help and neither is my law firm (quite a reputed one) showing commitment in guiding me.

Would really appreciate it if you could please share the document you submitted to prove specialised skill.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks

Irus

Hi all,

Thanks everyone who have shared their experiences, those really helped a lot.

I went through complete different experience, so want to share it so that it can benefit someone in future.

Here is my case. I had L1 B blanket before through my previous organization. I stayed in US for 2.5 years on that, and returned to India in 2014. Now my current company wanted to me move to US, and so had applied for L1 A individual petition. As usual, I received RFE (nominal one). We responded to RFE and petition got approved.

Completed DS-160 for me and my family (wife and 7 year old son). While filing the DS-160, it asked me whether you are 10 printed. I had answered YES. May be because of that, while taking visa appointment, system did not show me appointment for Biometrics. My interview was scheduled on 10.15 AM, 12th Oct at Mumbai consulate.

To not to take a risk, I decided that I'll go one day earlier to Mumbai and stay overnight. We were packing our stuff on 11th Oct morning and suddenly I received a call at 11.00 AM. The guy on phone said - "Sir, I'm calling from US consulate, and you have an appointment tomorrow for visa interview. Somehow system did not show you biometrics appointment, but for every new visa class - you need to do biometrics." I was worried. I said I'm planning to reach Mumbai by evening today. He said "No sir, I would request to reach to Mumbai ASAP and do your biometrics today or else you won't be able to go for interview tomorrow". We somehow managed to leave in next 30 min and reached to Biometrics center at 3.30 PM. The guy on phone had already informed security. They took me in and collected our fingerprints + photos. It was great of him that he called or else I would have suffered big time.

Next day - visa interview. I had read that taking kids would help you to skip lines. However, that is not the case at Mumbai consulate. They allow to skip lines only if you are carrying infant or 2-3 year old kid. We had to go through normal queues everywhere.

My turn for visa interview appeared at around 12.00 PM. My son was hungry and cranky at that moment. When we approached the counter:

VO: Good morning! and said "Hey Hi" to my son.
Me: Good morning. I'm sorry, but he is little cranky at the moment as he is hungry.
VO: Ohh.. I understand.

I provided our passports and I 797.

VO: Typed for some time. "Are you renewing your visa"?
Me: No. That L1B was from my previous organization. I'm applying this time for a new visa
VO: Ok.
VO: Whom do you work for?
Me: Told the company name
VO: What is your title?
Me: Director of Engineering
VO: How long are you working in this company?
Me: 3 years
VO: What is your salary?
Me: Here in India or US?
VO: India
Me: Told the salary (per annum)
VO: And do you know how much would you get there?
Me: Yes mam, I would get $1xx,xxx per annum + benefits
VO: So will you be working here in India and in US?
Me: No. We have engineering team there, once I move - I'll start managing that.
VO: What is your highest qualification?
Me: Bachelor of Engineering in Computers.

In mean while, she was continuously typing on computer and waiting for computer to respond. There were long pauses. She was kind enough to provide us that info - "I'm sorry, its my computer... its still loading".

Then she left the window and returned after 2 min. "I'm giving you this information voucher. It tells you your rights as an employee. Please go through this and let me know if you have any questions". I went through the document and said - "Looks good. I've no questions".

VO: Great. Your visas have been issued. You will receive those in 2 to 5 business days.

She neither asked for any document, nor opened our passports.

All in all - it was good experience and million of thanks to that biometrics guy who proactively called me and collected our biometrics. :)

One quick suggestion - if you are planning to go to Mumbai consulate and thinking to take along your kid who is in age range of 4 to 7 - Do not expect that you would get special treatment and skip the lines.

All the best everyone!

Can anyone please help me in below situation:

Me and my wife will be travelling to US in Dec 2018 . My health insurance is covered by my employer but they do not cover my dependent in US.

Can anyone please suggest from where should I buy health insurance for L2 holder .
Also, is there any restrictions while purchasing insurance depending upon visa type ? or I can simply purchase any visitor health insurance for my wife ?

Any small lead can even help me !!!

Thanks,

Hi Everyone,

I am in a very bad situation and i need your help and experience.

I am currently in US on L1 visa since Dec 2015, i received an email in March 2018 that my L1 visa is revoked while my wife was out of US. Now its been 6 months that i am trying to find if my wife L2 visa is also revoked or not as i have not received any email regarding her visa.

Does any one has the same experience or solution?

1. Is my wife visa still valid and she can travel to US.
2.If not then can she re-apply for L2 visa and go for interview?
3. Or do i have to travel to my home country, apply for both my visa and my wife visa and come back to US?

Your help will be highly appreciated.

Thanks,

Hi All,

I need urgent help -

I am not able to add my child as dependent because system is not accepting his birthdate i.e. 12/13/2013 (13th December) and gives me following error - "Unable to add applicant because some or all information you entered belongs to another applicant."

When I changed the date to anything for e.g.

12/13/2010
12/13/2014
12/14/2013
12/12/2014

and several others it accepts and adds my child as dependent but not when entering his correct date i.e. 12/13/2013.

Please help.

Thanks & best regards,

Rajveer