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US visa interviews·8 min read
H-1B Visa Interview Questions — and How to Answer Them
The H-1B visa interview focuses on your job, your employer, your specialty occupation, and your degree-to-role fit. What the consular officer asks, what they cross-check against the petition, and how to answer so your role and your qualifications line up cleanly.
What the H-1B interview is actually checking
By the time you reach the H-1B visa interview, USCIS has already approved the petition. The consular officer is not re-adjudicating that decision — they are confirming, in a few minutes, that you are the person the petition describes: that the job is a genuine specialty occupation, that your degree fits the role, and that the employer relationship is real.
The interview is short. The risk is not hostility — it is a mismatch between what you say and what the petition (and your LCA) state. Know your own case cold.
The questions
What gets asked at an H-1B interview
Q1
Who is your employer, and what do they do?
Name the company and describe its business in a sentence. The officer is confirming the petitioner is a real, operating company.
Q2
What is your job title and what will you do?
Describe the role in plain terms — the actual day-to-day. It must read as a specialty occupation that genuinely needs your degree.
Q3
What is your degree, and how does it relate to the role?
The degree-to-role link is the core of an H-1B. Be ready to connect your specific qualification to the specific duties.
Q4
What is your salary?
Know the figure. It should match the LCA wage. A salary you cannot state, or that contradicts the paperwork, invites a harder look.
Q5
Where will you work — employer site or client site?
If you'll be placed at a client site (common for IT consultancies), be ready to name the client and the project. Vague placement answers are a frequent 221(g) trigger.
Q6
Have you worked in the US before?
If this is a renewal or change of employer, know your prior status history. Consistency with your record matters.
The H-1B-specific risk — petition mismatch
Your answers must match the petition and the LCA
The most common H-1B interview problem is not a weak case — it is an applicant whose verbal answers drift from the approved petition: a job description that sounds different, a worksite that doesn’t match the LCA, a salary they cannot confirm. Read your own I-129 petition, your offer letter, and your LCA before the interview. Whatever they say about your role, wage, and worksite is what your spoken answers must say first.
Answer craft
Weak vs strong
Weak
Strong
Role
I work in software
Backend engineer building payment APIs in Java
Degree fit
I have a computer degree
MS in Computer Science — the role requires that specialization
Worksite
Wherever the company sends me
Client site — [Client], on their fraud-detection project
Salary
Around six figures, I think
$118,000 — matching the LCA
Rehearse the H-1B window before you reach it
H-1B interviews are quick — and lost on petition mismatches, not hostility. Opaige Coach runs a full mock with an AI consular officer who probes your role, your degree fit, your worksite and your wage. Practise until every answer agrees with your petition.
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