Education RFEs are common for H-1B applicants. One of the issues applicants run into is when their education is from an institution that is not accredited. Many legitimate institutions do not have accreditation for a variety of reasons – they are new, they are newly reopened, they are nontraditional, they are under new ownership, and so forth. While this does not devalue the educational content, it does create a roadblock to expressing its academic value in terms of US academic standards.
If an H-1B applicant has a degree from an unaccredited institution, you can expect an RFE or worse if you submit the petition without a credential evaluation. You need to clearly show USCIS that the applicant has the equivalent of a US bachelor’s degree or higher in terms of academic value. The way to do this is with a credential evaluation that includes a work experience conversion to account for missing years of accredited college. This is what we do to assist our clients in this situation and we see an over 90 percent success rate.
Progressive work experience occurs when education took place over the course of employment as evidenced by promotions, and increased responsibility and complexity of work. USCIS accepts that three years of progressive work experience is the equivalent of one year of college credit in the field of the job. At CCI TheDegreePeople.com we work with professors authorized to grant college credit for work experience that write this conversion for our credential evaluations. By factoring in work experience we can show that the missing years of accredited college are accounted for on the job.
If you or if your employee or client is in this situation, we can help answer or prevent an RFE. Visit www.ccifree.com for a FREE REVIEW of your case and consultation. We will respond in four hours or less and offer affordable rush delivery options on credential evaluations.
Sheila Danzig
Sheila Danzig is the director of CCI TheDegreePeople.com. Sheila specializes in overturning RFEs and Denials for work visas.