 Komal went to US in 2022 on H1B visa along with her daughter. Her husband was already in US on L1B. This video is a real interview experience of how all of this happened for Komal. She is sharing a detailed account of her visa journey, how to overcome tricky questions in the visa interview and some amazing tips for managing the work culture and life in US. Keep on watching. Hi guys! My name is Shachi and I am a travel in a visa coach. On this channel you will find lots of useful videos on the US visa process, so make sure to check it out. We have a playlist for H1B visa, we also have some free downloads, a document checklist and a question bank. So the links for all of this is in the description box below, do take a look. If you are appearing or even planning to appear for H1B visa then this video is a must watch. Make sure that you have your pen and notebook ready and there are lot of useful tips coming your way. So stay tuned and let's get started. Yes! How are you? How are you? I am very happy. Yes, it's good to see you back. I still remember our mock sessions and everything about it. It's been a year now? Almost. I mean, we had done this in March and I came here in May. Just wanted like an overview of your interview, like what happened, like you know, so that somebody that okay, I went, this was the document asked. My interview was at Delhi and then it was just two days before I got an appointment. And within two days of time, I knew obviously from my husband and also social media platform what you and I contacted you and within those two days, you also, I just you had accommodated me into your career and then we had two to three mock interviews. And then the flight is booked, you have to travel to Delhi. The first process is I think the stamping fingerprints and those things and first day, the second day is your interview. So when I went for fingerprint, I remember it was in Delhi, it was underground. The office is underground, the fingerprint office. And I don't remember the names of these offices, thank you. But it was underground and there was a long queue and they have your time slots. You go to that particular, let's say if it is eight o'clock, you'd be there by eight thirty or minimum and they have two, four queues from eight to nine. So they just arrange your people in the queues and then you enter the office. It's just five to ten minutes when you enter inside. But before that, at the window, they verify your DS164. They are very precise about verifying those DS164. All the names, surname, passport details, dates, expiry dates, everything should be correct. If that is not correct, they ask you to go to the nearest cafe and then correct it and then come back again. And that too, they have very limited time, let's say twelve o'clock or one o'clock and they go for lunch and I think post that they do not even have the appointment. So that you have to go and come back if there is a correction. So make sure that your DS150 form is being verified properly. Basically your immigration from your company helps you to verify everything. But from your side also, do one more check with spelling dates. Even your husband's name, mother's name, whatever is there, your passport details, you verify those names properly and the dates. And then once you enter, I think the fingerprint was done and you're immediately out of the gate. Then you go back and come on a second date. You go to an emergency. You travel with your daughter for all this? No, she was my dependent. But I think before five years, it is not mandatory to carry your kids along with you. You can just keep a backup of their photocopy. So I offered her the photocopy. She did ask me during my visa interview and I offered her Amika's photocopy. Then the next time? Not during the interview. I think during the fingerprint and the document verification at that time, they just scan your face and if someone is your dependent, they scan a photocopy during the fingerprint or process itself. Her fingerprint is done. There is another section where you go and show them your document. And they give you some post that which you'd carry it for the next day. And for interview, for outside of embassy, again, there are people more than early, but you just don't have to worry. There will be a long queue, but they are very precise about their timings. Exactly at that time, 15 minutes, 10 minutes before they'll announce, you have to form a queue and then based upon that very timely basis. On slot basis, they'll call the people inside. So normally the embassy was like, you have to go through a lot of doors before you get into the actual office. So you have to cross a few security checks. It's better you don't carry anything, any stuff apart from your file with you because otherwise there are locker systems, but I found that most of the lockers were built and there wasn't availability. So I don't know what in that case, what they do. But it is like, you have to pay some amount and you can keep. It's better not to carry. I knew this before because I had some research around it. So I knew that I don't have to carry anything, just your file and then they'll allow through the security checks to go inside. Only passport is normally required for the outdoor external securities. But once you're inside, then they'll just verify a few other forms. So once those forms are verified, then they will ask you to go for the interview, which will be another section, or there will be four, five windows where you have to be in standard in a queue or if there are just they'll ask you to sit in the hot desk and then one by one, one or two people can go in the queue and then give the interview. You'll be able to, when you are into that waiting area, you'll be in observation mode, okay, what is happening around other people and what answers they are giving, which company are they telling? I even heard the packages. There were people with packages from 60 to 100K or 100 plus K. So even I was able to hear that their numbers on the packages or which client they are for, or even I heard that, okay, do they have that clientator and how are the consulates reacting if the clientator is not voice in that audible room is in such a way that you'll be able to at least recognize, okay, what is happening around to other people. And then you go into your queue and yes, I mean, they ask you for your documents once that is verified, she'll start asking you those questions. Normally starts, okay, which client you're traveling for, what is the roles, responsibilities and purpose. I do remember this. And then about your dependent, those set of questions, if they're traveling with you, not with you, what are their dates and what are they traveling immediately? And if they, I think I know that there were a few couples, if they have their spouse, they ask few questions to their spouse. So I remember that spouse questions, they were like, happily interacting, and the same set of questions like how long you have been married, and then was it your love marriage, even this question was asked, and how did you meet even these questions? I knew that, okay, these questions will be asked to your spouse when I Googled out and don't think, but actually when I see in front of me, these questions are being, that is like informal interview with your spouse. So which is okay. The only thing is that your client, your all documentation client later, your purpose should be very crisp at that point, which she decides upon. So quickly, after your design, I remember a very long interview, right, a lot of questions asked, client later asked. So client, basically, you need a client later. If you have client later, I had observed that all of them were getting approved. And if you don't have client later, reject, reject, reject. So in front of me, three to four candidates were rejected for the client later, and I was so scared. I was like, okay, I am not going to go through this, but that was my only chance, and I had to give my best, but there is a trick for me. I think there were two factors. One was I told them I'm working for a banking client, and they have a security reasons, due to which they cannot share the client later. So that was one strong reason I put it forward very confidently, when she was about to take that, that basically, consulates I find that they are young, but most of them will be 40 plus. So they are very experienced people. You cannot fool them when you go for an visa interview, because I know that all the most of the windows, they were less young around 30s, and most of them were 40 plus. So they were very experienced, and this was one point. Second point was she asked me about last, I think before making her decision, her last question was, what about your spouse? Why isn't he traveling with me? And then we had a formalized that answer, where we told that he already has his own visa, he has not traveled yet, but he'll be traveling, and that's the reason he's not included around with me as a dependent, and she asked me about his location, and then she approved it. The very next moment she approved. So for me, I think there were the two reasons. She knew that anyways I'm going to travel, because my husband already has a visa and he's traveling. So even if this opportunity is taken down from her, she's anyways going to travel. When you don't have a client later, you can show them the LCA document, Labor, I think that document, and then you can show the manager later. But they were least interested in a manager later. LCA at least for some percentage can go through, but they were least interested in a management later. Even though I shared that with a strong will, here is my manager later too, if you want to review. But those were the two points I think, where I told her due to job-related reasons. If you don't have, you have these backup options, but they should be convinced that okay, it's a secured client you are traveling for and some security really. It's just that they didn't share the client later too. These two tricks work. So what I'm saying is right now is the H-1B season. So there are a lot of people appearing for the interviews. So how would you apply for the preparation? Because apart from the client-theater, they do ask her what work you have in US, what kind of skills you have. For me, I am working more into technical stuff. I was less aware about how to share someone what my job profile is or what my work is. And the answers which I had formalized when I had mock interviews with her, with you, sorry. So the answers which I had formalized were into more technical way. And then you explained to me, okay, this is not going to work because if the consulate doesn't understand the work you do, the feedback would be negative. So all my technical answers, you basically helped me to restructure or reframe in such a way that that will be into common layman terms which the consulate will understand. And based upon that, basically they make the decision. You had told me and that I did experience them. So if they do not understand the work or the job you do, because I find that there were a few interviews in front of me where people were not louder enough. So even that adds up. She told them once or twice that be louder enough. I'm not able to hear you. So you have to be loud, confident. And confident only comes when you speak in front of other people before going and interview. And it's your life decision, obviously you are. Even though whatever, how much ever you are fluent with your English or you know your work well, but it's a life decision and you are scared at that moment, especially if you have some future thoughts in your mind. So it's better to have mock interviews. And I remember that your first interview, you explained me through the process of the interview, what questions will be. And you explained the purpose behind every question which helped me to understand, oh, why? Why was this, why is this question being asked? And then you asked me to come up with my set of answers and post that during our second or third mock interview. You kept on refining those, I mean basically refactoring all my words into some generic or business related terms where they will be understanding it more clearly. So definitely that was very much helpful. You were very patient, I know. You were patient, you were engaging and extremely professional. I find that you know what in and out of the process is. You having, I mean, having that communication with someone before going to an interview definitely helps you to clear your thoughts. I mean, you're not confused, you're not chaosed at that point. You know what your answers are in back of your mind. And you have basically a pool of answers. And then whenever a question is being thrown at you, you know, okay, you need to pick this particular answer for this question. And I have to also keep the other information for next. So having that interaction with you really helped me to create that pool of set of answers in back of my mind. Please question questions. The first thing is that like you change your job, right? Like unlike an L1 on H1, you're allowed to switch your M1. So how does that work? Because I think a lot of people have this question that, okay, and I come there and I get a better opportunity. How do you find it? Obviously my pay scale, when I came back from India, it was below 100. And it goes, I mean, an average salary here is around 150. So when you come here and switch, obviously you're going to get an average pay. Well, which back in India experience now people are getting on an average between 20K to 40K. So that is considered an average. So here 100 plus to 150 to 60 is considered and a good pay scale. 100 plus is definitely a good pay scale to survive basically. On an average, 100 to 160 is an average. 160 is an added. So I might not be knowing more. The people here who come to study here know more about all those things. But whatever I come to know from my friends might not be 100% correct though. When you interact with other people, you'll come to know, okay, but I would not say that everything what I'm saying is 100% correct. But when I, I don't have many friends to here in US. People have a lot, many friends to get information from with limited set of friends. The information was there are tire one companies like Google, Amazon, Apple, which pay more than 160 or 200 to 50. Those are tier one companies. Tier two companies are like Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, then those are product based. They have their own products, but those lie into tier two companies. And then their tier three are consultancies like TCS, Infosys, Vertusa, or Cognizant, all these are consultancies. So when you come as a tier three consultant, the average pay is, I mean, I would say it is below 100 or a little plus 10 than 100. So if you come by tier two for tier two companies, it will be 100 plus definitely. For Lake Tushar, he came from a tier two company. So his pay was 100 plus, which wasn't that enough, but it is better to survive with one added member in your family and one child. Tier one is obviously you come through a giant organizations, fan companies, and the recruitment process also, when you switch for fan companies is normally, they ask you more upon data structure algorithms, which is the first requirement. So if you're good at that, if you land here, you will be, you will have n number of opportunities here to switch. I know that there is a recession right now, but when I am looking for opportunities on LinkedIn, there are many. So what I believe in, even during the recession times, if you have right skill sets to meet the job requirement, it does, recession is not for you. At least believe in that. And then there are n number of opportunities applied, then you'll at least get selected out of 10 in one. You'll get a call back and then you can continue. And for tier two companies, the questions will be basic or small programs, and then they'll continue with what your experience is. And based upon that, they'll ask you the questions. And those are very formal questions. Indians are very expert in answering those set of questions for tier two companies, which I switched into. And then tier three is obviously, tier three also has similar pattern like tier two, but they are less, depending upon the company though, they'll have to tend to getting more details. They are okay, but they just want someone to work extra, extra hard for extra hours, extra on weekends. So when you come through a tier three company, it's like all the time you have that pressure here because you are fired from a company, you have 60 days timeline to find another job here. And which now with different rules, they have other options too with recession coming. So there are other options, but it is 60 days within that you have to find another job. So you are all the time into that pressure and they pressurize you to work on weekends and even late nights, and it's all about delivery. So when you switch here to a local company, my friends used to say that you will not be under that pressure because you were more on the business side, not on the development or the ground level thing. So you need to know the business and you'll be delegating your tasks to the other people, which might be in India. And most of them could be in India, the other team. So the life work-life balance is better when you work here for the local company in US and they follow eight to four. Very normal, is it? Like you just go there, apply for a job and if you can just switch your employer, there's nothing extra you have to do. For H1, they'll be doing H1 transfer. So my process, let's say, it started in October and then, I mean the interview process and then the approvals and then final HR interview, it took around one month. But depending upon the company's requirement, they have immediate requirement, it could be faster than this. So for me, and then the background process. So here they have stringent background process, especially if you're working for a banking domain. For other companies, it could be less background verification than banks. When banks, I find, because I have worked in India earlier for banks as well. And I find that their, the background process, I mean, it was not, they didn't verify everything. It's just that you had some jobs and they'll just crossway where they will not even reach out to you for anything. But here, they have their different portals where you have to upload documents. They will go through every word of your resume, each date, each month of your resume and I don't know what their verification process is, but somehow they verify even month-wise that have you done this much month-to-month job in India. And if that's somewhere, they find any discrepancy within your resume and what your documents are. At any time, they can just stop the background process and not proceed further. So it has happened multiple times because even my previous organization, I used to hear from my manager, okay, I'm hiring this person but he couldn't meet the background verification and then he's not going to join us. So basically you applied? Yes, I mean, once the background process is done, it depends upon the companies how much time they're going to take for me to one month or normally for background process. Once that is done, H1 transfer, it takes, if they are filing it premium, it takes 15 minutes. So it was like 15 days before they filed me. They gave me the documentation or the sign of those documents, shared it to them and they did it within 15 days. The document was at my home. So instead of giving it online here, normally they deliver a physical document. So once you have that physical document, you're sure that your H1 transfer is not done and then you can move ahead with the further process. People, even when they get an online intervention of your case has been approved, even they move out, move for the further process also. So if they file it premium, it's just 15 days. And here, companies normally do not have, in US, more 90%, 95% companies, they don't have notice period like India. Back in India, it is two months, three months notice period. Here, 15 days notice period. That too, it is your courtesy that you are telling them 15 days ahead of time. So that within those 15 days, or you can do all your knowledge transfer. And even if you want an earlier date than that, you can switch within a week's time. So that was H1B transfer. It just takes 15 days. And post that if you're on notice period, 15 days, it could be lesser than one week also. So within one month, you can switch and get started with your new government. So that is very short H1 transfer. But if they are not filing in premium, it takes five to six months because my previous transfer, which was done, it was not done on premium. And then it must be filed around March and then it came November. So it takes five to six months if not premium. So it's similar to H1B. Okay, so back in India also, this H1 transfer process could be done. So if you switch a client, so your H1 is tied up to a specific client. So if you're not going to travel for that specific client, you have to file an H1B transfer from India itself. It is called as H1 amendment. You have to file an amendment petition and then for the new client. And then you can, based upon that, you can travel here. So that could be also done, the initial process filing and everything is done. And then you can travel. And after here, you get the final approval. For me, it was like six months. So there is some process in detail, which I don't know. But even like in India, your visa is stamped for what particular client. And then you're trying, you're traveling for a different client. You have to again file an H1B amendment before traveling to that state or even with the location. I think you have to be around 40 miles of your location where your visa is stamped for that location. It is more stringent for Elvin because Elvin is that more area specific for H1. It is less stringent, I would say, because I have heard an experience where they come to your home to check if you leave at that location. So depends. I had even heard that experience that they do come to your house and then verify whether you leave or not. Could be very rare case, but it has happened with my close friends too. So now it is remote working. So they might be a little bit reluctant for these two years, but it could be before that and maybe in future. You have to be aware about this. So how is the overall experience of working in the US? Definitely, it's better than India. I mean, we struggle a lot in India and trying it a little bit at ease here, most of the things. It's just that initial settle down and once you spend six months here, you are, you know everything here and then you are just comfortable. But even back in India, there are a lot more troubles. And first of all is traveling, which we don't have. But how are you managing the field and working? She is in daycare, as we had discussed at that time, but it's just that at that time I wasn't much aware about daycare and how it will be. But since we came here, in fact, within a month, we started her daycare. So yes. And then I inquired a few of the daycareers and then they basically share us a video. I mean, we can watch them on a video throughout the day. So they start by seven. They have different options, full time, part time. And then we have taken obviously due to office nine to six. So they start by seven till six. And then you can go and drop them at any time before 10 and take them out there. It's good. It's like as a home, daycare here. I mean, it's private, obviously you spend a lot of money on it. Then they offer food, sleep. They have their own beds there, especially for toddlers. So they have afternoon two hours of sleep. And then again, there are snacks at four o'clock. And then we can bring them. The basic struggle here when everyone comes is we are not aware about many rules and procedures. Basically here, life in US is all about rules, procedures. If you follow that format, your life goes very smooth. So everything when it comes to professionally, as well as personally, if you set up a routine, formalize everything, then you will be able to. But when we come back from India, we are more into chaos, more than we don't know what we are doing. So initially six months, it goes to figure out the thing. But then it comes to our personal life. If I start, you stay in a hotel. And for some companies, you can even skip hotel and directly rent a house from India itself. Because I know few colleagues who rented the house from India. And then they took that hotel money from the company as their own, just for the expenses. So some people do this. And some people do stay in hotel for 15 days, depend upon the company, how much they offer. It could be 15 days or one month. And within that timeframe, you have to find a rent house. So there are few websites where you can search and find a rental house. The rents basically here, where I stay in North Carolina, are from $1,500 to $2,000 monthly rent for houses. So it depends upon what you prefer, one BHK, two BHK. And then there's also a thing that here in North Carolina, for some, most of the communities when we visited, Mika was very small and we used to go along with her. So they used to consider us as three people. So when you have a kid, they, sorry, to get a two BHK rent house. And they didn't allow us to go with one BHK. But people- That depends on the size they will tell you that you have to get this. But it is not in every state because I did hear from my friends who are in California or New Jersey and some in Philly. I love it in one BHK, nobody can afford it. Yeah, so that was their thing. I mean, we used to go with Mika. So every time, so they asked us, but later on, some people we find here do stay in one BHK with the kids also. But it's just that when they opted for a rental house, they didn't inform, okay, we do have a child as well. They might have just considered two adults. That's it. I mean, they never come and visit personally, okay, there is one child living. So we can even, someone wants to do that, they can. But preferring for us, we were going to work from home. So that's why we were anyway, is going to consider two BHK. So that we'll have a proper office setup. So basically, even like a package-wise, you should be in a good position. If you are coming alone and there is some dependent upon you, you should be minimum at least earning more than 100K. And on an average, I would say plus or minus 100K. If you're coming lesser than that, then for one person with your spouse dependent and with your kid, it's very difficult to manage because like too many expenses. Basically, even though your rent is 1500 to 1600, there are other expenses apart from that. The electricity bill goes around 120K monthly and the water bill is extra, so which goes around 100K. So you have around 200 to 250 extra expenses upon, apart from whatever the rent you'll be paying. The main challenge was, another one is, it depends upon city, where we live in North Carolina, they wanted us to, sorry, there is no travel, basically. There is no transportation here, no bus commute. There is, but only in specific areas of main city, as we live in a little bit of town area, where a lot of Indian sleep, we normally choose that area. We, there are Facebook groups, which we join and then we ask them, okay, which areas does the Indian sleep? And then, I mean, every basically, every state year has their own Facebook community groups. So before coming, we can join that and ask questions. You can ask anonymous questions. You can also share your profile there or you have to just join that group and then share whatever questions you have. And people do help a lot of Indians to respond to your comments and reply and try to help genuinely. So which I find, I mean, one of the helpful resource, the Facebook group. I mean, on very initial state, later on, be your friends. So anyway, it's going to help you. So I hope you found the video useful. If you have any more questions, feel free to leave it in the comment section below. You can also DM me on Instagram. My Instagram handle is at shachi.mal. And just like Komal, if you want to work one-to-one with me to prepare for your visa interview, then the link for that is in the description box. We can help you with reviewing your DS-160 form, structuring the answers and also giving you practice through mock interviews. And like I mentioned before, make sure to download the free PDFs. These PDFs are going to help you with your interview prep. So the links for all of these things is in the description box. Signing off for now, but stay tuned to subscribe. We have a lot of useful content coming up for the H1B visa series, especially as shots. So you will see that there will be a lot of YouTube shots coming your way, sharing interview experiences and some more interview tips. So stay tuned for that. Signing off for now. I'll see you in the next one. Bye.