Possible Interview Questions That May Be Asked By Visa Officer During H-1B Visa Interview @ US Consulate or Embassy

 

1. For which position you are going?
2. Which company you are going?
3. Are you married?
4. How long you’ve been married?
5. How many kids you have?
6. What is the age of your kid?
7. Please show me the birth certificate of your kid?
8. To Wife – Where were you born?
9. To Wife – Have you ever travelled to any foreign country?
10. To Wife – Was your marriage arranged or love?
11. To Wife – Was your child born full term?
12. To Wife – What time in the day was he born?
13. To Wife – When you were married?
14. How many children you have?
15. Where in USA are you going?
16. How do you come to know about this Job Opportunity?
17. How do you know the person who referred this job opportunity to you?
18. For how long that referrer (in #8) is working with his current company?
19. On which position that referrer (in #8) is working on?
20. Is he/she (referrer in #8) still working with his current company?
21. Is he/she (referrer in #8) currently in USA?
22. What compensation will you get?
23. Will your employer be providing you the accommodation?
24. What was the interview process in your new Company?
25. Were they telephonic interviews or in-person?
26. Where you are graduated from?
27. Do you have any business card or employment letter of the current job with you?
28. Do you have a family in USA?
29. When do you plan to join your Company?
30. Tell me briefly about your travel history in last 10 years?
31. Tell me some of the clients of your company (which you are going to join in USA)?
32. What position will you be having?
33. What’s the business of your Company?
34. What is your last degree?
35. Where did you work after you graduated?
36. Where are you working right now?
37. Does your current employer knows about your H-1B processing?
38. How many employees your company have (the one which you will join in USA)?
39. What will you going to do in your new company?
40. So you studied Mathematics? What is Integration?
41. What is a Stack?
42. What is Debugging?
43. What is a Code Comment?

Why Request for Evidence (RFE)?–Recent Trends

 

On a mission to eradicate fraud, USCIS is increasingly responding to petitions with burdensome Requests for Evidence (RFE). Over the past years, different trends has been observed, such as:

End Client

The USCIS recently changed the format of their Requests for Evidence (RFE) for petitions where the employee is located at a client site. In the past, the focus of these types of RFEs centered around the employer/employee relationship, but now, they have started questioning whether the position at the end-client requires a minimum of a bachelor’s degree.

These RFEs seem to be targeted at IT staffing companies because they include language that says that the record indicates the petitioner “is in the business of locating persons with computer-related backgrounds and placing these individuals in positions with firms that use such personnel to complete their projects.”

The RFEs suggest that in order to overcome USCIS's doubts, employers must provide copies of signed contracts, master agreements, work orders, statements of work, services agreements and letters between the employer and authorized officials of the ultimate end-client companies and that these documents should contain a description of the duties, the requirements for the position, salary, hours worked, benefits and a brief description of who will supervise the employee.

Education

The USCIS has in the past has placed an emphasis on education and has been issuing RFE where they are asking about:

1. Education evaluation from a reputable evaluation company. Further, if the evaluation requires a combination of education and experience to equate to either a 4 year degree or a degree that is relevant to the position, the USCIS is requiring evidence establishing the evaluator's credentials and qualifications. It is important that Sponsors who sponsor H1B applicants with foreign degrees get their evaluations from credible evaluation companies and that they submit the evidence regarding the evaluator’s credentials and qualifications.
2. How a person’s degree relates to the position. They are questioning this more frequently so it is important to verify that there is either classwork or experience that an H1B applicant can show in order to prove that their education/experience is relevant to the position that is being filed for on their behalf.

Right to Control

The USCIS continues to question an employer’s ability to control their employee when that employee is located off-site. Further, they question the employer’s employer/employee relationship and how the employer intends to maintain this while the employee is working at a client site.

These doubts have been raised since the Neufeld memo was published in 2010. An end-client letter which states that the project/assignment will last for 3 years resolves this issue, but in most cases, end-clients are hesitant to issue these types of letters as they feel that it can be construed as a contractual commitment to that consultant and their employer.

Other Notable Observations

• Although additional scrutiny has affected companies of all types and sizes, those that design and/or produce products are not nearly as hard hit as companies that provide IT services.
• USCIS is increasingly tallying and tracking cases filed by each company. Companies that file a disproportionately high number of petitions relative to its overall headcount often face more burdensome RFEs.

H-1B Work Visa Sponsor to file Labor Condition Application (LCA) with Department of Labor (DOL)

 

This post is a part of series of posts that makes up “The Complete Process Trail for H-1B Work Visa”.

Prospective specialty occupation and distinguished fashion model employers must obtain a certification of an LCA from the DOL. This application includes certain attestations, a violation of which can result in fines, bars on sponsoring nonimmigrant or immigrant petitions, and other sanctions to the employer. The application requires the employer to attest that it will comply with the following labor requirements:

• The employer will pay the beneficiary a wage which is no less than the wage paid to similarly qualified workers or, if greater, the prevailing wage for your position in the geographic area in which you will be working.
• The employer will provide working conditions that will not adversely affect other similarly employed workers. At the time of the labor condition application there is no strike or lockout at the employer place of business. Notice of the filing of the labor condition application with the DOL has been given to the union bargaining representative or has been posted at the place of business.

Source: USCIS

A single Labor Condition Application for H1B may be filed for multiple positions. Each LCA is limited to one occupation with specified job duties.

The LCA must be certified by the DOL and submitted with the Form I-129 before the H1B petition may be approved by USCIS.

Labor condition applications are filed online using the iCERT system

An application which is complete and has no obvious inaccuracies will be certified by the Department and returned to the employer, who may then file it in support of its petition for an H1B visa nonimmigrant with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service USCIS (USCIS).

Current LCA processing time is 7 days.

Receiving and Accepting the Offer from H-1B Work Visa Sponsor

 

This post is a part of series of posts that makes up “The Complete Process Trail for H-1B Work Visa”.

Once you clear the technical interview and are shortlisted by the H-1B Work Visa Sponsor, your second and last interview will be scheduled with the HR/Management. This interview serves a mean to interact with the management/HR of the company and sort of an introductory knowledge session about what company is all about, their vision, mission , future roadmaps etc.. It is very rare that a candidate who qualifies the technical interview, got rejected because of the evaluation results from his management/HR interview.

Next, the Sponsor will extend an offer to you verbally, which details your role, job description, salary, benefits, etc.. If you agree or after final negotiations, they will send you an Official Offer Letter on company’s letter head, which will be a proof of employment for you throughout your H-1B Work Visa processing.

Make sue you discuss and have a clear understanding on all of the following before accepting the offer:

1. Contract Type – Consultant or Employment
2. Sponsor’s % and your % in case of Consultant Contract OR per month Salary in case of Employment Contract
3. General idea of rates/salaries in prevailing market
4. General idea of Tax Deductions & your Take Home Salary

H-1B Work Visa–Tax Deductions and Your “Take Home” Salary

 

In my initial post, we establish the expected salary ranges for various skill sets and expertise and in the last post, I discuss the sponsor’s share. Now, the last remaining piece is the Income Tax Deduction. I will discuss this in detail in this post.

Taxes based on income are imposed at the federal, most state, and some local levels within the United States. The Taxable income is gross income less exemptions and deductions; where Gross income includes "all income from whatever source".

2012 Federal Income Tax Rates:

You can notice from the chart above, that a “single” resource will be taxed higher than the married one. On the same principle, if you have children or dependents (like parents, etc.), for each dependent you will be tax-exempted by a certain percentage/amount. The more the number of children or dependents, the higher tax-exemptions and hence lower income tax deductions.

So, if we continue our example of a Java Developer resource from our last post. The net annual salary for that resource will be:

On Employment Contract – US$ 3,500 per month x 12 = US$ 42,000 per year

On Consultant Contract – US$ 4,928 per month x 12 = US$ 59,136 per year

Federal Income Tax on Employment Contract:
25% of US$ 3,500 per month = US$ 875 per month

Federal Tax on Consultant Contract:
25% of US$ 4,928 per month = US$ 1,232 per month

State Income Taxes

43 states and many localities in the United States impose an income tax on individuals. Tax rates vary by state and locality, and may be fixed or graduated.

For our example, we assume that the resource is working in New York State.

The annual salary for the resource is:

On Employment Contract – US$ 3,500 per month x 12 = US$ 42,000 per year

On Consultant Contract – US$ 4,928 per month x 12 = US$ 59,136 per year

Hence,

New York State Income Tax on Employment Contract:
US$ 973 + 6.45% of [ US$ 42,000 per year – US$ 20,000 ] = US$ 2,392 per year or US$ 199.34 per month

New York State Income Tax on Consultant Contract:
US$ 973 + 6.45% of [ US$ 59,136 per year – US$ 20,000 ] = US$ 3,497.27 per year or US$ 291.44 per month

So, the net take home salary will be:

On Employment Contract:
US$ 3,500 per month - US$ 875 per month (Fed. Tax) - US$ 199.34 per month (NYS Tax)
= US$ 2,425.66 per month

On Consultant Contract:
US$ 4,928 per month – US$ 1,232 per month (Fed. Tax) – US$ 291.44 per month (NYS Tax)
= US$ 3,404.56 per month

City/Area/Locality Income Taxes

14 states and the District of Columbia allow cities, counties, and municipalities to levy their own separate individual income taxes in addition to state income taxes. These include:

• Alabama: Birmingham levies an income tax of 1%
• Arkansas: Seven Arkansas school districts assess an income tax surcharge equal to 10% of state income tax before tax credits. They are: Berryville, Green Forest, Westside, Hope, Huntsville, Waldron, and Marshall.
• Colorado: Three cities impose flat taxes on compensation. Aurora charges $2 per month on compensation over $250, Denver charges $5.75 per month on compensation over $500, and Greenwood Village charges $4 per month on compensation over $250.
• District of Columbia: D.C. has a bracketed income tax system. The rates are 4% for the first $10,000 of income, 6% for $10,000 to $40,000 of income, and 8.5% for income over $40,000.
• Delaware: Wilmington has a flat 1.25% tax on income.
• Iowa: 666 school districts impose an income tax surcharge ranging from 1% to 20% of state income tax owed.
• Indiana: All 92 counties in Indiana have an individual income tax. Tax rates are in the process of being changed, and will be announced on the Indiana Department of Revenue’s website once they are finalized.
• Kentucky: Eight cities in kentucky levy income taxes on residents and non-residents. They are: Bowling Green (1.85%), Covington (2.5%), Florence (2%), Lexington-Fayette (2.25%), Louisville (2.20% for residents and 1.45% for non-residents), Owensboro (1.33%), Paducah (2%), and Richmond (2%). Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government and Louisville - Jefferson County also impose taxes on businesses.
• Maryland: All 24 Maryland counties levy income taxes on residents and non-residents. Tax rates range from 1.25% to 3.20%. Baltimore also has an income tax of 3.05%.
• Michigan: Several Michigan cities impose income taxes with rates ranging from 0.50% to 2.50%. Detroit’s income tax rate is 2.50% for residents and 1.25% for non-residents.
• Missouri: Both Kansas City and St. Louis have an income tax of 1%.
• New York: Yonkers and New York City both have individual income taxes. New York City's income tax rates range from 2.907% to 3.648%. Yonker's income tax rate is equal to 10% of your net (after credits) state income tax.
• Ohio: 235 cities and 331 villages in Ohio have an income tax, including Columbus, Toledo, Cincinnati, and Cleveland. Ohio law requires a flat rate that cannot exceed 1%, unless it is approved by the voters. Ohio local income tax rates range from 0.40% in Indian Hill to 3% in Parma Heights.
• Oregon: The Tri-Met Transit District (includes Portland) assesses an income tax of 0.6318% and the Lane County Transit District (includes Eugene) assesses an income tax of 0.60%. Multnomah County (Portland) also assesses a 1.45% business income tax.
• Pennsylvania: Most municipalities in Pennsylvania assess a tax on wages, known as the Earned Income Tax. This tax is usually split between the municipality and the local school district. The local Earned Income Tax is only assessed on earned income, like wages. Unearned income like interest and dividends are not taxed. Pennsylvania state law limits the Earned Income Tax to a maximum flat rate of 2%, but Home Rule cities like Philadelphia and Scranton are not subject to this maximum. Cities with tax rates above 2% include: Philadelphia (3.98%), Pittsburgh (3%), Reading (2.70%), Scranton (3.40%), and Wilkes-Barre (2.85%). Non-residents have to pay the Earned Income Tax as well, but are usually taxed at a lower rate. You can look up local tax rates on Pennsylvania state's website. Local income taxes are also assessed on the net profits of businesses.

H-1B Work Visa–Sponsor’s Share or Profit

 

In my last post, I shared the salary brackets for Employment Contract and Consultant Contract. The feedback, that I received on that post, contains a number of queries and comments on huge difference in compensation between the two models. So, I thought it is in the best interest of all to discuss Sponsor’s Share or Profit in my next post.

This is a known fact that all companies who sponsor H-1B, do it to save or make some money:

1. Companies need resources for their in-house project/product development and they can get quality resources in a cheaper rate if they have the means and access to human resource markets like Pakistan, India, China, etc..
   [ Benefit – Save Money ] [ Contract Type – Employment ]
2. Companies also deploy resources to other clients and earn a % share from the salaries of those resources via the Corporate-to-Corporate (corp-to-corp or c2c) model.
   [ Benefit – Make Money ] [ Contract Type – Consultant ]

I will now continue the example from my previous post, to help you understand how sponsor companies make or save money as discussed above.

Based on the salary ranges I mentioned in my previous post, a Java Developer can sign:

1. An Employment Contract of US$ 3,500 per month, OR
2. A Consultant Contract of US$ 40 per hour

Let us now calculate the per month salary of this resource for option #2 i.e. Consultant Contract:

As a standard, each resource is required to work 8 hours per day and five weekdays a week from Monday to Friday. Saturday and Sunday are weekend holidays. If we assume, there are 4 weekends in a month and an average month has 30 days then:

[ 30 (days in month) – 8 (weekend holidays) ] x 8 (hours per day) x 40 ($ per hour) = US$ 7,040 per month

This is more than double of what the resource can get on Employment Contract. So this seems un-fair or imbalance.  Actually it is not, because in case of Employment Contract, the resource is actually employed by the H-1B Sponsor itself, so sponsor already offered the resource a salary that is less than the prevailing market standard. And, this way the sponsor saves the money, because if they hire the same level of resource from the market that would cost them much more.

On the other hand, in Consultant Contract, the sponsor deploys the resource on to one of it’s client companies. The c2c contract between the sponsor and the client will mention US$ 40 per hour, but there will be a contract between the resource and the sponsor which states that a specific % of the resource’s salary will be shared with the sponsor

Based on recent trends:

70% to 80% will be the resource’s share

20% to 30% will be the sponsor’s share

So, if we apply the same to the compensation we calculated above:

US$ 7, 040 x 70 / 100 = US$ 4,928

Now, you can compare this compensation with that of Employment Contract:

Employment Contract – US$ 3,500 per month

Consultant Contract – US$ 4,928 per month

The difference between the two is:

US$ 3,500 per month – US$ 4,928 per month = US$ 1,428

That difference can be justified keeping the amount of risk involved in Consultant Contracts (for detail of risks please refer to my previous post).

I hope my post will help you understand different aspects of the contracts. A heads up for all you, this still is not a complete picture, there are deductions/taxation involved, which I will discuss in detail in my next post.

H-1B Work Visa–Recent Trends–Salary or Compensation

 

Salary brackets for fresh H-1B Candidates, who do not have any work experience in USA before, are as follows:

Developer (0 – 5 years of experience)
US$ 3,500 – 5,500 per month (Employment Contract)
OR
US$ 40 – 55 per hour (Consultant Contract)

Senior/Lead Developer (6+ years of experience)
US$ 5,500 – 7,000 per month (Employment Contract)
OR
US$ 55 – 80 per hour (Consultant Contract)

Why there’s a difference between Employment and Consultant Contract? please refer to my previous post which discuss the topic in detail.

In order to come up with a realistic estimate of your salary, you should consider following factors:

1. State & City/Area – Each state has a slightly different salary scale because they differ with others on following:
   1. Taxation Laws – Some tax more while others tax less
   2. Economic Activity – Some are Hub of economic activity while others are not
   3. Cost of Living – Some are cheaper while others are expensive
2. Client Profile – Whether your Client is a small or medium or large Enterprise OR it’s a fresh Start-up company (low funding or high funding?)
3. Quality of your Experience – Your foreign experience counts when you have worked for companies that have International presence of at-least presence in USA. On the other hand, if you have worked for companies who are unknown in USA market than you might not be able to leverage upon your experience.
4. Time of Entry – This is also important as to when you enter the USA job market. Whether it is a hiring season or not. Whether supply is adequate or there’s a high demand.
5. First Impression – The most important factor, if you were able to market yourself effectively in your interview/test/meeting there’s a bright chance that you can tip the scale in your favor.