Hyderabad H1 approved

[h1probable]

I had my OFC on 10th December. I already had my fingerprinting done on

15th November. But I was asked to reschedule my actual appointment to

some other day as it was admin day in Hyderabad. Hence I rescheduled and

printed an appointment confirmation letter with the old DS-160. OFC saw

that I brought the same DS-160 which I had used on 15th November and

asked me to reschedule both my OFC and appointment again. I talked to

3-4 people and finally they allowed me. Reason was I did not attend the

actual interview and my DS-160 was not used up. They did not take my

fingerprints but let me go as a post no-show.

Actual interview was on Dec 11th. 11:00AM. I went there 1 hour ahead of

time. 10:30 batch people were standing in line. We were asked to wait.

After they sent the 10:30 batch people in, we were allowed to stand in

line. Stood in line for about 20 minutes before we were sent in.

They checked the appointment confirmation at the gate and let us in.

Once inside we were asked to sit. After sitting for about 10 minutes, a

guy came and called our names. He checked our DS-160 and we were sent to

security. After passing through the security, there is another waiting

area. There the officer asked my I-797 and pinned it with my DS-160 and

appointment confirmation. Then we were asked to go to a counter. There

they checked my DS-160 again and confirmed my H1-B petition. After that

I was sent to the finger printing confirmation counter. After that was

done we were given a token and asked to wait in the waiting area. After

waiting for about 15mins my token was called and I was asked to go to

counter 15. VO was an Indian looking guy in his late 30's. I sat before

the counter as the VO was interviewing others.

He rejected an F1 candidate, approved one tourist visa, approved one B-1

candidate. Then I was called.

VO- Hello, How are you

Me- Fine, How about you? (passed my passport, DS-160, I-797 and

appointment confirmation letter)

VO- Tell me about your company

Me- It is a product based company

VO- So you don't work for a client

Me- No

VO- Where are you based?

Me- XXXXX

VO- Can I see your paystubs

Me- Sure (I was searching my files for the paystubs, I had loads of

documentation)

VO- So what is your designation?

Me- (Still searching) I am a Software Engineer.

VO - What do you do for your company?

Me - (Still searching) I design software, develop software, test

software (too much of vacation time and I gave this stupid answer :) )

Me - Finally passing in my paystubs.

VO- He glanced through the paystubs and said, your visa is approved.

Have a nice day.

Me - Thank you. Have a nice one.

That is it. In counter 16 there was a white lady. She rejected 2 F1s,

approved one F1 and one H1-B. One guy whose F1 was rejected argued with

the officer saying that people with percentage less than that of him are

getting approved. True to his word, the guy who got his F-1 approved had

10 percent less than the guy who had his F-1 rejected. But he had a good

GRE and IELETS score and had good universities and overall a good profile and

attitude. I guess the key is good documentation, good attitude and how you present

yourself.

[onemoresuggestion]

I would say you need to organize your folder with documents. Mark each section with what they contain. It would not take much work. I don't want to argue with the host any-day nor would suggest to be humble at all times everywhere

[h1probable]

I would say you need to organize your folder with documents. Mark each section with what they contain. It would not take much work. I don't want to argue with the host any-day nor would suggest to be humble at all times everywhere

Well yes, a little more organization would have saved time. And yes, there is no need of arguing, the VO is not doing a service by granting a visa. It is their discretion. Good that the VO was still cheerful after that argument. On the other hand, how you present yourself definitely does matter in close cases.