Two Myths About the Indian Three-Year Bachelor's Degree Debunked
Two Myths About the Indian Three-Year Bachelor's Degree Debunked Read More »
Credential Evaluation
Turning Work Experience into College Credit: How does THAT work?
If your client has an Indian three-year degree, you need to anticipate this problem before the H1b petition is submitted. Even though it has been proven time and again that the academic content of the Indian three-year degree actually far surpasses the US four-year degree in terms of classroom contact hours and Carnegie units, it is on your client to account for that final fourth year to the USCIS. You have two options.
First, your credential evaluator can write a detailed evaluation of the academic content of your client’s degree. That means breaking down classroom contact hours and converting them into US measurements of college credits, then comparing the number of credits needed to graduate with a US bachelor’s degree to the amount of credits your client has accumulated. This is a good option if your client has a degree in their field of employ. However, if their degree fails to exactly match their field of employ the USCIS still will not accept their qualification for the visa.
USCIS standards of educational requirements are more stringent than those of employers. While many employers understand that employees with degrees in fields related to their work usually possess the specialized skills and knowledge required to carry out their jobs. The USCIS, on the other hand, requires employees education EXACTLY meet their field of employment. That means, your client needs to not only bridge the gap in the years of education, but also the gap in specialization.
To do this, an authorized credential evaluator can convert years of work experience into college credit. Work experience must be in the exact field of employ to count these towards years of academic specialization, and it must also be progressive work experience. This means the nature of the work required your client to take on more and more work and responsibilities representative of their progressively specialized skills and knowledge in the field. A credential evaluation agency with the authority to convert work experience into college credit can do this. Typically, three years of progressive work experience in a field can be evaluated as equivalent to one year of college credit in that field.
Before we delve into this any further, this is NOT a DIY manual. You cannot make these work experience conversions on your own and expect the USCIS to just accept it. You must work with an experienced credential evaluator with the authority to make these conversions, as well as a track record of being able to successfully make these conversions.
Sheila Danzig is the director of Career Consulting International at www.TheDegreePeople.com, a foreign credential evaluation agency. They specialize in difficult cases and RFEs, Denials, NOIDs, 3-year degrees, etc. and offer a free review of all H1B, E2, and I140 education at http://www.ccifree.com/.]]>
Turning Work Experience into College Credit: How does THAT work? Read More »
Change It Up: Your H-1B Transfer Option
Though the initial H-1b process was daunting, getting your visa transferred is a comparatively simple and risk-free process. All you have to do is find another specialty occupation for which you are academically qualified that accepts H-1b workers. This position must require a bachelor’s degree or higher. Once you’ve secured your status, it will be easier to find employers willing to sponsor you because now all of the hardest part of the legwork and investment is done. You don’t have to stick with a job you hate to keep your visa status.
One of the greatest benefits of H-1b visa status is you can change jobs without loosing your visa status. You don’t have to notify your employer that you plan to transfer, and once your transfer has been approved you still have the freedom to change your mind and stay with your current job. H-1b transfers are not subject to the annual cap, so you won’t have to worry about getting into the lottery. Remember, it’s a new job, not a new visa.
Once your visa is approved, you can take as much time as you want between ending your current job and beginning your new job. How much time you take and what you do with this time is entirely up to you. Some people take this opportunity to travel or visit family. Others dive right into their new job.
You can’t just change jobs without alerting the USCIS. Just like all other visa-related processes, you will have to petition the USCIS for an H-1b transfer. This process takes about 4-8 weeks, but can take more. In this petition, you’ll need to include your last three pay stubs, copies of your immigration paperwork, as well as copies of your educational documents. If your specialized degree is from a country besides the US, you will need to submit a credential evaluation along with your documents to clearly show the value of your education in terms of US academic structures and standards. Don’t submit educational documents without first getting them translated into English and evaluated for US academic equivalence.
Don’t stick it out with a job you hate when you can find fulfillment in your dream job. The hard part is over, you’ve got your H-1b visa status. Now make the most of it.
Sheila Danzig is the director of Career Consulting International at www.TheDegreePeople.com, a foreign credential evaluation agency. They specialize in difficult cases and RFEs, Denials, NOIDs, 3-year degrees, etc. and offer a free review of all H1B, E2, and I140 education at http://www.ccifree.com/.]]>
ALERT: Attorneys and Employers Be on the Lookout for False Translations
Education evaluation is a complex, specialized process. Evaluators typically hold graduate level degrees in international education, or have a significant amount of experience with international credentials by working in a university admissions environment or the like. Credential evaluators must have a firm grasp of not only education system structures internationally, but must also be knowledgeable about USCIS statutes, precedents, and decisions regarding educational qualifications. The evaluation process requires skill, judgment, and integrity to ensure an accurate and appropriate evaluation. In large firms, to ensure accuracy, junior evaluators are supervised by senior staff members.
Credential evaluation is too complex to be an a la carte service, but more and more translation agencies are offering it as such. There are shortcuts to writing a credential evaluation based on databases listing educational equivalencies, which can be purchased by anyone. Some translation firms are using these databases to write evaluations in a cookie-cutter fashion. However, the equivalencies in these databases only represent the most conservative evaluations for any given credential. These equivalencies are controversial and will not be applicable in every scenario. Furthermore, when this is the practice, an “evaluation” is misleading because the expertise involved in the evaluation did not actually come from the evaluator. The expertise came from whoever wrote the database, not from the firm that wrote the evaluation.
Without an extensive background in international education, there is no clear way to tell which situations are unique and which equivalencies are applicable to which degree. When credential evaluators write an evaluation, detailed analysis, expertise, and research is always needed to ensure accuracy and to truly address each client’s unique situation.
Beyond simply not having the expertise required to write accurate evaluations, much of the value of a client’s educational documents gets lost in translation – both of the words and of the academic content. Even without meaning to, translators often interject an evaluation through mistranslation. For example, a common mistranslation is Baccalaureate, which often gets translated into a Bachelor’s degree even though they are NOT the same. Just as words get mistranslated, degrees are also commonly mistranslated when a translator interjects a judgment on equivalency. A degree in one country does not directly translate to a degree in another country. Knowledge of the academic content, years required, and admissions decisions must all be taken into consideration when discerning the educational value of any given degree. This includes which colleges accept which foreign degrees to meet the requirements of their programs.
International education expert Dr. John Kersey explains, “In international education, the same term may mean entirely different things. Most bachelor’s degrees in Pakistan, for example, are only two years long and are comparable to a United States associate’s degree, not a bachelor’s degree which requires three to four years of study. The European Master degree typically represents four years of postsecondary education, and is thus comparable to a United States bachelor’s degree, rather than a master’s degree, which requires five to six years of postsecondary study.”
The words diploma and postgraduate diploma have no clear meanings. A postgraduate diploma does not mean that it is a graduate level education. Regardless, a postgraduate degree often gets mistranslated into a master’s degree. This, however, is not the result of a direct translation; this is the result of a value judgment from someone who does not understand the nuances of international education. While some postgraduate degrees are, in fact, equivalent to a master’s degree, none should be TRANSLATED as a master’s degree.
In a similar fashion, the Russian specialist degree often gets mistranslated. The kandidat naouk, which is generally the equivalent of a US doctorate cannot be TRANSLATED as a doctorate degree or a PhD. In the US, we know that a CPA is not a degree title. The title Certified Public Accountant is a professional title. The same is true for the CA (Chartered Accountants) in Canada. However, in India, the CA is actually equivalent to a degree in India, but this cannot be translated. It must be carefully evaluated based on academic content and legal precedents. Words must be translated, and credentials must be evaluated. These are two completely different processes and to combine them is both dangerous and misleading.
The solution to this is for the translator to always translate the literal words without making an educational value assessment. Leave that to a credential evaluation agency. To get an accurate evaluation that will not mislead employers and not leave visa candidates out of luck when the USCIS questions the credibility of their credential evaluator, keep this a two-step process. You would never hire a credential evaluation agency to translate documents. Do not hire a translation agency to discern academic equivalencies.
Bear in mind that not all credential evaluation agencies have evaluators qualified to assess equivalency with accuracy either. In fact, we are seeing more and more Requests For Evidence inquiring into the credibility of credential evaluation agencies. Not all credential evaluators have the expertise to write accurate evaluations, and not all agencies have the authority to make the necessary conversions to prove equivalence. When you and your client or employee are looking for the right agency to hire to write a credential evaluation, here are three things to keep in mind:
- When you talk with an agency, ask about the credentials, experience, and expertise of the person who will be writing the evaluation. If the agency will not discuss this with you, look elsewhere. A credential evaluator should at minimum hold a degree in higher education that includes significant study in international education systems, or have extensive experience working in university admissions. Working in admissions gives evaluators first hand knowledge and experience with how foreign degrees are valued in the eyes of the universities and graduate programs the evaluation will be written for.
- Higher cost does not directly translate into higher quality when it comes to credential evaluations. In fact, it’s the credible evaluation agencies that typically offer inexpensive services. If an agency requests a large payment up front before they are willing to discuss your case, look elsewhere. If they charge exorbitant prices, look elsewhere.
- Many evaluation agencies are members of professional bodies and trade associations. Evaluation agencies are not required to be members in organizations such as these, although many are. While membership may make an agency look more official and credible, do not base your decision on these associations. Membership does not make for a meaningful assessment of an agency’s product.
- Beware evaluation mills. Some evaluators will just rubber-stamp whatever equivalency is asked for. This is misleading for employers and will certainly land your client or employee an RFE come visa petition time. How can you avoid this? When you talk to a potential evaluation agency, ask about their evaluation policies. This will show you whether or not they are prepared to tailor their services to your client or employee’s individual situation.
Look for a credential evaluation agency that is forthcoming with the qualifications of their evaluators, and that will address your client or your employee’s unique situation.
About the Author
Sheila Danzig
Sheila Danzig is the Executive Director of CCI 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. Mention that you saw this in the ILW article and get 72 hour rush service at no charge.
ALERT: Attorneys and Employers Be on the Lookout for False Translations Read More »
5 Helpful Tips for Finding a Reliable Credential Evaluator
Not all credential evaluation agencies are authorized to make the necessary assessments and conversions, and not all agencies hire actual experts to write these evaluations. If the agency your client or employee hires to write the evaluation is not reliable, the USCIS cannot accept the evaluation as evidence to support H1b visa eligibility. Don’t waste time and money on an unreliable agency.
Learn how to pick out a good one with these five helpful tips:
- Easy to reach
If an agency fails to answer or return your calls, texts, and emails, look elsewhere. Reliable agencies are not only reliable in their expertise, but also in you being able to work with them. If you can’t even rely on an agency to answer your call, you can’t rely on them to write a credible evaluation. Look elsewhere. A reliable agency will be easy to reach in any medium you choose – call, text, or email – any time of the day or night. This is because a good agency understands the time crunch you are under, and that the line of work you are both in is inconvenient in its nature. You work odd hours for your clients and employees in the H1b petition process, and if an agency is reliable, they will too.
- Affordable
This is NOT one of those instances where the more you pay the more you get. A higher price is NOT indicative of a higher quality credential evaluation. Reliable credential evaluation agencies are low-cost because they understand the realities of their clients, and they don’t have to make the most financial mileage out of each customer. Look for an affordable, low-cost agency to work with.
- Comfortable to talk to
Go with your gut. If you don’t feel comfortable in your communication with them, look elsewhere. When you feel comfortable on the phone with an agency, that means they are confident and knowledgeable in what they do. They answer your questions in ways that make you feel safe and satisfied. They are able to meet you where you are and work together with you. Look for an agency that you can have a good, helpful conversation with.
- Available
A reliable agency will make it easy for you to work with them. That means they will have a variety of rush delivery options depending on your needs. They will always be there to answer your questions and address your concerns. If an agency does not offer options or guarantee their follow-through, look elsewhere. A reliable agency will be able to meet the needs of you and your client or employee because they understand the extent of what needs to be done to successfully file an H1b petition.
- Great references and testimonials from past clients
You should be able to easily find references and testimonials from people who have worked with the evaluation agency in the past. Ask if they can provide you with contact information from past clients, and if they cannot do so swiftly, look elsewhere. NEVER order an evaluation from ANY agency without first reading testimonials from past clients. No matter how good an agency looks on their website, on paper, or from what they have to say about themselves, the only way you can be sure they will be reliable for your and your client or employee is by checking into whether or not they have been consistently reliable in practice.
Reliable credential evaluation agencies have international education professors and experts on call to write detailed evaluations any time. Find an agency with the authority to convert years of work experience and college classroom contact hours into college credit. These experts and professors are authorized to take a close and thorough look at your client or employee’s education and work experience to get an accurate measure of the value of their specialized skills and knowledge.
Sheila Danzig is the director of Career Consulting International at www.TheDegreePeople.com, a foreign credential evaluation agency. They specialize in difficult cases and RFEs, Denials, NOIDs, 3-year degrees, etc. and offer a free review of all H1B, E2, and I140 education at http://www.ccifree.com/.]]>
5 Helpful Tips for Finding a Reliable Credential Evaluator Read More »
3 Reasons Why You Didn’t Steal Anyone’s Job
Here are three things you can say – either aloud or to yourself – when you are accused of job stealing:
1) “I didn’t steal your job, I made ten new ones.”
The fact that you’re working an H-1B job means your making the prevailing wages of a specialty occupation. That means you are a person with a reasonable – and in many cases, ample – income who lives in the United States. That means you’re putting a large portion of your income back into the US economy. Every H-1B worker needs to rent a house or apartment, pay for food and clothing, a cellphone, a haircut, and so forth. Not to mention, if you’ve brought family members over on H-4 visas, they will also be spending your income in the United States. This means more money circulating in the economy and the need for more jobs created to meet the needs of more people who are making more money to spend. This is the very definition of economic growth.
2) “I didn’t steal your job, and neither did anyone else.”
The myth that this country is overrun by immigrants snatching up jobs from the hands of American citizens is simply that: a myth. If you applied for an H-1B visa, you are painfully aware that there aren’t that many work visas to go around. In reality, even if the United States were to double the number of work visas issued every year, the number would be less than one million. That’s less than 0.7% of the US workforce. That means currently, the percentage of non-US citizens in the workforce “stealing jobs” is less than half of one percent of the entire US workforce. This number hardly constitutes a flood of workers. No one is stealing anyone’s job.
3) “Immigration doesn’t actually make a difference on wages and employment.”
A notable example is the Mariel boat lift in 1980 where 125,000 immigrants from Cuba came to the United States all at once. About 45,000 of these immigrants were of working age, and they all landed in Miami increasing the city’s labor supply by 7% overnight. Guess what happened? Absolutely nothing. This sudden and massive influx of workers made no measurable impact the wage rate or the employment rate in Miami. Forty-five thousand new workers landed in a single city at once and not one of them stole anyone’s job.
The United States has a long and monumental history of immigration. This country was literally built on immigration and the health of its economy depends on a healthy influx of immigrants to fill existing jobs and create new ones. In fact, the reality that immigration is good for the economy is a long-standing, proven economic principle. So what’s the problem? Why are you being accused of job stealing?
The fallacy comes from thinking of people as commodities. For example, if the market is flooded with tomatoes, the price of tomatoes will drop. It’s easy to think of people in the same way – if the job market is flooded with more workers, wages and job availability will drop. There are two big differences here:
1) The job market is NOT flooded with immigrants.
2) People are NOT tomatoes. Tomatoes don’t spend money on food, clothing, shelter, entertainment and hobbies, and so forth.
People do, and people making money do even more so. This creates more jobs and greater wealth for everyone.
Sheila Danzig is the director of Career Consulting International at www.TheDegreePeople.com, a foreign credential evaluation agency. They specialize in difficult cases and RFEs, Denials, NOIDs, 3-year degrees, etc. and offer a free review of all H1B, E2, and I140 education at http://www.ccifree.com/.]]>
3 Reasons Why Your Client or Employee Got an RFE and How to Deal With It
One of the big reasons we are seeing RFEs is because petitioners aren’t providing enough evidence for USCIS evaluators to clearly judge the value of their degrees and how it pertains to their H1B jobs. Here are three main reasons education RFEs are triggered and how you can avoid them in the first place, or deal with them as they arise.
- Foreign Degree
For the same reason you wouldn’t just pay for a pair of shoes in the United States with foreign currency, you shouldn’t just petition the USCIS for a visa with your foreign degree. Why not? Because its value is unclear. Just like it’s the responsibility of the individual to exchange your money at the border, it’s also their responsibility to translate the value of your education across educational system structures. Your client can do this by sending in an evaluation of their foreign credentials along with the initial H1B petition, or if they receive and RFE, order an evaluation. In these evaluations, international education experts will examine the academic content of your client’s educational experience and write an evaluation of its US value equivalence.
- Right Degree, Wrong Major
This kind of RFE is surprising many petitioners and their employers because it’s a new standard. Until recently – like most employers – the USCIS would approve applicants whose advanced degree was in a field related to their field of employ. In the past five or six years, these standards have tightened and now the USCIS requires petitioners’ degrees to exactly match their field of employ. If your client has the right degree in the wrong field, you still have options. A detailed credential evaluation can show that your client’s degree in, for example, computer sciences, is the functional equivalent of an engineering degree with a detailed examination of your course content, work experience, and whether or not your client’s degree in engineering would qualify him for admission into a computer sciences master’s degree program.
- Questionable Evaluator
Say you foresaw the first two hang-ups and ordered a credential evaluation but were still met with an RFE. Sometimes, RFEs are issued because your client’s credentials were evaluated by an evaluation agency with questionable credentials of their own. It’s of the utmost importance the value of your client’s education be evaluated by international education experts with the knowledge and authority to accurately translate the meaning of the degree. Help your client choose carefully when selecting a credential evaluation agency. The agency should be affordable, easy to reach, and make you and your client feel comfortable when corresponding with them. They should be able to provide you references with grace and ease, have great reviews, and clearly be able to show their experience working with the kind of case you are working with.
The best way to address an RFE is to meet all of the evidence requires in the first place. But if your client does get an RFE, don’t panic! While this is an undesirable and beyond inconvenient situation, it is not an NOID, it is not a Denial, and it is nothing out of the ordinary. Take the time to read over your RFE carefully with your client, fully understand what is being asked of them, and help them submit all of the evidence requested in order on time.
Sheila Danzig is the director of Career Consulting International at www.TheDegreePeople.com, a foreign credential evaluation agency. They specialize in difficult cases and RFEs, Denials, NOIDs, 3-year degrees, etc. and offer a free review of all H1B, E2, and I140 education at http://www.ccifree.com/.
3 Reasons Why Your Client or Employee Got an RFE and How to Deal With It Read More »
Who is to Blame for Your RFE?
But whose fault is it REALLY and why does it matter whose fault it is anyway?
True, sometimes it is the attorney or evaluators fault, but sometimes it is CIS’s fault.
Sometimes it is the fault of the evaluation but not the evaluator.
Sometimes it is CIS’s fault.
Sometimes it’s the candidate’s fault.
Sometimes it is no one’s fault at all.
It matters because there is absolutely no reason to get a new attorney or a new evaluator at this stage of the process if the RFE was not their fault.
The first step to successfully responding to an RFE is to understand what is being asked for, and of whom is it being asked, and which party can provide the necessary evidence. Knowing who is at fault for the RFE is a big part of understanding how to move forward.
When is it the attorney’s fault?
Very rarely, an attorney will file a PERM incorrectly. Generally, however, the attorney error occurs when the candidate’s education is not reviewed by an education specialist before the PERM is filed. In this case, the candidate’s account of the education is incorrect or does not meet the CIS definition of a degree for that particular Visa. Unless this is the case, don’t file your attorney over an RFE.
When is it the evaluator’s fault and how can it be the fault of the evaluation but NOT the person who wrote it?
There are situations when the RFE is clearly the evaluator’s fault because the evaluation was incorrect. For example, when a non-accredited PGD is listed as accredited, CIS jumps on that inaccuracy to issue an RFE.
However, every evaluation is different, and evaluations for different Visas must be written very differently. When an evaluator writes an evaluation for any particular visa, he or she must know both the Visa regulations AND current CIS trends. The evaluator may have done the job properly but the equivalence does not work for the particular Visa. For example, someone with a four-year degree in electrical engineering can have an evaluation written perfectly showing equivalence for a US bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, and then receive an RFE because his or her job is in the field of computer software analysis. This sort of mismatch triggered an onslaught of RFE’s this year. The evaluator did a good job, but the evaluation was not correct for the purposes of the Visa. In this case, you may have likely found the write evaluator, he or she just wrote the wrong evaluation correctly. To avoid this, make sure you order your evaluation from an agency that knows education regulations for each Visa. If you advise an evaluation agency that you need an evaluation for an H1B visa and they don’t ask about the job offer, find a new agency. The degree must precisely fit the field of employ for this Visa and the evaluator needs to know this information so they can evaluate an equivalency to the proper degree. If you are not asked about the job offer, the agency simply does not understand what is required of H1B Visa candidates.
If you have already paid an evaluator and a mistake was made, I suggest you go back to that evaluator to try to address your RFE. However, if the evaluation agency did not make sure that the evaluation was written for the particular Visa it was ordered for, that may just be how they operate. They may just be writing standard evaluations and not be authorized to make the conversions necessary to prove equivalence between fields or across educational system structures. You cannot expect an agency to do something they don’t claim to do. The evaluation agency you want is one that will look at the education, as well as the visa requirements and current CIS trends.
When is it CIS’s fault?
Government bureaucracies make mistakes and some RFE’s are simply factually incorrect. Everything in a petition could be done correctly and you can still receive an RFE. Often when CIS is at fault, the RFE will state that an accredited university is not accredited, or that a qualified evaluator is not qualified. While these RFE’s are frustrating, they are also easy fixes. With the help of your evaluator, you can easily provide these facts and receive an approval.
When is it the Candidate’s Fault?
Candidates make mistakes. They have been known to insist that their high school documents are college level. They have also been known to provide poorly translated documents, or even fraudulently translated documents. Often but not always, a good evaluator can pick up on these problems before starting in on the evaluation, but not all evaluation agencies will review a candidate’s case before accepting payment and writing it. To be sure that no problems arise further down the road that can trigger an RFE, we always review all of the documents before accepting a credential evaluation order. Before we have seen all of the education documents, a resume, and the RFE or Denial if one has been issued, we have no way to discuss any given candidate’s case. We want to discover any issues in the documents right away in order to eliminate the vast majority of client confusion and misinformation.
When is it no one’s fault?
Sometimes, it really is no one’s fault. CIS trends change. As we have seen especially in the past seven or so years, CIS trends can change very quickly. We can only, at best, know what they generally do and what they have done. CIS can be a wildcard, and for that reason we can never guarantee what they are going to do. When this happens, all you can do is carefully read the RFE, understand what is being asked of whom and who can provide the requested evidence, and do your best.
Can we draw a usable conclusion?
Yes. If you have a competent attorney, work with him or her to resolve the RFE. If you used an evaluation agency before receiving an RFE, go back to them. Next time, make sure you are working with an agency that reviews the education and Visa requirements before you order. If that is not their policy, find a new agency. If that is their policy, hear them out. As much as I would like your business, an RFE is really not a reason to jump ship if an evaluation agency’s overall work has been good. Few agencies have passed through the RFE gauntlet this year unscathed, and many of these RFE’s are not the fault of the agency. Or the fault of the attorney. If you receive an RFE, the best solution is to remain calm and deal with it as best you can.
About the Author
Sheila Danzig
Sheila Danzig is the Executive Director of CCI 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. Mention that you saw this in the ILW article and get 72 hour rush service at no charge.
Who is to Blame for Your H1B RFE?
But whose fault is it REALLY and why does it matter whose fault it is anyway?
True, sometimes it is the attorney or evaluators fault, but sometimes it is CIS’s fault.
Sometimes it is the fault of the evaluation but not the evaluator.
Sometimes it is CIS’s fault.
Sometimes it is the candidate’s fault.
Sometimes it is no one’s fault at all.
It matters because there is absolutely no reason to get a new attorney or a new evaluator at this stage of the process if the RFE was not their fault.
The first step to successfully responding to an RFE is to understand what is being asked for, and of whom is it being asked, and which party can provide the necessary evidence. Knowing who is at fault for the RFE is a big part of understanding how to move forward.
When is it the attorney’s fault?
Very rarely, an attorney will file an application incorrectly. Generally, however, the attorney error occurs when the candidate’s education is not reviewed by an education specialist before the application is filed. In this case, the candidate’s account of their education and experience is incorrect or does not meet the CIS requirements for the H1-B. Unless this is the case, don’t fire your attorney over an RFE.
When is it the evaluator’s fault, and how can it be the fault of the evaluation but NOT the person who wrote the evaluation?
There are situations when the RFE is clearly the evaluator’s fault because the evaluation was done incorrectly. For example, when a non-accredited PGD is listed as accredited, CIS jumps on that inaccuracy to issue an RFE. This rarely happens, because most evaluators are highly trained in spotting unaccredited education.
However, every evaluation is different, and evaluations for different Visas must be written very differently. When an evaluator writes an evaluation for any particular visa, he or she needs to know both the Visa regulations AND current CIS trends. Not every evaluation agency is aware of the Visa regulations. The evaluator may have provided the evaluation ordered by the client, only to find that the equivalence does not work for the particular Visa. For example, if you have a four-year degree in electrical engineering, you can receive an evaluation written correctly showing an equivalency to a US bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, but then receive an RFE anyway because your job is in the field of computer software analysis. This sort of mismatch triggered an onslaught of RFEs this year. The evaluator did a good job, but the evaluation was not correct for the purposes of the Visa. In this case, you may have likely found the right evaluator, but he or she provided you with the wrong evaluation even though they acted in good faith. To avoid this, make sure you order your evaluation from an agency that knows education regulations for each Visa. If you advise an evaluation agency that you need an evaluation for an H1-B visa and they don’t ask about the job offer, find a new agency. The degree must precisely fit the field of employment for this Visa and the evaluator needs to know this information so they can evaluate an equivalency to the proper degree. If you are not asked about the job offer, the agency does not look at the Visa regulations and is not right for this job.
If you have already paid an evaluator and a mistake was made, I suggest you go back to that evaluator to try to address your RFE. However, if the evaluation agency did not make sure that the evaluation was written for the particular Visa it was ordered for, that may just be how they operate. There is nothing wrong with that unless they lead you to believe that they evaluate for immigration and meet Visa requirements as part of their service. They may just be writing standard evaluations and not be authorized to make the conversions from work experience to education, which is necessary to prove equivalency between fields or across educational system structures. You cannot expect an agency to do something they don’t claim to do. So the evaluation agency you want and need is one that will look at the education, as well as the visa requirements and current CIS trends.
When is it CIS’s fault?
Government bureaucracies make mistakes and some RFEs are simply factually incorrect. Everything in a petition could be done correctly and you can still receive an RFE. Often when CIS is at fault, the RFE will state that an accredited university is not accredited, or that a qualified evaluator is not qualified. While these RFEs are frustrating, they are usually also easy fixes. With the help of your evaluator, you can easily provide these facts and receive an approval.
When is it the Candidate’s Fault?
Yes, you make mistakes too. Candidates have been known to insist that their high school documents are college level or that unaccredited education is accredited. They have also been known to provide poorly translated documents, or even fraudulently translated documents. Generally, a good evaluator can pick up on these problems before starting in on the evaluation, but not all evaluation agencies will review a candidate’s case before accepting payment and writing it. To be sure that no problems arise further down the road that can trigger an RFE, we always review all of the documents before accepting a credential evaluation order. Before we have seen all of your education documents, a resume, and the RFE or Denial if one has been issued, we have no way to discuss your case. We want to discover any issues in the documents right away in order to eliminate the vast majority of the confusion and misinformation you may experience down the road.
When is it no one’s fault?
Sometimes, it really is no one’s fault. CIS trends change. As we have seen especially in the past seven or so years, CIS trends can change very quickly. We can only know what they generally do and what they have done in the past, which helps a great deal. CIS can be a wildcard, and no one can guarantee what they are going to do. When this happens, all you can do is carefully read the RFE with your team, understand what is being asked of whom and who can provide the requested evidence, and then do your best to beat it.
Can we draw a usable conclusion?
Yes. The entire team should review the RFE. Your attorney, your employer, your evaluator, and, of course, you should review the RFE. An evaluator with extensive experience with RFEs could be familiar with the RFE and know how they have been resolved. Work with him or her to resolve the RFE. If you used an evaluation agency before receiving an RFE, go back to them. Next time, make sure you are working with an evaluation agency that reviews the education and Visa requirements and gives you all of your options before you order. If that is not their policy, it might be best to try a new agency. Remember that few agencies have passed through the RFE gauntlet this year unscathed, and many of these RFEs are not the fault of the agency, or the fault of the attorney or employer or you. Do your homework before you file because avoiding RFEs is far superior to resolving them.
About the Author
Sheila Danzig
Sheila Danzig is the Executive Director of CCI 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 Mention that you saw this in the ILW article and get 72 hour rush service at no charge.
Degree Mill Empire Busted and What it Means for Your Business
New York Times recently ran an article exposing the degree mill empire. These are companies that sell fraudulent college degrees to patrons. Axact, a Pakistani company with over 2,000 and a highly respected status was recently exposed as a degree mill empire with 370 fake college websites posing as legitimate schools offering legitimate degrees. Patrons can purchase degrees from these fake schools and present them falsely as authentic credentials.
Businesses and companies that hire foreign employees are at particular risk of accidentally hiring someone with false credentials. This is because US employers don’t tend to be familiar with colleges and universities in other countries. Also, because of the vast discrepancies between educational systems across the world, it is hard for lay persons to tell whether something is simply different or actually fraudulent.
For this reason, before hiring someone – be it a foreign employee or someone from the country your business is based in – have their credentials evaluated. There’s no point in missing out on skilled workers from around the world because of a few bad apples. Since you’ll need to get a credential evaluation for a visa petition anyway, it pays to do it early on before committing to the entire petition process. That way, you’ll have your employee’s credential evaluation ready when it comes time to submit your visa petition, and you’ll know right away whether or not their education is authentic. It’s international education experts who evaluate foreign degrees for US equivalence. These experts are familiar with colleges and universities in other countries and can discern the difference between something that’s just a different educational system or structure, and what’s actually fraud.]]
Degree Mill Empire Busted and What it Means for Your Business Read More »