Sheila Danzig

The countdown has begun.  H-1B registration opens at noon Eastern Time on March 1, 2021 and runs through March 18^th at noon Eastern Time.  FY2023 petitioners must file separate registrations for each H-1B employee through the myUSCIS online registration system for a fee of $10 per beneficiary.  If the H-1B cap is met by March 18^th, which is almost guaranteed to occur, there will be a lottery and those selected will be notified by March 31^st.  If selected, petitioners can then submit completed petitions.

Last year, over 300,000 registrations were submitted and at the same time the denial rate dropped from 13% to 4%.  However, this does not take the RFE rate into account.  Just because petitions are being denied at lower rates does not mean petitioners are out of the woods.  Many had to go through up to three rounds of justifying their case before visa approval due to restrictions of the H-1B program.  Beneficiaries targeted by the previous administration’s H-1B restrictions still face the same strict USCIS approval trends.

While petitioners won’t find out if they will have to submit completed petitions until March 31^st, it is important to consider the potential challenges facing H-1B employees should their registration be selected.

Potentially challenging H-1B cases include:

• Computer programmers making level one wages are at risk of specialty occupation issues because entry level computer programming positions NORMALLY but NOT ALWAYS require a bachelor’s degree. 
• Other occupations the NORMALLY but NOT ALWAYS require a bachelor’s degree are also at risk of specialty occupation issues.
• Beneficiaries making level one wages.
• Employees who work at third-party worksites.
• Employees who work for firms that take on clients and do not have a complete itinerary of the work to be performed for the duration of the visa.
• Beneficiaries with degrees earned outside of the United States.
• Beneficiaries with incomplete college or no college.
• Beneficiaries with generalized degrees or in degrees in a major that does not match the H-1B job.

These cases are at risk because current proposed rules seek to limit the scope of what constitutes a specialty occupation and the employer-employee relationship and give preference to the highest wage-earners.  Education issues are perennial RFE and Denial triggers we see every year that crop up when the beneficiary has anything except a US bachelor’s degree or higher in the exact field of the H-1B job. 

The best way to answer RFEs and Denials is to prevent them in the first place, and that means anticipating red flags at the early stages of the petition process.  At CCI TheDegreePeople.com we work with difficult cases every year.  We know what triggers Denials and RFEs and we know what additional evidence and documentation is needed to strengthen cases to prevent these situations.

For a free review of your case visit www.ccifree.com.  We will respond in 4 hours or less.

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the director of CCI TheDegreePeople.com.  Sheila specializes in overturning RFEs and Denials for work visas.

Education issues is a perennial RFE trigger for H-1B beneficiaries.  If the beneficiary’s education is ANYTHING EXCEPT a bachelor’s degree or higher in the exact field of the H-1B job from an accredited US college or university, outright approval is unlikely without including a credential evaluation.  This evaluation must be written uniquely for the situation and fill in any gaps between the education the beneficiary has and the exact degree USCIS will approve, taking USCIS approval trends into account.

The key to getting the RIGHT credential evaluation is finding the RIGHT credential evaluation agency to write it.  The problem is, the credential evaluation industry is not regulated, and not all agencies are equipped to get the job done for this finicky visa.

Always ask for past client references.  Always check reviews.  Even in a time crunch, do your due diligence because the wrong credential evaluation will not save you time when the RFE arrives.

When looking for the right credential evaluation agency, here are the big red flags that you need to keep looking:

• Communication issues.  They must respond promptly on all platforms – social media, email, text or call.  If they can’t respond promptly that shows they are not set up for quality service.
• They charge too much.  The right agency should charge reasonable fees, including reasonable rush delivery fees.  In the credential evaluation field, you don’t necessarily get what you pay for.  High costs – especially for rush deliveries – shows that the agency is out of touch with the world of visa approval which is rife with high fees and fast-approaching deadlines.
• They don’t ask enough questions.  To write an effective credential evaluation, the evaluator must know the job, the visa, the education, and past progressive work experience.  If they don’t ask enough questions to generate the right evaluation it means they are not writing their evaluations to uniquely meet the needs of their clients.  Look elsewhere.

The RIGHT credential evaluation agency responds promptly on any communication channel, charges reasonable fees, and asks the questions necessary to get a full grasp of your case and all of the factors that make up the beneficiary’s unique educational pathway.  The RIGHT credential evaluation agency is a member of professional organizations that lend to regulating the industry, such as NACE, ICAE, NAFSA, or the American Evaluation Association.  These organizations enforce standards in an otherwise unregulated industry.

At CCI TheDegreePeople.com, our international education experts write each evaluation uniquely to address the job, the education and work experience, the visa, and USCIS approval trends.  We work with professors authorized to grant college credit for work experience to ensure academic equivalency to the right degree in the right major.  Our consultations are always free and our evaluation fees are always reasonable.  We are active members of six different credential evaluation professional organizations. 

For a free review of your case visit www.ccifree.com.  We will respond in 4 hours or less.

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the director of CCI TheDegreePeople.com.  Sheila specializes in overturning RFEs and Denials for work visas.

While exact dates have not been announced, USCIS will begin accepting registrations for cap-subject H-1B visas the first week of March 2022. 

Again, this year employers must register each potential H-1B employee for the lottery electronically with a fee of $10 per employee.  Then, USCIS will conduct a randomized lottery, choosing for the 20,000 Master’s degree cap petitions first, and the 65,000 Bachelor’s degree cap petitions second, giving applicants with advanced degrees two shots at selection.  Registrants selected in the lottery will then have 90 days to file a complete H-1B petition.

For FY-2022 H-1B visas, over 308,000 electronic registrations were submitted.  However, it took three rounds of H-1B lotteries to fill all H-1B visa slots.  By the end of the selection process, 131,970 registrations were selected giving the opportunity to submit a completed petition.  That means that beneficiaries not selected in the first lottery still have the opportunity to be selected to file.

Employers have one month to identify potential H-1B employees and prepare to register for the lottery.  That means getting started on the Labor Conditions Application and taking stock of current USCIS approval trends likely to impact their employees:

• Specialty Occupation Qualification – this H-1B requirement will likely impact employees working entry level jobs and/or making level one wages. 
• Employees working at third-party worksites – employers must be able to show how they will be able to maintain the employer-employee relationship at third-party worksites, meaning the employer will continue to be able to control the work of the employee offsite.
• Education Issues – if the H-1B employee has anything but a US bachelor’s degree or higher in the exact field of the H-1B job a credential evaluation must be included to fill in any gaps between the education the employee has and that exact degree needed.  This means taking course content, professional training, and progressive work experience into account.

At CCI TheDegreePeople.com we work with difficult cases every year.  We know what triggers approval issues and we know how to take preventative action.  Let us review your case for free before registration.  Visit www.ccifree.com and we will respond in 4 hours or less.

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the director of CCI TheDegreePeople.com.  Sheila specializes in overturning RFEs and Denials for work visas.

The word is out!  The United States experienced a record low in population growth over 2021 and the situation is dire.  The United States workforce needs more skilled foreign workers because there are simply not enough American workers to fill the jobs needed to support programs like social security.  Declining birth rates, higher mortality due to an aging population, and lower immigration were all existing factors compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and 2022 needs to be the year to bounce back.

However, there are changes coming to H-1B and PERM programs that may be at odds with the urgent need to promote the immigration of skilled workers.

In January 2021, the Trump Administration issued a rule to replace the H-1B lottery system with a wage-based selection system.  This rule was supported by the Biden Administration, but vacated by a federal court in June of 2021 with the consent of the Department of Labor.  However, the agency plans to put forth a new prevailing wage rule to take effect on November 14, 2022 with changes based on feedback from this past spring.  This will raise the prevailing wage for both H-1B and employment-based visas, and make changes to the allocation of H-1B visas based on salary.

In addition to changes to the prevailing wage, we expect changes to the H-1B program with regards to the employer-employee relationship and with regards to visa status with change of worksite.

Over the past few years, immigration lawyers have been on the frontlines keeping USCIS adjudicating petitions legally and fighting back unreasonable and unlawful changes to work visa programs.  We have had significant victories and must build on this momentum to keep the work visa programs vital to the economic health of the United States – as well as human rights – moving in the right direction.

USCIS begins accepting H-1B registrations for FY 2023 on March 1, 2022.  That means it’s time to start preparing to file.  At CCI TheDegreePeople.com, we keep a sharp eye on USCIS approval trends and changes to adjudication policy.  We will continue to keep you informed on any changes as the registration date draws nearer, and are available 24/7/365 to review petitions, and offer guidance and feedback before you file.

For a free review of your case visit www.ccifree.com.  We will respond in 4 hours or less.

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the director of CCI TheDegreePeople.com.  Sheila specializes in overturning RFEs and Denials for work visas.

At CCI TheDegreePeople.com we work with difficult cases every year.  It is not uncommon for one RFE to trigger another, leading to as many as three rounds of RFEs before the H-1B visa is approved.  In this case, our client came to us with their second RFE.  The first was for a wage level issue, which triggered a specialty occupation issue. 

When a job is set at level one wages, sometimes USCIS will wrongly assume that it is entry level.  If the passage for the entry level position in the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook states that employers will usually but not always require the employee to have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree, USCIS will issue a specialty occupation RFE. 

At RFE round two, there is already a massive time crunch to get the H-1B employee to work by their start date to prevent workflow hindrances.  This RFE needed to be answered right now.  Here is what we do in this situation:

The petitioner must provide a detailed breakdown of the duties and responsibilities of the H-1B position, and highlight the skills and knowledge required to adequately perform the tasks of the job.  This should emphasize skills attained from completion of an advanced degree.  Include the ad for the job which required a bachelor’s degree as a minimum qualification, provide proof of past hiring practices with this minimum educational requirement, and provide ads for the same position in similar companies within the industry.

Along with this additional evidence as to the nature of the specialty occupation, we included an expert opinion letter based on this information provided.  At CCI TheDegreePeople.com we work with experts in all H-1B fields who have the credentials USCIS requires to lend weight to their opinion.  All of our experts work in the field of the H-1B job – they are NOT instructors in the field – and have held positions of authority in which they have made hiring decisions regarding the positions in question. 

We included this additional evidence and documentation along with the expert opinion letter in the RFE response.  The visa was approved!

If you are facing a specialty occupation RFE, let us help you get it overturned!  Visit www.ccifree.com for a free review of your case and we will respond in 4 hours or less.

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the director of CCI TheDegreePeople.com.  Sheila specializes in overturning RFEs and Denials for work visas.

One recurring education issue facing H-1B beneficiaries is when they have the required degree but in a field that is not an exact match for the H-1B job.  H-1B eligibility requirements state that the beneficiary must hold a minimum of a US bachelor’s degree or its equivalent in a field related to the H-1B job.  However, over the better part of the past decade, USCIS has been issuing RFEs for beneficiaries with a degree specialization that is not an exact match for the H-1B job. 

This is a perennial issue because employers routinely hire employees with degrees in related fields because of the skill and knowledge overlap in addition to work experience in the field of the H-1B job.  Then, USCIS will not approve their visas because the degree specialization is not an exact match.

There are many different educational pathways, and it is the responsibility of the petitioner to clearly show USCIS that the beneficiary has the equivalent of a US bachelor’s degree in the exact field of the H-1B job in terms of US academic value.  Here’s how:

Include a detailed credential evaluation written uniquely to fill in any gaps between the education the H-1B beneficiary has and the education they need to get the visa approved.  This may include a detailed evaluation of the course content of the bachelor’s degree program, professional training, and progressive work experience in the field of the H-1B job.  Three years of progressive work experience in which the H-1B beneficiary took on progressively more complex work or responsibility throughout the course of employment can be converted into one year of college credit in the field.  This conversion must be written by a professor with the authority to grant college credit for work experience.

At CCI TheDegreePeople.com, our international education experts write each credential evaluation uniquely, taking the job, the visa, the education and the work experience into account along with USCIS approval trends.  We work with professors with the authority to grant college credit for work experience to account for the proper degree specialization equivalency.

If you, or if your employee or client received and education H-1B RFE, let our experts help get it overturned!  Visit www.ccifree.com for a free review of your case.  We will respond in 4 hours or less.

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the director of CCI TheDegreePeople.com.  Sheila specializes in overturning RFEs and Denials for work visas.

While the rate of H-1B RFEs has dropped, applicants selected in the second round of this year’s H-1B lottery are seeing a rise in the RFEs instead of outright visa approval.  The start of FY 2022 has come and gone, and RFEs further delay employee start dates, especially if round two arrives.

At CCI TheDegreePeople.com we work with complex RFEs every year and have developed a system for simplifying the process and successfully answering them.  We have consistently answered Double, Triple, and Nightmare RFEs.  Here is how:

First, read through the RFE and then put it down.  Second, go back to the original H-1B eligibility requirements and cross-reference it with the RFE to see where USCIS claims evidence is lacking in regard to the actual requirements. 

• Education issues require a detailed credential evaluation written with the beneficiary’s education, work experience, proffered position, H-1B visa requirements, and USCIS approval trends factored in.  This will close any gaps between the education the employee has and the education the employee needs.
• Address specialty occupation and wage level issues with an expert opinion letter written by an expert in the field of the H-1B job with extensive leadership and field experience.  The stronger the evidence and documentation you can provide, the stronger the letter and the RFE response in general will be. 
• Employer-employee relationship issues can be addressed by showing how the employer will be able to control the work of the H-1B employee even at third-party worksites.  Consulting firms should provide a complete itinerary of work including customer and client contact information for the duration of the H-1B visa.

Always take USCIS approval trends into account because at the end of the day, the adjudicator is who you are writing to.  Take their current trends into account, complete and organize the petition, and triple check to make sure all answers are consistent.  Make it a good experience to read your petition.

When USCIS finds one problem with a petition, this sends off a red flag to look for more, which can snowball into several rounds of complex RFEs.  Before you file an RFE response, let us review your case to make sure you have covered all of your bases. 

For a free review of your case visit www.ccifree.com.  We will respond in 4 hours or less.

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the director of CCI TheDegreePeople.com.  Sheila specializes in overturning RFEs and Denials for work visas.

The numbers are in!  The National Foundation for American Policy reports that the Denial rate for new H-1B petitions for the first two quarters of 2021 is 7.1%.  This is down from 28.6% for the first two quarters of 2020. 

However, this does NOT mean we can relax.  USCIS approval trends are still far stricter than they have been in the recent past, and just because they have loosened doesn’t mean it will be easy to get outright visa approval.  Part of the reason is also likely due to the change in the lottery process.  At CCI TheDegreePeople.com, we suspect that part of the reason for the decline in rate of Denials is because H-1B applicants have gotten better at writing airtight petitions in anticipation of common issues that arise during adjudication. 

Computer programmers, professionals making level one wages, and other H-1B beneficiaries whose jobs do not ALWAYS require a US bachelor’s degree or higher still have to go the extra mile to prevent RFEs and Denials.  Additional evidence and an expert opinion letter are needed.

Beneficiaries with education earned outside of the US, 3-year bachelor’s degrees, incomplete college, no college, or the right degree in the wrong major still need to fortify proof of educational eligibility.  They need to include a detailed credential evaluation that fills in the gaps between the education the H-1B beneficiary has and the educational equivalency USCIS needs to see to approve their visa.  This credential evaluation must take any education and work experience into account, as well as the job, the visa, and USCIS approval trends.

Beneficiaries working as consultants must provide a complete itinerary of the work to be performed for the duration of the H-1B visa period or face employer-employee relationship issues.  Employees working at third-party worksites will also face these issues if additional documentation as to how the employer will be able to control the work of the H-1B employee offsite is not included in the initial petition.

Great work to all of you out there who have not let USCIS off the hook!  Every RFE or Denial successfully answered helped.  Every lawsuit challenging illegal Denials helped.  Every petition filed in anticipation of USCIS unlawful approval trends helped.  We didn’t give up, and we are seeing results!

For a free review of your case, visit www.ccifree.com.  We will respond in 4 hours or less.

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the director of CCI TheDegreePeople.com.  Sheila specializes in overturning RFEs and Denials for work visas.

RFE rates have been tough on H-1B beneficiaries hired to the position of computer programmer, particularly if they are making level one wages.  This trend began several years ago when USCIS stopped approving H-1B visas outright for jobs that normally but not ALWAYS required a bachelor’s degree as a minimum educational requirement.  This hit programmers hard and swift, particularly because historically these professionals had no issue with visa approval.

What changed?  H-1B specialty occupation requirements state that the position must normally require a at least a US bachelor’s degree or its equivalent.  USCIS began adjudicating this as always, making the exception the rule for approval.  This was met with lawsuits, but not everyone has the resources to take USCIS to court. 

If you, or if your employee or client is applying for an H-1B visa to work as a computer programmer, especially if the position is set at wage level one, here is how to prevent a specialty occupation RFE:

1. Provide added evidence and documentation that this particular position is uniquely specialized as to require a bachelor’s degree minimum to perform the duties and responsibilities of the job.
2. Provide the ad for the job and ads for the same job in similar companies to show the bachelor’s degree minimum requirement, and proof of past employer hiring practices.
3. Include an expert opinion letter written by an expert with at least ten years of experience working in the field of the H-1B job.  This letter will lend weight to your case.  Ideally, this expert has held positions of authority in the field that involved making hiring decision regarding the position in question, and supporting positions that depended on the employee hired to the position in question having the skills and knowledge necessary for a functioning operation.

At CCI TheDegreePeople.com we work with experts in all H-1B fields with the experience necessary for USCIS to accept their opinion letters as evidence to support your case.  This strategy works to prevent and answer specialty occupation RFEs for computer programmers, and other borderline positions that normally – but not always – require a bachelor’s degree as a minimum educational hiring requirement.

For a free review of your case, visit www.ccifree.com.  We will respond in 4 hours or less.

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the director of CCI TheDegreePeople.com.  Sheila specializes in overturning RFEs and Denials for work visas.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California vacated the DHS Final Rule, “Modification of Registration Requirement for Petitioners Seeking to File Cap-Subject H-1B Petitions” on September 15^th, in the case Chamber of Commerce, et al., v. DHS, et al.  This final rule, put forth under the Trump administration on January 8, 2021, would have given H-1B visa preference to those with the highest wage levels.  This would have done away with the lottery system and awarded visas based on wage. 

The Biden administration put the Final Rule on hold, to be enacted December 31, 2021 after the U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed a lawsuit challenging the rule.  Then, American Lawyers Association representing five nonprofits and businesses sued the Biden administration.  The onslaught of legal action paid off, preserving the H-1B cap-subject lottery selection process.

But that’s not all.                           

A central aim of the H-1B visa program is to attract foreign students to the United States for Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Ph.D. programs by offering the opportunity to work in the United States after graduation in specialty occupations.  The H-1B visa is a visa of dual intent, so the graduate can choose to pursue permanent residence or not, and the visa period is three years with the opportunity for extension.  However, these recent graduates are entering the field towards the bottom of the pay scale.  This new rule would have effectively excluded them from visa eligibility.

This new rule would have also effectively excluded professionals such as physicists, medical scientists, microbiologists, and other scientists whose positions fall on the lower end of the spectrum as an industry standard from H-1B visa slots. 

While the goal of this new rule was to sequester jobs for Americans, the reality is that we benefit when we can draw the brightest minds from around the world to US industries, and the US workforce does not have the bandwidth to fill the growing number of positions in expanding H-1B eligible industries.  Foreign students and foreign workers actually create MORE jobs for American workers, and create the synergy that keeps US STEM and other industries competitive in the global arena.  We all dodged a bullet. 

At CCI TheDegreePeople.com we are here to help you navigate the changing landscape of visa approval.  As we have seen over the past better part of a decade, USCIS does not need changes in the law to justify adjudication decisions, and not everyone has the means to go to court over an illegal visa rejection.  That’s why we always keep an eye on USCIS approval trends and offer creative solutions to prevent and address approval issues.

For a free review of your case visit www.ccifree.com.  We will respond in 4 hours or less.

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the director of CCI TheDegreePeople.com.  Sheila specializes in overturning RFEs and Denials for work visas.