The job requires an advanced, specialized degree.
Simply referencing the ad or job description for the H1B job is not enough. Even if the candidate’s job requires a US bachelor’s degree or higher to perform, you need to clearly show that similar jobs in the same industry ALSO require this level of specialized expertise. You need to show that this is an industry standard. Sometimes, the job will require a unique level of skill and expertise that is not an industry standard. In these cases, you will need an expert opinion letter and evidence about this particular job and company to justify why this job is specialized while similar jobs in the industry with the same title are not.
- The candidate has a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its foreign equivalent.
If you, or your employee or client has a degree of this nature from a US institution, and it’s in the correct field, you’re good to go. However, if the candidate has an advanced degree from a country other than the United States, you need to take a closer look to make sure that the candidate is actually H1B qualified. Take the candidate’s transcripts and work experience to a credential evaluator who works regularly with H1B cases and their RFEs. When it comes to degrees like the Indian three-year Bachelor’s degree, the candidate will need at least three years of progressive work experience in their field of employ to account for the missing fourth year of college necessary for the US four-year bachelor’s degree equivalency. Not all work experience will meet the requirements for this conversion. You, or your employee or client may have what is needed to make the conversion, but will still need the right credential evaluation for it to work. If the credential evaluator does not ask about the visa or job, look elsewhere. The evaluator must understand the particular H1B visa requirements as well as CIS approval trends to make an accurate assessment of your, or your employee or client’s educational qualifications, and write the evaluation needed to get the H1B visa approved.
- The candidate’s degree is in the field of their H1B job.
Do you, or does your employee or client hold an advanced degree with a major in their exact field of employ? If the answer is yes, then you’re most likely good to go. If the answer is no – even if the degree is from a US institution – the next step is to find out if your client has the course content and work experience needed to write the equivalency to a degree in the right field. Take the candidate’s transcripts and work experience to a credential evaluator who works regularly with H1B cases and their RFEs to determine if there are enough years of progressive work experience in the field to fill in the gaps between their degree specialization and their field. In the past, candidates with degrees in fields related to their job have had their visas approved, but in the past six or seven years this has not been the case. The degree must be an exact match to prove the candidate has the specialized skills and expertise needed for their H1B job or CIS will not approve the visa.
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.]]>
