L1, L2 Visa

I have followed this forum right since the day i was nominated for US travel. The processes & procedures for L1B visa has been explained in detail here and i will not touch them.

I took advice from 6 colleagues of mine, 5 of whom traveled on L1B and one who got rejected. What i felt is each of them had their own story to tell purely based on their experience. Each of them believed what happened to them is the magic formula to get L1B stamped while the 6th guy who got a rejection clearly understood why. So i will narrate my story here, and the conclusions i have arrived - purely based on my experience. I have segregated this post into 3 parts. My preparation, experience and learning’s (what I think is true)

Once you finish reading, you will understand why the 1st step - filling DS-160 after doing enough homework could well be the best thing you could do. The 2 important fields in my opinion are "Duties you will be performing" and US salary. One of my colleague who is currently in US had his BEP letter thoroughly verified which made him think "Duties you will be performing" is a not so important factor and i was told i can just fill it up without much thought. He said BEP letter is the most important factor. I put in double the effort for my BEP letter which in retrospect was time wasted. But i did fill it after consulting a lot of people as well us going through this forum and understanding what exactly L1B is. Also i asked my immigration team in the company to validate my US salary. Next thing i did is prepare why my skill is specialized and consulted each of my experienced colleagues. I prepared my own case based on their inputs and finally had a meeting with my immigration consultant in the company who rubbished whatever i had prepared. He told me what exactly they are looking for and gave me a clarity of thought. I had prepared "my knowledge will save a lot of money for my client" and the immigration consultant explained the consulate's point of view and said they would give a rats **** to such statements. In short you should explain what your role will be, why the specialized knowledge you possess is not easily available in the market and how will it will benefit US

Coming to my experience, the interview turned out be very simple. The officer was very friendly. Just 5 questions:
1. Are you also from YYYY company?
I said Yes. I am not sure who else from my company was present. Also the company i work for is not one of the biggies. (Makes me feel the company you work for is a factor - if the company has a good reputation in the consulate that might help. Some companies accused of visa frauds might just hurt your chances)

2. Who is your client?
A leading US bank. (Again i felt this is an important factor.My logic being if the role is not specialized then these reputed US firms would have hired locals to get it done. They wouldn't be trying to save a penny here and a penny there.)

3. What is your experience with your company?
2 years and 11 months. I joined fresh out of college in 2010 July. I was told they prefer people with over 5 years of experience and a handsome Indian salary. I had neither. Another wise man said you should have appeared after completing 3 years. It did sow seeds of doubt in my mind. But i am here to tell my tale. Also i found lot of young guys getting though. I am stressing on this because i thought i would be denied visa simply on the basis of my experience and salary which is not under my control.

4. What is your Indian and US salary?
My Indian salary is slightly above market avg for a services company and my experience , but nevertheless not one which would raise eyebrows. Also the average package of most Tier 1 & 2 engineering colleges easily betters my salary after almost 3 years of experience. But i feel US salary could be a catch. My logic for this is simple. The consulate is basically trying to see if we are eating up the opportunity if a US national. So if you are going there for cheap, then probably its perceived to be body-shopping. If you are earning well in US then the company is probably not making profit out of cheap labour. Again its just what i feel. And yes my US salary is good enough.

After this he started stamping my forms and i thought based on my salary and experience the visa got rejected. The reason being the killer question about specialization never came. But he said your visa is approved. I also wanted to ask on what basis he approved mine, but held-back :-) I have gone through the stamp over 100 times just to make sure it is approved and not rejected.

Following are my tips:
1. From where i sat i probably saw over 70 people getting interviewed. I can hardly remember 5-6 getting their visas rejected. All rejections where L1B of course. People who were confident and smart got through. People who dressed up smart and spoke like dump got rejected. Its probably good to wear a nice shirt. The interviewer cannot see your bottom.
2. Important to have a good case for your specialization. There was this guy working in the telecommunications industry who made a good case for himself. I was sure he would get through. He then mentioned something about Java AND .Net. The next line from the consulate officer "Based on what you told me your visa cannot be approved". Guys, Java and .Net are forbidden words(technologies) in the L1 world. If you are working in java/.net or any other common programming languages and your manager asks you to apply for L1B feel free to ask him "What are you smoking?". If the consulate officer approved your visa after you mentioned java/.net please ask him "What did you just smoke sir?" Both the manager and officer smoked quality stuff before taking their decisions. Also be alert. The guy mentioned in (2) who dressed smart was asked for his BEP letter. The guy responds "My BEP letter?". I thought what a dumbo he is and the consulate officer agreed.
3. Do not mention requirements gathering, training, support, maintenance etc if you are applying for L1B in the Ds160 form. You have B1 for the 1st 2 and forget about travelling to US for support and maintenance. My colleague mentioned the 1st 2 in his DS160 and got rejected.
4. I only prepared for one question in detail and put in a lot of effort to construct my case for specialization. In the end as it has been throughout my life i was not asked the question to which's answer has directly resulted in folks getting their visa's approved/rejected. As i mentioned in the beginning the extra bit of homework before filling up my duties in DS160 helped. Make sure that you are clear about your specialization. Expertise in a commercially available s/w is not specialization. A good DS160 could pave way for an easy tension free interview.