Successful EVC stamping in Chennai and complete queestionarre and documents required

[suchithrabasavaraju]

I had my first time H1b Visa stamping in Chennai on April 29^th 2013.Mine is EVC model. Initially I entered US on H4 visa later I converted to H1b.

Murthy forum helped me to collect the required documents am just combing everything in single page. Let me know if you need any format required I will be happy to share with you guys.

Below are the list of things I am going to share

1. Documents Checklist

2. Interview Questions

3. Client Questions

4. My interview experience

5. Little Tip

Checklist:

1. Passport and Passport copies of all pages

2. I-797 – Original

3. DS-160 confirmation page (Barcode printout)

4. interview appointment letter

5. I-129 &H1B cover letter

6. Copy of LCA

7. Pay stubs for the last 2 years(make sure your SSN matches also no hourly salary)

8. Employer letter/ Employment Verification Letter

9. Client Letter – Make sure Client mention Petitioner’s name in the Letter

10. Work Orders / Purchase order (Employer - Vendor)

11. Employer agreement / Employment contract letter signed by you and Employer Company (Original) / Contract between candidate and petitioner

12. Experience letter

13. Project documents

14. Organization Structure chart

15. Employer Tax returns 3 years and financial statements

16. Quarterly unemployment wage reports for last 6 quarters and Employers list (Org chart)

17. Notarized list of all employees from my company at the listed job site with specified information about each employee

18. H1B data collection and filing fee exemption supplement

19. H classification supplement to form I129

20. H1B visa petition and supporting docs filed with USCIS

21. W2’s and Tax Returns (for the entire period of your stay in USA)

22. Bank statements for last 2 years highlighting Direct deposits

23. Previous I-797A and LCA (If any)

24. Updated Resume

25. I 20's (All Original)

26. Work location pictures

27. Client ID/Badge, Employer ID/Badge

28. Timesheets

29. Client location photos (optional)

30. Two passport size photographs as per specification

31. Work Experience Certificates, reference letters, appreciation certificates from previous employer/s (from the start of your career)

32. All Original Academic Credentials along with mark sheets(MS, BTECH, INTER, 10th)

33. SSN card

34. Drivers license

35. A detail report on the project that you will work on at client including the technical details, timeline, current status, employees assigned etc. / Status Reports

VISA Interview Questions:

H1B Questions:

• How long you been working in United States?

• Is this your first H-1b?

• Since how long have you been on H1?

• Where you on different project than the project when your petitioner filed you H-1B?

• Are you applying for the same company or other?

• What visa were you in USA before?

PERSONAL:

• Where do you live? / Where do you stay?

• Are you married?

• Do you have any arrested history or did any law enforcement officials contacted you?

• When you last visited India?

• Have you ever been out of the country?

• What is your location right now?

EMPLOYER Questions:

• Are you working with XXXX company ? / Who is your employer? / Whom do you work for? / Who is petitioning for you today? / Who is your petitioner?

• Where is your employer located?

• Who is your CEO?

• Address of employer

• What is your qualification for this job?

• What is your employer business? / What's your employer? / What does your employer do? / What is your company about?

• What do you do for your company? / What are your duties/roles and responsibilities? / What is your title and what do u do for your employer? / What is your designation? / What is your job? / What is your role in your company?

• Can you please elaborate the duties?

• How much duration u r working with your employer? / How long you been working with your employer? / When did you join your employer?

• What is your annual salary? / How much do you get paid? / How much is your income? / What is your pay?

• Do you discuss pay and wages with your employer? Yes, I do discuss, but as of now, am very happy with what he is paying.

• Why is your salary fluctuating? Why there is deduction on paystubs? / Why so much change in salary?

• Show me ur bank statements

• Why is your pay less in last year W2?

• Show me your W2 worked for your employer.

• Show me your pay stubs

• Where do you work at?

• How do you like xxxxx place?

• Do you have any issues/problems with your employer?

• How do you get your work assignments?

• Does your employer know about your projects?

• Whom do you report to? What you will report to your employer?

• How do you report to your employer? - Weekly status call, biweekly status report, stand-up calls when necessary

• Who will allocate the work? XXX person from my company and XXX manager from client will co-ordinate and XXX person from my company will allocate the work.

• Is there any gap (sitting idle) during change of the clients? / Are you on bench? / Does your company ever bench you?

• I can see that your employer does not pay on time? No I get pay on time. (Please be more confident this time. Say it’s always on time)

• Does your employer maintain employer-employee relationship? How?

• How many employees does your employer have, and any one work in same location with you?

• How your employer and Vendor are related?

• Are you satisfied with all the companies you work or worked for?

• Are you happy with your employer?

CLIENT Questions:

• From what time who have been working with your current client?

• How long with client and employer? / Same time with employer and Client?

• Do you have an end client? Do you have client letter?

• Who is your End client?

• What do they do?

• How long you been working with your end client? / How many months you worked for this client? / How much duration you are working with Client?

• Do you travel to client place? / Do you travel every week to client location?

• What is your position with the client?

• Where is your client located?

• How far Client is from your place?

• Do you work at a client site?

• Any other employees working from your company at client?

• What do you work at Client? / What is your work at client location?

Explain same as in client letter

• Do you have supervisor/manager at XXX client and what is his name?

• How long is the project with your client

Who does the applicant report to for work assignments?

• Who completes the applicant’s progress reviews?

Who reports to the Client Manager? How often Client manager being reported?

Who does the applicant report to for work assignments?

• Who completes the applicant’s progress reviews?

Who reports to the Client Manager? How often Client manager being reported?

VENDOR Questions:

• Do you have vendor? / Do you have any layers?

• What does your vendor do?

• Do you have any one between your client and employer

• How come your Vendor found your client?

OFC at Chennai / # 3 Cenotaph Road:

My experience: My appointment was at 1:30 and I was there at 1:00.

OFC documents to carry:

a)DS-160

b)Passport

c)OFC Appointment Letter

Once you get in - which is only a yard or a few yards depending upon how many are in front of you in the line... It will take a few minutes for one of the OFC reps to order your stuff. Once you enter the office in the first floor - a person at the counter checks your DS-160 for a fraction of a second and checks to see if they have same application number on their system as it is on your DS - 160. ['application number' - yes, the DS-160 # that you may have used to retrieve and edit a saved application] .

After a security check , they will stick a small rectangular label that has the same DS-160 app number on the back of the passport and will send you along into the actual room where you will be fingerprinted and photographed. There are 16 counters and once you are in - you can expect to get out within 45 mins tops.

Once your number gets called - you will be asked your confirmation printout, DS - 160 and your passport. The person at the counter checks to see if there is any mis match between what you gave them physically and what is on their system and ask your name and date of birth. Again, no issues for 99.9% of us. Then the fingerprinting. Then the photograph.

Ah.. the photograph. So it doesnt matter if you were able to successfully upload your digital photo in the DS-160 or not. You will be photographed here.

Once this is done - the person will say these exact words [Please take all these along with two photographs for your visa appointment].

Interview Day:

My interview was at 8:00 am and I was at consulate by 7:30 am.

Moving along - so once you enter the area for the first time - everyone is made to stand in one line. A rep scans the barcode of the appointment letter and stamps it. This is the first step that takes outside.

Once in - there will be another check to see if you have any sealed envelopes. But in general - nothing sealed is allowed. I had a big bundle from my employer with tax and financial info that had the words [sTOP, Do Not Open, To be Opened Only by the Visa Officer]. I asked the guard to consider.. and he was like (firmly and politely) - Sorry mam, everything needs to be opened. And guess what - you will have to GO OUT to open it. They dont want you to open anything inside. So once again, you go out, open it, frisked again and let in.

Allright. now is the main picture. Once you get in - you will go through a sequence of counters. For the sake of simplicity - am going to explain them by giving the counters some seq #s based on what happened at each of those counters.

Counter 1: This is where you will go first. Doesnt matter where you sit or stand before you get here. Its sort of confusing but the folks inside handle it real well.

So at counter 1 - all you are asked for is the appointment letter [which at this point - should have something stamped from the OFC and one more from outside the consulate a few mins ago]. Once you give this - you will be given a ticket # or counter # - whatever you want to call it. Mine was a 3 digit number following N. Lets call it N-29

Once you have that - you are asked to sit somewhere else. And from this point on – N-29 is your everything.

Counter 2: Your N-29 gets called. I was asked the passport, appointment letter, approval notice, original I-129 and the letter my employer sent while asking for extension. You should have all these from your employer. The person then wraps the above in to two bundles with rubber bands. The first one will have the passport and appointment letter. The second will have everything else.

Counter 3: Here, the bar code in the appointment letter is scanned one last time and you are fingerprinted one last time

Then you go to the place where everything happens.

Once you go in - you are asked what your visa class or type is. If you are H1B - you are sent a few paces forward.. else to another area within the same floor.

Anyways - Once I was in - it took all of 10 mins tops for my N29 to be called.

Once I was called in - this is what happened:

My Interview Experience

Waited there for around 10 mins. I was sitting right across the Visa Officer who interviewed me. Then my number came and my interview was like this.

Me: Good morning Mam, how are you? and gave her my passport and DS-160 confirmation.

VO: Good Morning

I put a big file with all the documents in front of her and opened it although she didn't ask for any document.

VO: Company Name

Me: told her my company name abc

VO: Who is your Client ?

Me: XYZ

VO: How many years exp you have?

Me: 7 Years

VO: Do you get pay on time?

Me: Yes mam

VO: Have you read this pamphlet(white pamphlet)?

Me: No Mam

.

All this time she was typing something in the computer.in few seconds I heard golden words I am approving your Visa.

Me: Thank you very much Mam. Have a good one!!

Thats it. None of the documents were asked. The interview was less than 2 mins.

LITTLE TIP:

Main thing I noticed is to have a smile on the face and answer clearly in whatever VO asks and BE CONFIDENT and Try to be as cool as possible.Dress professionally.

Trust in God. Carry as many documents as you can. Be confident while answering and answer them in a short sentence.

[BATHIJA]

question - for • Any other employees working from your company at client?

what if the answer is no.

will it affect the decision in any way ?

i work in EVC model and answer in my case would be no. what should i do in this case ?

[suchithrabasavaraju]

Just answer them promtly no.

In my case too no other employees wokring from my company at cleint place.

you can always tell them ,we do teleconferene twice a week,sttaus report everyweek

[BATHIJA]

thank you suchithrabasavaraju , your post is excellent !

[sthamago]

15. Employer Tax returns 3 years and financial statements

16. Quarterly unemployment wage reports for last 6 quarters and Employers list (Org chart)

17. Notarized list of all employees from my company at the listed job site with specified information about each employee

18. H1B data collection and filing fee exemption supplement

are these compulsory? please let us know.

Thank you

[suchithrabasavaraju]

I had carried those documents for my stamping .

It's not compulsory but you never know what VO might ask ..it's better to carry as much as possible

[toney99]

Excellent !! manner your have written is just awesome !! Please answer this questions

VO: Have you read this pamphlet(white pamphlet)?

What Pamphlet is the VO is referring to ???

[suchithrabasavaraju]

The pamphlet talks about labor rights that you need to know when employed in US. In case you need help how you can get and much more info