The American Immigration Lawyers Association released USCIS documents following the settlement of a FOIA lawsuit that confirm their suspicions that USCIS has been limiting H-1B visas without legal precedent. The USCIS documents made public are “H-1B RFE Standards” from March 23, 2017, and “H-1B AC21 Denial Standards, from July 17,

The rate of H-1B petitions receiving an RFE instead of outright approval has skyrocketed to 60%.  That means if you, or your employee or client filed an H-1B petition back in April and made the lottery, they most likely received an RFE.  Of those 60% who received RFEs, just 60%

Over the past three H-1B cap-subject seasons, we have seen an unprecedented rise in specialty occupation RFEs calling jobs into question that had never run into trouble before.  This trend is echoed across the entire H-1B visa program, with overall approval rates plummeting from over 80% in 2015 to around

How to Fight the H-1B Specialty Occupation RFE and Why it’s Important Over the past two years, H-1B jobs that had previously been approved as specialty occupations – such as electrical engineer or computer programmer – are now receiving RFEs as responses to initial petitions instead of approval.  This is

Over the past two years, lawyers, employers, and H-1B beneficiaries have suspected USCIS raised its standard of proof for H-1B visa approval without any new law, regulation, or notice to the public.  This was evidenced anecdotally with jobs that had never before been called into question for meeting H-1B specialty

The numbers show that the same specialty occupations approved for H-1B visas just a few years ago are now being called into question.  According to Forbes, in FY2017 only 3% of H-1B extension petitions were denied.  These petitions are for beneficiaries whose H-1B visas were previously approved.  Then, in FY2018,

RFE Season is Rolling in with MORE Specialty Occupation RFEs Every year, a higher percentage of H-1B beneficiaries selected in the lottery receive an RFE this time of year instead of outright visa approval.  If you, or if your employee or client received an H-1B RFE this year, there is

Case Study: The Right Credential Evaluation to Overturn an H-1B RFE During H-1B RFE season, we have beneficiaries come to us every year with education RFEs.  We always tell our readers to NEVER submit a petition without a credential evaluation IF the education is incomplete, in a different degree than