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How You Prepare for a Successful H1B Season with a Three-Year Degree

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

It’s time to start preparing to file H1B petitions for fiscal year 2018. We predict that there will be an H1B lottery again this year because for the past several years the number of petitions that flowed in the first week of April far surpassed the annual cap. If you or your employee or client plans to file for H1B visa status for fiscal year 2018, you need to make sure the petition is prepared, complete, and filed on April First. If you or your employee or client has a three-year bachelor’s degree, there are extra steps to preparing a petition that CIS will approve.

International education experts agree that duration is not always an accurate reflection of content. Many three-year bachelor’s degree programs have the same – if not greater – number of classroom contact hours as a US four-year bachelor’s degree program. However, CIS requires that missing fourth year to be accounted for, and that’s what matters when it comes to getting an H1B visa approved. If you or your employee or client has a three-year bachelor’s degree and files without accounting for the missing fourth year of education, the best you can expect is to receive an RFE.

Preventing an RFE is always easier than answering one. With so many petitions flowing in, CIS is looking for shortcuts to weed out petitions, and an RFE is a big red flag on the petition. If you or your employee or client receives an RFE for a three-year bachelor’s degree, you can expect that’s not the only thing CIS will inquire about in the RFE. The glaring omission of the missing fourth year triggers a close scrutiny of the petition that can reveal minor errors that would have flown under the radar that you will now have to address alongside the three-year degree.

This can be prevented easily, and here’s how:

While CIS does not accept that a three-year bachelor’s degree is the equivalent of a US four-year bachelors degree, this can be fixed by adding work experience.

CIS accepts a work experience conversion of three years of progressive work experience in the field of employ to one year of college credit in that specialization. Progressive work experience means that you or your employee or client took on more responsibility and complexity in the work as time went on, which serves as evidence that the candidate learned skills and knowledge specialized to the field through this work experience. This conversion can only be done by professors who are authorized to issue college credit for work experience.

Before you file, take your case, or your employee or client’s case to a credential evaluation agency with experience working with H1B visas, H1B RFEs, and three-year degrees that works with professors with the authority to make the work experience conversion you need. The evaluator can review the case to make sure the candidate has the education and work experience necessary to make this conversion. Do NOT make the mistake of filing an H1B petition without making absolutely sure that it meets CIS approval criteria and trends.

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.

How You Prepare for a Successful H1B Season with a Three-Year Degree Read More »

H1B Case Study: How to Overturn an RFE for Generalized Degree

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

Education is a central component of H1B eligibility. This visa is for foreign nationals who work in specialty occupations that require advanced degrees and skills and understanding specialized to their position. If the job does not require a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its equivalent, the job is not considered specialized enough to qualify. Likewise, if a candidate does not hold a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its equivalent, their qualifications are not considered specialized enough to qualify.

What if you or your employee or client has a US bachelor’s degree in liberal arts? The answer is CIS would issue an RFE because this generalized degree does not show that the candidate has specialized skills and knowledge. For this reason, candidates with generalized degrees often run into trouble come RFE season.

When a client comes to us with this kind of situation, we take a look at the content of his or her education. We look at the course content and identify specific courses taken in the field of their H1B job. We then look at their work experience in the field of their H1B job. Three years of progressive work experience in the field can be equated to one year of college credit towards a US bachelor’s degree in that major. We then write an evaluation taking specific courses and work experience into account and write a very detailed and evidence-fortified evaluation that clearly shows the candidate has the equivalent of a US bachelor’s degree in the field of the H1B job. Through this extra step, CIS can clearly see that the candidate possesses the specialized skills and understanding required to be successful at the H1B job, and eligible for H1B visa status.

If you or your employee or client has received an RFE for a generalized degree, talk to a credential evaluator with experience working with H1B RFEs. Be sure to get a consultation before you order an evaluation to make sure that the candidate has the coursework and work experience necessary to write the evaluation you need to overturn that RFE.

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.

H1B Case Study: How to Overturn an RFE for Generalized Degree Read More »

How to Answer and H-1B RFE with NO DEGREE

Credential Evaluation, Visa Approvals

H-1B education requirements demand that a candidate for this visa hold a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its equivalent. Do you or does your employee or client have the skills and knowledge needed to excel at their specialty, H-1B qualified job, but no degree to show for it? This is more common than expected as highly skilled workers are often self-taught, or learned skills on the job rather than through traditional education. While this is not the norm, an ample chunk of H-1B beneficiaries learned in the classroom of the workplace rather than in a college or university. Employers hire these creatively educated workers and then CIS sends them RFEs when they file for the H-1B visa.

Sometimes an H-1B candidate will have SOME college or university education but no degree completed. Sometimes there will be no college education at all. CIS does have a solution for this, but you or your employee or client will need a very specific kind of work experience for this to work, and a VERY specific and detailed credential evaluation accompanying the answer to the RFE.

CIS generally accepts that three years of progressive work experience in the field of your or your employee or client’s H-1B job is the equivalency of one year of college credit towards a bachelor’s degree in that field. PROGRESSIVE work experience means that the job duties expanded in scope and responsibility as employment went on, implying that you or your employee or client learned increasingly specialized skills on the job.

If you or your employee or client has some education – or no education – and enough years of progressive work experience, an evaluator with the authority to convert years of this work experience into college credit can write the evaluation you or your employee or client needs to prove to CIS that there is a legitimate US bachelor’s degree equivalency. Remember, the degree specialization must exactly match the job, so the progressive work experience MUST be in the field of employ.

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.

How to Answer and H-1B RFE with NO DEGREE Read More »

H-1B Education RFEs: Right Degree, Wrong Country – Right Degree, Wrong Field

Credential Evaluation, Visa Approvals

Among the most common H-1B RFEs this year – as in years past – are education RFEs inquiring into the education of the beneficiary. The reason is because this visa is heavily invested in the education of the beneficiary. This H-1B program aims to bring the brightest minds from around the world to work for US companies. Qualifying for an H-1B visa requires the beneficiary to hold a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its foreign equivalent. It also requires the beneficiary to hold a specialty occupation requiring specialized skills and knowledge. Thus, the beneficiary must have the right degree to be fully prepared to work their highly specialized job.

Many H-1B petitioners hold the right degree, but from the wrong country. Or the right degree, but in the wrong specialization. This does NOT mean these candidates do not meet the qualifications for the H-1B visa. It just means they need to go a step further to prove it. Oftentimes, those extra steps are not taken and instead of an Approval, they get an RFE.

Let’s take a look at the reasons why:

Right Degree, Wrong Country

A common RFE is triggered when a beneficiary has the right degree from a country that is not the United States. For example, if you, or your employee or client has a bachelor’s degree in biology from India, and a job in the field of biology that requires a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its equivalent, what CIS needs to know is whether or not your education, or your employee or client’s education covers the skills and knowledge necessary to perform the job. Since curriculums, education structures, academic content, and duration of programs differ between countries, CIS does not have all of the information to make this decision. Before you file, talk to a credential evaluator who can write a detailed evaluation of the academic content of your degree, or your employee or client’s degree, as well as experience working in the field of biology. This evaluation will show that even though this degree is not from the United States, you, or your employee or client is prepared with the specialized skill set and knowledge base necessary for the US job. These kinds of petitions filed without a credential evaluation are almost guaranteed to be met with an RFE instead of an approval. If this is what happened to you or your employee or client, it’s not too late to get the evaluation you need. Be sure when you talk to a credential evaluation agency that they understand the nuances of the H-1B visa requirements when it comes to education, as well as current CIS approval trends.

Right Degree, Wrong Specialization

Let’s say your bachelor’s degree, or your employee or client’s bachelor’s degree is in biology, but the job is in chemistry. With only that information, CIS has no way to know whether or not you or your employee or client has the skills and knowledge needed to perform the duties of chemist with a biology degree. The missing information is an evaluation of your education or your employee or client’s education and work experience. If you or your employee or client took classes in chemistry during college, those can be evaluated to count towards the right specialization. If you have, or your employee client has years of work experience in the field of chemistry in which he or she took on progressively more responsibility and learned new skills in the process, that can count towards the right specialization as well. Talk to an evaluator with the authority to closely examine the course content of your degree, or your employee or client’s degree, as well as the authority to convert years of progressive work experience in the field into college credit hours towards the right degree in the right specialization.

Both of these common education RFEs have to do with CIS needing more information about whether or not you or your employee or client has the skills and knowledge necessary to perform their job. With literally hundreds of thousands of petitions to sort through, CIS needs information spelled out very clearly and in an easily digestible fashion. At the same time, the person evaluating your petition or your employee or client’s petition is most likely not an international education expert with the extensive knowledge of different academic structures and equivalencies ready at their disposal. What they don’t know needs to be including in the initial petition, and if not then certainly in your response to the RFE.

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, RFE, Denial, or NOID, please go to http://www.ccifree.com or call 800.771.4723.

H-1B Education RFEs: Right Degree, Wrong Country – Right Degree, Wrong Field Read More »

Don’t Fall into an H1B Education Trap

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

H1B educational requirements are laden with sneaky traps that can tank your client’s case in a hurry. To avoid these traps, it is essential to be aware of the unique educational requirements of each visa, as well as the educational equivalency requirements, which also vary from visa to visa, and change with USCIS trends. Attorneys should seek the help of credential evaluators who see a lot of RFE’s, Denials, and difficult cases, and have an in-depth understanding of international education as well as CIS trends and visa requirements. This is specialized information you and your client need to know to sidestep the H1B education traps.

Is the university your client’s degree came from government accredited?

For H1B visas, the biggest education trap is the candidate has education from an institution that is not government accredited. Two common examples of this are degrees from NIIT and Aptech. Your client’s education can be legitimate, rigorous, and prepare your client with the education necessary to meet the requirements of the H1B job, but if the institution is not government accredited, CIS won’t accept it.

Is that REALLY a college degree? Or just a high school diploma?

Another common H1B education trap attorneys and their clients fall into is when an attorney listens to a client who insists his high school diploma is a college degree. In most cases, this is an honest mistake that gets taken too far. This particular trap is the result of mistranslations and cross-cultural misunderstanding. Educational systems vary greatly between countries, and different degrees are often called the same name. Meaning gets muddled in both functional and linguistic translation. To qualify for an H1B visa, your client must have at least a US Bachelor’s degree or its foreign equivalent. A high school diploma won’t cut it.

That degree doesn’t mean what you think it does.

Bad translations are a big trap H1B candidates can fall into come filing time. Some degrees do not have direct English translations, and some degrees exist in certain countries but do not actually have a US equivalency. When educational documents get translated, words get mistranslated to skew the meaning of the value of the degree. This leads to a false evaluation following a bad translation. This trap has widened now that some translation agencies are setting up as “one-stop shops” offering both translation and credential evaluation for foreign educational documents. Credential evaluation is a very specialized field requiring highly nuanced knowledge of international education, CIS precedents, international trade agreements, and federal case law. Translation agencies simply reference an equivalency database like EDGE, which only provides the most conservative of equivalencies. Credential evaluation must be done on a case-by-case basis taking all of these aspects into consideration, as well as the specific educational requirements for the particular visa.

To avoid falling into an H1B educational trap – which there are more of every year – have a credential evaluator review your client’s education. An experienced evaluator who sees a lot of difficult cases, RFE’s, and Denials knows how to spot bad translations, unaccredited institutions, and degrees that are actually diplomas. An experienced credential evaluator can also consult you and your client on how to best move forward if their education lands square in one such trap. You and your client may have more options available than you think.

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.

Don’t Fall into an H1B Education Trap Read More »

Job Description and the Degree Requirement: Is Your Candidate H-1B Qualified?

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

Whether you’re looking into hiring on a new employee under H-1B status, or taking on a current L-1 or TN employee as an H-1B employee for this next fiscal year, it’s time to get going. USCIS begins accepting petitions for this much sought after visa on April 1st. If the past several years are any indication of what is to come, you will only have a five-day window to get your client or employee’s petition in the H-1B lottery.

Before you even get started, there are two very important questions about whether or not the job and the employee are H-1B qualified you and your client or employee should be asking:

  1. Is the job itself a specialty occupation?
  2. Is my employee or client educationally qualified for this specialty occupation?

To qualify for H-1B visa status, the job must require a US bachelor’s degree or its equivalent or higher to show that the position requires the employee to possess specialized skills and knowledge to carry out successfully. Mid-sized companies in particular are asked to justify why someone with a bachelor’s degree or higher is required for the job, and you need to show this through evidence and documentation. For example, the ad for the job can be used as proof if it indicates that as a minimum qualification the employee must have a bachelor’s degree or higher. You can also show that similar jobs for similar companies also have these specialized requirements. However, if the job requires a generalized degree – even if it is a bachelor’s degree – you may run into problems because a generalized degree does not indicate that specialized knowledge and skills are required. This is where alternative forms of evidence, like expert opinion letters and examples of similar jobs for similar companies come in particular handy. It is on you to prove that you require a highly skilled employee with a specialized knowledge base to successfully carry out the duties of an H-1B job.

Say you’ve established that your company absolutely needs an employee with a bachelor’s degree or higher and a specialized knowledge base and skill set to carry out the duties of this H-1B position. NOW you need to show that your H-1B candidate is that employee with the required education and specialized knowledge base and skill set. How do you do this? If your candidate has a bachelor’s degree or higher from a US college or university with a major that is an exact fit for their field of employ, it is straightforward. If your candidate has a degree from a different country or with a major in a different field – even if it’s in a related field – from their field of employ, you will need to take one more step to meet this H-1B requirement.

CIS does not accept a three-year degree as the equivalent of a US four-year degree at face value. However, when evaluated for academic course content, an evaluation agency with the authority to convert classroom contact hours into college credit can use this technique to take a close look at your client or employee’s degree and bridge the missing year. An evaluator with the authority to convert years of work experience into college credit can follow the 3-1 rule and convert three years of progressive work experience in the field into one year of college credit. Both of these careful evaluation methods can also be utilized to show specialization in the candidate’s field of employ if they have worked in the field or taken enough classes throughout their college career in that field.

Don’t wait until it’s too late to get started on your employee or client’s H-1B petition. This is US immigration, which means it’s a bundle of details and documentation that often takes time and energy to get in order. If your client or employee needs a credential evaluation to show that they meet CIS educational requirements, start looking for the right credential evaluation agency to meet your needs. The right agency should be able to right an evaluation as unique as your client’s education, and they should have a firm understanding of CIS trends and the different academic requirements for different visas.

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, RFE, Denial, or NOID, please go to http://www.ccifree.com or call 800.771.4723.

Job Description and the Degree Requirement: Is Your Candidate H-1B Qualified? Read More »

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