 wondering what really happens on the day of the L1 visa interview and what are the documents that you must carry with you. Well, this video has got you covered, keep on watching. Hi guys, my name is Shachi and I'm a travel and visa coach on this channel. You'll find lots of useful videos on the US visa process. We have an entire playlist for L1 visa. So make sure to check it out. We also have some free resources for you. So we have PDF resources, which consists of an L1 question bank and a document checklist. So once you're done watching the video, do check the link in the description box for these resources. So we get a lot of questions about what documents should I carry with me for the L1 visa interview. And for L1 visa, the document process can seem a little overwhelming and daunting. Though the document process is handled by the law firm who is filing your petition, but it is still better to double check and to do your own research. So this video consists of two parts. In the first part, we're going to go through the document checklist. And in the second part, we will take you through the step by step process of an actual L1 visa day interview and share some special tips. So let's get started. So I'm going to start with the document checklist. We have classified all the documents that you need to carry with you for the L1 visa interview into five categories. And I'm going to take you through each of these categories. Do keep in mind that these categories have been arranged in the order of importance, which means that the first category is the most important set of documents that you need. So the first category are the essential documents. Now these are the documents that you absolutely need for the L1 visa interview. In fact, you cannot give the interview without these documents. And the essential documents consists of your DS160 confirmation page, your appointment confirmation page, and all your passports, your current one, as well as your old ones. The second category of documents are the petition documents. Now in petition documents, the most important one is the I129S and the I797. Keep in mind that you have to carry three copies of each of these two. That means three copies of I1297 and three copies of I797. Along with that, you can also carry an offer letter or the support letter regarding your employment from your US employer. The third category of documents are all the documents related to your work experience. So this will consist of the offer letter that you received from your current company, your pay slips of last three months, ITR of last two years, your bank statement of last three months, and experience letter from any of your previous employers. The fourth category of documents are the supporting documents. And supporting documents are usually handled by the law firm who is filing a petition. And these are documents which show your ability to handle the role in the US. Typically they consist of org charts which show your position in the company, proof of managerial roles handled, proof of technical expertise, certificates or any other trainings that you might have undertaken, or just proof of your domain expertise. The fifth category of documents are the academic documents. And in academic documents, we typically need your degree certificates, your 10th and 12th marks card. So these are the five category of documents for the L1 visa. Now, if you have a dependent traveling with you, then you will also need certain essential documents for your dependent. So for the L2, typical documents that are asked are marriage certificate, birth certificate, and again, your academic documents. Now let's move to the second part of the video. And in the second part of the video, we're going to cover what actually happens on the day of the L1 interview. So I'm going to take you through a step by step process so that you have a rehearsal, you have a feel of your actual visa day. Now, a typical L1 appointment will consist of two appointments. So you will have the biometric and the consular interview. Normally these happens on two different days. Sometimes they might even be in two different locations. But there are also cases and there are also countries where the biometric as well as the consular appointment are done on the same day. So let's start with the biometric appointment. Now, the biometric is a fairly simple straightforward process. The aim of this appointment is basically to take your photograph and also to get your fingerprints. So this process will take anywhere between 15 minutes to about half an hour. And you will have to visit any of the biometric centers. And then you will be asked to give a photograph plus to give your fingerprints. So photographs are not required in the L1 visa process because they will be taken at your biometric. The second part is the consular interview. And this is the real game. This is where everything comes into the picture. So I'll take you through a step by step of what happens on this day of the interview. Now, first step that you need to do is to check the appointment time on your appointment confirmation page. And whatever is the appointment time that is mentioned, plan to reach about half an hour before this appointment time. There is just no point in reaching way too early because you're not going to be allowed inside and most likely you're going to be waiting outside in the hot sun. So plan your travel in such a way that you reach approximately 30 to 40 minutes before the time mentioned on your appointment confirmation page. Now, when the time comes for the interview, you'll be asked to join a queue. And this queue will lead you inside the consular building. Once you're inside the consular building, L1 applicants are usually put into a separate queue and sometimes there might even be a separate waiting room for you. The first thing they'll ask you to do is to show your documents. So you will be called one by one and all the documents that you're carrying with you will be verified. And you'll also be advised to arrange these documents. Typically, what they do is ask you to make three sets of I129S, I797. And you'll also be given a rubber band or a pin to secure these copies. And you're asked to arrange these three copies and put your passport on top of that. So once your documents are verified and you have been arranged, you're again asked to wait for some time. If you're going for a blanket petition, there is an additional step that you need to follow. And that is to pay the anti-fraud fee. So you will be put in a separate queue and in this queue, you can go to a counter and pay your anti-fraud fee. And this fee can be paid by three means. You can pay it by a demand draft, by a credit card or by cash. If you're paying in India, you can pay this fee in INR. Now, once all these formalities are done, you will again be asked to join a queue. And this is the main queue because this will lead you to the visa officer. Typically in India, we observe that there is a separate queue for the L visas and there's also a separate queue for the blanket petitions. So once you join your queue, you will be able to get a very real sense of how interviews are happening. And since they happen parallely, you'll also be able to hear the interviews going on. You'll be able to hear who's getting accepted, who's getting rejected, what are the questions being asked and so on. So at this point of time, it's really up to you to tune in or tune out to what is happening around you. If you're somebody who feels anxious and who is going to really feel nervous listening to all the visa interview experiences, just tune yourself out and focus on yourself. So once you're through this queue, you're actually going to face the visa officer and the visa officer is going to ask you the questions. We have two detailed videos which will help you in the L1 interview prep. This consists of questions and answers and how you need to tackle this interview. Make sure that you check out both these videos. And for more detailed preparation, you can get in touch with me for a one-to-one session. This one-to-one session is aimed at structuring all the answers as per your profile and getting you ready for the L1 interview. So once you're through with the interview and your visa is approved, you will be told by the visa officer that your visa is approved and the visa officer is also going to stamp your I129S. So since you're going to be carrying three copies, usually all the three copies are stamped. One copy the VO keeps it with himself or herself. One copy is given to you so that you can give it to your company and one copy you are required to carry with you when you enter the US. Along with this, any other document like I797 etc is given back to you and of course, the passport is kept with the visa officer so that they can stamp your visa and then mail the passport to you. So I hope these steps have given you a feel of how your actual L1 interview is going to look like and given you a dress rehearsal of the day. Now coming to the third part of the video, there are some special tips that I will share with you and these are purely from my experience of working with L1 clients over the years. So the first and the most important tip is do not be passive. A lot of times we see professionals being passive, withholding information, waiting for the visa officer to ask them. But this is not how US visa interviews work. The visa officer will typically ask you about two to three questions so use each of these questions as a chance to show everything that is relevant to your profile, everything that helps your case. It's completely okay to speak more rather than speaking less. The second tip I have for you is that in L1 visa interviews, how you look, how you present, how you dress is really important especially for L1A. So make sure that you are presenting yourself in a calm, composed, confident manner and you are well-grown. Doing practice and mock interviews really helps in this. So if you want to take a mock session with me, do get in touch. The link for that is in the description box below. And the third tip I have for you is do plan out your logistics well in advance. Make sure that you're reaching the interview location at least a day before. And if possible, also do a check on the time that you're going to take, how you're going to travel in all of these things. Lot of times we see professionals getting harassed and just being anxious because of all the logistics like nightmare that they faced on the day of the interview. So don't let these small issues get to you. Map out your day well in advance. So I really hope that all these interview tips have helped you. Make sure to check out the free PDF and for a more detailed prep, getting in touch with me, you can do a one-to-one session for instance, structuring a mock interview. We can also do both. All the links are in the description box below. Thank you so much for watching. If you have any more questions, feel free to leave them in the comment section below. You can also reach out to me on Instagram, my Instagram handle is hhachi.man. Once you're done watching this video, make sure to check out this video. This is a real interview experience for L1 and N2 and this will give you a more in-depth idea about how the interview works and how you need to prepare for the process. Signing off for now, we have more useful content coming up in the L1 Mesa series. So make sure that you subscribe and stay tuned. I'll see you in the next one. Bye.