H1B visa workers are needed because of the shortage of U.S. workers with the qualifications for specialty jobs. Foreign degree evaluations by agencies such as Career Consulting International ensure that these workers have the needed academic credentials.

(EMAILWIRE.COM, April 29, 2009 )
Why are major US corporations hiring foreign workers and sponsoring their entry into the country with H1B visas? How can American companies justify hiring professionals from other countries and importing them into the country to take American jobs? The answer, as seen by industry giants such as Microsoft Corporation, is startling – and painful – in its simplicity.
U.S. workers just don’t make the grade. This is the argument that the major business organizations still hiring H1B workers for fiscal year 2010 are making. They claim that no US professionals can be found who have the necessary skills to perform the work required.

In recent years, United States universities have seen fewer American students enrolling in computer, mathematics and science degree programs. These programs, however, continue to be popular with students from other countries.

Unfortunately, many of these students are returning to their home countries to take high-paying positions in technology-related businesses and industries. This problem is even more evident at the graduate degree level. Many students receive foreign degrees from undergraduate programs in their home countries, and then enter the United States to take advantage of the educational excellence offered by top-ranking graduate degree programs. Then they return home.

April 29, Sunrise Florida
Business organizations such as Microsoft Corporation hire workers with foreign degrees to work in the United States with temporary work visas known as H1B visas. To be eligible for an H1B visa, the worker must show the USCIS that his or her foreign degree is the U.S. equivalency of a bachelor degree or higher.

This isn’t always as easy as it might seem. Many graduates from colleges in India, for example, attend three-year undergraduate programs to obtain their Bachelor Degree. Usually, these workers also have to show three years of work experience to receive the educational equivalency of a four-year bachelor degree.

Evaluating foreign education to determine whether these academic credentials are the equivalent of a U.S. bachelor degree is often a complicated process. It requires experts who are familiar with the vast array of degree programs and education systems worldwide. Most foreign credential evaluation services, including Career Consulting International (CCI), also specialize in a particular area of academic credentials evaluations.

While almost any agency can help with a simple evaluation, however, Career Consulting International specializes in complex evaluations involving three-year degrees and other difficult cases. CCI even offers free pre-evaluations to workers who have received an RFE or denial at www.ccifree.com.

For Two Years the H1b Visa Cap filled on April 1, the day it opened with triple the applications as spots open. This year the cap remains unfilled.

(EMAILWIRE.COM, April 10, 2009 ) H1B Visas, Foreign Credential Evaluations Still Available: April 10, 2009

The USCIS has just released a statement that the H1B Visa caps for Fiscal Year 2010 have not yet been filled. This means that anyone with the needed foreign academic credentials who has their paperwork submitted before the cap is filled may still receive an H1B visa this year!

Each year, the USCIS offers 65,000 H1B Visas to foreign professionals holding at least a Bachelor’s Degree. In addition, the agency reserves 20,000 H1B Visas for professionals whose academic credentials are at least equal to a U.S. Master’s Degree. In recent years, these visas have been quickly issued to workers eager to work in the United States. Most are sponsored by large companies.

Not surprisingly, the visa cap has been slower to fill this year because of the U.S. economic recession. Businesses have been slower to hire workers with foreign degrees because of the country’s high unemployment rates.
Despite this, however, certain positions require academic credentials that U.S. workers just don’t have. If professionals from other countries aren’t hired to meet these demands, the jobs are not filled. H1B visas don’t take jobs away from American citizens. Instead, they are used to help companies fill needed positions when no workers from this country are available to be hired.

Executive Director Sheila Danzig of Career Consulting International (CCI), a prominent foreign credential evaluation service, reports that this year’s visa season has been somewhat slower than anticipated. “We are still receiving plenty of applications for foreign degree evaluations, but large companies are not processing as many H1B visas as they have in previous years. To some extent this maybe a result of the government cracking down on fraud in the system.”

As a result, the professionals at CCI are still ready to respond to urgent requests for foreign credential evaluations. To get more information about whether your academic credentials meet U.S. requirements, visit
www.thedegreepeople.com, or call the toll-free number for customer support at 1-800-771-4723. Employers can also get more information about whether a prospective employee’s educational credentials will meet the USCIS requirements for an H1B visa.

To date, the USCIS has not released figures concerning the number of visas that are still available. The recent press release stated only that if enough petitions are received to fill meet the caps, that agency will release an advisory that the cap was met as of the date the maximum number of petitions are received.

Don’t make the mistake of delaying, however, or hoping that the USCIS caps will wait for your credentials evaluation to be completed. Get it done as quickly as possible so that the cap isn’t filled before your petition is submitted. No one who applies after the cap date will be approved, and no one knows when the cap date will occur. Don’t take a chance – start the academic credentials evaluation process as soon as possible. Today isn’t too late, but tomorrow may be!

It’s no secret that the <abbr title=”United States”>U.S.</abbr> economy is in a recession, or that that recession has affected financial markets worldwide. This in turn has seriously affected the number of people seeking <strong>foreign degree evaluations</strong>. More and more people are trying to ensure their job security or explore new employment options after cutbacks and mergers have left many without positions.

People with <strong>foreign education credentials</strong>, including foreign degrees from college or high school, are usually required to prove the U.S. equivalency of their degrees to potential employers in the United States. This is also true for people seeking work or employment-based (<strong>EB visas</strong>), as well as for those persons who want to go back to college to earn an advanced degree.

Additionally, the rate at which H1-B visa numbers are filled this year may be affected by the current economic state. Many companies are extremely dependent on the use of temporary foreign workers to meet their labor needs. Because <em>H1-B visas</em> are issued on a first-come, first-serve basis to qualified applicants with sponsors, it is possible that those companies most depended on this source of labor may decide to start filing as soon as possible.

There has been discussion of increasing the cap on the number of H1-B visas issued. Moreover, persons such as Janet Napolitano, whom President Obama has nominated for a cabinet post, are in favor of increasing the number of H1-B visas offered each year. Due to the recession, however, proposals such as these may face a lot of resistance as Americans increasingly protest the presence of <em>foreign workers</em> when <abbr title=”United States”>U.S.</abbr> jobs are in short supply and high demand.

These protestors, though, need to remember that employment-based visas such as the <em>EB visas</em> and H1-B visas are offered to foreign workers who fill American jobs that cannot be filled by <abbr title=”United States”>U.S.</abbr> workers. These people either have specialized education or experience that <abbr title=”United States”>U.S.</abbr> employers require and cannot find in this country. American workers are not in fact being denied jobs because of these <em>non-immigration visas</em>; they lack the qualifications to fill these jobs.

It’s impossible to predict what will happen as President Obama takes office and begins to enact his planned policies. The effect of these policies on EB and H1-B visas remains to be seen. Hopefully, he will introduce policies that increase the availability of <abbr title=”United States”>U.S.</abbr> jobs, while maximizing the availability of temporary employment to American companies. The citizens of this country are waiting anxiously to see what will happen.

Is your company getting ready for the annual H1B visa race? Are you hoping to process enough visas to meet personnel needs? Or are you one of the professionals waiting to see whether the <abbr title=”United States Citizenship and Immigration Services”>USCIS</abbr> will allow you to enter the U.S. on a temporary work visa? How will President-Elect Barack Obama’s advisors impact the cap for these work visas? What kind of visa reforms will take place?

Meet Department of Homeland Security nominee Janet Napolitano. Her confirmation hearing will be overseen by Senator Joseph Lieberman, a sometime friend and sometime foe of the H1B Visa Program and its reform. While both Ms. Napolitano and Mr. Lieberman have strongly pushed for an increase in the number of <em>H1B visas</em> issued each year, Mr. Lieberman is also a strong supporter of visa reform.

Ms. Napolitano’s push for increasing the cap on the number of visas issued each year is based on her argument that the United States lacks skilled workers to fill the technology needs experienced by American companies. Although she couldn’t change the cap (this is controlled by Congress, and is currently set at 85,000), she could push to streamline the process, making the application much easier for persons with foreign degrees.

Another possible outcome of Napolitano’s nomination as Director of Homeland Security is that students who earn <abbr title=”United States”>U.S.</abbr> Degrees would have no difficulty obtaining an H1B visa after passing a background check. In fact, she advocates attaching a green card to these students’ diplomas! She believes that this solution would help to keep technology workers, as well as the resultant innovations in design and technology, within the United States.

In order to successfully promote her program, however, Ms. Napolitano will probably be forced to address the many abuses that have become a part of the H1B program. In reviewing several applications over the last two years, <abbr title=”United States Citizenship and Immigration Services”>USCIS</abbr> officials found that more than one-fifth of these applications violated federal rules and regulations. Further, they noted certain trends with regard to these violations.

First, some <strong>foreign degree evaluations</strong>, which are required for persons seeking <strong>H1B visas</strong>, reference fake diplomas or universities. Some applications contain forged signatures, while some applications were processed for shell companies. In addition, some companies hired workers to perform job duties not listed on the labor certificate.

<a href=”http://www.thedegreepeople.com”>Career Consulting International</a> is a <em>foreign education credential evaluation</em> agency whose experts take care to ensure that their foreign degree evaluations meet <abbr title=”United States Citizenship and Immigration Services”>USCIS</abbr> requirements. By keeping the agency’s standards high, executive director Sheila Danzig ensures the agency’s excellent reputation among immigration attorneys, <abbr title=”United States Citizenship and Immigration Services”>USCIS</abbr> officials, and business corporations. She is currently preparing for another booming H1B season rush.