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Visa Approvals

Your Roadmap to Approval May NOT be in your Client’s RFE

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

In other words…USCIS is not your friend.

Against a backdrop of increased pressure and limited resources, the RFE your client receives in response to his or her petition is not always as unique and specific as it may appear to be. The number of petitions submitted for the same number of visas has forced CIS workers evaluating petitions to get sloppy when a decision is not entirely straightforward.

In fact, USCIS has adopted an approach to writing RFEs and Denials wherein instead of writing an RFE tailored to the actual petition, they use boilerplate text from an adjudicator’s manual. Readers unfamiliar with this CIS trend may think that the RFE lays out the guidelines and advice for how to respond to it. In practice, this is not the case. The boilerplate text has been chosen after the fact, as justification for a decision that has already been made to deny your client’s petition. Following the guidelines indicated in this kind of RFE will not actually give you and your client correct insight into what is needed for your client’s individual petition.

Boilerplate text RFE’s can he hard to identify, especially to the untrained eye, and even more difficult to respond to successfully. In order to overturn this RFE, it is necessary to construct a response that transcends what CIS can just throw more boilerplate text at. To do this, you must submit a response that must be referred to an expert at CIS with the capacity to review petitions on a case-by-case basis. In essence, you can’t respond successfully to a boilerplate RFE with a boilerplate response.

If your client’s petition received an RFE for an education situation, contact an expert credential evaluator. For difficult cases, RFEs, and Denials, you need an expert who understands CIS trends, federal case law, CIS precedents, and the intricacies of the visa requirements who can write a detailed evaluation that must be deferred to someone who can actually give your client’s petition the adjudication it deserves.

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.

Your Roadmap to Approval May NOT be in your Client’s RFE Read More »

How to Avoid that H1B RFE

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

A Request for Information (RFE) is a tool CIS uses to make a clear decision on whether or not to approve your client’s visa. If they don’t feel enough evidence was provided in the initial petition to make a decision, they will issue an RFE indicating what further evidence they need. When they request this evidence, there are specific questions they are looking for documentation to answer. These questions aren’t typically indicated outright, so lawyers, employers, and evaluators must read between the lines. Some RFE’s – such as the dreaded Nightmare RFE – are technically impossible to answer. The fact of the matter is, sometimes CIS issues RFE’s that are literally impossible to answer. When this occurs, you must find a way to answer the questions they seek to answer with the evidence requested, even if you can’t provide the precise evidence they request. A skilled credential evaluator with insight into CIS trends, H1B visa requirements, and international education can help you answer these RFE’s. At TheDegreePeople, our international education experts have been able to answer around 95% of all of the Nightmare RFE’s that come across our desks.

However, the best trick to answer such an RFE is to avoid it in the first place. There’s no need to suffer the stress of an RFE – even if it is possible to answer it. An RFE is a red flag on your client’s petition that will instigate a close look at the petition that can uncover missed details that would otherwise go unnoticed. This will make the RFE more complex and harder to answer. CIS has only 65,000 H1B visas available annually, plus an additional 20,000 H1B visas for candidates with advanced degrees. While this may seem like a lot of visas, with over 200,000 petitions estimated to be submitted in the first five days of CIS accepting petitions, CIS is looking for any excuse to make their decisions easier. Make their job easier by submitting an impeccable petition the first time.

Here are five things to keep in mind to avoid an RFE:

  1. Make sure the information is consistent across all of the documents and forms.

Don’t ever submit an H1B petition without double-checking every form and document for consistency and accuracy. This means spelling of names, dates of jobs and education, names of employers and schools, and locations of these jobs and schools. Everything must be consistent. CIS is on the lookout for visa fraud. Inaccurate or inconsistent answers are big red flags that can arouse suspicion even though your client and his or her employer is legitimate.

  1. Your client’s job must be a specialty occupation.

This means your client’s job must require a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its equivalent. To show this, you need to prove that not only does your client’s particular job require a degree to perform, but that similar jobs in similar companies in the same industry also require an advanced degree. This shows that the skills and knowledge needed to successfully carry out the duties of your client’s job requires an advanced degree.

  1. Your client must possess a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its equivalent.

Unless your client has a very straightforward bachelor’s degree or higher from a US college or university, you will need to get your client’s credentials evaluated by an authorized foreign credentials evaluator. Some degrees are more complex than others because many countries have certifications and licenses that are actually degrees, even though the word degree is not in the title. Professional licenses like the Indian Chartered Accountancy license require the equivalence of the same post-secondary education required for a bachelor’s degree. However, Canadian Chartered Accountancy does not require education that equates to post-secondary education. Another example of a difficult education situation is the Indian three-year bachelor’s degree. While it has the same – if not greater – amount of classroom contact hours as the US four-year bachelor’s degree, you need to account for the extra year of education for CIS to consider the Indian three-year bachelor’s degree as equivalent to the US four-year degree. To do this, a credential evaluator with the authority to convert years of progressive work experience in your client’s field of employ into years of college credit must write an evaluation with the equivalency of three years of work experience to one year of college credit documented and accounted for to account for the missing fourth year.

  1. Your client’s degree must be an exact match for the job offer.

Until less than a decade ago, an H1B candidate with a degree in a field related to their job title would get their visa approved without an RFE. Now we are seeing RFE’s for degrees that are not an exact match for the job offer. While employers will hire employees with degrees in related fields, CIS will not approve their visas. CIS requires your candidate have the specialized skills and knowledge required for their H1B job. While candidates with related degrees may possess these skills – particularly if they are hired for the job – your client needs to prove this to CIS with a degree match. If your client’s degree is not an exact match for his or her job offer, have a credential evaluator review your client’s education and employment history. An evaluation can be written converting years of progressive work experience into college credit in the major that matches your client’s job. Classroom contact hours in coursework in the matching field can also be evaluated and counted towards a major in that field.

  1. Your client’s degree must be specialized.

Since the H1B visa is for specialized occupations, your candidate must have a degree that reflects having learned and mastered specialized skills and knowledge. A generalized degree – such as a liberal arts degree with no specific field of specialization – is not adequate to show a candidate possesses such knowledge. If your client has a generalized degree but was still hired for an H1B occupation, clearly his or her employer can see that your client has the specialized skills and knowledge necessary to excel at the job. Now you have to provide CIS with evidence that this is the case. Have a credential evaluator review your client’s transcripts and resume to see what conversions can be made to write an equivalency to a specialized degree that matches the H1B job offer.

The H1B visa requirements are very detailed and specific, especially when it comes to your client’s education. H1B trends change as this visa becomes more and more sought after with higher demand for highly skilled workers in STEM industries that the US workforce can supply.   Before you submit, have a credential evaluator look over your client’s transcripts, educational documents, and work experience to see if an evaluation is needed, and if so, what must be done.

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 Avoid that H1B RFE Read More »

FY2017 H-1B Predictions and Requirements

Credential Evaluation, Visa Approvals

The past decade has seen a significant annual increase in H-1b petitions, and this year the trend is projected to continue. Experts estimate that more than 200,000 H-1b petitions will be filed this year before CIS closes its doors after the mandatory five days of accepting petitions. For cap-subjected H-1b jobs, there are only 65,000 visas available for candidates with US bachelor’s degrees or it’s equivalent or higher, and an additional 20,000 H-1b visas with candidates with US master’s degrees or its equivalent or higher available. There will most definitely be a lottery, and that means you and your client need to have your petition ready, spotless, and filed on April First of this year.

But what does a spotless petition look like?

Your client’s petition must meet H-1b requirements as well as current CIS trends to be approved. CIS has been issuing more and more RFE’s every year, up from around 4% less than a decade ago to 25% in recent years as responses to H-1b petitions. That means your client has a one in four chance of receiving an RFE that the two of you will have to address. Your client doesn’t have to be a statistic so long as you clearly show that your client and his or her job and employer meet H-1b requirements in adherence to current CIS trends.

What are the H-1b requirements and how do trends affect how to properly evidence these requirements?

  1. Your client’s job must be a specialty occupation. This means that to perform the duties of the job, your client must hold a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its equivalent in a related field. In recent years however, CIS has issued RFE’s for degrees that do not exactly match candidates’ job titles. If your client’s major is not an exact match for his or her job title, you need to find a credential evaluation agency that can take a close look at your client’s education to count classroom contact hours in classes matching your client’s job towards a degree equivalency. The evaluator can also convert years of progressive work experience in the field to years of college credit in the major of your client’s job offer. To show that your client’s job is a specialty occupation, you need to provide evidence that your client’s employer requires this degree for this job, and that similar positions in similar companies also require an advanced degree. If this is not the case, you need to provide evidence as to why your client’s particular job is so specifically complex as to require an advanced degree to carry out its duties.
  1. Your client must hold a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its equivalent. H-1b visas are for specialty occupations that require a bachelor’s degree or higher to perform. If your client has a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its equivalent, and the degree matches the job, all you have to do is submit the educational documents with the petition. However, if your client’s degree is from a different country – particularly a country with a three-year bachelor’s degree – you need to have your client’s education evaluated for US equivalence. This is because educational systems vary from country to country, and CIS must clearly see the value of your client’s education in terms of US educational value. Some post-secondary degrees from other countries are the equivalent of US bachelor’s degrees even though the word “degree” is not in the title. Others are not. A detailed evaluation from a credential evaluator with expert understanding of international education is needed to meet this requirement. For three-year degrees, a progressive work experience conversion is needed to fill in the missing fourth year. Although three-year degrees, like the Indian three-year degree, have the same if not more number of classroom contact hours as a US four-year degree, CIS does not accept this equivalency on face without a detailed credential evaluation.
  1. There must be an employer-employee relationship. This means that your client’s employer can hire, fire, promote, pay, and otherwise control the work your client does. You can show this by submitting a copy of the employee contract or providing other documentation regarding your client’s job.
  1. Your client must be paid the prevailing wage for his or her job. Prevailing wage is determined based on the job, the company, the geographic location, and other factors. To prove that your client will be paid the prevailing wage for his or her job, you need to provide evidence that states common salaries for your client’s occupation in similar companies in similar locations, as well as proof that your client’s employer will be paying that wage. At the same time, you also have to show that your client’s employer is economically viable to pay your client the prevailing wage without affecting the salaries of other employees, operating costs, or other aspects of the business.

Before you file your client’s H-1b petition, have a credential evaluator review his or her education to make sure all your ducks are in a row. If you submit a petition without an evaluation where one is needed, you can expect an RFE. While an RFE is not the end of the world, it is a big red flag on your client’s petition, and will trigger CIS to comb over the petition and find misplaced details that would otherwise have gone by unnoticed. CIS has a big job to do when it comes to cap-subject H-1b visa selection. Make their job easier by making sure your client’s visa is easy to approve, not by giving them a big red flag to look at.

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.

FY2017 H-1B Predictions and Requirements Read More »

What’s in an H1-B Credential Evaluation and Why Does it Matter?

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

Over the course of the next two months before the H1-b filing date, you will see a lot of articles, blogs, and reports urging you to get your client’s education evaluated for US equivalence. H1-b candidates with degrees from outside of the US are required by CIS to submit a thorough evaluation of their foreign credentials as evidence that their degree is the equivalent of a US bachelor’s degree or higher, AND that their degree specialization matches their job title. But what, exactly, is in a credential evaluation and why does it matter for your client’s H1-b visa approval?

There are three primary components to a credential evaluation:

  1. Institutions of education and attendance dates. An evaluation will indicate which schools and colleges your client attended and for how long, including the profile and accreditations of the schools your client attended. This means elementary school, high school, and post-secondary institutions. The reason for this is because the number of years of education varies from country to country from the time your client entered school as a child. These are all factors in equivalency recommendations.
  1. Diploma, certificate, degree, and transcript equivalents. All of these documents will be included in the evaluation along with their equivalents indicated and explained. The steps of education is important in the evaluation process because many degrees in countries outside of the US are post-secondary degrees BUT the word degree is not in the title. To evaluate these difficult degrees, the stages of education necessary to attain these certifications must be evaluated for post-secondary equivalence.
  1. Recommended US equivalent of your client’s degree. Each credential evaluation will make an equivalence recommendation based on evidence, analysis, expert opinions, CIS precedents, international trade agreements, and even federal case law. Since there are no set standards for foreign degree equivalence evaluation, an evaluator must make a case for their recommendation.

For the H1-B visa, you want an evaluator who can write an accurate recommendation founded in evidence, precedents, expert opinions, and documentation for your client’s degree to be the equivalent of a US bachelor’s degree or higher in the field that matches your client’s job title. Not all evaluation agencies will write the detailed evaluation it takes to truly explain and assess the value of your client’s foreign degree. Many evaluation agencies simply pull conservative equivalencies from standardized equivalency databases. However, there are NO set foreign equivalency standards and every candidate’s education is different.

When you hire a credential evaluator for your client’s H1-B evaluation, make sure he or she is well-versed in the specific educational requirements of the H1-B visa. This means when you call, you will be asked about your client’s specific visa, and your clients specific job. Both of these variables factor heavily into the evaluation the right evaluator will write for your client’s education.

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.

What’s in an H1-B Credential Evaluation and Why Does it Matter? Read More »

How to Properly Address H1B Education Requirements

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

Your client’s H1-B eligibility is primarily about his or her education. There are two primary educational requirements CIS evaluates to determine whether or not to approve a candidate’s visa:

  1. Does the candidate have a US bachelor’s degree or higher?
  2. Does the candidate’s degree match their specialty occupation?

Many H1-B candidates do not have US bachelor’s degrees because their degree is from outside of the United States. Some candidates have not completed their degrees or received specialized training through other means. If this is your client’s situation, you need to prove that they have the equivalent of a US bachelor’s degree or higher for their visa to be approved, and this must be documented with a credential evaluation. Candidates with three-year degrees, four-year degrees from countries other than the US, or incomplete or missing education can have their work experience evaluated for equivalency to years of college credit in their industry. This work experience must show that the candidate learned new, and progressively difficult, specialized skills through this work experience, and took on more and more responsibility. Three years of progressive work experience is the equivalent of one year of college with a major in that field. Credential evaluators with the authority to convert years of progressive work experience into college credit can help you and your client fill in the educational gaps between the US educational system and the educational system of the country your client’s degree is from.

To prove that your client’s degree matches their job title, you need to provide evidence that the education and training required for your candidate’s degree prepare your client for the duties required in his or her H1-B job. To do this, you can submit a detailed overview of the specific duties of your client’s job, your client’s employer, and how the complexities of your client’s job relate to his or her degree. Meeting the evidence standards for this requirement may also require an expert opinion letter, documentation that similar companies require employees to hold your client’s degree for similar occupations, and even printouts of degree fields typically associated with your client’s job.

In recent years, CIS has required that H1-B candidates’ degrees be an exact match for their job title. While employers will hire candidates with degrees in related fields, CIS will not approve their visas if the degree is not an exact match. This is a new CIS trend that must be taken into account when filing an H1-B petition to avoid an RFE. If your candidate holds a generalized degree or a degree in a mismatched field, get in touch with a credential evaluator. With the progressive work experience conversion, an evaluator can fill in the gap between your client’s degree specialization, and your client’s job title with years of progressive work experience in your client’s job title.

When you look for the right credential evaluator for your client’s case, make sure you choose one that follows CIS trends and has a deep understanding of the nuances of education internationally.

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.

How to Properly Address H1B Education Requirements Read More »

Aren’t All Foreign Credential Evaluators the Same?

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

If your client is petitioning for an H1B visa with a foreign degree – especially if it is a three-year bachelor’s degree – you already know you need to submit a credential evaluation for the petition to be successful. More and more education RFE’s are issued every year to clarify foreign degree equivalencies. However, RFE’s also occur when CIS suspects evaluator is unreliable. At the same time, many evaluators will write a valid evaluation that does not fit the educational requirements of the H1B visa because the agency does not specialize in writing evaluations for visa petitions. Not every evaluation agency can write the evaluation your client needs to get his or her visa approved. Not every evaluation agency is reliable.

How do you find the right evaluation agency for your client’s education?

  • Inexpensive. When it comes to credential evaluation agencies, you DON’T get what you pay for. In fact, some of the very best evaluation agencies are the cheapest. This is because reliable agencies don’t have to make the most financial mileage out of each customer to stay in business.
  • Easy to communicate with. This means they answer your calls, texts, and emails promptly, and when you communicate with them you feel comfortable and satisfied that all of your questions have been answered. When a company answers when you call, and responds promptly when you call or text, that means they value customer service and respect your time. When you feel comfortable talking with them and they answer any questions you may have, that indicates they are confident and knowledgeable about the work they do. This is the evaluation agency you want on your team.
  • Experience in H1B Visa evaluations, RFE’s and difficult degrees. If you call a credential evaluator about an evaluation for an H1B visa and they don’t ask about your client’s job offer, look elsewhere. An evaluation agency experienced in writing evaluations for visas know that your client’s degree specialization must match their field of employ. If they don’t ask this question, they don’t know enough about visa requirements or CIS trends to write the evaluation your client needs for his or her H1B visa. Also, evaluation agencies that write evaluations responding to RFE’s are very familiar with common education RFE’s, why they are triggered, and how to respond effectively.

Not all credential evaluators are the same. Many agencies will write an evaluation based on the most conservative equivalencies pulled from a standard database. The problem is, there are no set standard equivalencies when it comes to evaluating a foreign degree because every situation is different. Federal case law, international trade agreements, and international education expert opinions and case studies show that the value of each candidate’s education is unique. To really understand the value of your candidate’s education, an evaluator must understand the academic context of the country the degree came from, stages of education required to earn that degree, the academic value of that degree in his or her home country and the jobs and professions that degree qualifies them for, as well as your client’s self-study, work experience, and miscellaneous educational background. International trade and labor organizations understand that the nature international education is too nuanced for standard, conservative equivalency evaluations, and this sentiment is reflected in federal case law, UNESCO conventions, and international labor and trade agreements. An evaluation agency that simply pulls equivalencies out of a database is not writing an accurate evaluation of your client’s academic value.

Responding to an RFE – or even better, writing an evaluation that does not trigger one – requires an evaluator with an understanding of the nature of international education across borders and cultures. This evaluator understands CIS trends and requirements, federal case law, and international trade and labor agreements and conventions that take the full reality of a candidate’s education into account when evaluating its academic worth. Sometimes responding to an RFE takes a creative solution that an evaluator who understands not only what CIS is asking for, but WHY they are asking for the specific evidence they need knows how to answer the right question even if the exact documentation asked for is not available. Choose an affordable evaluation agency that feels good to talk to, and has experience with H1B visas, RFEs, and difficult cases.

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.

Aren’t All Foreign Credential Evaluators the Same? Read More »

H1-B Annual Caps: Your Client’s Degree, Job, and Visa Status

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

Talk of raising the H1-B annual cap from 65,000 visas to 110,000 will not come to fruition for the FY 2017 filing season. This means that the same number of annual H1-B visas will be available for a rapidly growing number of candidates. CIS is required to accept petitions for at least the first five days of the filing season. If the last two years are any indication of what is to come in April, those are the only five days you and your client will have to file. CIS is inundated with way more petitions than there are visas, and to make sure your client’s petition is one of them you need to be ready to file on April 1st.

However, your client may not be subject to the 65,000 annual visa cap. There are also an additional 20,000 H1-B visas available for candidates with Master’s Degrees. Some employers are not even subject to any annual cap at all. Some candidates aren’t either. So what category does your client fall into?

To start, let’s take a look at how many H1-B visas are available, and then let’s look at how candidates are selected for these limited number of visas. Finally, we will see which candidates and employers are cap-exempt.

There are 65,000 H1-B visas available annually for candidates with a US Bachelor’s degree or its equivalent, or higher levels of education. There are also an additional 20,000 H1-B visas available for candidates with US Master’s degrees or its equivalent or higher. After all of the petitions are in, CIS will hold a lottery to determine which candidates with Master’s degrees will get the additional 20,000 H1-B visas. This lottery is conducted via random computer selection. After these petitions have been selected, any candidates with Master’s degrees or higher who were not selected for these 20,000 will roll over into the regular lottery for the annual 65,000 visas for candidates with Bachelor’s degrees of higher. The same random computer selection process will determine who will be selected for these visa slots from the pool of petitions.

However, there are many circumstances in which your candidate may not be subject to the annual H1-B visa cap at all. This has to do with your client’s current visa status, and your client’s employer.

If your client is already working under H1-B visa status, he or she is probably cap exempt. Candidates filing for H1-B extensions and H1-B transfers are not subject to the annual cap. H1-B visa holders can also take on another concurrent H1-B job without being subject to the annual cap when they file for an H1-B visa to work this job as well. New jobs and concurrent jobs must also meet H1-B specialization requirements, and your client must also meet H1-B educational requirements, but their petition will not end up in a lottery. Candidates who must file a new petition because the terms of their H1-B job has changed are also cap-exempt. The new terms must still, however, meet H1-B requirements as must their education.

Some employers are cap-exempt, and if your client is employed by one of them, their petition will not be subject to the H1-B lottery. Non-profit organizations and non-profit research institutes are cap-exempt. Institutions of higher education and governmental research organizations are also cap-exempt, as are hospitals. Even if this is your client’s first time petitioning for an H1-B visa, if their job is for one of these kinds of employers, their petition will not be subject to the annual cap.

Before you and your client file their H1-B petition, here are three key elements you need to determine:

  1. What is your client’s degree?
  2. Is your client’s employer exempt from the annual H1-B cap?
  3. Is this your client’s first H1-B petition, or is it a transfer, extension, or additional H1-B job?

Answer these three questions, and you will find out what caps – if any – your client’s petition will be subject to.

If your client is cap exempt, this is NOT an excuse to file a shoddy petition. Just because a petition does not go through the lottery does not mean it can’t be rejected. RFE’s are on the rise for petitions subject to the annual cap AND cap-exempt petitions.

To qualify for an H1-B visa, your client must have a US Bachelor’s degree or higher, or its foreign equivalent. Whether or not your client’s job is cap exempt, RFE’s are on the rise. As you prepare to file, it’s important to keep in mind that your client’s foreign education will raise issues with CIS if it is submitted without a detailed credential evaluation in accordance with CIS education combination requirements and precedents. Talk to an evaluator with extensive experience in H1B cases, RFEs, and difficult cases. They know what works and what does not work to get your client’s visa approved.

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.

H1-B Annual Caps: Your Client’s Degree, Job, and Visa Status Read More »

H1B Educational Requirements Your Client Needs to Know About to Avoid an RFE

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

Wrong.

And getting more and more wrong as CIS trends grow increasingly complex with regards to candidates’ education. As the IT industry grows, requiring more highly skilled workers to fill the increasing number of jobs that US citizens cannot fill, IT companies that can afford to hire H1B workers are doing so. While the number of H1B jobs in the United States has skyrocketed, the number of annual visas available has not. At the same time, tightened educational requirements are part of CIS’s attempt to mitigate visa fraud. CIS trends fluctuate from year to year, and even a perfectly filed petition for an over-qualified candidate can receive an RFE. Understanding these educational requirements and how to meet them – and sometimes how to meet them in creative ways – will help your client get their visa approved without CIS ever issuing an RFE.

Candidate’s Degree Must be a US Bachelor’s Degree or Its Equivalent

This requirement is not as straightforward as it sounds. If your client has a four-year Bachelor’s degree from a US college or university, go ahead and file. All other degrees need to be reviewed by a credential evaluator. Foreign degrees need a credential evaluation because educational systems vary from country to country, and the academic value of a bachelor’s degree from one place does not necessarily equate because it’s called a bachelor’s degree. In the same way, a foreign certification or licensure may actually be the equivalent of a US bachelor’s degree even though it doesn’t call itself a degree. For example, one situation that triggers a lot of RFE’s is when a candidate has an Indian Chartered Accountancy certification. This is actually the equivalent of a US Bachelor’s degree in accounting, but the same certification in Canada is not. The Canadian Chartered Accountancy certification is a professional license, but not post-secondary education. See how this gets confusing? A credential evaluator can make the necessary equivalency determinations about your client’s education, explain how the equivalency works, and back up with equivalency with evidence.

Four Years of Post-Secondary Education Matter

If your client has a three-year bachelor’s degree – ESPECIALLY if it’s an Indian three-year degree – their education is likely to trigger an RFE if it is not handled correctly. CIS trends require focus on longevity rather than academic content when it comes to years of college or university, so it is you and your client’s responsibility to show that academic content and progressive work experience comprise a fourth year of college credit. How can you do this? There are two options that we have seen work almost every time when it comes to the H1B visa. An evaluator can convert years of progressive work experience into college credit. Progressive experience means that your client’s job required them to expand their knowledgebase and skillset, and take on increasing amounts of work and responsibility. Three years of this nature of work can be converted into one year of college credit. Never submit an H1B petition without an evaluation that accounts for the missing fourth year.

Degree Must Be Specialized and Exactly Matching Candidate’s Job

This is a relatively new requirement that takes many H1B candidates, their employers, and their lawyers by surprise. While it’s common for an employer to hire a candidate with a degree in a field related to the job, CIS will not approve their visa. In the past six or seven years, CIS trends have changed regarding this requirement. In the past, a candidate with a degree in a related field would have the petition approved, now instead they receive an RFE. Your client’s degree major must be an exact match for their field of employ. At the same time, because H1B requirements indicate the job must require specialized knowledge and skills to carry out its duties, candidates with generalized degrees are also running into this problem. If your client is in a mismatched degree situation, your client needs to prove that she does possess the specialized skills and knowledge required to be successful at her job even if it is not directly reflected in her college major.

The way to do this is to prove equivalence to a US bachelor’s degree in her field of employ with a credential evaluation. The way this works is an evaluator can convert years of progressive work experience in her field of employ into college credit hours in that major track with the three years of work to one year of college credit conversion. The evaluation must show that your client has the equivalent of a US four-year bachelor’s degree with the bulk to the equated credit hours in their field. This requires a detailed evaluation with a credential evaluator familiar with CIS educational requirements, as well as precedents of what they will accept and what they will not accept.

If your client as anything but a straightforward US four-year bachelor’s degree, have their education reviewed by a credential evaluator to see what you need to do to avoid an RFE.

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.

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H1-B Checklist to Avoid an RFE in 2016

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

The date to file your client’s H1-B petition for the 2017 fiscal year is coming up fast. Last year’s trends and the trends of years previous are expected to continue, and that means even more petitions flooding in for the same number of annual visas. That also means more RFE’s that you might have to deal with. An RFE is not the end of the world, and can oftentimes be addressed with success, an RFE is a big red flag on your client’s petition waving to CIS to take a close, scrutinizing look. This can turn up minute details that would otherwise have been overlooked but now count against your client’s likelihood of approval.

CIS has a big job to do and red flags make their job of sorting through hundreds of thousands of petitions easier. Filing an impeccable petition also makes their job easier. While CIS is known to issue an RFE for no apparent reason, most RFE’s can be avoided. That means it’s time to break out your H1-B checklist.

  1. Is your client’s job a specialty occupation?

What does this mean? To CIS, a specialty occupation is a job that requires your client to hold a US bachelor’s degree in the field or higher, or its equivalent to carry out the duties of said job. Their job must require specialized skills and knowledge to perform. How can you prove this? A copy of the ad for your client’s job that includes minimum requirements can be used as evidence, as well as similar postings for similar jobs working for similar companies. If your client’s job requires a bachelor’s degree or higher but similar positions do not, you need to supply more evidence. This means expert opinion letters, which can be useful anyway, as well as evidence that shows the skills needed for this particular job are more advanced due to the unique nature of your client’s particular job.

  1. Does your client’s education meet the requirements for their job?

Once you’ve established that your client’s job is H1-B qualified, it’s time to make sure you’ve proven your client is qualified for his or her H1-B job. This means they have a bachelor’s degree or higher in the required field, as well as the necessary training and work experience the job requires.

  1. Is the value of your client’s education clear to CIS?

If your client’s degree is from a country outside of the United States, it will need to be evaluated for US equivalence. Anything besides a very straightforward US bachelor’s degree needs a credential evaluation. Never submit an H1-B petition with a foreign degree without a detailed credential evaluation. This is an increasingly common RFE trigger. The Indian and other three-year Bachelor’s degrees commonly trigger RFE’s because of the missing fourth year. A credential evaluator can convert years of progressive work experience in your client’s field of employ into college credit to account for the missing year. Progressive means that the candidate’s work required them to take on more responsibilities and develop their knowledge base and skill set to meet the increasing demands of the work. Three years of progressive experience in the field can be equated to one year of college credit. All that is needed is a well-documented evaluation to prove it.

Another common problem that trigger RFE’s for even the most qualified candidate’s petition is that they have a degree that doesn’t call itself a degree. Many countries have degrees that require postsecondary education and the necessary stages of education to meet Bachelor’s degree requirements, but don’t actually have the word “degree” in the title. These certifications also require a credential evaluation because while in some countries these are degree equivalencies, in other countries they are not. Because this is not clear and straightforward, without a credential evaluation CIS will not have enough evidence to approve your client’s petition.

  1. Do your client and his or her employee have an employer-employee relationship?

What is an employer-employee relationship? To establish that your client and his or her employer have this kind of relationship, the employer must be able to hire, fire, promote, pay, and otherwise control the work that the employee does. To prove that this is the case, submit a copy of the employment contract, and other documentation that clearly displays the nature of your client’s work.

  1. Does your client’s degree match his or her field of employ?

Just six or seven years ago, H1-B candidates were able to get their visas approved with a degree in a field related to their job. Now, CIS requires an exact match. Employers hire employees for specialized positions with bachelor’s degrees in related fields all the time. CIS, however, does not approve their visas. Instead, they get RFEs. If your client’s bachelor’s degree is generalized or in a field related to but not an exact match for his or her job, have a credential evaluator review their educational documents. Oftentimes, a detailed evaluation that takes work experience into account to draw an equivalency to a degree in the matching field.  Years of progressive work experience in the field can be counted towards this matching degree specialization with the three years of experience to one year of college credit conversion. This can both work to account for the missing fourth year in three-year Bachelor’s degrees, AND to write an equivalency for a specialized degree in your client’s exact field of employ.

Before you file, sit down with your client, your client’s employer, and your credential evaluator and go through these questions. Ask, is this true? Then ask, have we provided the evidence necessary to clearly prove to CIS that this is true? Don’t ever file without doing everything you can to make sure you and your client got the petition right the first time. There’s no need to wait for an RFE.

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.

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How A Credential Evaluator Can Help With Difficult Degrees

Credential Evaluation, Immigration, Visa Approvals

Education RFEs are on the rise because a Bachelor’s degree equivalence must be a single source, and qualified candidates with three-year degrees and degrees that do not actually have the word “degree” in them are running into trouble. Complex education requirements for EB2 Visa candidates have left many lawyers wondering if it’s even worth the time to take on clients with difficult degrees. 

The answer is not to turn away candidates with difficult degrees. Many countries have three-year bachelor degree structures and degrees without the word “degree” in the title, and more and more skilled workers are coming from these countries with these difficult degrees to work the jobs the US economy needs for a prosperous and competitive economy. The answer is for lawyers to work with credential evaluators to find creative solutions to USCIS education hang-ups. A credential evaluator on your team can make the difference between a Denial and an Approval. 

Because we specialize in RFEs and Denials at TheDegreePeople.com, we see more of them than anyone else in the field. As a result, we are in the best position to analyze CIS, understand what they are looking for, and spot trends when they emerge. Have an evaluator review your client’s education and work experience to see if they can meet CIS educational equivalency requirements within their specific equivalency parameters. There are three main ways in which an evaluator can be helpful to you as a lawyer. 

First, a skilled credential evaluator has a complex understanding of international education and the academic content and educational stages of different degrees from different countries. With this understanding, an evaluator can look at your client’s education and already know its academic value in the United States. 

Second, they have access to equivalence references beyond the standard equivalency database that translation agencies and other agencies that are not actually credential evaluation agencies use. The standard equivalence database actually uses the most conservative equivalencies, so working with a credential evaluator will give you and your client more options and flexibility. 

Third, skilled credential evaluators know CIS trends, federal case law, and international trade organization agreements that can support your client’s case. In these three ways, a credential evaluator can help you and your client find creative solutions in dealing with difficult degrees. With more RFEs issued every year, we have noticed some trends. There are three main education problems that get overlooked when filing the initial Visa petition that trigger RFEs. 

All of these problems can be rectified or avoided in the first place by working with a credential evaluator who understands CIS trends and federal case law. The first problem is combining education and work experience to draw a US Bachelor’s degree equivalency. When an evaluation combines work experience and college credit for an EB2 petition, best-case scenario is it will trigger an RFE. This is because in this particular Visa, CIS requires the Bachelor’s degree be a single source. There are two ways credential evaluators have been able to address this issue. 

The first option is to combine a three-year Bachelor’s degree with a one-year PGD or a two-year Master’s Degree, accompanied by an expert opinion letter. Since the Bachelor’s degree is the Master’s or PGD prerequisite, it is still a single source. The second option is to convert five years of post-education work experience into the equivalence of a US Master’s degree by citing federal case law. We have seen success with this second method even if the education major does not match PERM requirements, or the PERM states combining a Bachelor’s degree and plus five years of work experience is unacceptable. There are never any guarantees with CIS, but at TheDegreePeople, we have experienced a 95% success rate with these methods. 

The second big RFE trigger for both EB2 and other Visas requiring a US bachelor’s degree or higher is the Indian three-year degree. With other Visas, an evaluator can combine three years of progressive work experience to account for the fourth year of college education, but this will not work for the EB2. If your client has an Indian three-year degree, an evaluator can help you account for that final year without combining work experience. The way this works is we look at the number of classroom contact hours in your client’s major and use the internationally recognized Carnegie Unit conversion to convert classroom hours into college credit hours. Fifteen classroom contact hours equates to one college credit hour. 

A US four-year Bachelor’s degree is comprised of at least 120 credit hours. The Indian three-year degree has even more classroom contact hours – and therefore, even more college credit hours – than the US four-year Bachelor’s degree. Working with a credential evaluator with the authority to make these conversions solves the three-year degree problem. The third major trigger of education RFEs is degrees that do not call themselves degrees. In many countries, professional certifications and degrees that actually are post-secondary degrees do not have the word “degree” in the title. 

This triggers an RFE. The degree of this variety we see the most RFEs for is the Indian Chartered Accountancy certification. At the same time, there are certifications and licensures that do not have the word “degree” in them that actually are NOT degrees. CIS does not know the difference, but your evaluator does, and your evaluator can help you. An evaluator can draw an equivalence to a US bachelor’s degree by evaluating the educational steps necessary to achieve this professional title to show that it does require the amount of post-secondary education necessary for a Bachelor’s degree. 

For example, Chartered Accountancy is the equivalent of a Bachelor’s degree in India because in order to take the certification exam, the same post-secondary education required for a Bachelor’s degree is required to qualify to take this exam. An evaluator would also cite the legally binding UNESCO instrument that validates Chartered Accountancy as the equivalent of a US Bachelor’s degree in Accounting. The purpose of complex CIS educational requirements is really to ask very specific questions about your client’s education. 

An experienced credential evaluator knows how to answer these questions in correspondence with international education and trade precedents. There is no need for a lawyer to be afraid of difficult cases. Work with an experienced evaluator instead of turning away clients with difficult degrees.

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