Some good news here! Got approved with > $15K line...You can see that I still have more than 6 inquiries the last 12 months, latest in Nov.

Lessons learned from first application that got rejected in Nov:
— Many inquiries doesn’t mean definitely rejection. You can see I still have 6 inquiries even on second attempt of application.
— Go to a branch that is supportive. Have a gut feeling. First attempt was at a branch that they didn’t even know about that card and had to ask many people around...second attempt was at a friendly branch. Not sure if there is a correlation but first time I got that decision in mail response, second time immediate approval. At least when got rejected first time, that first bank manager seems he was careless to appeal and help although they claimed he tried. This time, even though I was mentally prepared for rejection - assumed number of inquiries is a hard rule - I was comfortable psychologically that the second branch is going to help this time.
— Keep a good balance account with them for handful of months. Although my account is 5K, I had monthly automatic deposit feeding it. When I got rejected first time, I applied 2 days after I opened my bank account and only had 2K. Again not sure if there is correlation.
— keep a good credit score. My score has been always high > 750 but first question banker asked me about my score...so seems very important.

thanks everyone and just wanted to add DP