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credential evaluation for h1b visa

Degree Equivalency or False Translation? – Find Out Now!

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

When a beneficiary files for EB2 status with credentials from outside of the United States – especially if the transcripts are in a language other than English – educational documentation can get tricky really fast.

That’s because it’s easy to accidentally insert academic value judgment on a credential when translating it into English.

Preparing educational documents in order to understand whether or not the beneficiary actually meets the educational requirements for the visa in question – or can meet them through including the right credential evaluation – is a two-step process. The first is translation, and the second is academic evaluation. You would never send documents to an evaluator for translation, and so you should never expect your translator to complete the evaluation. These are two very different and very specialized services, and expecting these steps to be a one-stop shop is a recipe for an RFE at best.

Beneficiary educational documents are especially vulnerable to false translations when the credential doesn’t have the word “degree” in the title, or a word that translates into it. For example, the Indian Chartered Accountancy credential is the academic equivalent of a US bachelors degree in accounting even though the word “degree” is not in the credential. However, the Canadian Chartered Accountancy and US CPA credentials do not meet equivalency requirements for a bachelors degree in accounting and don’t have the word “degree” in them either.

Some credentials simply don’t have a direct English translation. For example, “postgraduate” degree is often mistranslated into a masters degree even though they are not the academic equivalent. The Russian credential kandidat naouk is generally the academic equivalent of a US doctorate degree, but the words do not translate into this academic value by simply translating the language into English. Another very common translation that inserts a false academic value judgment is the translation of Baccalaureate into bachelors degree. These two credentials are NOT the same.

The best practice for avoiding problems stemming from false translation of academic documents is to first have the documents translated into English word for word without any academic value judgment. The second step is to take these translated documents to a credential evaluator to determine the US academic value. At TheDegreePeople, our evaluators know how to spot common translation errors, or when a credential without the word “degree” in it is actually a degree equivalency.

For a free review of your case, or your client or employees case, visit ccifree.com. We will get back to you in 48 hours or less with a full pre-evaluation of your case, or your employee or client’s case, and our recommendations for how to best proceed.

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H1B Alert: Don't Submit the Right Evaluation for the Wrong Visa

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

However, not all evaluations will do the job. The right evaluation for you or your client or employee needs to take into consideration H1B requirements – as different visas have different regulations for combining education – as well as the beneficiary’s education, work experience, and job, and CIS approval trends.

It’s important to make sure you choose the right evaluation agency to work with because the industry is not well-regulated by a central governing body, so you could end up with an agency that is not up to quality standards. You could also choose an agency that writes a perfectly accurate evaluation that does not work for your client or employee’s situation. Not all agencies know how to work with visa cases.

When you contact a credential evaluation agency to write your evaluation, or your client or employee’s evaluation, here are three questions to keep in mind:

  1. Did they ask about the visa?
  2. Did they ask about the job?
  3. Do they work with H1B cases and their RFEs on a regular basis?

The right evaluation agency for you case, or your client or employee’s case is the one that asks about the visa and the job, and works regularly with H1B cases and H1B RFE cases.

At TheDegreePeople, we follow CIS approval trends, and work regularly with H1B cases and their RFEs. We know what triggers common RFEs, and we know how to prevent them. For a free review of your case, or your client or employee’s case, visit ccifree.com.

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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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Your H1B Solutions for the Generalized Degree

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals


  1. Specialized Job
  2. Specialized Education

Successful candidates meet both of these requirements by having a job that requires an advanced degree – a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its foreign equivalent – to perform, and the accompanying education required to perform it. CIS requires this education to be specialized precisely to the field. That’s where candidates run into trouble come filing season.

Do you, or does your employee or client have a generalized degree or a degree specialization is a field other than the job? Then you need a credential evaluation. Even if the degree is from a US institution, CIS requires a degree equivalency in the exact specialization of the candidate’s job. For example, a business degree will not cut it for a job in finance. A sociology degree will not cut it for a job in psychology. A job in biology requires a bachelor’s degree or higher in biology – not chemistry, geology, or physics.

If you or your employee or client has a generalized degree or a degree mismatched to their job, take the transcripts and work experience to a credential evaluator who works regularly with H1B visas and their RFEs. Evaluators who work regularly with RFEs understand what triggers them and how to prevent them. CIS approval trends regarding education have changed in the past six or seven years, and one of those changes is that the degree specialization must be an EXACT match for the job offer. The evaluator can take a close look at the course content of the candidate’s education, and combine that with progressive work experience in the field to write the evaluation you need to prove educational specialization.

Be sure that the evaluation agency you work with has professors on hand who are authorized to issue college credit for work experience. This way, the candidate’s years of work experience in the field can be converted into college credit counting towards their specialized major equivalency. CIS accepts a three years of progressive work experience to one year of college credit in the field equivalency for the H1B visa. Consult with your evaluator to make sure you or your employee or client has the right kind of work experience – and enough of it – before you order your evaluation.

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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Get Those Visas Ready! H1B Season Starts April 1st

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals


st, 2017 for visas for fiscal year 2018.

The annual cap is 65,000 for candidates with bachelor’s degrees, and another 20,000 for candidates with master’s degrees of higher. This cap has not changed. Last year, CIS received a record 236,000 petitions in the first five days of opening its doors to petitions, during which CIS is mandated to continue to accept petitions even if the cap is exceeded. After that point, the petitions go into a randomized lottery for review for approval.

Every year, more and more petitions have come in, exceeding the annual H1B cap in the first week. There will almost certainly be an H1B lottery again this year. That means if you or your employee or client has a cap-subject H1B job and is petitioning for a visa for FY2018, the petition MUST be filed on April 1st or very shortly after to make the lottery.

Make sure that when you file, everything you or your employee or client needs to get the visa approved is included. If you or your employee or client has a degree that doesn’t fit their job title, a foreign degree, a three-year bachelor’s degree, or any other unusual education situation, do not file without first consulting with a foreign credential evaluation agency that specializes in H1B visas. Making the lottery only to receive an RFE or worse is not worth the time, money, and energy.

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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