Hello Everyone! I need your urgent help/experiences/insight on below H1B interview questions. Below is a little background of my situation:
My H1B petition was approved and I have the Visa interview scheduled for next month. Currently, I am in India(working for employer ABC) and I will be working for the same employer(ABC) in the US at the headquarters. This is more like a permanent position in the US for my current employer. I am currently a part of the internal IT team and I will have the same responsibilities in the US as well. My employer is implementing new ERP and I will be leading those efforts. After the implementation, I will lead the Production Support. There are 3 questions which I am not sure what to answer if asked:
If the VO asks: “Will you be working for a client or Is this an internal project?” What do I have to answer? I am not sure if Internal project is the right word to use as it has been misused in the passed by Consulting companies. Also after the new ERP is implemented I will be doing the Production Support so that is not exactly a project, that will be a permanent job as support goes on for years. I will be a full-time permanent employee in the US.
What shall I answer in this case?
If they ask for timelines of the project what do I have to say? My initial approval is for 3 years and it may extend at the end of the tenure as after the implementation is complete and we go live the production support will begin and I will be leading that effort as well. What do I say if they ask when will your project get over and when will you return?
My company processed my H1B. As I will be working for my current employer itself can there be a question “Why H1 and not L1?”. What do I answer in this case?
Can they ask this question?
As my current employer and US employer are the same what do I have to produce for “Employee Verification letter”? Will it be a letter from my Indian HR or will it be a letter from my US HR? And what details do they expect in this letter?
Any help is greatly appreciated. Please provide your valuable feedback.
If it is a large company, then you should be fine. You really do not have to call it internal project. You can state your job and role there and details of the work there. If you name it internal, then everything is internal.
Regarding H1B vs L1, you said, it is your employer 's decision, nothing to do with you…that’s the reality.
You are just going to your US company headquarters, there is nothing you need to be worried. You just carry all the details of the offer letter, LCA, etc from the US entity…We have many experiences on the blog, read Visa Stamping Experiences
Thanks a lot Kumar for taking out some time to respond to my queries. Really appreciate that. My employer is mid sized company with more than 10k employees. And some time back it was acquired by a Public Company in US so technically we are also a public company. We are a fully owned subsidiary of a Public Company. So that way it is a big company with over 40k employees.
So when the VO asks me will you work for a client or inhouse project? In reply you are suggesting that I shall not use the word Internal project, Is that correct? In that case how do I present my answer. Shall I say that I will be working for my employer in internal IT? Or just I will be working for my employer. I am not getting the right words to answer this. You help is much appreciated here.
Also usually after this there is a follow up question on the time lines of the project. What do I have to say. The employer has provided me the Letter which they filed during petition and it has all the project details and roles and responsibilities. But there are no timelines mentioned. Is that a problem?
Please do reply when you see this. Really thankful.
Yes, technically it is not a project. Think about it. You are part of Internal IT team and you work on various projects, if not this another one right…Talk to your attorney and understand how your petition was filed.
It should not be a problem with timelines. You are working for a big organization, not an IT body shop, so you are fine. Talk to your employer and understand how your case was sent to USCIS and then answer based on how they have filed it.