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Effective Now: Memorandum Lets Adjudicators Deny Petitions without NOID or RFE

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

This past July, USCIS announced a policy memorandum that took effect September 11th, 2018.  This memorandum allows adjudicators to deny incomplete applications, requests, and petitions without first issuing an NOID and RFE.

Before the memorandum, adjudicators were required to issue an RFE or NOID instead of outright Denials unless there was absolutely no possibility that the case would be approved.  Now, adjudicators have broader discretion to flat out deny petitions.

CIS says that the purpose of this memorandum is to deter “placeholder” petitions, which are incomplete petitions with vague answers that are later clarified in RFE responses.  Adjudicators can now deny these cases flat out.  Some examples include petitions submitted without supporting evidence or severely lacking in supporting evidence, petitions submitted with questions left unanswered, and petitions that require additional official documents or evidence but are submitted without them.

While this amendment sounds alarming, in theory it really doesn’t change much for petitioners.  From what we can tell at TheDegreePeople, reports of issue have been exaggerated.  It has always been generally advised for petitioners of all visas to submit complete petitions, on time, with all supporting evidence and documentation included.  In this sense, nothing has actually changed when it comes to optimizing your chances of visa approval.

However, laws on the books are different from laws in action.  To see the full scope of how this new memorandum will change visa approval, we will have to wait and see how it all plays out with USCIS.  In the meantime, it’s now more important than ever that you get the petition right the first time.  That means identifying where CIS is likely to have questions about your case and providing any additional evidence they will need before they have to ask for it.

At TheDegreePeople, we have been working with RFEs for years and follow CIS approval trends.  The best way to answer an RFE now, as it has always been, is to prevent it in the first place.  Visit TheDegreePeople.com to chat with us about your case.

Have you encountered issues with this new memorandum?  We want to hear about it!  Comment here to post your opinions and experiences regarding this matter.

Effective Now: Memorandum Lets Adjudicators Deny Petitions without NOID or RFE Read More »

Source & Sequence: Get Your EB2 Education Right

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

Every visa that leans heavily on education has different requirements, especially when it comes to equivalencies for education completed outside of the United States. The EB2 visa in particular is fraught with notorious education traps.

Before you file, make sure you, or your employee or client’s education checks out or you’ll end up with an RFE at best, instead of that approval.

The two big components of EB2 education to keep in mind and source and sequence. Candidates eligible for EB2 status have earned a US Masters degree or higher or its foreign equivalent, or have completed a US Bachelor’s degree or its equivalent followed by at least five years of progressive work experience in the field. Sounds simple enough, right? Not when it comes to equivalencies.

If you, or your employee or client has a degree from outside of the United States, or has a degree in a specialization that does not match the field of occupation, you will need to include a credential evaluation that fills in the gaps. Often, this includes converting progressive years of work experience in the field to years of college credit.

Remember, source and sequence are crucial. Consider, for example, you have, or your employee or client has an Indian three-year degree. You will need to account for the missing fourth year of education for CIS approval. Three years of progressive work experience in the field can be converted into the equivalent for one year of college credit towards that major. This also comes in handy when the degree specialization and job are mismatched. While other visas like H-1B will let you combine the three years of education, or education completed in the wrong major, with years of progressive work experience to meet equivalency and specialization requirements, that’s not how it works for EB2.

With EB2, the Bachelors degree must be a SINGLE SOURCE. This means your client will either need a US Bachelors or Masters degree in the exact field of the EB2 job, or a whole lot of progressive work experience.

The second component to remember is sequence. If you, or your employee or client holds a Bachelors degree or its single source equivalent, they will need an additional five years of progressive work experience, and this work experience must have occurred AFTER the Bachelors degree or its equivalency was earned. This shows that a Bachelors degree or its equivalent was a MINIMUM requirement for the following five years of work experience.

If you have any questions regarding your EB2 education, or your employee or client’s EB2 education, don’t let them go unanswered. Visit ccifree.com for a no charge and no obligation review of the. We will get back to you in 48 hours or less with a full analysis, pre-evaluation, and our recommendations.

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What does the Level 1 Wages RFE Mean for the H1B Visa?

Credential Evaluation, Immigration

There are a couple of particulars about this RFE that make it especially threatening to the H1B program at large.  This RFE targets computer programmers at wage level 1, claiming that this means it’s an entry level position and employers will hire entry level computer programmers with only a US Associates degree.  They cite a passage from the Occupational Outlook Handbook that states this.

The problems are as follows: the same passage states that typically employers will require a minimum of a US Bachelors degree, which satisfies the H1B educational requirement that a beneficiary must have a US Bachelors degree or higher or its foreign equivalent.  The second problem is that just because a job is set at level one wages doesn’t mean it’s an entry level position.

Here is why this is dangerous: this RFE indirectly targets foreign students that come to the US for college.  The H1B visa is an incentive to attract bright minds from around the world to US academic institutions because it offers them the opportunity to stay in the country after college to contribute their ideas, insight, knowledge, and ability to the US workforce, particularly in STEM industries where it is needed the most.  Computer programmers working at level 1 wages are likely to be fresh out of college and just entering the workforce.  The low wage level is set not because it is entry level, but because a high level of training and supervision is still required on the part of the employer for recent graduates just entering the workforce as they acclimate to applying their learned skills to the work environment.

The Level 1 Wages RFE is a deterrent for international students as well as international workers, and it’s up to all of us to fight it.  Just as we’ve cracked the code of the dreaded Nightmare RFE in years passed, we’ve also learned how to address this new RFE.

If you or your employee or client has received a Level 1 Wages RFE, let us review the case at no charge and no obligation.  Simply send the following documents to [email protected]:

• LCA

• Beneficiary Resume and Educational Documents

• Employer Support Letter

• Detailed Job Description

• RFE

We will get back to you in 48 hours or less with a full review of the case, and our suggestions on how to move forward to successfully overturn the RFE.

What does the Level 1 Wages RFE Mean for the H1B Visa? Read More »

Chartered Accountancy/CPA Around the Globe – Which ones are equivalent to a Degree?

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

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.  ]]>

Chartered Accountancy/CPA Around the Globe – Which ones are equivalent to a Degree? Read More »

3 Details to Remember When Filing Your H1B Petition

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

Three things to remember when filing your H1B petition that will make a huge difference:

  • Keep a Blue Pen Nearby. You need to sign everything in blue ink so the USCIS work evaluating your petition knows which signatures are originals and which signatures are yours from the time you filled out your petition. They’re going to request a host of original documents. Make it easy on overworked eyes to tell which signatures are originals and which ones are yours.
  • Double-Check for Inconsistencies before Filing. This cannot be stressed enough. USCIS workers cannot assume what you meant if some of your answers contradict each other or don’t match up with the resumes, transcripts, and other documentation accompanying your application. Don’t mail in a petition without meticulously going over your answers.
  • Include a Credential Evaluation. If your degree is from somewhere besides the United States and you submit your petition without having your degree evaluated by an authorized credential evaluation agency, the USCIS has no way of knowing the value or your education. Since you need a bachelor’s degree or higher for an H1B visa, it is essential for you to be able to clearly show what your degree means in terms of US academic standards.

USCIS workers cannot make assumptions about anything on your petition. Competition is too fierce to skimp on important details. Never be too hurried to double check your work, include all necessary documentation, and take that extra step to make your petition clear to the reader.

3 Details to Remember When Filing Your H1B Petition Read More »

Ten Leading H-1B Visa Users Outsource Overseas Job Opportunities. US Firms Use This to Criticize H1B Process.

Press

This statement also reveals the fact that H-1B visas help in the transfer of skilled jobs in the US, which are the highest paying, to different countries. The president of the IEEE-US (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA) asserted that the Congress should only pass those regulations that would help in the creation of new jobs in the US rather than those which would decrease the existing job applicant’s prospects. What it seems they are missing is the fact that we need the most qualified people for the jobs regardless of what country they are from.
Ron Hira, a professor of Public Policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, emphasized the fact that Congress could not fill in the gaps in the preliminary H-1B visa scheme. He claims that this resulted in a decrease in job opportunities as well as the reduction in salaries of the highly skilled workers in the US. Others believe that when two things happened at the same time it does not mean one caused the other. We at CCI (www.TheDegreePeople.com/) urge that further investigation of the facts must be done before asking Congress to act on this matter.
The leading H-1B users got 40,170 H-1B visas during the financial year of 2012 and applied only for 1,167 green cards, which were based on their particular jobs. These kinds of visas let immigrants to initiate their own firms that would definitely result in the creation of US job opportunities and eventually wealth. It is important to understand that the Green Card process is very long and slow and the difference in numbers are caused by many different factors such as retrogression and the EB2 education requirements.
Apter stated that any kind of scheme, which is related to enhancement in the skilled immigration, has to be based on green cards. CCI agrees that the Green Card process must be streamlined so that there is a clear path from the H1b to the Green Card.

Ten Leading H-1B Visa Users Outsource Overseas Job Opportunities. US Firms Use This to Criticize H1B Process. Read More »

Will Passing Immigration Reform Further Backlog USCIS Caseloads?

Press

TheObama administration had made immigration reform a high priority issue. Will this increase in case load of the non-documented slow down processing for legal worker?

(EMAILWIRE.COM, November 05, 2009 ) Fort Lauderdale/Miami FL, The current presidential administration has declared immigration reform to be a high priority issue. At present, the administration has focused primarily on the country’s economics and the need for reform of the American healthcare system. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), however, is preparing for the eventual announcement that the President is turning his eyes to comprehensive immigration reform, commonly referred to as CIR. Once this reform has been initiated, USCIS expects a considerable increase in numbers of cases.

Prior to the most recent presidential election, Obama indicated his resolve to significantly reform the immigration process. He has made it clear that this reform will involve the large numbers of undocumented immigrants currently residing in the United States. In fact, part of the reform proposal is expected to contain a plan for status legalization for many of these people.

Sheila Danzig, executive director of a foreign degree evaluation agency Career Consulting International, has stated that America’s present economic condition makes it likely that legalization will be strongly opposed, and the current lack of jobs for legal residents and U.S. citizens makes opposition even more likely. Despite this, USCIS is aware that at least some cases will be presented to that agency for consideration, and this is likely to bog down an already backlogged immigration service even further.
At present, persons who apply for I-140 visas (which are also known as “green cards”) must wait up to one year after their petition is filed for an interview to be scheduled. The process can be complicated by documentation or education issues. Sometimes, the USCIS issues a Request for Evidence, or RFE, indicating that some aspect of the petitioner’s application – possibly the labor certificate or educational credentials – requires further investigation.

Many companies who employ legal residents, as well as workers residing in the U.S. on temporary work visas, such as H1B visas, are concerned that this anticipated increase in USCIS’s caseload will further slow the visa approval process. Many employers depend on highly trained or skilled workers who enter the country on employment-based visas, and could experience a shortage of trained employees if this potential problem does become a reality.
The USCIS caseload is already backlogged, and the H1B visa cap did not fill for 2009 as a consequence, in part, of the recession. If the economy does recover substantially, and visa applications do increase significantly in the coming year, USCIS will need to meet the usual demands of H1B visa season, as well as Obama’s proposed immigration reform.

Career Consulting International, other foreign credential evaluation agencies, immigration attorneys, and the American public will watch the reform proposals with interest. How they affect the USCIS remains to be seen, but an increased caseload is almost certain.
For more information about foreign credential educational evaluations for H1B or I-140 Visas, visit www.thedegreepeople.com or call 1-800-771-4723.]]>

Will Passing Immigration Reform Further Backlog USCIS Caseloads? Read More »

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