Over one in four H1B petitions receive and RFE, which is a drastic increase from just less than ten years ago, but not a new trend for the past few years. The number of H1B petitions filed has skyrocketed while the number of annual visas available has remained the same. At the same time, CIS trends regarding education for this visa have become much more strict. H1B filing season is over. That means now it is RFE season.
The first step is to understand what documentation the RFE is asking you, your employee, or your client to provide, and the second step is to understand the questions CIS is seeking to answer in requesting this particular evidence. If you, your employee, or your client has received an RFE, don’t panic. This is an opportunity to strengthen the case. Below are four common RFEs you need to know about.
1. Degree does not match the job.
In the past, CIS has approved visas for beneficiaries who had degrees in fields relating to but not precisely matching their job titles. In fact, employers regularly hire workers with degrees in related fields because the specialized knowledge and skill set required for the job are taught in certain related fields. However, CIS trends regarding this have changed in the past six or seven years, and now we are seeing RFEs for petitions that would have been approved before. Another reason you’re your employee, or your client may have received this kind of RFE is that they hold a generalized degree. CIS requirements state that a generalized degree without experience in the field is insufficient for H1B visa approval. If this is the situation, a credential evaluator can take a close look at the course content of the education and convert classroom contact hours in the field into college credit that count towards a specialized major in the correct field. CIS will also accept years of progressive work experience in the field counted towards a major in the field. An authorized credential evaluator can convert three years of progressive work experience — meaning your client took on more and more responsibility as time progressed on the job — to one year of college credit in the field. These conversions will fill in the gap between your education, or your employee’s or client’s education and the H1B job that trigger this kind of RFE.
2. Specialty Occupation
If it is not clear to CIS that your job of the job of your client or employee is a specialty occupation — one that requires a minimum of US bachelor’s degree or its foreign equivalent — this is the kind of RFE that will be issued. To answer this RFE, you must prove that the job requires specialized skills and knowledge to perform that only comes once a certain level of education and experience is met. How can you do this? CIS will typically ask for the ad the job that indicates the minimum requirements necessary to perform. Include ads for similar jobs in similar industries to show that this level of education is necessary for this kind of job in this kind of industry and that this particular job was not tailored to meet the visa requirements of you, your employee, or your client. If this particular job DOES require an unusual level of expertise due to the nature of the company, provide an expert opinion letter and documentation showing why this job in particular requires an advanced degree.
3. Difficult Degrees
Some degrees do not have a clear US equivalency, especially degrees that do not call themselves degrees. For example, the Chartered Accountancy Certificate from India can actually be evaluated to be the equivalency of a US bachelor’s degree in accounting because the steps in education require post-secondary equivalencies. At the same time, the US CPA and the Canadian Chartered Accountancy certificate are not bachelor degree equivalencies. This is confusing and needs extreme clarification when presented to CIS. For this reason, degrees such as this one are often met with RFEs. Sometimes, specialty occupations simply do not have degrees that clearly fit their field, such as Computer Systems Analyst. So many RFEs have been issued for H1B candidates with this job because it is unclear what degree fits this very specialized, very specific occupation. If your, your employee, or your client has a difficult degree, or a job that does not have a clear field specialization in terms of college majors, talk to a credential evaluator with an in depth understanding of international education. This kind of evaluator will know which degree to reference for the equivalency, and the steps in education required to earn a certificate in the country the certificate or degree was earned in.
4. Three-Year Bachelor’s Degree
One of the most common triggers for H1B RFEs is an Indian three-year bachelor’s degree. While these degrees tend to have more classroom contact hours than US four-year bachelor’s degrees, CIS requires the missing fourth year to be accounted for in order to accept the equivalency to a US four-year bachelor’s degree. If you, your employee, or your client is in this situation, talk to a credential evaluator about the candidate’s education and work experience. Three years of progressive work experience can be converted into one year of college credit in the field to account for the missing fourth year. If you, your employee, or your client has a three-year bachelor’s degree, NEVER file without this kind of credential evaluation. It will almost ALWAYS receive an RFE without one.
If you, your client, or your employee receives an RFE for an education or occupation-related situation, talk to a credential evaluator with extensive experience working with difficult cases, RFEs, NOIDs, and Denials. As evaluators who see these kinds of cases day in and day out, we understand what triggers them, what questions CIS seeks to answer in issuing them, and how to answer them. We do not charge to review your case before your file, or if you get an RFE or Denial. As an evaluation agency with international education experts on staff, we have a clear understanding of CIS trends as well as being aware of creative ways to successfully address even the most complicated RFEs.
Let us review your cases at no charge what so ever at www.CCIFree.com
About Sheila Danzig
Sheila Danzig, the director of CCI TheDegreePeople.com, excels in resolving RFEs and denials for work visas, specializing in educational and employment visa challenges.