I have got a L1b visa issued in Nov 2015 and valid till September 2018. My concern is that my travel plans have been delayed and it will take another 3 to 4 months before i travel. Can this be a cause of concern that I would not travel for 3 to 4 months or more after I got the visa stamped. Can this come up as a question I might have to answer, let’s say at the port of entry.Just to give some background, i had a prior B1/B2 visa on which i traveled to US and which was later revoked under Section 212(a)(6)©(i) as i was suspected to be working on the business trip, which was not the case. Subsequent B1 visa requests were denied twice and then i applied for L1b with all the supporting documents to prove that my previous business visit was legitimate. L1b went into administrative processing 221g for 2 months and visa was finally issued.All my L1b documents mentioned that it is very critical for our product and company business and revenue that I travel asap, which in fact was the truth as well. But due to my admin processing taking 2 weeks, the product plans changed a bit and my trip is now delayed by 3 to 4 months. 1) Can this be a cause of concern that I would not travel for 3 to 4 months or more after I got the visa stamped. Can this come up as a question I might have to answer, let’s say at the port of entry.2) I know that L1b visa holder can stay for a maximum of 5 years, initially 3 years and then an extension of 2 years. But if i only travel after 4 months of visa stamping, will these 4 months i spent in India before i traveled on my L1b visa be counted in the 5 years maximum stay period?
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Should not be an issue. You can say that you didn’t travel earlier for personal or work reasons. It is not required to travel soon after visa approval.
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Only the time spent inside US gets counted. So if you stay for 2 years 8 months initially, your next extension can grant you 2 years 4 months to recapture the lost time. Makes sense?
Yes, thanks for your response. Appreciate your time in going through my queries and answering them for me. I understand that i can say due to project getting delayed i had to wait for 4 months but just curious to know, would you expect that such a question can be asked at port of entry or my next visa application or any other time “Why you did not travel for 4 months after visa stamping when you had said at the interview it is very critical for me to travel and you had planned for immediate travel.”
I haven’t seen anyone posting that question being asked at PoE. I would say probability of it getting asked is pretty low.