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CASE STUDY: The Biggest Nightmare RFE Out There

Credential Evaluation, Immigration

You’ve heard of the Nightmare RFE and the Double Employment Issue RFE. Get ready, because this is about to be terrifying:

This RFE season is the harshest we’ve seen yet. Now, CIS is combining these RFEs. Candidates are now having to defend against requests for evidence regarding every facet of their education AND employment issues. The Nightmare on its own is virtually impossible to answer given the time and evidence demanded. Now, it’s even worse. We could call it the Triple RFE, but the best way to approach it is as one, single, consolidated RFE.

Here’s how:

Go back to the basics. The Nightmare RFE cannot be answered by its own guidelines. Instead, at TheDegreePeople.com, we go back to the original H1B requirements and meet them impeccably. This requires a detailed credential evaluation that may include expert opinion letters, work experience conversions, citing federal case law, international education and labor agreements, and CIS precedent decisions to show that your client meets the educational requirements of both the H1B visa, and their job.

At the same time, we need to address the employment issues. These issues have had to do with whether or not the job in question is adequately specialized to meet H1B requirements. The issue arises when the job indicated on the employer’s Labor Conditions Application doesn’t meet the duties of the job indicated on the H1B petition exactly, and when the employer indicates Wage Level 1 for the H1B job. CIS contests that the job doesn’t match, and also that just because a job is at Wage Level 1 it is not specialized to the point of requiring a US Bachelor’s Degree or higher or its foreign equivalent. An expert opinion letter is needed in these cases that explains the situation, alongside documentation clearly spelling out the specialized responsibilities involved in the job. In many cases, employees start at Wage Level 1 because they are fresh out of college without much work experience, and while their job is adequately specialized, it still requires a lot of guidance and supervision.

You don’t have to address all three issues presented in the biggest Nightmare RFE out there with three separate responses. At TheDegreePeople.com, we have been able to successfully answer every one of these horrid RFEs in one fell swoop with a creative approach and an expert opinion letter that addresses both employment issues. If you’re staring down this terrifying RFE, simply go to ccifree.com and let us review your case for free.

CASE STUDY: The Biggest Nightmare RFE Out There Read More »

Overturning the RFE for Specialty Occupation

Credential Evaluation, Immigration

It’s RFE season and CIS is coming down especially hard on “borderline” occupations this year.

These are jobs that don’t necessarily require a US bachelor’s degree or its equivalent or higher according the the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH). Some borderline jobs include management positions, certain computer and tech positions, certain healthcare occupations, and other jobs that vary in specialization based on the individual circumstances of the unique job itself.

When an employer fills out the Labor Conditions Application, they must choose the employee’s occupation from the OOH. This selection is used by CIS to determine the prevailing wage the H1B employee must be paid. Employers of H1B candidates with borderline jobs can choose a job from the OOH that emphasizes a central aspect of the occupation that requires a US bachelor’s degree or its equivalency or higher. This is where three problems arise that result in some very serious RFEs:

First, most jobs don’t meet the duties and responsibilities outlined in occupations in the OOH 100%. This is a vulnerability CIS takes advantage of to issue an RFE.

Second, when employers do this, the job on the petition does not match the job on the LCA.

Third, the wages employers are paying their H1B workers is called into question because the wages being paid to the H1B worker is not the same as the wage level as stated for the occupation in the OOH.

These are very serious RFEs.

Does this mean employees with borderline occupations are out of luck this RFE season? No, but it requires answering the RFE with a lot of evidence, documentation, citations, and analysis. The goal is either to prove that this particular occupation is uniquely specialized as to require an advanced degree, or that the candidate’s degree equivalency meets the educational requirements stated for the OOH job indicated on the LCA.

Don’t try to answer this RFE alone. This is not something you can do without help from experts in international education, the details of H1B educational requirements, and CIS approval trends, and is familiar with the various OOH/ONET positions and their requirements. While there are no guarantees with CIS, at TheDegreePeople.com, our experts have been able to overturn these RFEs with a 100% success rate. Visit ccifree.com and let us help you solve your RFE dilemma.

Overturning the RFE for Specialty Occupation Read More »

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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Case Study: RFE for Degree from Unaccredited Institution – OVERTURNED!

Credential Evaluation, Immigration

Plenty of academically competitive institutions of education that are held in high regard by the professional fields their students are trained in, that provide students with high quality education that are simply not government accredited.  Graduates of programs from these schools are prepared to work highly specialized H1B jobs, but CIS will not approve their visas outright because the school their degree is from is not government accredited.

Sometimes, candidates will not know that their school was not government accredited.  Sometimes a credential evaluator will not know that a school is not accredited and not take that into account when writing a credential evaluation.  For these reasons, H1B candidates get education RFEs this time of year.

If you or your employee or client received an H1B RFE for having the right degree from the wrong institution, you may be able to get that RFE overturned.  The question is, does the candidate have the progressive work experience necessary to account for the missing degree?

At TheDegreePeople.com, we work with these kinds of cases regularly.  We recently had a client come to us with an RFE for an unaccredited institution and we were able to get the RFE overturned with a credential evaluation that included a work experience conversion.  It works like this:

CIS accepts that three years of progressive work experience in your client’s field can be converted into one year of college credit with a major in that field in a credential evaluation, so long as a professor with the authority to grant college credit for work experience signs off on this conversion.  Progressive work experience means that throughout the candidate’s time on the job, he or she took on progressively more responsibility, and the nature of the duties of the job became increasingly specialized and complex indicating that education occurred on the job.

If you or your employee or client is in this situation, twelve years of progressive work experience is needed to write the evaluation to get this RFE overturned.

Not sure if you, your client, or your employee qualifies?  Let us review your case for free.  Simply go to ccifree.com and submit the candidate’s accurate, updated resume, and indicate the H1B job.  We will get back to you within 24 hours with a pre-evaluation and full analysis of your situation and all of your options.

Case Study: RFE for Degree from Unaccredited Institution – OVERTURNED! Read More »

Right Education, Wrong Evaluation: Get that H1B RFE Overturned

Credential Evaluation, Immigration

Did you or your employee or client file with a credential evaluation only to receive an RFE anyway?

The problem is, many credential evaluators don’t understand how to work with visa cases. Think back to when you ordered. Did they ask about the job? Did they ask about the visa? Do they regularly work with RFEs and difficult cases? If the answer is no, then you probably filed with the right education and the wrong evaluation.

Why does this happen?

There are a variety of rcircumstances in which people need credential evaluations. These circumstances require different evaluations. For example, if you or your employee or client is applying for a graduate program in the United States with a high school diploma and college degree from outside of the United States, the credential evaluation will need to cater to the program’s admissions requirements. In most cases, graduate programs will accept a three-year bachelor’s degree as the equivalent of a US four-year bachelor’s degree as meeting program prerequisite requirements with a simple credential evaluation. This will not work for an H1B visa.

With H1B, candidates must have a work experience conversion in their evaluation to account for the missing fourth year of their bachelor’s degree. This can be done only by a professor with the authority to grant college credit for work experience. Three years of progressive work experience in the candidate’s field of employ in which their work became more complex and specialized can be converted into one year of college credit towards a major in that specialization. This is a complex evaluation.

The same kind of conversion is necessary if you or your employee or client has a degree that is not an exact fit for the H1B job. With graduate program admissions, in most cases a degree in a related field is acceptable. This is not the case for H1B approval. Work experience conversion is required for CIS to approve the H1B visa.

Will this conversion work for other visas. No. For example, say you or your employee or client is applying for EB2 status rather than H1B because the ultimate goal is a Green Card. EB2 requirements don’t allow the bachelor’s degree equivalency to be anything but a single source, so combining work experience will not be acceptable in the eyes of CIS.

In essence, it’s easy to end up with the wrong evaluation for the right education. If the candidate has been hired for the job, it’s because they believe she is qualified based on her education, work experience, and expertise. The RFE is your second chance to prove this to CIS as well.

At TheDegreePeople.com, we work with all kinds of visa cases and their RFEs. We know what works and what doesn’t when it comes to CIS approval and overturning even the most difficult RFEs. Before you file your response, let us review your case for free. Simply go to ccifree.com and submit the candidate’s educational documents along with a current, accurate resume, and indicate the H1B job. We will get back to your within 24 hours with a pre-evaluation and full analysis of your case and how to best move forward in successfully answering the RFE.

Right Education, Wrong Evaluation: Get that H1B RFE Overturned Read More »

How Going Back to the Basics Can Solve Your RFE Woes

Credential Evaluation, Immigration


If you or your employee or client received an RFE on their H1B petition, read it over but don’t get caught up in the wording.  Instead, go back to the basics to find out what CIS is really asking for in requesting the evidence indicated.

The original H1B eligibility requirements are your key to successfully answering an RFE with as little stress as possible.  Find out which requirements were lacking in evidence to prove that the candidate, the job, and the employer meet them.

H1B qualified candidates work specialty occupations, hold the necessarily US degree or foreign equivalent, and have an employer-employee relationship with an employer that is economically viable and paying them prevailing wages and benefits.  Specialty occupation is defined as a job requiring such a high level of skill that the candidate must have a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its foreign equivalent in the exact field of the job to have the skills and knowledge necessary to carry out the duties of the job.

So read over the RFE and find out which of these requirements is in question.  Is CIS cautious about the employer or the employee contract?  Are the wage rates in question?  Is CIS unclear whether the job is specialized to fit H1B guidelines?  If these are where evidence was lacking in the initial petition, you can submit pay stubs, a copy of the employee contract and job description, and tax information about the employer.  If the job is in question, send in the ad for the job that indicates the minimum qualifications.  You may also need to provide evidence that similar jobs in the same industry in similar companies also require a minimum of a US bachelor’s degree or higher to perform its duties.  If this particular job requires a unique level of specialization, be sure to include an expert opinion letter and evidence to back it up as to why this is the case.

Oftentimes, CIS is cautious about a candidate because of the education.  Candidates with degrees from outside of the United States, or degrees with majors that are not an exact fit for their H1B job, and candidates who have not completed college need to work harder to prove to CIS that their education is sufficiently specialized to meet H1B requirements.  Each of these situations requires a credential evaluation tailored to the candidate’s unique education and work experience, as well as their job, H1B educational requirements, and CIS approval trends.

At TheDegreePeople.com, we always keep one eye on the education and the other on CIS.  If you have any questions, please call or email any time and we will respond promptly.  Simply go to ccifree.com, or call 800-771-4723.

How Going Back to the Basics Can Solve Your RFE Woes Read More »

Everything You Need to Know about H1B RFEs for 3-Year Degrees

Credential Evaluation, Immigration

One of the very most common H1B RFE triggers is a 3-year bachelor’s degree with no credential evaluation, or with the wrong kind of credential evaluation.

Many H1B candidates come to the United States to work missing a fourth year of education. The Indian 3-year Bachelor’s degree is the most common 3-year degree to trigger an RFE because there are only twelve years of pre-college education rather than thirteen. Although 3-year degrees from India tend to have even more classroom contact hours than the US 4-year bachelor’s degree, CIS is hung up on that missing fourth year.

If you or your employee or client has an Indian 3-year bachelor’s degree and you submitted the H1B petition without a credential evaluation, chances are you received an RFE regarding the candidate’s education. Even if you did submit a credential evaluation with the petition, you may have received an RFE anyway, and here’s why:

Every visa has particular regulations surrounding what CIS will and will not accept for educational equivalencies. In addition, CIS approval trends change year to year. For example, in the past, we could write a classroom clock hours conversion breaking down the number of hours students spend in class for an Indian 3-year Bachelors degree. Then, we would use the Carnegie Unit conversion which converts fifteen hours of classroom contact hours into 1 hour of college credit. A US 4-year Bachelor’s degree contains a minimum of 120 credit hours. If the 3-year degree contained at least this many credit hours, the equivalency would work. This is not the case anymore.

Now, the right credential evaluation for an H1B candidate’s 3-year degree uses a work experience conversion to account for the missing fourth year. CIS is VERY focused on that missing fourth year of education regardless of the intensity of education.

Here’s how it works:

Three years of progressive work experience in the field of your or your employee or client’s H1B job can be converted into one year of college credit. In this work experience, the candidate must have taken on more responsibility and tasks of greater specialization while at this job, proving that education occurred on the job. This conversion must be written by a professor authorized to grant college credit for work experience. At TheDegreePeople.com, we always have authorized professors on staff available to write these evaluations.

If you or your employee or client received an RFE for a 3-year degree, don’t get too far on your response without a full analysis of your situation and all of your options moving forward. Let us review the case. Simply go to ccifree.com and submit all of the educational documents and a current, accurate resume and we will get back to you within 24 hours with your pre-evaluation, 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, RE, Denial, or NOID, please go to http://www.ccifree.com/ or call 800.771.4723.

Everything You Need to Know about H1B RFEs for 3-Year Degrees Read More »

RFE Alert: Did you submit the right evaluation for the wrong visa?

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

College and graduate admissions evaluations, for example, are an entirely different from what is needed in a credential evaluation for a work visa. Education requirements vary from visa to visa, and what CIS accepts for combinations and equivalencies also varies between visas. Many credential evaluation agencies will write a standard evaluation for every case and call it good, but this will not work for H1B.

Think back to when you ordered your client’s credential evaluation:

  • Did they ask about the candidate’s job?
  • Did they ask about the candidate’s visa?
  • Do they regularly work with RFE cases?

The right credential evaluation agency will ask the right questions, work regularly with RFE, and follow CIS approval trends.

If the answer is no to any or all of these questions, it is likely that you had the right evaluation for the wrong visa. While the evaluation may be accurate, it still did not met CIS requirements for H1B eligibility.

For an H1B visa, the candidate must hold the equivalent of a US bachelor’s degree or higher in the exact field of their H1B job. For three-year bachelor’s degrees or for degree that don’t exactly match the field of employ, you need a credential evaluation to fill in the eligibility gaps. CIS will not accept classroom clock hour conversions to hours of college credit. The fourth year must be accounted for with a progressive work experience conversion of three years of work experience to one year of college credit in the field.

The right credential evaluation agency will keep one eye on the education and the other on CIS. That’s what we do at TheDegreePeople.com.

If you or your employee or client received an RFE for an education situation, let us help you for free. Simply hit go to ccifree.com and submit the educational documents and a current, accurate resume. We will get back to you within 24 hours with a pre-evaluation, full analysis, and all of your options moving forward.

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.

RFE Alert: Did you submit the right evaluation for the wrong visa? Read More »

Five Tips to Successfully Answer Your H1B RFE

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

RFE season is here for cap-subject H1B candidates! The past ten years has seen a massive spike in RFEs with around one quarter of all petitions receiving on, so don’t be surprised if one arrives.

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.

Five Tips to Successfully Answer Your H1B RFE Read More »

H1B RFE? Whose fault was it?

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

When your RFE or your employee or client’s RFE arrives, sit down with your team and read it over and determined who dropped the ball. Finding out who is at fault for the RFE is not about placing or deflecting blame, but rather an investigative tool you can use to find out where you need to make changes and provide more evidence to get the RFE overturned.

Sometimes CIS is to blame for the RFE

As you well know, CIS is not perfect. The H1B petition could have been spotless and CIS will still issue an RFE. These RFEs are factually incorrect. They are frustrating, but they are easy because you already have all of the evidence, documentation, and analysis ready to file.

Sometimes it’s the attorney’s fault

While it is rare, an attorney will sometimes file a petition incorrectly. If this is the case, it’s typically not worth firing your attorney for this late in the process. Misfiling errors can be corrected.

Sometimes the RFE is the fault of the candidate

Sometimes H1B candidates will mistake the value of their degree. It’s not uncommon for a candidate to insist that a high school diploma is a college degree, or to provide mistranslated or poorly evaluated educational documents that trigger an RFE. Sometimes the degree isn’t from an accredited institution, and regardless of how good their education actually is, CIS will not accept a degree from an institution that is not accredited. If this is the case, it’s important to find out where the candidate’s mistake was made and provide accurate evidence in its place when answering the RFE.

Sometimes the evaluator – or the evaluation – caused the RFE

Credential evaluations for visa cases can get tricky in a hurry, and not every credential evaluator or agency is up for the job. International education is very specialized and nuanced, and each visa has different educational requirements, as well as requirements surrounding what constitutes an equivalency CIS will accept. On top of that, CIS approval trends regarding education change from year to year. For example, in the past, CIS would approve H1B petitions in which the candidate had a US bachelor’s degree or higher in a field related to their H1B job, whereas now they require an EXACT match. If your client has a three-year bachelor’s degree, CIS will no longer accept a classroom contact hour evaluation that breaks down the academic content by converting classroom contact hours into college credit hours. Now, a work experience conversion of three years of progressive work experience to one year of college credit in the field is required to account for the missing fourth year. The evaluator you need for the job follows CIS approval trends, understands the nuances of international education, and understands the difference between educational requirements for different visas. A perfectly good credential evaluator can write the wrong evaluation for your or your employee or client’s H1B case.

Here’s a hint: When choosing the right credential evaluator, do they ask about the visa and the job? If the answer is no, then look elsewhere. These factors are vital to the right evaluation for the case.

If you or your employee or client received an H1B RFE, let us provide a free pre-evaluation of the candidate’s education. Simply go to ccifree.com and submit educational documents, a current accurate resume, and indicate the job title and desired equivalency. We will get back to you within 24 hours with the pre-evaluation, a full analysis, and all of your options to successfully overturn your client’s 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 RFE? Whose fault was it? Read More »

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