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The coronavirus outbreak caused unemployment in the United States to jump to 14.7%, with 20.5 million people losing jobs in just the month of April.  With businesses closing left and right, international travel banned and restricted for many countries, and the new 60-day Green Card ban that began April 23^rd, many H-1B and I-140 employees and their families are facing a confusion, stressful, and impossible situation.

At CCI TheDegreePeople.com, we always do our best to face impossible situations armed with up to date information and find a range of solutions that work.  Here are some of the most common questions we have been getting over the past month; we hope our answers can shed light on your situation, and help you find the solution that works best for you.

Will I be impacted by Trump’s Green Card Ban?

If you were in the United States on April 23^rd and have an I-140 petition, this will not affect you.  Those already in the United States seeking permanent residence will not be impacted by this ban, and the ban does not currently impact those with H-1B visa status.

COVID-19 has affected my job, but I want to retain my status and employer.  What are my options?

H-1B employees who want to keep their status but cannot work due to COVID-19 are not eligible to apply for unemployment and cannot be laid off and retain H-1B status.  Employers do have options for retaining H-1B workers during this pandemic.  H-1B employees can be benched with salary or furloughed.  Since H-1B rules require employers to give H-1B workers the same benefits as US nationals they employ, medical leave and paid time off may also be options available for H-1B workers who want to retain H-1B status with their current employer.

I was laid off from my H-1B job due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but I have an I-140 petition and am on EB backlog.  What are my options?

If you are currently in EB-3 or EB-2 backlog and you have lost your H-1B job due to COVID-19, you can file an Employment Authorization Document under the category of compelling circumstances.  This can be renewed annually.  However, you should not rely on COVID-19 to be your compelling circumstance.  Definitely include this reason when you file your document, but use another reason for the primary compelling circumstance. 

If your H-1B employer still wants to sponsor your green card and has filed an I-140 on your behalf, but had to lay you off from your H-1B job, they can still continue with your I-140 since it is based on prospective employment.  When your employer can rehire you, they can file another H-1B petition on your behalf which will not be counted against the cap, and you will able to apply for three-year extensions, even beyond the limit of six years.

If have H-1B status and your I-140 employer had to close or remove your position due to COVID-19, you can still retain your priority date with a new I-140 employer.  This new employer can file an H-1B petition on your behalf in the meantime, and this petition will not be counted against the cap.  You will be able to apply for three-year extensions beyond the six-year limit.

Your H-1B employer also has the option to bench you with salary, furlough you, or give you paid time off or medical leave, or any applicable CARES Act payroll protection assistance they qualify for and have received.

I was laid off from my H-1B job due to COVID-19 and want to stay in the country, but do not have an I-140.  What are my options?

You have a 60-day grace period to stay in the country under H-1B visa status.  If you spent time outside of the United States during the H-1B period, USCIS offers buyback time which you can also use to cushion yourself for your next move.  If possible, you can find another H-1B employer and your new petition will not be counted against the cap.  Other options include changing to B-1 temporary business visitor visa status, for F-1 if taking this time to further your education in the United States is a good option for you and your family. 

I was laid off from my H-1B job and want to leave the country but cannot leave due to international travel restrictions.  What are my options?

This is the sticky situation many have found themselves in.  Remember, you have a 60-day grace period and you may have buyback time, but this will only get you so far in these uncertain times.  We recommend you request a change of status to B-2 visitor before your grace period is up, extending your stay for six months through filing a Form I-539. 

We are happy to help you find the answers to any questions you may have regarding the impact of COVID-19 on your visa status.  If you must file another H-1B petition for a new employer or extension, time is of the essence.  For this reason, we are waiving 72-hour rush delivery fees for the month of May for expert letters and academic evaluations.  Our full staff is working remotely and fully operational, ready to help you 24/7.

For a free review of your case, visit ccifree.com.  We will get back to you in 48 hours or less.

With millions of American residents receiving $1200 stimulus checks, and millions more still waiting, thousands of foreign students and workers who filed taxes for 2018 or 2019 are receiving theirs – by accident.  And they don’t know what to do about it.

A survey of over 500 US universities at the end of April found that 43% of these schools had foreign students report that they wrongfully received $1200 stimulus checks.  The IRS has issued no guidance on how to return these checks, leaving their recipients to wonder if they should hang onto the cash to return later or just spend it fearing serious repercussions. 

Many of these people no longer even live in the United States.  The recipients of these mistaken stimulus checks are largely college-aged foreign students and workers who were in the United States on F-1 or J-1 visas and filed taxes for 2018 or 2019 via TurboTax, which is an e-filing program designed for US residents, not temporary students and workers.  Instead of filing the correct tax form 1040-NR, through TurboTax, they filed a 1040.  This glitch is common, with the majority of the country’s almost 400,000 J-1 visa holders not filing at all, or filing incorrectly by accident.  While the IRS rarely catches this glitch, this year it may have far-reaching consequences with stimulus payment recipients accidentally committing tax fraud.  Neither the IRS or TurboTax has issued any guidance on recipients can fix this.

F-1 and J-1 visa holders from 2018 and 2019 are not the only ones mistakenly receiving stimulus checks.  Marketwatch reported that thousands of deceased US residents who filed taxes for 2018 or 2019 before dying have been receiving checks.  The IRS has issued no guidance for surviving relatives who receive these checks either. 

With the intention of expediting the cash dissemination process, the CARES Act specifically states that if you receive too much money in your stimulus payment, it is considered a math error or clerical error on the part of the IRS and it does not need to be repaid.  However, it is doubtful those who received checks in error are off the hook. 

We anticipate the IRS will issue guidance soon on how to return mistaken stimulus payments.  In the meantime, we recommend holding off on spending until stated legal consequences become clear.

At CCI TheDegreePeople.com we are keeping up to date on all changes regarding US immigration, international education, and visa application.  Our full staff is working remotely and fully operational to provide 24/7 service for consultations, academic evaluations, and expert opinion letters. 

For a free review of your case, visit ccifree.com.  We will respond in 48 hours or less, and we are waiving fees on 72-hour rush delivery for expert letters and academic evaluations for the month of May.  

The notorious Nightmare RFE has been becoming more and more commonplace over the past few years as USCIS has been caught arbitrarily not approving H-1B visa petitions.  These RFEs find issue with virtually everything about the petition – the job, the education, the employer-employee relationship, the wage level, and sometimes even more.  By its own guidelines, this RFE is virtually impossible to answer in time.

At CCI TheDegreePeople.com we have been helping our clients answer these RFEs with an above 90% success rate for years.  How do we do it?  We don’t follow directions!

The trick to answering these RFEs is to not get caught up in the wording and specific demands, but rather to read it through, take a deep breath, and put it down.  Go back to the original H-1B eligibility requirements and build the case back up from there.  This means making sure if there are any gaps between the required education and the beneficiary’s education, include a credential evaluation that converts their education and work experience into the equivalency of the required degree in the required field.  This means including an expert opinion letter along with extensive documentation showing how the job meets specialty occupation eligibility requirements, and that the wage level is set appropriately.  This means including an employer letter and copy of the contract to show that the employer can control the work of the H-1B employee.  In recent years, USCIS has required employers to provide an itinerary of the projects the H-1B employee will be working on throughout the term of the H-1B visa, along with client names and contact information – this is something that petitioners must anticipate and be prepared to provide this if necessary.

Your answer to the Nightmare RFE will depend on your case, its strengths, and its weaknesses.  This is an opportunity to strengthen the entire case.  We can help you break it down into manageable steps and set realistic goals and milestones to successfully answer this awful RFE.

For a free review of your case visit ccifree.com.  We will respond in 48 hours or less.  We have a full staff, working remotely to ensure we can continue to deliver uninterrupted service.  72-hour rush delivery fees for academic evaluations and expert opinion letters are waived for the month of May.

USCIS has been illegally denying and issuing RFEs for H-1B visa petitions for jobs that actually do meet specialty occupation criteria.  Earlier this year, three federal judges overturned USCIS decisions to reject visas based on specialty occupation issues that were actually fabricated from their own “arbitrary and capricious” adjudication.

Here’s the issue:

To qualify as a specialty occupation and therefore meet H-1B eligibility requirements, the job must normally require a minimum of a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its foreign equivalent to be hired.  Instead of “normally” USCIS has been substituting the word “always” with no change in regulation or law in order to illegally deny visas and issue RFEs.

In the past few years, the prevalence of specialty occupation RFEs has skyrocketed, even for jobs that had never before run into issues.  This year, we are already seeing specialty occupation RFEs in spite of recent legal precedent decisions.  Here is how to answer them:

Include an expert opinion letter in your response.  This takes two steps.

1. Find the RIGHT expert.

The right expert is someone with at least a decade of experience WORKING in the field of the H-1B job, who has worked in a wide range of positions in the field and has extensive experience hiring employees to the position of the H-1B visa.  This expert has a complete understanding of the field and understands the skills and knowledge necessary to perform the job in question, what education is required as a minimum to have attained these skills needed to perform the job, and industry standards regarding educational requirements for hiring.

2. Provide this expert with as much information, evidence, and documentation as possible.

In order to write the expert opinion letter that you or your employee or client needs to get that visa approved, you will need to provide as much as you can regarding the employer, past hiring practices for the position, and the duties, responsibilities, and expectations for the position as possible.  This includes the ad for the job, specific skill requirements to perform the specific duties of the position, and so forth.  The more information you can provide the expert, the more detailed and specific opinion letter they can write.

At CCI TheDegreePeople.com, we have the RIGHT experts on hand in every field ready to write the opinion letter you need, or your employee or client needs to answer that H-1B specialty occupation RFE.  We are waiving our 72-hour rush delivery fee for all academic credential evaluations and expert opinion letters through the month of May to help you start work on time, or your employee or client start work on time regardless of USCIS delays due to the COVID-19 crisis.

For a free review of your case, visit ccifree.com.  We will respond in 48 hours or less.

H-1B beneficiaries selected in the lottery for cap-subject visas have been notified!  If you, or if your employee or client was selected, you have 90 days from notification to file the completed H-1B petition. 

When it comes to USCIS, 90 days is shorter than you think, especially with record numbers of RFEs, second and third rounds of RFEs, and Denials that have plagued petitioners since FY2015 and delayed start dates for H-1B workers.  The key to an on-time start date this fall is to get the completed H-1B petition filed, with all of your bases covered to prevent adjudication issues, as soon as possible.  Anticipate any RFE issues to prevent them, and also anticipate that you will receive at least one round of RFEs before approval and budget your time accordingly.

USCIS has been illegally denying visas by interpreting specialty occupation requirements as ALWAYS requiring a minimum of a US bachelor’s degree or higher for entry into the position, instead of NORMALLY.  Normally is what is stated in laws governing H-1B eligibility, and three federal judges have already found that USCIS was illegally exchanging “always” for “normally” to wrongfully deny H-1B petitions.  It is important to keep this in mind when filing.  Specialty occupation issues are likely to arise.

How can you prevent these RFEs and Denials?  Over the past few years, we have helped clients successfully overturn these RFEs and Denials, and prevent them altogether by including an expert opinion letter addressing how the position meets specialty occupation requirements as an industry standard.  This expert must have extensive experience working in the field.  A professor or instructor in the field with limited industry experience does not qualify in the eyes of USCIS.  We have the right kind of expert on hand 24/7 to write the letter you need, or your employee or client needs to fortify their case.  Citing federal court precedents set this year may also be necessary to ensure that USCIS is compliant with laws governing the H-1B visa program.

CCI TheDegreePeople.com is here, fully functional with a full staff working from home.  To help you get a jump on your complete H-1B filing, we are offering FREE 72 hour rush delivery on academic credential evaluations and expert letters through the end of May.

For a free review of your case, visit ccifree.com.  We will get back to you in 48 hours or less.

While the rate of RFE responses to H-1B visa petitions has skyrocketed since 2015, the Denial rate spiked from 6% for FY2015 to 21% in FY2019.  At CCI TheDegreePeople.com, we work with difficult cases, RFEs, and Denials every year, and in those years, we saw jobs that had never run into issues before suddenly being regularly hit with Specialty Occupation RFEs and Denials.  Something had changed, and it WAS NOT the laws regulating visa approval.

H-1B beneficiaries and their sponsors, immigration attorneys, and others involved in the H-1B process began to suspect USCIS was acting illegally in rejecting perfectly eligible visa petitions.  Turns out, federal judges agree.

H-1B visas are for foreign workers in positions that are considered specialty occupations.  Federal regulations governing H-1B visa eligibility state that a specialty occupation is a job that normally requires a minimum of a baccalaureate degree or higher or its equivalent.  Over the past few years, USCIS has been swapping out “normally” with “always” without any change to laws governing this legal definition of eligibility.

On March 6, 2020, 3Q Digital, Inc. v. USCIS ruled in favor of H-1B sponsor employer 3Q Digital, Inc., whose new hire’s H-1B petition was denied illegally.  The H-1B worker was hired to be a Search Engine Marketing Account Manager with a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Massachusetts.  USCIS said the job was not a specialty occupation because it did not always require a bachelor’s degree in a specialized field, but normally did.  Similarly, on March 26, 2020, Taylor Made Software v. Cuccinelli resolved the issue of whether or not the position of Computer Systems Analyst was a specialty occupation.  The Occupational Outlook Handbook stated that the hiring norm was a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in an information science or computer science field, but sometimes business or liberal arts majors are hired if they have IT or computer programming skills as well.  The federal judge deciding this case ruled that the description in the Occupational Outlook Handbook supported that the specialized advanced degree requirement was the norm – as per the legal definition of specialty occupation.

On March 26, 2020, in the case India House, Inc. v. Kevin McAleenan, a federal judge ruled against the Administrative Appeals Office’s decision to uphold the denial of an H-1B petition.  The employee in question’s H-1B visa had been approved in 2013 and 2016.  Like the other two rulings, it was clear that USCIS had acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” in its illegal decision to deny the visa.

These are the issues we help our clients address with credential evaluations and expert letters.  This documentation provides compelling evidence that rallies federal judges to hold USCIS accountable.  These are the stories of the people we work with.  USCIS is acting “arbitrarily and capriciously” and breaking the law to wrongfully deny H-1B visas.  These lawsuits are essential for the health of the H-1B visa program, which is vital to the viability of STEM industries in the United States, and US immigration in general.  The ONLY way to force USCIS to stop doing this is to hold them accountable by in court, and by successfully overturning illegal RFEs and Denials through expert letters and extensive documentation.  These lawsuits serve as legal precedents to protect the rights and strengthen the cases of H-1B petitioners to come.

For a free review of your case visit ccifree.com.  We are fully operational with our entire staff working from home and will – as always – respond in 48 hours or less.

At CCI TheDegreePeople.com, we know that visa application and school admission applications obligations don’t just pause with the COVID-19 crisis.  We understand what is on the line for the people we serve, and so WE’RE STILL HERE!

All of our staff is working remotely from home, fully operational. 

We are also keeping up to date on USCIS visa application schedules, common RFE and NOID issues facing visa applicants, and working with international education experts to continue to find creative solutions for difficult cases.  Our goal is to help you, or your employees and clients start work or school on time, with no visa holdups due to education or occupation issues, or due to delays in the visa approval process.

Our commitment to you has always been to be available 24/7 every day of the year to provide individualized expert letters and credential evaluations at affordable rates with rush delivery options to meet your needs, and we are keeping our commitment to you in spite of the crisis facing us all.  We are offering FREE 72 hour rush delivery for expert letters and credential evaluations for the month of April!

For a free review of your case, visit ccifree.com/.  We will get back to you in 48 hours or less.

USCIS accepted electronic submissions for cap-subject H-1B petitions for FY2021 March 1^st through 20^th 2020.  More than enough applications were filed electronically to meet the annual cap, sending the process to a randomized electronic lottery.  The lottery is now complete, and those selected will be notified by March 31^st, 2020, USCIS says.

You can check the status of your visa application, or of your employee or client’s visa application by going to the beneficiary’s online USCIS account.  The status of the submission will either say submitted, selected, or denied.  Submitted means the application was successfully submitted but not selected.  However, even if it was not selected, the petition will continue to be under consideration until the fiscal year’s end, when the status will change to selected, not selected, or denied.

Denied means that the electronic petition was denied due to duplicate submissions, self-submission, declined payment, and so forth.

Selected means that your petition, or your employee or client’s petition has been selected in the H-1B lottery, and you now have 90 days to complete and submit the full H-1B petition.  Due to COVID-19 related issues, premium processing has been suspended, but all deadlines are still on schedule for when you need to complete the filing.  This may be subject to change, and we will keep you updated.  In the meantime, it is time, for those selected, it is time to complete the petition as soon as possible to ensure an on-time start date.  That means anticipating and addressing all possible issues that may arise in adjudicating your case, or your employee or client’s case in your complete filing.

At CCI TheDegreePeople.com we work with difficult cases and RFEs every year.  We have an understanding of what triggers them, and what prevents them.  Let us review your case and give you a free consultation before you file.  Simply visit ccifree.com/ and we will get back to you in 48 hours or less.  All rush delivery fees are waived for the month of March!

Guest Blog by Eric Lyons

Being the most sought-after visa to enter the United States of America, an H1B visa is difficult to get. Applicants for H1B jobs in USA (beneficiaries of H1B visa petitions) can either be living in the USA or outside the USA at the time of filing of the petition.

Even though H1B visa petitioners and prospective visa holders have a slight knowledge of RFE, most of the time they cannot decode the reason why they got one. In this blog post, we have tried to cover the essential information related to H1B RFE, including its meaning, probable reasons, and response practices. Continue reading to get answers to all your questions.

What is RFE?

RFE stands for ‘Request for Evidence’, a request made by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), against the H1B visa petitions. The objective behind issuing an RFE is to seek additional evidence in the form of explanatory answers and documents before adjudicating an H1B visa petition.

How do you get notified?

Once the H1B petition filed by your current employer, prospective employer, or staffing consultant in the USA gets picked up in the lottery, you will get a USCIS case/receipt number. You need to ask your sponsor to share this number with you. With the help of the USCIS case/receipt number, you can check the status of your petition online.

Why do you get an H1B RFE?

Though an RFE for the H1B petition can be received because of any reason, the following are some typical reasons that are observed in the majority of the cases.

• A discrepancy in Information between Application and VIBE

The VIBE, which stands for ‘Validation Instrument for Business Enterprises’ is a web-based tool used by the USCIS for verifying the details mentioned about the H1B employer in the application. If the details don’t match, you are likely to receive an H1B RFE.

• Relationship between an Employer and an Employee

The relationship between a current/prospective employer and a current/prospective employee plays a strong role in the approval of H1B visa. For the application to be considered legitimate, it has to be proved that an employer-employee relationship exists between the employing organization itself. Supervision is done for this.

If the job has to be performed offsite, you need to explain the reason and follow the necessary rules.

• Inconsistency between the Prescribed and Offered Wage Rate

The government has prescribed a wage for employees at different levels, giving priority to citizens.

The employees at level 1 are entry level employees, whereas the employees at level 4 are fully competent. H1B jobs in USA are provided to job seekers in specialty occupations. So, they should be given the wages or remuneration as. 

If the wages offered to you as mentioned in the H1B visa petition filed on your behalf does not match the level 4 wages, you will receive a request for evidence. Explaining the reason behind the inconsistency between the wages might be difficult for you and your employer.

What should you do on receiving an H1B RFE? You should coordinate with your employer to respond to the H1B RFE. If an H1B RFE is issued to you despite taking all the precautions, you must submit the response carefully as you will not get a second chance.

Eric Lyons is a PR strategist and writer at OPTnation, with extensive professional management experience in both public and private sectors.

Today, Friday March 27, USCIS announced that any applicants responding to RFEs or NOIDs between March 1^st and May 1^st of 2020 will have until 60 calendar days FOLLOWING their given response deadlines to submit. 

“USCIS is adopting several measures to protect our workforce and community, and to minimize the immigration consequences for those seeking immigration benefits during this time,” USCIS announced in the email announcing this extension.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, USCIS has suspended premium processing on H-1B visa petitions – both cap-subject and cap-exempt.  As the global situation regarding the pandemic evolves, USCIS will keep up-to-date information regarding changes to services, deadlines, and response times at uscis.gov/coronavirus.

In the meantime, CCI TheDegreePeople.com is operating at full speed with our entire staff working remotely.  We continue to meet delivery timelines and are offering rush delivery of expert letters and academic evaluations at no extra charge for the month of March.  You don’t have to wait to file your response and risk a late work start date.

For a free review of your case visit ccifree.com/.  We will get back to you in 48 hours or less.