Before your L1 visa interview, it is very important to study the kind of common questions that are asked so that you would be well prepared and have a better chance of success. Of course, the following list of questions is not an exhaustive one.
General
- How are you?
- What visa are you applying for?
- Have you already been to the U.S.?
- When did you return from the U.S.?
- You were out of the U.S. for about more than a year. Who was supporting the application in your absence?
- When was the last time you travelled to the U.S.?
- Can I see your petition letter?
- Can I see your papers and passport?
- Please give me the visa fee receipt. (The $500 fraud detection fee receipt)
Current Work
- Where do you work?
- How long have you been working with your current company?
- What is your current salary?
- What are your current roles and responsibilities?
- Who is your customer?
- What is your designation?
- Who are the previous clients you have worked with?
- What is your total experience?
- What were you doing prior to joining the current company?
- Why does your petition have a different sponsor than your present company?
- How many people currently report to you?
- How many of them are in the U.S. and outside the U.S.?
- Are they individual contributors, managers, or mixed?
- Do you work for an internal team or at the client site?
- You have been working for this company for over 10 years. Don’t you get bored? Don’t you want to change the employer?
- What kind of training did you go through?
Proposed Work in the U.S.
- Who is your client?
- I have never heard about that company. What do they do?
- What does your client do?
- What is your client requirement?
- Where will you work in the U.S.?
- What kind of work will you do in the U.S.?
- What will you do in the U.S.?
- What will be job responsibilities in the U.S.?
- Where will you stay in the U.S.?
- Who will manage you in the U.S.?
- What will be your salary in the U.S.?
- How will you be compensated? Will you be on U.S. payroll or foreign (such as Indian) payroll?
- Will you get the allowance in the U.S.?
- Why do you need to travel to the U.S.?
- Why can’t that work be done from your home country?
- How long do you plan to stay in the U.S.?
- What work will you do for your client?
- Is your manager (or boss) in the U.S.?
- Who is your primary contact? Are they related to you in any way?
- If your manager fires you in the U.S., what will you do?
- Will you work at the client location or parent company’s office?
- Are you going to work for multiple clients when in the U.S.?
- How will your client benefit from your travel?
- Are you traveling for testing?
L1B
- What is your specialization?
- What is your special skill set?
- Why do you think it is special?
- Is that implemented on a particular domain?
- What kind of specialized skills do you have?
- What is so special about it? There are several such tools in the market.
- Is that a software like Java or Oracle or something like that?
- Did you develop this tool?
- Was it really a development of the tool or a modification?
- Did you invent this tool?
- How many people in your team developed this tool?
- What was your exact contribution in developing such a tool?
- Who was leading the project?
- If you have not developed this product, how can you be specialized in it?
- How did you gain expertise in these tools?
- How long have you worked in your specialized area?
- What phase is your current project in?
- Have you done development work or modification?
- Why is it necessary for you to go to the U.S. for this work? Why not someone else?
- Why can’t your company’s U.S. team member do this work?
- Is the tool you are going to work on a client tool or your company’s tool?
- How long have you been working in XXX language?
- How many people will be working on XXX language in your company?
- How many people will be working on XXX product in your company?
- Do you know XYZ technology?
- If you use proprietary tools and now that they have been developed, why can’t your client hire someone onshore and train them to work on the same tool?
- Why can’t the associates already in the U.S. on site handle the work?
- Are you customizing something for the client, or are you using any third party tool?
- Will you be doing custom modifications?
L1A
- What kind of budgetary authority do you have?
- Do you have hire and fire authority?
- When did you last hire?
- When did you last fire?
- What if you get a chance to fire an employee?
- What is the process in your company to hire and fire an associate?
- Whose approval do you need to hire and fire associates?
- How many people will report to you?
