Education RFEs may be the most consistently common H-1B RFEs over the past decade.
H-1B eligibility requires beneficiaries to hold a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its equivalent in the field of the H-1B job. While employers routinely hire employees with degrees in related fields with work experience in the field of the H-1B job or enough educational overlap to ensure qualification, USCIS will not approve their visas without a credential evaluation. Employers routinely hire employees with incomplete college or no college if they have the field experience and skills needed to perform the job, but USCIS will not approve their visas without a credential evaluation. Many H-1B employees earned their degrees in a foreign country.
USCIS will not approve their work visas without a credential evaluation. This requirement necessitates additional hand-holding because it is on the applicant to clearly show that the employee has equivalent of a US bachelor’s degree or higher in terms of US academic standards.
There are very specific situations that will prompt USCIS to scrutinize the petition which can quickly escalate into a complex RFE that is very difficult to answer.
- Degree earned outside of the United States.
- Three-Year Bachelor’s Degree.
- Major does not exactly match the field of the H-1B job.
- Incomplete college.
- Missing college or college was completed at an unaccredited institution.
If one of these situations exists in your case it is essential to fix it before you file. If an RFE has already arrived, the solution is the same. Include a detailed credential evaluation written uniquely for your case which takes the job, the education, work experience, H-1B visa requirements, and USCIS approval trends into account. This may include a close evaluation of course content, and it may include a work experience conversion.
Do not submit an H-1B petition or RFE response without making sure all of the red flags are fixed. Let us review your case for free. Visit www.ccifree.com and we will respond in 4 hours or less.
Sheila Danzig
Sheila Danzig is the director of CCI TheDegreePeople.com. Sheila specializes in overturning RFEs and Denials for work visas.