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answering an h1b rfe

Overturn the Dreaded Level 1 Wage and Specialty Occupation H1B RFE

Case Studies, Immigration

It’s no secret that CIS approval trends, especially with regards to the much sought-after H1B visa, change from year to year. RFEs for petitions for FY-2018 have started arriving and this year, CIS is going after entry level wages for H1B jobs. Here’s the scoop: H1B visas are reserved for highly skilled foreign workers in specialty occupations. This means a candidate must hold a US bachelor’s degree or higher, or its equivalent to qualify, and the job must be specialized to the point of requiring a minimum of that degree or degree equivalency to perform its duties. Part of the petition is the employer submitting a Labor Conditions Application which indicates that the H1B employee will make prevailing wages for that job in that geographic location for companies of that size. Some of these jobs pay entry level wages. That’s where employers have been running into trouble this year. CIS has been consistent in issuing RFEs for candidates making entry level wages because there is question as to whether these entry level jobs are adequately specialized to meet H1B educational requirements. While the rationalization behind this is that many entry level jobs do not require a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its equivalent, many professions DO require this education to gain entry to the field. At TheDegreePeople.com, we work with RFEs and difficult cases on a regular basis and understand what CIS is really looking for in the evidence they request. To have us review your case at no charge and no obligation, please submit the following documents to [email protected] • LCA • Beneficiary’s resume and educational documents • Employer Support Letter • Detailed job description and duties • RFE We will get back o you in 48 hours or less with a full analysis and, if we can help you, the costs of this and how many to order.]]>

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Five Tips to Successfully Answer Your H1B RFE

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals


An RFE is an opportunity to strengthen you case, or your employee or client’s case. At TheDegreePeople, we work with H1B RFEs regularly and have found that these five tips in particular help clients find success in answering even the most difficult RFEs.

  1. Find out who is at fault for the RFE.

This is not to cast blame, but rather to find out where evidence is lacking and who dropped the ball. Sometimes CIS is at fault. It’s no surprise that CIS makes mistakes. A candidate can file a spotless H1B petition on time, in order, and still receive an RFE. Sometimes the attorney will file the petition wrong. Sometimes the candidate is mistaken or misleading about the actual academic value of their education, sometimes the credential evaluator made a mistake, and sometimes the evaluator wrote an accurate evaluation without taking CIS approval trends and H1B requirements into consideration. Find out who is at fault, and from there discern what must be done to rectify the situation.

  1. Read the RFE, but don’t read into it TOO much.

Sit down with your team, read the RFE, figure out what is being asked of you, and then put it down. Getting caught up in the wording of an RFE can distract you from what CIS is actually asking. Instead of focusing on the verbatim of the RFE, discern what they are trying to learn about the candidate based on the evidence they request. RFEs like the Nightmare RFE are virtually impossible to answer by following its own guidelines. The RFE will not tell you how to answer it. Look instead to tip number three.

  1. Go back to the initial H1B requirements.

Instead of getting caught up in what the RFE is asking, go back to the original H1B requirements and find out what was lacking in the initial petition. CIS issues an RFE when they don’t feel they have enough information to make a decision of whether or not you or your employee or client meets visa requirements with the evidence and documentation originally given. H1B visas are for highly skilled foreign workers employed in specialty occupations that require a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its foreign equivalent as a minimum requirement for the job. The job must meet this requirement, and the candidate must hold that degree or its foreign equivalent in the exact field of their H1B job. Furthermore, you must prove that the candidate and the employer have an employer-employee relationship, the employer is economically viable, and the candidate will be receiving the prevailing wages and benefits for that job in that geographical location for companies of that size. Find out which of these requirements is lacking in evidence and work with your team to fill in the evidentiary gaps left open in the initial petition.

  1. For candidates with foreign degrees, incomplete college or no college degrees, or degrees that do not exactly match the job need a credential evaluation.

If you or your employee or client is in one of the above situations, you need to include a credential evaluation in your response to the RFE. CIS will not approve the visa unless there is a clear explanation of why the candidate meets the educational requirements. If you or your employee or client has a foreign visa, it needs to be evaluated for US academic value. For foreign bachelor’s degrees that take three years to complete instead of the US four, the candidate will need a work experience conversion that converts three years of progressive work experience in the field into college credit towards that specialization to account for the missing fourth year. If you or your employee or client has a degree in a field that doesn’t exactly match their job, they will need a work experience conversion as well, and a close examination of their course content to write an equivalency to the correct specialization.

There are many other situations in which a credential evaluation is required. Don’t take chances, simply go to ccifree.com and attach your or your employee or client’s client’s educational documents, a current resume, and the job title or desired equivalency and we will get back to you within 24 hours with a free pre-evaluation and analysis with all of your options.

  1. If a credential evaluation is needed, make sure you work with an agency that understands H1B visas.

A common education RFE occurs when a candidate submits the right credential evaluation for the wrong visa. Different visas have different requirements for what is acceptable for equivalencies and conversions. The evaluation agency you need understands the nuances of the H1B visa and also keeps an eye on CIS approval trends, which change.

When you’re talking with a potential credential evaluation agency, keep this in mind: if they don’t ask about the visa or job, they don’t understand what they need to write an evaluation for the visa. Without this information, it is impossible.

About the Author

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the Executive Director of TheDegreePeople.com a Foreign Credentials Evaluation Agency. For a no charge analysis of any difficult case, RFEs, Denials, or NOIDs, please go to http://www.ccifree.com/ or call 800.771.4723.]]>

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H1B RFE Season 2017 is Here! Are You Ready?

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals


If you or your employee or client receives an RFE, don’t panic! This is frustrating, but not the end of the world. You can make the most of the RFE to strengthen the case and turn that maybe into a resounding approval.

Here’s the trick: First, sit down with your team and go over the RFE. Then, put the RFE aside and go back to the initial H1B requirements. Oftentimes, the RFE will not tell you how to answer it. In fact, some RFEs are virtually impossible to answer by their own guidelines. The secret to successfully answering an RFE is to discern which of the initial H1B requirements were not clearly met in the original filing, and then do what you can to fill in the gaps.

To qualify for an H1B visa, a candidate’s job must be a specialty occupation. That means the minimum requirements for the job include holding a US bachelor’s degree or higher to perform the tasks of that job. The candidate and employer must have an employer-employee relationship, meaning the employer can hire, fire, pay, promote, and otherwise control the work the employee does. The employer must be economically viable and pay the candidate the prevailing wages and benefits for the job without cutting into operating costs. Finally, the employee must hold the proper degree or degree equivalency in the exact field of the job.

If these requirements are clearly met, CIS will almost always approve the visa. However, CIS does have approval trends that change from year to year, and are specific when it comes to employee education.

If you or your employee or client has a degree from outside of the United States, a generalized degree, or a degree that is not an exact match for their H1B job, you will need to provide a credential evaluation that fills in the gaps between the candidate’s education and the education CIS requires. This is a highly specialized process. The credential evaluation agency you want works regularly with H1B RFE cases and follows CIS approval trends.

Before you get to far on your RFE response, let us provide a pre-evaluation with all of your options to help prevent or overturn an educational RFE. Simply go to ccifree.com and submit the educational documents and a current accurate resume along with the candidate’s job title or desired equivalence. We will get back to you within 24 hours with the pre-evaluation, a full analysis, and all of your options.

About the Author 

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the Executive Director at TheDegreePeople.com, a Foreign Credentials Evaluation Agency. For a free analysis of any difficult case, RFE, Denial, or NOID, please go to http://ccifree.com/ or call 800.771.4723.]]>

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What H1B Job Title is an RFE Magnet?

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals


US Bachelor’s degrees in Computer Systems Analysis is only available at universities with self-designed degrees. In India, there is a BCA in Computer Systems Analysis, but this degree triggers an RFE because it is a three-year Bachelor’s degree. The only degree we have seen not trigger an RFE for this job is a US Masters of Computer Systems Analysis. Again, this is also a relatively rare degree.

So what’s the problem?

Until about seven years ago, CIS approved the H1B visas of candidates with US Bachelor’s degrees in fields related to their H1B job without question. Now, the degree must be an EXACT match for the job title. With such an unusual degree, it is hard for anyone with a job in Computer Systems Analysis to have a US Bachelor’s degree that is an exact match.

If your or your employee or client’s H1B job is Computer Systems Analysis, chances are you will need a credential evaluation to preempt or to answer an RFE. If you or your employee or client has an Indian BCA in Computer Systems Analysis, a professor authorized to issue college credit for work experience can write a work experience conversion that turns three years of progressive work experience in the field of Computer Systems Analysis into one year of college credit to account for the missing fourth year. If you or your employee or client has a degree in a related field, a work experience conversion of this kind, along with a close examination of the coursework involved in the degree to emphasize classwork in Computer Systems Analysis is needed.

Unless you or your employee or client has a US Masters of Computer Systems Analysis, don’t chance it. An RFE is not the end of the world, but it makes visa approval a whole lot harder, more expensive, more time-consuming, and more stressful.

Before you file or answer an RFE, let us provide a pre-evaluation with all of your options for free. Simply go to ccifree.com and submit all educational documents, a current, accurate resume, and indicate the job title or desired equivalency. We will get back to you within 24 hours with your pre-evaluation, a full analysis, and all of your options.

About the Author

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the Executive Director of TheDegreePeople.com a Foreign Credentials Evaluation Agency. For a no charge analysis of any difficult case, RFEs, Denials, or NOIDs, please go to http://www.ccifree.com/ or call 800.771.4723.]]>

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Expert Tips for You To Successfully Answer an H1B RFE

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals


At TheDegreePeople, we specialize in helping our clients overturn their RFEs and get their H1B visas approved. RFEs are tricky business, so here are five tips that we have seen bring our clients success year after year.

  1. Don’t expect your RFE to tell you how to answer it.

A big mistake candidates and their lawyers make every year is expecting the RFE to be helpful. When you read the RFE, remember that it is a tool CIS uses to weed out petitions. It’s a red flag. There are far too many petitions for the annual H1B visa cap every year and your RFE or your employee or client’s RFE is most likely a documented excuse for denial rather than a tool to help you. Read the RFE, make note of what it’s asking, but don’t get caught up in its wording and specific demands. Remember, some RFEs are virtually impossible to answer based on the directions they provide. This does not mean they’re impossible to answer. You just need to look for the answers in the right places.

  1. Reference and Understand H1B Requirements.

The initial H1B eligibility requirements are the right place to look for the answers you need to get that RFE overturned. Your RFE, or your employee or client’s RFE was triggered because the evidence provided in the initial petition fell short of clearly proving the initial H1B requirements were met. Find out which requirements CIS is unclear about. When you go over the RFE, first revisit the detailed requirements INCLUDING current CIS educational trends, and then have these requirements on hand while you read through the RFE to discern where evidence was lacking. Then, figure out what documentation you need to fill in the gaps.

  1. Don’t expect to always be able to provide the specific materials the RFE requests.

You will NOT always be able to get the specific documents CIS requests in the time allotted to answer the RFE. RFEs like The Nightmare are not designed to be answered, they are designed to confuse and justify denying the visa. If you follow the directions in an RFE like this one, you will find yourself out of time, out of money, and nowhere closer to getting your visa, or your employee or client’s visa approved. So don’t expect to in the first place and you will save yourself a whole heap of stress.

  1. Discern what it is CIS really wants to know.

So you’ve reviewed the initial H1B requirements, you understand that the answer to your RFE does not lie within the RFE itself, and you know that you won’t necessarily be able to provide the exact documentation CIS requests in the RFE. Now it’s time to discern what CIS really wants to know. Sit down together, read the RFE with the initial H1B requirements, and figure out what CIS really wants to know. Where was clarity lacking in the initial petition? In many cases, the shortcomings have to do with CIS approval trends regarding educational equivalencies, or with proving specialization. When you meet with your team, be sure that your team includes a credential evaluator with experience working with H1B RFEs, understands CIS education regulations and approval trends, and has an in-depth understanding of international education. Education requirements and what is and what is not accepted as valid educational equivalencies for H1B visas have changed in recent years, and meeting these requirements can take a creative approach.

  1. MEET THE DEADLINE.

Don’t miss the deadline. Make sure your RFE answer is filed by the deadline, and includes all of the documentation and evidence you need to strengthen your case, or your employee or client’s case, in order, and easy to read. It is highly unlikely you will get an extension, and missing the deadline will most likely lead to the case getting rejected.

About the Author

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the Executive Director at TheDegreePeople.com, a Foreign Credentials Evaluation Agency. For a free analysis of any difficult case, RFE, Denial, or NOID, please go to http://ccifree.com/ or call 800.771.4723.]]>

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H1B Case Study: Nightmare RFE OVERTURNED!

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals


This RFE is also called the Kitchen Sink because absolutely everything is in it, even the kitchen sink. This RFE is virtually impossible to answer, we don’t know exactly what triggers it or if CIS even has the right to issue it, and we know that it is virtually impossible to answer by following its own directions. If you were to try to follow the directions set out in the RFE to answer it, you would have to involve the services of so many individuals and authorities to collect all of the evidence and information requested that it would cost an enormous amount of money and take way more time to complete than you have to respond.

If you or your employee or client received a Nightmare RFE, try not to panic. These RFEs are common, and they are NOT actually impossible to answer so long as you don’t get caught up in the wording. The roadmap to successfully answering the Nightmare RFE is not in the RFE itself, it takes a creative approach and guidance from a credential evaluator with experience working with difficult cases and RFEs. These evaluators understand H1B requirements, international education and commerce agreements, and CIS approval trends.

At TheDegreePeople, we have a very high success rate for getting Nightmare RFEs overturned. It just takes a very detailed, and somewhat creative approach. Instead of following the directions stated in the RFE, we go back to the initial H1B requirements and see where our client’s initial petition was lacking in evidence and clarity. We work from there.

Oftentimes, what is lacking is the right credential evaluation. We have found time and again that candidates will submit a petition without an evaluation, or with an evaluation that doesn’t address the requirements of the H1B petition. An H1B candidate needs to hold a US bachelor’s degree or higher or it’s foreign equivalent in the EXACT field of their job offer. If these educational requirements are not clearly met, CIS issues an RFE, and what starts off as a simple RFE can quickly escalate into a Nightmare. Again, these kinds of RFEs have become increasingly common in the past few years and this trend is unlikely to change.

It’s always better to avoid a Nightmare RFE in the first place than to find yourself faced with one, but even if you are staring at one right now, you can still get it overturned.

About the Author

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the Executive Director of TheDegreePeople.com a Foreign Credentials Evaluation Agency. For a no charge analysis of any difficult case, RFEs, Denials, or NOIDs, please go to http://www.ccifree.com/ or call 800.771.4723.]]>

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Answering an H1B RFE: Beware of Education Traps!

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals


If you or your employee or client fell into an H1B education trap, you need to understand what happened and how you can fix it when answering the RFE. Below we will look at some common H1B traps and how to climb your way out of them.

Badly Translated Transcripts

When you submit an H1B petition, CIS requires all educational documents be translated into English and evaluated for US academic equivalence. Some degrees simply don’t translate directly into English. At the same time, many degrees do translate directly into English when it comes to the wording, but the degree has an entirely different academic content. This is why degrees must be translated AND evaluated, and these are both highly specialized fields. Sometimes translation agencies overstep their scope of practice and make educational value judgments along with language translation. This is a major H1B education trap that has become more and more treacherous as some translation agencies have begun to market their services as a “one-shop stop” for translation and evaluation. Credential evaluation must be carried out on a case-by-case basis because every pathway through learning is unique, every institution is unique, and every country has a unique structure. An evaluator must be knowledgeable about these differences, as well as federal case law, CIS precedents, degree program admissions requirements, and international trade agreements to write an accurate evaluation of your degree, or your employee or client’s degree. Translation agencies simply do not have this expertise and instead turn to conservative equivalency databases like EDGE, which is not actually a standardized equivalency database as no such database actually exists.

If you or your employee or client received an RFE as the result of a bad translation, talk to a credential evaluation agency that works regularly with H1B RFE cases. A skilled evaluator can spot a bad translation and evaluate accordingly.

The degree is not from a government-accredited institution.

The fact is, there are plenty of institutions around the world that offer rigorous education programs that fully prepare workers for highly specialized occupations that are not actually government accredited. That means that even though you or your employee or client may have a legitimate education from an institution held in high regard by your industry, or your employee or client’s industry, the institution itself may not be government accredited and CIS will not approve the visa.

This is an RFE trap that you may or may not be able to wriggle free of. If you have, or if your employee or client has years of progressive work experience in the field of their specialty occupation, a credential evaluator with the authority to convert years of work experience into college credit to write a US bachelor’s degree equivalency CIS will accept. It’s always best to find whether or not this will work BEFORE you file the petition, but even if you fell into this H1B trap for FY2017 you may still be able to answer the RFE and get the visa approved.

The Bachelor’s Degree is ACTUALLY just a high school diploma.

This happens more often than you may think. Mistaking a high school diploma for a Bachelor’s degree can happen as the result of cross-cultural misunderstandings, bad translations, and acting upon false information. H1B educational criteria require candidates to hold a US bachelor’s degree or higher, or its equivalent. A high school diploma – or the foreign equivalent of a US high school diploma – will not cut it.

If you or your employee or client fell into this H1B education trap, talk to a credential evaluator with experience working with H1B RFEs. If you have, or if your employee or client has any post-secondary education from an accredited institution, this can be counted towards a bachelor’s degree equivalency, along with any years of progressive work experience you have, or your employee or client has in the field of employ. This is a tough mistake to recover from, and you may even find out that you or your employee or client has been pursuing the wrong visa all along. However, there is still a chance that you can claw your way out of this H1B education trap.

About the Author 

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the Executive Director at TheDegreePeople.com, a Foreign Credentials Evaluation Agency. For a free analysis of any difficult case, RFE, Denial, or NOID, please go to http://ccifree.com/ or call 800.771.4723.

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How to Find the Right Credential Evaluator for an H-1B RFE

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals


H-1B visa eligibility is dependent on be beneficiary having an advanced degree with specialized skills and knowledge necessary to perform the specialty occupation they were hired for. This means the beneficiary must have a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its foreign equivalent in a specialization that exactly matches their job offer. Due to the specificity of these requirements, even if you, or your employee or client did submit a credential evaluation along with the initial petition, the evaluation may not meet CIS requirements for this particular visa.

Finding the right credential evaluator to answer an H-1B RFE is the difference between success and rejection. The evaluator you want to work with can be found with these five questions:

  1. Do they offer a free review of the case?

An evaluator cannot know what services must be provided – or whether or not your education, or your employee or client’s education and work experience will even work for the H-1B visa at all – without reviewing your employment history, or your employee or client’s employment history and educational documents. You received an education RFE. Before you answer it, make sure you CAN answer it successfully with what you, or your employee or client has to work with, and what needs to be done to write the equivalency that will accurately meet H-1B education standards. If an agency or evaluator asks for payment before looking into what needs to be done, look elsewhere.

  1. Are they easy to work with?

The evaluator who you want to work with is one who wants to work with you. Answering an RFE means you have to collect a lot of documentation – some not so easy to secure – in a short amount of time. Don’t waste your time working with an evaluator who doesn’t answer your calls, your text, your emails, or your questions to your satisfaction. Being easy to work with also means they are affordable and offer rush delivery options. When it comes to credential evaluation agencies, you don’t “get what you pay for.” The best ones tend to be inexpensive.

  1. Did they ask about the visa?

A common cause of an education RFE is that the evaluator wrote the right evaluation for the wrong visa. Many evaluation agencies will write a standard evaluation of your credentials, or your employee or client’s credentials without regard for the particular, unique educational requirements for the H-1B visa. Educational requirements, as well as approval trends and standards surrounding what education and work experience can be combined to write an equivalency vary from visa to visa. For example, an H-1B beneficiary may combine work experience and college credit to write an acceptable equivalency to a US bachelor’s degree. Meanwhile, an EB2 beneficiary who tries to do the same thing will fail because for that particular visa the bachelor’s degree must be a single source. The evaluation must lend itself to the visa in question to be successful.

  1. Did they ask about the job offer?

Just like the particular visa requirements, the evaluation must also lend itself to the client’s job offer. In the past, CIS has accepted petitions in which the beneficiary holds a degree in a field related to the job offer. This is not the case anymore. Now CIS requires beneficiaries to have a degree in their exact field of employ. This is because H-1B visas are for beneficiaries working specialized occupations, with knowledge and skills specialized to their field. While an employer will look at a candidate’s education and work experience and see that they have the skills and knowledge necessary to work their job, if the degree is not in the field, CIS will require more evidence. If your credential evaluator doesn’t ask about your job, or your employee or client’s job, he or she does not understand this and you need to look elsewhere. If your degree, or your employee or client’s degree is in a mismatched field, a credential evaluator with the authority to convert progressive work experience in the field into college credit in that specialization is exactly who you need to be working with.

  1. Do the often work with RFEs, Denials, and NOIDs?

The credential evaluator you want is one who does not shy away from difficult cases. You, or your employee or client received an RFE, so you want to work with an evaluation agency with extensive experience answering them. It’s important to keep in mind that the roadmap to answering the RFE is NOT IN THE RFE ITSELF. Especially with RFEs like the Nightmare – which is virtually impossible to answer if you follow its instructions – guidance from those who know the terrain and can navigate it successfully is essential to success. Evaluators that work with these kinds of cases know what CIS is looking for in the documentation they request, know what triggers and RFE, and what works and what does not in answering it. These evaluators follow CIS approval trends, which change from year to year.

About the Author

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the Executive Director of TheDegreePeople.com a Foreign Credentials Evaluation Agency. For a no charge analysis of any difficult case, RFEs, Denials, or NOIDs, please go to http://www.ccifree.com/ or call 800.771.4723.

 

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