smess

Hello,

Looking to hear some experiences to try and gauge my approval chances because it seems like it's incredibly common to be rejected at the moment. If anyone has recently gone through the process, would love to hear your experiences and tips.

I'm a British citizen and in the process of applying for an L1-B Blanket Visa, I have worked for 7+ years for a well known US investment bank and relocating to their US office. I am moving into my equivalent team in NY and take with me a strong knowledge of the systems/processes and clients we have (I'm an account manager)

My husband works for the same company and is applying for an L1-A Blanket. If my visa is rejected, hoping his is approved and I will join as a Spouse but not ideal as the EAD working permit takes 3+ months to come through.

Sophie

Aggie34

TheKingOfHearts

Assuming you have a suitable level of specialist knowledge, coupled with a solid degree (not a necessity on the L1, as it is on the H1B, but definitely helpful) which it sounds like you do, then you should be fine.

Given you husband is also potentially going on his own L1, even if you are declined you do have the fall back of an L2 + EAD which would still enable your "transfer". But you're right, you'd need to wait a few months for the EAD to arrive. That being said, in this situation there'd be nothing stopping you entering the US on your L2, applying for EAD, then immediately flying back to the UK to continue with your employer in the UK until your US EAD arrives and you can "transfer" not ideal, but still gives you much better odds than most, with two seperate L1 applications in the immediate family. Given your husband is being petitioned for a -A, then presumably he's in a managerial/executive role and wouldn't have to justify a generic "specialist knowledge" criteria.

smess

GeneralPowerpoint

Hey,

I had my L-1B blanket interview last week and my visa was approved at interview. Honestly, it couldn't have been less of an event. I had perhaps a 5 minute conversation with the consular officer who asked my what my job title was, what I did (I work in advertising), how long I'd been working for the company, and how long i'd been working in this role all together (10 years in my career). Then he told me that my visa was approved.

My circumstances were slightly atypical too in that I had already been working in the US on an L-2 and was applying for an L-1B only a few weeks before my eligibility for that visa closed. So I was expecting some extra questions on that count, but it never even came up.

If you're anything like me you'll have spent some time googling "L-1B Blanket interview experiences" and come across loads of horror stories of software engineers from India getting rejected en masse at the Chennai Embassy. I would pay little attention to those. If your forms are in order, I'm sure you'll be fine.

smess

robtuck

The L1-B Blanket helps - means your employer skips their side of the bargain in having to get approved to employ you. It's down to your qualifications/experience on the B and sounds like you have that covered. The interview itself is very quick - I went for my L1A a few years ago and it was at a sort of post office window, three questions and stamped. I went with hundreds of pages of documents, they looked at about 5 or 6!