L1 A Visa interview after initial rejection

[harjitworks]

Hi,

I went for L1A Blanket visa interview last month in Chennai, India and it was rejected with the reason 'Not Clearly Approvable' on a Blue Form 221g. The questions were quite simple and I answered them confidently. The interview went as under.


Me: Good Morning Officer.
VO (Visa Officer): Good Morning. Papers Please.

I gave her the papers. (The papers are three sets of Form-129S and First Page of Form I-797, Notice of Action. These set of papers are made in the first building and tied with a rubber band. Rest of the file created by me was with me during the whole interview.)

VO: Collected the papers, untied them, went back and Started looking into one set of papers.

VO: What do XYZ does? (She asked it while she was standing at the back looking into Form 129s. She was facing towards right where a cabinet was there)

Me: XYZ is leading technology provider of XYZ and ABC Technologies. It provides this technology to more than 14000 world-wide which includes XYZ and ABC.
(She immediately asked next question while I hardly completed the second sentence. My company is listed in NASDAQ and Newyork Stock Exchnage and is part of fortune 500 companies)

VO: How long you are being with this company.
Me: I am working with XYZ for more than two years. I joined this organization in May, 2010.
(VO asked the next question immediately in two words)

VO: Your designation?
ME: I am working as Technical Lead and Project Coordinator.

VO: What is your salary right now in Indian Rupees per annum.
Me: XX Lakh and YY thousand Per annum (More then 10 LPA)
(She came in front and now started typing in computer and asked me next question.)

VO: Will you be working at client location?
Me: No Mam, I will be not be working at Client Location. I will be working at my companies XYZ Office located in XXX, State, US.

VO: For how long you would be going to US?
Me: For around 3 years.

VO: Which product are you working upon?
ME: I am working on XXX Division suite of products.
VO: Is this a single product?
ME: No Mam, it is suite of Products, It has multiple applications in it.
(VO asked next question immediately after I finished the above line)

VO: Since How long are you are on this managerial Position?
Me: I have been managing this project since joining XYZ.
VO: That is 2 years.
ME: Right

(Before asking next question, She looked into the Form-129S for a while and asked me the following question)
VO: How many persons are you managing right now, ‘ONSHORE’? (She put a specific emphasis on term Onshore after a pause)
Me: You mean in US, Right? (Asked this question to be sure that she mean Onsite as we generally use Offshore and Onsite)
VO: Yes
Me: Right now I am managing no one in US, but I will be hiring new employees there which will be reporting directly to me.
VO: Ok
(Then she starting arranging different sets of Papers)

(She did not asked me about my current team in india which constitutes of 18 professional employees)

VO: Sir, Now the US government is really strict about granting visa’s in right categories. I am giving you this Form 221g (Blue Color) as your case is not clearly approvable. (She Ticked on the checkbox which says Not clearly Approvable on 221g and handed it over to me and then she took stamp of Not Clearly Approvable, stamped it on various Form-129S sets and handed one set back to me). Then she said ‘Ask your HR to file in the right visa category.’

I said Thank You to the Visa Officer, Collected my documents and left the building.



I am not sure what was not clear. Anyway my company is in a process to filing L1A individual visa for me now. They are saying that they will apply it in USCIS and I had to go to Chennai again just for stamping if everything is approved by USCIS in US.

Now My questions'are:

- What might be reason for my Visa denial.
- What are the chances that USCIS will approve my L1A individual visa in US.
- Do I need to prepare something for the visa stamping interview or will it be just a stamping process with no interview questions.

Thanks,
Harry

[mrussell39]

I've just been approved on a blanket L1B your interviewer seems to have been very harsh.

We seem to be both doing similar work etc, what comes to mind though is are you a manager or should you have filed for expert knowledge?

I ask as you have no people reporting to you when you start in the US???? I think this may be the main issue..

[harjitworks]

Thanks for the response Russel,

I am managing a team of 18 employees right now and Five Professionals are reporting to me directly. But this information was not asked by VO. There are so many rejection percentage now that you never know what is the criteria for rejection now. But your point is valid that VO might have rejected the visa as I was not having anyone reporting to me when I start there. The reason is that the team which I am going to lead there will be specific highly technical one and we do not have persons there in US which can interview such persons. So my presence is required there. We are going to move my current team to other projects and increase the strength in US for current projects we are handling. That was the whole plan. But now I will suggest onsite management to hire some members there before I appear for next interview. This might help the Legal Team looking up my case to present a strong case for me in USCIS.

[twostep]

There are some very reputable recruiting firms specializing in IT niches. Most of them have recruiters on staff who come out of the IT world. PM if you need info.

[harjitworks]

Sure, Please provide me that info... I will write to them if they can help....

Thanks,
Harry