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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.

Unsure of your H-1B petition status?  Does it seem like processing time is dragging?  Has your address or other contact information changed since the time of filing leave you concerned that maybe you missed something?  You can get peace of mind by checking your case status online through the USCIS Case Status Online portal.

Here is what you need: the case receipt number.  This is a unique 13-character code consisting of three letters and ten subsequent numbers.  If you are not sure where your case receipt number is, look at the notices of action you have received by USCIS.  This number will appear on these notices.

On the case tracking portal, you will be prompted to enter this number.  When doing so, include all numbers, including asterisks if applicable, but omit all dashes, then hit the CHECK STATUS button.  From here, you will be able to view the status of your case and additional steps you will need to take.  If your contact information or address has changed since the time of filing, you will be prompted at this point to update this information to ensure streamlined communication regarding visa processing.

At this point, into FY2022, you are likely anxious to get the H-1B employee onboarded and to work.  There may still be RFEs standing in your way.  While RFE rates have dropped from previous cap-subject H-1B visa filing cycles, they are slowly creeping back up as second-round selections for this year’s lottery are being processed.  If you receive an RFE instead of approval, don’t panic.  This is not a rejection and can serve as an opportunity to strengthen your case.  Read over the RFE, then put it down and go back to the original H-1B eligibility requirements.  Then, cross-reference to see which requirements USCIS find evidence lacking in your case and provide additional evidence and documentation from there. 

If you have an education issue, a credential evaluation that fills in any gaps between the education the beneficiary has and the education USCIS will approve.  This may require a progressive work experience conversion in which three years of work experience in the field of the H-1B job wherein the beneficiary’s work took on greater complexity, specialization, and responsibility occurred indicating that education occurred on the job can be converted into one year of college credit in the major of the H-1B job. 

If you have a specialty occupation issue, an expert opinion letter written by an expert with extensive experience working in the field of the H-1B job in positions of leadership in which they made hiring decisions regarding the position in question will lend weight to your case.  This letter will be based on the information you can provide to the expert regarding the specific position in question. 

At CCI TheDegreePeople.com we work with difficult RFEs every year and we get them overturned.  We work with professors authorized to grant college credit for work experience available to write progressive work experience conversions.  Our international and domestic education experts write every credential evaluation uniquely, taking the job, education, work experience, visa requirements, and USCIS approval trends into account.  We work with experts in every H-1B field to write opinion letters to strengthen H-1B cases.  We know what triggers RFEs and we know how to successfully answer them.

Let us review your case for free.  Visit www.ccifree.com and we will respond in 4 hours or less with a free consultation. 

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the director off 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.

For nearly the past decade, H-1B beneficiaries who earned their degree outside of the United States in an educational system with a three-year bachelor’s degree program have run into trouble.  Those holding Indian three-year bachelor’s degrees are hit the hardest and most consistently. 

Even though there are equal if not more classroom contact hours in an Indian three-year degree as a US four-year bachelor degree, USCIS adjudication is hung up on the missing fourth year of college.  If you, or if your employee or client is in this situation, the answer is a work experience conversion.

Here’s how it works:

Three years of progressive work experience can be converted into one year of college credit by a professor authorized to grant college credit for work experience.  Progressive work experience means the beneficiary can clearly show that education occurred on the job as evidence by promotions, having taken on increasingly complex duties and responsibilities, and that the nature of the work became increasingly specialized over the course of employment.  This conversion occurs in the context of a credential evaluation that clearly shows the academic value of the beneficiary’s education in terms of US academic standards. 

At CCI TheDegreePeople.com we work with professors authorized to make this work experience conversion.  Each credential evaluation is written uniquely by our international education experts, taking the job, the education, the work experience, the visa, and USCIS approval trends into account.  This is what we do best, and we have seen overwhelming success with the approval strategy in both initial petitions and in answering education RFEs.

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.

This year, the H-1B lottery held two rounds to fill all 85,000 visa slots, regular and advanced degree caps.  That means those selected in round two are knee-deep in RFE season.  The Double RFE, which takes issue with both the occupation and the wage level is common amongst complex RFEs and is based on two incorrect assumptions on part of USCIS:

1. If a position is set at wage level one, that means it is entry-level.
2. If a position is entry-level, it does not meet specialty occupation requirements.

First, wage levels are set based on a multitude of factors, including work experience.  Recent college graduates need additional supervision and on-the-job training, necessitating a lower starting wage.  This does not mean the job is an entry-level position, or that the wage level is set incorrectly. 

Second, in most cases, if the job is entry level, it still normally requires a US bachelor’s degree or higher as a minimum educational requirement to be hired to the position.  In recent years, if the occupation entry in the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook states anything but the position always requires a US bachelor’s degree or higher as a minimum education requirement, USCIS is likely to issue an RFE. 

These issues often go hand-in-hand because if the wage level is set at wage level one, USCIS assumes the position is entry level, and then specialty occupation issues arise, or USCIS assumes the wage level is set incorrectly.  This creates a feedback loop that quickly escalates into a complex RFE.

Luckily, the answer is not as complex as the RFE itself.  First, you will need to provide the ad for the job and ads for the same job in similar companies showing the advanced degree minimum requirement.  Second, provide a detailed breakdown of the duties and responsibilities of the job highlighting the skills and knowledge acquired specifically through completion of a bachelor’s degree or higher program in the field of the H-1B job.  Third, provide an analysis of the factors that went into setting the wage level as it is.  Finally, include an expert opinion letter that addresses both wage level and specialty occupation issues written by an expert in the field of the H-1B job.  This expert must have at least ten years of experience working in the field of the H-1B job and have held positions of authority in which they made hiring decisions regarding the position in question.  This letter will be based on the information you have provided.

At CCI TheDegreePeople.com we work with experts in every H-1B field whose credentials USCIS will accept as lending weight to their opinion.  If you have received a Double RFE or another complex RFE, get our experts in your corner.

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.

Issues regarding education is a perennial problem H-1B beneficiaries face when it comes time to file.  This is because there are many educational pathways that highly skilled workers take to acquire the specialized knowledge and skill sets that their employers hire them for.   If the educational pathway is anything but a US bachelor’s degree or higher in the exact field of the H-1B job, USCIS is likely to answer the H-1B petition with an RFE instead of outright approval.

Common education situations that are likely to trigger approval issues:

• Degree earned outside the United States
• Three-year bachelor’s degree
• Generalized degree
• Degree with a major in a different field from the H-1B job
• Incomplete college
• No college
• Credential earned at an unaccredited institution.

To address these education issues in your H-1B petition or RFE response, it is essential to clearly show the US academic value of the beneficiary’s educational pathway is the equivalent to a US bachelor’s degree or higher in the field of the H-1B job.  The most effective strategy to accomplish this is with a detailed credential evaluation that includes a progressive work experience conversion.

What is a progressive work experience conversion?  Progressive work experience happens when it can be shown that education occurred on the job.  This is work experience where the beneficiary can show the nature of their work became more complex and specialized over time, indicating that specialized education occurred on the job.  Three years of this kind of work experience can be converted into one year of college credit in the major of the field of the job.  A professor authorized to grant college credit for work experience can write this conversion to account for missing years of education or show the equivalency of the degree in the matching major.

At CCI TheDegreePeople.com, we work with authorized professors to write each credential evaluation uniquely to fit the job, the education, the visa, and USCIS approval trends.  We work with difficult education RFEs every year.  We know how to prevent them, and we know how to answer them.

Let us review your petition or RFE for free before you file to check for education issues and advise solutions.  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.