sudhirss77

I was interviewed for B1 visa in Chennai, India. I need to go to the US for training at our companies US office and also to understand the project requirements. The following questions were asked by the counselling officer and i answered them promptly and gave genuine answers.


1.Since how long you are working in this company?

Ans: 2 weeks


2.Why did you leave your previous company XXXXXXXX(Previous concern)?.

Ans: Job profile is good in the present company and also they offered me good pay.


3.What is your current CTC?

Ans:Rs.11.76 Lakhs per annum.

4.Where you are going to stay in the US?

Ans: XXXXX Inn, XXXXXX drive, Sunnyvale, CA. It was written in my application.


5.Can i see your invitation letter?. How you got this?.

Ans: Yes, I got it through e-mail as pdf from our US office inviting me for training.


Thats it, the counseller gave me a blue form stating that i don't qualify for the visa under section 214(b). Can somesone please enlighten me about what went wrong?.

ian-mstm

Generally, refusal under section 214(b) indicates that the officer believes you do not have strong ties to your home country. In other words, you did not convince him that you would leave the US after the training was finished.

http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/de...ials_1361.html

Ian

Songbird

In short, you were denied because the con officer was not convinced that your visit would be a temporary one i.e. you did not demonstrate sufficient ties to your own country to indicate that your were not an immigration risk. You can read in more detail on this page : http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/de...ials_1361.html

The most immediate things that jump out to me from your post are;
1. The short length of your employment time with this company (2 weeks)
2. The nature and form the 'invitation' for training took. An email PDF.

Although you do not state in your post your particular circumstances, more information would be helpful What might seem to you to be a question of little relevance by the con officer could prove significant in their decision.

1. What 'significant' ties to your home country e.g. home owner, family etc, do you have?
2. Do you have family in the USA?
3. Whose address would you be staying at if you came to visit? Is it a family member?
4. Have you ever visited the USA before, if so do you have any prior history that could have been a cause for concern?
5. Have you ever applied for a visa before and been denied?

You are able to reapply, however, unless you are able to convince the con officer that you do have significant ties to your home country this will probably be denied. All other factors being favorable, then imo a SPECIFIC letter (as opposed to an email PDF) from your employer, stating the reason for your visit (i.e. a particular course of training, with start and end dates) would be the expected norm and could possibly help your case.

Marocco

As for what went wrong, my guess would be (1) the fact that you have only worked for your current employer for 2 weeks and (2) having an email printout as your invitation.

sudhirss77

Thanks to all for the reply. How can i demonstrate that i have a strong ties to India?. I have travelled to Australia and the UK and i never violated visa rules in those countries.

I studied in Australia for 2 years and returned a month before my visa expires. I visited UK to meet our client while in the previous company. Counseller should have counsidered that. I too feel that the short stint with my current company might be the reason. I can't understand these US visa rules. It's like charging every visa applicant that he is an illegal immigrant and ask him to prove his innocence to get the visa.

Noorah101

Unfortunately for you, that's exactly what it is. Everyone applying for a B-1 visa is presumed to have immigrant intent, and must prove they do not.

Maybe you can try again after having been employed a while longer. Also bring a real invitation letter (hard copy, not an email), and also a letter from your employer in India stating that they are sending you specifically for this training, the dates of training, and the date you must be back at work.

Rene

scrubbedexpat099

Personally I do not see the issue with the e mail, but whilst the comments made about the reason are as logical as any we only know what you have posted, there could be something else.

Probably something for your Employers Lawyers to look at.

Ray

And is the US company a proper company and not part of an Indian outsourcing company

E3only

Ditto - it's not just you but the company as well. If it's one of those second tier 'issues millions of H1B' then it's obvious trouble.

Bluegrass Lass

Won't do the OP any good if he gets terminated because he can't the visa to attend the training in the first place. His job may be contigent on this training for all we know.

I feel for the OP here, because not only is he dealing with a government bureaucracy, he's dealing with typical company bureaucracy as well. I've never been sent an invite for training. It's always been via email and the message usually consisted of "be here from date x to date y for ABC training". Sounds like the OP could be stuck between a rock and a hard place to get these required documents and keep his job.

Good luck.

meauxna

I agree about the rock & hard place, but wouldn't a legit US employer be aware of the difficulty an Indian citizen faces getting a B visa? You can't just order soemone to be somewhere they can't get to (and it's not individual to the OP that he can't get 'there').

Bob

What kind of training is it? Couldn't they offer it remotely, VPN in to their networks and use skype type of deal?

As for what ties to your home country, things like a house and mortgage payments, close family especially spouse and kids.

Also provide evidence that you haven't violated the other visas you were issued for Oz and the UK.

crosscountryrider

Actually this underlines what is happening right now with various offshore engagements.
H1B and B1 have been abused so badly (maybe not this case) by various offshore companies that USCIS is putting tough measures in place.

I am working with offshore engagements for 7 years now and it seems to be a most recent development .

This will be hard to over come. IBM ( my current partner ) is conducting
specific trainings fro the interviews. The reality in the project looks

different. I belive that many of these visa applications fulfill "illegal work in the USA ) sadly .

I am maybe wrong and not a lawyer. But if somebody works for 3 or six months fulltime (12 hours daily) on a B1 it's certainly meant to raise eye brows.

Sorry to hear your individual case but USCIS has to start somewhere.

Kind Regards
CCR

sudhirss77

My company is a US based networking and telecommunications company. It is well known among it's peers. Training is must for me as i was hired to work on a specific project for which most of the design engineers and hardware is in the US. Now i have to put double the effort to understand everything by myself just to keep my job. In my office everybody thinks that i have done something wrong hence my visa was refused.

crosscountryrider

Hello,
this doesn't mean anything for the USCIS.Also IBM is US based and owned.

I don't think you did anything wrong it's simply a trend with the B-1 visa from India to question the OP's harder.

Sorry for this

CCR