droidguy72

Contributing my experience of a successful L-1A appointment, since this forum has been a useful resource for me.

I was on an L-1B, with my family on L-2s, from March 2018 to March 2023. Having almost maxed out the allowable period on a L-1B and now managing two direct reports, my employer used a blanket petition and supporting letters to submit for a new L-1A visa. This gives an additional two years work authorization on top of my 5 years already spent.

Timeline:

• Filled out DS-160s online on March 11th. Created London embassy appointment for April 17th and 9:30am. Note: the consulate website showed appointments were available in 3 weeks prior to filling out the DS-160, but it was actually closer to 5 weeks by the time I got to the booking stage. Don't book any travel before you get the appt confirmed
• Arrived at the embassy at 9am. Back in 2018 we were told not to arrive any earlier than 30 mins prior to appt or we'd be turned away. This time there were people queueing up with appt times ahead of us, and the staff checking the docs seemed to have no issue with this. We were in the line till 9:45am. DS-160 and passports were checked prior to security and we were then sent through to security / baggage check.
• Don't bring laptops or large backs. District coffee shop, which is 2 mins walk from the entrance, will store your belongings for a 14 GBP fee. Otherwise, security was OK. Had to show that our phones and tablets could switch on and use apps.
• Entered the first reception area. Had a ticket number attached to our passports and sent to the first floor.
• Waited around 45 mins to get our documents checked, which took around 10 minutes. A few questions were asked about whether I'd had the visa type before, and whether it was a blanket petition. The person here checked that passport numbers, expiry dates, and DOBs all lined up. She also checked the I-129s details carefully. Finally, she asked for the fingerprints of both me and my wife.
• Sent to play $500 anti fraud fee. Paid fee and told to wait another 10-15 minutes in queue for visa officer interview round the corner from the document check.
• Visa officer (interestingly, the only American I spoke to in the embassy) took the passports and I-129s. They didn't ask for the support letter or G-28 (since my attorney prepared the documents, but I was told this is only required if they are representing you in person). He took my fingerprints and my wife's too. Questions asked were:
  • "Who do you work for?"
  • "How long have you worked for this company?"
  • "What is your job title?"
  • "What is your annual salary? What about bonuses"
  • "Do you manage a team"
    • "How many reports?"
• After I answered those questions, the VO said "I'm approving your visas, you'll get your passports back in 1 week". I was sent to pay the reciprocity fee (think it was around $100 or so), and then return the fee receipt to the VO.
• After that, we were free to go. From the time we joined the queue to leaving the embassy we were there for 2h40m, but most of this time was waiting in the queue to security and then for the document check window.

Now I need to rush back to the US before the end of the month so that I the lawyers can submit my I-485 and I-140 under the EB3 GC category (ROW), since the filing date deadline retrogressed to May 1 2023 But, at least I now have 2 more years of work authorization while the I-485 is pending!

christmasoompa

Might be worth exploring consular processing with your lawyers. I know it would mean flying to London for medicals and interviews, but it seems to be a heck of a lot quicker than AOS for London cases at the moment. Ours has been super quick - we only submitted I-140's on 8th Feb but going on current timelines should have our immigrant visas by around July time. Admittedly that's EB1 so current, but even so it's incredibly fast.

S Folinsky

Interesting. US visa issuing posts employ many local residents for visa processing under the acronym of FSN. Only the ConOff position is limited to AmCits. In fact, from time to time we would be concerned since it was a fair assumption that FSN’s were often eyes and ears for the security organs of the host country. LND had a tendency to employ AmCit spouses of US Government or military. It was quite notable that a higher percentage of non-conoffs were AmCits than was normal. I can speculate as to the reasons as to the change.

postbox134

Curious why you say this, when I asked the same question should I do consular processing or AOS and everyone+dog recommended doing AOS: EB-3 - Adjustment of Status or Consular Processing?

christmasoompa

Just the speed. As I said, ours is EB1 so not sure how EB3 would compare time wise, but ours will be approx 5-6 months roughly from applying to having immigrant visas in hand unless things suddenly slow down. AOS wouldn't come close to that timescale. It would depend on each person's situation though, we've moving in July but on O-3 visas, which meant neither myself nor our 18 year old could work or leave/re-enter the US if we'd done AOS (I have a business I will need to travel back for regularly, and 18 year old has a job starting in Europe in late October). So we just needed to go with the quickest option, if we'd waited until we move in July then submitted via AOS, it would have been the end of the year at the earliest (later according to our lawyers) before we'd have been able to work and leave the US, which just wasn't practical for us.

If somebody has a visa allowing them to work and leave/enter whilst they wait for immigrant visas, and doesn't want the hassle of having to potentially come back to London for medicals and interviews, then AOS may make more sense. But CP via London is so quick at the moment, everything that took months last year is taking days or weeks at the moment. It's been crazy fast for us.

postbox134

Sure makes sense, I am still wondering if consular processing would be faster for me. But the issue is the risk of administrative processing/consular denial. I wouldn't mind too much going back for medicals as I am fairly regularly in London anyway.

christmasoompa

I don't know how EB-3 would affect things before the NVC stage (i.e do you need labour cert, can it be done with premium processing etc), as I'm just not familiar with it. But once you get to the NVC stage I think it's all the same from that point. Ours has all been in line with the processing times on the website i.e. case creation in 3 weeks (that's now even faster at 11 days now), documentarily qualified in 2 weeks etc - and these things were taking months and months previously. What's taken us a month would have taken 6 months this time last year.

It will also depend on the consulate, London is pretty good at the mo for interview wait times, others still have a huge backlog I believe, and people can be waiting a year or more for an interview date in other places (London seems to be max 3 months from when you're DQ'ed).

Assuming you have a lawyer, I'd just ask what they advise. Ours were very clear that if we wanted to be able to work and leave the US before the end of 2023, we needed to apply via consular processing. Although even they've been taken aback with how quick it's been, none of us expected to have immigrant visas before we leave in July but it looks like that will be the case if the rest goes smoothly.

Good luck.

postbox134

Thanks for the datapoint, I am nearing the end of PERM so will ask the lawyers at work about it.