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Sorry state of affairs for me 
I knew L1 visa was very difficult to get these days but i work on a niche accounting system used by large Funds and Banks throughout the world. My HR told that my L1B chances are high because the work that i do is specialized and 3 people in my team had got visa in Nov'11, Jan'12 and Apr'12. All had more than 6-7+ years of total exp.
So, I was kind of hoping i would get lucky too. My interview was scheduled at the embassy in Chennai on 7th May 2012. By that time my total exp was 5 years. The interview must have lasted for about 5 minutes, in which i was asked a variety of questions like, client, place of work, specialized skill, salary, no. of years with current company, whether the system i work on was developed by my company or is it a third party tool etc. Then she asked me again my salary and no. of years in the company. Since so many questions were asked i was hoping i will get through but the officer said that she is rejecting it and i need to apply in a different category, since my case does not fall into specialized skill. I tried to reason with her that the tool i work on is a rare skill and she said one must have at least 10 years of exp on it to be eligible. I thought that during the entire conversation i did not let her know that i do have 5 years of exp on it and just told her my no. of years with the company (15 months at that point of time) and she must have thought that a person with just 15 months of exp can’t be given L1B...!! But since it was already rejected, i had to come back with a heavy heart. Rejection is always a bitter pill to swallow, even though i wasn't desperate to travel at that point of time (neither i am right now
). So i just let it pass.
But since my company was losing business, they decided to file L1 Individual (15 day Premium Processing) for me this time in Mar'13. I prepared the required documentation stating my no. of exp (6 years), emphasizing that mine is a niche skill with very short supply in the market and i have developed a few tools which are my company proprietary and will be very useful around the main tool and prove to be very critical for the project. Got an RFE in a week's time, with a bunch of questions. Put great amount of time drafting answers for the same and submitted and finally got the denial on 8th May 2013. The reason they said is that even though they do acknowledge the specialized skill i have but there are other people in my organization with those skills. I dont know if they even read the detailed docs i provided in the RFE response, because i had quite clearly mentioned that this is a rare skill and even though there are about 5 people who do have 1-2 years exp on it but they are junior to me and i would be the best person to travel, because i have passed CFA Level 3 Exam as well which would complement the work i am going to do. And the side tools were totally designed and developed by me. I felt as if they had already decided to deny the visa, but couldn’t understand why?
I am unsure what happened there. Other 3 teammates of mine were not grilled so much and i was denied visa twice in a year..!! Is it because my total exp may have been a red flag for them? What exactly did i miss here? Do they even care if we have a specialized skill or not, or was my skill actually not specialized enough for it to get approved?
Please guide me.
I knew L1 visa was very difficult to get these days but i work on a niche accounting system used by large Funds and Banks throughout the world. My HR told that my L1B chances are high because the work that i do is specialized and 3 people in my team had got visa in Nov'11, Jan'12 and Apr'12. All had more than 6-7+ years of total exp.
So, I was kind of hoping i would get lucky too. My interview was scheduled at the embassy in Chennai on 7th May 2012. By that time my total exp was 5 years. The interview must have lasted for about 5 minutes, in which i was asked a variety of questions like, client, place of work, specialized skill, salary, no. of years with current company, whether the system i work on was developed by my company or is it a third party tool etc. Then she asked me again my salary and no. of years in the company. Since so many questions were asked i was hoping i will get through but the officer said that she is rejecting it and i need to apply in a different category, since my case does not fall into specialized skill. I tried to reason with her that the tool i work on is a rare skill and she said one must have at least 10 years of exp on it to be eligible. I thought that during the entire conversation i did not let her know that i do have 5 years of exp on it and just told her my no. of years with the company (15 months at that point of time) and she must have thought that a person with just 15 months of exp can’t be given L1B...!! But since it was already rejected, i had to come back with a heavy heart. Rejection is always a bitter pill to swallow, even though i wasn't desperate to travel at that point of time (neither i am right now
). So i just let it pass.But since my company was losing business, they decided to file L1 Individual (15 day Premium Processing) for me this time in Mar'13. I prepared the required documentation stating my no. of exp (6 years), emphasizing that mine is a niche skill with very short supply in the market and i have developed a few tools which are my company proprietary and will be very useful around the main tool and prove to be very critical for the project. Got an RFE in a week's time, with a bunch of questions. Put great amount of time drafting answers for the same and submitted and finally got the denial on 8th May 2013. The reason they said is that even though they do acknowledge the specialized skill i have but there are other people in my organization with those skills. I dont know if they even read the detailed docs i provided in the RFE response, because i had quite clearly mentioned that this is a rare skill and even though there are about 5 people who do have 1-2 years exp on it but they are junior to me and i would be the best person to travel, because i have passed CFA Level 3 Exam as well which would complement the work i am going to do. And the side tools were totally designed and developed by me. I felt as if they had already decided to deny the visa, but couldn’t understand why?
I am unsure what happened there. Other 3 teammates of mine were not grilled so much and i was denied visa twice in a year..!! Is it because my total exp may have been a red flag for them? What exactly did i miss here? Do they even care if we have a specialized skill or not, or was my skill actually not specialized enough for it to get approved?
Please guide me.
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