If confirmed, Janet Napolitano’s nomination as Director of Homeland Security is likely to have a significant impact on the H1B visa process and  possibly even be a significant factor in increasing the cap on these employment visas. Of course, in order to get confirmed, she will have to face committee chairman Joseph Lieberman, her sometime ally. Although she could not singlehandledly raise the visa cap, she is likely to be very influential in making some major changes to the H1B program.

One challenge that Napolitano will inherit if she is confirmed is the current problems inherit in the system. A recent examination of a small percentage of approved applications revealed that aspects of more than 20 percent of H1B visa applications were in violation of federal laws and regulations. Examples of these included fraudulent foreign degree evaluations (some applicants submitted degrees from fake universities), signature forgeries, and applications from nonexistent companies.

Ms. Napolitano has been a strong advocate of increasing the H1B Visa cap. Her stance on welcoming the technological skills of persons with foreign degrees offers great potential benefit for U.S. companies and businesses. It remains to be seen, however, what kind of approach she intends to take to minimize fraudulent or erroneous foreign credential evaluations.

This could be done by making the foreign credential evaluation agencies responsible by penalizing them for evaluation reports that offer U.S. equivalencies for fake degrees. Agencies like Career Consulting International and Wes maintain high standards for corroborating degree equivalencies, and should have nothing to fear from this type of approach. Financially penalizing agencies that, knowingly or unknowingly, engage in this behavior should help to significantly reduce the incidence of failing to verify that a foreign country’s university education is indeed equivalent to that of an accredited U.S. university.

President-Elect Barack Obama’s governmental appointments will most likely have a major impact on immigration visas and foreign workers in the United States. The degree to which things will change remains to be seen. Hopefully, some of these abuses will be corrected, and the cap will be increased, so that America can regain her place as technological leader and innovator within world markets. The current U.S. economy sure could use that boost!

Two days ago, I had the pleasure of receiving a short note of thanks from a client whose educational evaluation we had completed. He expressed his approval of our evaluation report, stating:

“Thanks a lot for sending my evaluation report. I am grateful for the timely response to my request and cooperation that will help me find a reasonable job. Next week my son will be sending his foreign academic credentials for evaluation, which he requires for educatoin and employment.

Again I appreciate you and your colleagues’ efforts. Thank you and warm regards for a Merry Christmas and New Year.”

It’s always good to hear that a client has been successful or received the promotion or immigration visa for which they were applying, but we all appreciated hearing the kind and encouraging words from this client. We were pleased to be able to help him establish solid U.S. equivalencies for his extensive education.

Establishing equivalencies for foreign degrees isn’t always an easy or an exact process, because of the differing number of years of education required between countries, as well as the different majors awarded by the universities of these nations. We continue to do our best, though, to help each client gain the educational recognition and credentials they deserve.

So far, it looks like October is going to be another quiet month for foreign academic credentials evalations for October. As promised, I am updating you on The Degree People’s latest attempt to thank U.S. Military personnel for their service.

As of early last week, we had received no requests from Armed Forces members for educational evaluations. We have had the pleasure of being able to respond twice this week. Our evaluation reports have helped service members receive promotions and even enlist as a result of CCI’s commitment to help these people with free evaluations to determine U.S. equivalencies of their foreign degrees.

Remember, Ms. Danzig has offered to help 50 persons from the armed services each month receive free document evaluations. So far, only two people have stepped forward to respond to October’s offer. If you know anyone who might be able to benefit from this offer, please tell them so that we can help them get a degree evaluation.

If you or someone you know is an active member of the U.S. military, and completed your high school or college education in another country, a foreign credentials evaluation could be of tremendous help. Career advancement and promotional opportunities may be available - don’t hesitate to take advantage of this opportunity today!

Foreign credential evaluation agencies can be expensive, and paying the cost of a professional translator may seem like an added, unnecessary expense. It may seem just as convenient to have a “friend” translate, or find someone who agrees to translate it for a very small fee. After all, what difference can one or two little words make?

In fact, even a single word or letter can be critical to a favorable educational evaluation. For example, the misalignment of a single column can result in the wrong grade for a course, or the wrong number of credits being assigned to a course. Likewise, being unfamiliar with advanced terms in course subjects, an inexperienced translator could assign a key mathematics course as algebra rather than calculus, which could be very detrimental for the student with a foreign degree.

Many immigration attorneys and foreign education credential evaluation services, such as Career Consulting International, work with translator services on a regular basis. While these agencies do not require people seeking U.S. equivalencies for their diplomas to use a particular translator, they are able to recommend high quality companies that have historically offered high quality translations. Furthermore, their professional reports leave no room for clerical errors.

The visa application process can be expensive and time-consuming. Frequently, people are in a hurry to have their visas approved for employment or education reasons. They have little time for making multiple corrections to evaluation reports that contain multiple errors as a result of erroneous translations. Taking a moment to carefully select a good professional translator can save a lot of future time and trouble. Spend the extra time with your family and friends, rather than making corrections and fielding the hassles caused by poor translations.