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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.

Even though USCIS is suspending premium processing due to COVID-19, we are not!  At CCI TheDegreePeople.com, we are operating with a FULL STAFF remotely and continue to honor our rush delivery schedules.

We anticipate USCIS will take longer than usual to turn visa approvals around.  This means it is more important than ever to get those petitions completed as soon as possible to allow enough turnaround time for employees to meet their October 1^st start dates this year.  When you file, it is important to anticipate and take steps to prevent any issues that may arise that could prolong adjudication period.  Education issues, specialty occupation issues, employer-employee relationship issues, wage level issues, and more have become increasingly common since the passage of the “Buy American and Hire American” executive order of 2017.  Cases that would never have run into trouble before 2017 are now receiving at least one round of RFEs before approval.

That is why we are waiving rush delivery fees for expert letters and evaluations for the month of March! 

Our rush delivery options include 4-Day Service, Next Business Day Service, and Special 12 Hour Service.  Our 12 Hour Service goes by clock hours, NOT by business hours.  We know that when it comes to visa application, time is of the essence.  That is why we make ourselves available to you 24/7 and offer a variety of delivery options to best suit your filing needs.

To get started, visit ccifree.com/ for a free review of your case. 

As of March 20, 2020, USCIS ceased accepting premium processing requests for I-129 and I-140 due to COVID-19 related issues.  This impacts H-1B cap-subject petitions, as well as H-1B cap-exempt petitions for FY2021.  No new requests will be carried out.

What does this mean for those who filed H-1B cap-subject petitions starting at the beginning of this month?  Expect delays.  This does not mean you can take your time.  Over the past few years, the rate of RFEs and Denials – and the rate of second and third rounds of RFEs – have seen a sharp increase.  This caused many H-1B employees to start work late for FY2020, harming employer workflow.

This is even more reason to file your complete petition as soon as possible, with possible issues anticipated and prepared for with additional evidence and documentation.

All CCI TheDegreePeople.com staff are set up to work remotely, and our workflow has not slowed.  We are committed to on-time delivery and 24/7 communication through your preferred channel.  As always, we are offering free consultations to identify any weaknesses in your case, or in your employee or client’s case, and consult on how to best prevent subsequent issues.  Whether it’s a credential evaluation, and expert opinion letter, or additional documentation, we can help you determine how to best proceed.  It is more important this year than ever to get that petition right and airtight the first time to ensure an on-time start date.

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

This year, USCIS began opened electronic registration for H-1B visa cap-subject petitions on March 1^st and will continue to accept electronic applications through 12:00pm Eastern Time on March 20^th.

Employers filing on behalf of H-1B employees must create a myUSCIS online account to register and pay a fee of $10 per employee.  While each individual employee must be registered separately with a separate fee, all of this can be completed in one session, and employers can store and edit electronic registration drafts in their myUSCIS account throughout the registration period ending March 20^th.

It is expected that the number of electronic submissions will far exceed the H-1B cap of 65,000 visas for beneficiaries with US bachelor’s degrees or higher, and an additional 20,000 for applicants with US master’s degrees and higher.  This year, applicants with advanced degrees will get two rounds in the selection process, with the 20,000 advanced degree visas being chosen first and all applicants not selected entered into the subsequent general lottery.  USCIS says applicants selected will be informed by March 31^st, as that is their goal.

For more detailed information and access portals for electronic submission, go to uscis.gov/h-1b. 

Following notification, those selected will have 90 days to file the completed H-1B petition.  It is important to have this filed as soon as possible as we anticipate another year of record-high rates of RFEs, and multiple rounds of them.  Last year, many H-1B employees were prevented from starting work on time on October 1^st 2019 because they were still embroiled in the RFE response process, delaying workflow for their sponsors and their sponsors’ clients.  To prevent this from happening this year, file as soon as possible and anticipate RFEs by providing in the initial filing:

1. An expert opinion letter that addresses specialty occupation, wage level, and employer-employee relationship issues.
2. A credential evaluation uniquely written to address the beneficiary’s education, work experience, proffered position, H-1B educational standards and USCIS approval trends.

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

This year, USCIS is implementing a new application process for cap-subject H-1B visa petitions for FY 2021.  This will be a two-step application process, and the first step begins NEXT WEEK on March 1, 2020 and runs through March 20.

H-1B petitioners must register with USCIS electronically and pay a $10 fee for every beneficiary applying for an H-1B visa.  An application for each H-1B worker must be submitted separately, even if working for the same employer.  If the number of applicants exceeds the number of annual cap-subject H-1B visas – which is extremely likely to happen – there will be an electronic lottery wherein 85,000 total applicants will be randomly selected to file completed H-1B petitions.  20,000 visas are allocated to beneficiaries with advanced degrees of US master’s degrees or higher or the degree’s equivalent, and applicants with US bachelor’s degrees or higher or its equivalent are eligible for the remaining 65,000 slots. 

What is also different this year is that those with degrees beyond a bachelor’s degree or its equivalency get two shots at the lottery.  The first 20,000 visas are selected, and then all applicants with these advanced degrees not chosen get a second chance to be selected in the general lottery.

For step-by-step instructions for how to register for the H-1B electronic application process that begins next week, reference https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-workers/h-1b-specialty-occupations-and-fashion-models/h-1b-electronic-registration-process/.  The first step is to set up an online USCIS account.

USCIS states that all selected applicants will be notified by March 31, 2020.  Applicants selected will then have 90 days to submit their complete H-1B petitions, but USCIS will begin accepting completed petitions on April 1, 2020.

The sooner the complete H-1B petition is submitted the better.  For the past two years, applicants have been receiving record rates of RFEs, and record rates of second rounds of RFEs.  This has forced many H-1B employers to push back their employees’ start dates, which completely throws a monkey wrench in employers’ workflow, and the workflow of employers’ clients and customers.  The sooner your petition, or your employee or client’s complete petition is ready to submit, the better.  To prevent an RFE – or two, or even three rounds of RFEs – be sure to include in every complete petition:

1. A credential evaluation that closes ANY gaps between your education, or your employee or client’s education and the H-1B job.  This means that if the degree earned is in a different major than the field of the H-1B job, is generalized or incomplete, if there is no college degree or the degree was earned at an unaccredited school, or if the degree was earned outside of the United States, a credential evaluation written uniquely to address the beneficiary’s education, work experience, job, and visa requirements is necessary.
2. An expert opinion letter that validates that the job does in fact meet H-1B specialty occupation requirements, the wage level is set appropriately, and that the situation constitutes an employer-employee relationship.

At TheDegreePeople.com we have experts and credential evaluators on hand 24/7 to write the evaluations and opinion letters you need, or your employee or client needs to get that petition submitted as soon as possible.  We offer rush delivery options to meet your needs at reasonable prices, each credential evaluation is written uniquely and thoroughly researched, and all of our experts have extensive field experience.

For a free review of your case, or your employee or client’s case, simply reply to this email or visit ccifree.com/.  We will get back to you in 48 hours or less.