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Case Study: Indian Three-Year Degree H-1B RFE Overturned!

Case Study: Indian Three-Year Degree H-1B RFE Overturned!

A recurring RFE we see every year with H-1B candidates is the education RFE for the Indian three-year bachelor’s degree.  Candidates who do not submit credential evaluations that account for the missing fourth year of education with their initial petition get RFEs about it this time of year.

Graduate schools commonly accept the Indian three-year bachelor’s degree as an acceptable prerequisite to their programs, and employers will hire employees to specialty occupations with this credential.  International trade and labor agreements recognize the Indian three-year bachelor’s degree as the functional equivalency of a US four-year bachelor’s degree.  The number of actual classroom contact hours and college credit hours in an Indian three-year degree is equal to or greater than the 120 college credit hours that make up the US four-year bachelor’s degree.  For all of these reasons, H-1B candidates and their teams overlook the persistent USCIS approval trend of NOT APPROVING beneficiaries with just this credential.

The best way to both prevent and answer this RFE is to include a detailed credential evaluation that accounts for the missing fourth year of education.  Regardless of how many college credit hours this three-year program actually has, USCIS is hung up on that missing fourth year, and USCIS is the gatekeeper of your visa, or your employee or client’s visa.

At CCI TheDegreePeople.com, we rely on the work experience conversion option in these credential evaluations to account for the missing fourth year.  USCIS accepts that three years of progressive work experience in the field of the H-1B job is the equivalent to one year of college credit in that major.  You must prove that you, or your employee or client took on progressively more responsibility as time went on, and that the nature of the work increased in complexity.  Then, one of our professors at TheDegreePeople.com with the authority to issue college credit for work experience, will write this conversion and it will be included in the credential evaluation.  This evaluation will show USCIS that you DO have, or your employee or client DOES have the academic equivalent of a US four-year bachelor’s degree in the field of the H-1B job.

If you have, or if your employee or client has an education RFE for an Indian three-year bachelor’s degree, we can help get it overturned.  For a free consultation, visit ccifree.com/.  We will get back to you in 48 hours or less.

Case Study: Specialty Occupation RFE Overturned with Some Expert Opinion Letters but not Others

Case Study: Specialty Occupation RFE Overturned with Some Expert Opinion Letters but not Others

The Specialty Occupation RFE has become the new nightmare facing H-1B beneficiaries, their sponsors, and their lawyers.  They can be answered successfully with the inclusion of an expert opinion letter, but this does not always work.

There are two reasons why:

1. The letter is lacking in detail.  USCIS requires a very detailed letter with a breakdown of the daily duties and responsibilities of the job and how specialized knowledge and skills are required to carry them out.  They need to understand this position and its educational requirements within the broader context of the industry, and they need to know all of the factors that went into setting the wage
level.  A detailed expert opinion letter can only accomplish this if you provide said expert with as many details as possible.  USCIS needs to know absolutely everything.

2. The expert lacks field experience.  Every expert we work with at CCI TheDegreePeople.com has extensive experience working in their field of expertise.  While some of our experts are professors in that field, they also work directly in the field.  Teaching about the field is not good enough for USCIS to consider someone an expert – they must WORK IN THE FIELD beyond simply teaching it, and have extensive field experience and respect within the field of specialization. When the right expert writes a detailed letter, the Specialty Occupation RFE is overturned and the visa is approved. When the WRONG expert writes it, even if the letter is detailed, USCIS
denies the visa.

Make sure you work with the RIGHT expert this RFE season.  We have the right kind of experts on hand in every field ready to help you get that RFE overturned.  Your job is to provide the details, and their job is to lend their authority to strengthen your case and get that RFE overturned.  Get a free review of your case. We will get back to you in 48 hours or less.

International Student Enrollment Critical to the Survival of Community Colleges in the United States

International Student Enrollment Critical to the Survival of Community Colleges in the United States

We recently wrote a press release regarding the alarming drop in enrollment in community colleges across the country due to dropping high school graduation rates and the low unemployment rate. At the same time, community colleges that make it easy for international students to enroll are seeing stable – and even rising – enrollment rates. Our press release appeared in dozens of news sources to spread the word to community colleges to open their doors to international students, and how best to do this.

Overturn the Dreaded Level 1 Wage and Specialty Occupation H1B RFE

It’s no secret that CIS approval trends, especially with regards to the much sought-after H1B visa, change from year to year. RFEs for petitions for FY-2018 have started arriving and this year, CIS is going after entry level wages for H1B jobs. Here’s the scoop: H1B visas are reserved for highly skilled foreign workers in specialty occupations. This means a candidate must hold a US bachelor’s degree or higher, or its equivalent to qualify, and the job must be specialized to the point of requiring a minimum of that degree or degree equivalency to perform its duties. Part of the petition is the employer submitting a Labor Conditions Application which indicates that the H1B employee will make prevailing wages for that job in that geographic location for companies of that size. Some of these jobs pay entry level wages. That’s where employers have been running into trouble this year. CIS has been consistent in issuing RFEs for candidates making entry level wages because there is question as to whether these entry level jobs are adequately specialized to meet H1B educational requirements. While the rationalization behind this is that many entry level jobs do not require a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its equivalent, many professions DO require this education to gain entry to the field. At TheDegreePeople.com, we work with RFEs and difficult cases on a regular basis and understand what CIS is really looking for in the evidence they request. To have us review your case at no charge and no obligation, please submit the following documents to [email protected] • LCA • Beneficiary’s resume and educational documents • Employer Support Letter • Detailed job description and duties • RFE We will get back o you in 48 hours or less with a full analysis and, if we can help you, the costs of this and how many to order.]]>

H1B Case Study: Approved with NO College Credit!

can an H1B candidate be approved without any college credit, but rather how much progressive work experience is needed. As an equivalency, CIS accepts three years of progressive work experience as the equivalent of one year of college credit. This equivalency must be written by a professor with the authority to grant college credit for work experience. Progressive work experience means the candidate took on more responsibility and complexity with time, indicating that the nature of the work experience was educational and increasingly specialized. This work experience must be in the candidate’s EXACT field of employ to meet CIS specialization requirements for H1B visa approval. If you or your employee or client has no college credit or no degree from a government accredited institution, twelve years of progressive work experience in the field is needed to make this equivalency work. Sometimes, candidates say that their high school diploma is a college degree. Other times, candidates hold credentials from programs that are not government accredited. If this is the case, you need to know about it before you file the H1B petition. Take your transcripts, or your employee or client’s transcripts to a credential evaluator who can identify what kind of educational background you or your employee or client has, and whether or not the institutions are accredited. Evaluators with experience working with H1B cases can also identify whether or not work experience is “progressive” and will count towards a college credit equivalency. About the Author Sheila Danzig Sheila Danzig is the Executive Director at TheDegreePeople.com, a Foreign Credentials Evaluation Agency. For a free analysis of any difficult case, RFE, Denial, or NOID, please go to http://ccifree.com/ or call 800.771.4723.]]>

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