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The E-3 work visa is very similar to the H-1B visa, except that only Australian citizens are eligible.  That means if you are an Australian citizen with a specialty occupation job offer in the United States, this is the visa for you. There are 10,500 annual E-3 visas, not including E-3 visa extensions or transfers.  […]

The H-1B approval rate for the second quarter of FY2020 came in at 87.1%, a nearly 4% rise from the same time last year.  However, the RFE rate remained high, at 35.8%, with a 68.2% rate of approval after response.  That means around one in every three H-1B petitions is likely to receive an RFE, […]

One of the H-1B visa eligibility requirements is that there must be an employer-employee relationship.  What this means is that the employer must be able to hire, fire, promote, and otherwise control the work the H-1B employee performs. Consulting firms are vulnerable to employer-employee relationship issues because of the independent and irregular nature of the […]

In the past year, USCIS faced three convictions regarding illegally denying RFEs due to specialty occupation issues.  Despite these judicial decisions, USCIS continues to adjudicate H-1B petitions wrongly, which means H-1B beneficiaries still must take steps to prevent and fight these specialty occupation RFEs. Here is the issue: USCIS defines a “specialty occupation” as a […]

There are many pathways through education and they don’t all include the classroom.  However, USCIS needs a clear quantitative measure of qualitative learning – whether it’s on the job, from incomplete college, or from an unaccredited program. H-1B beneficiaries that have the specialized skills and knowledge necessary to perform the specialty occupation but do not […]

Wage Level Issue RFEs and Denials are common for H-1B jobs set at Level 1 Wages.  The reason for this comes in two steps: first, H-1B visas are reserved for foreign nationals working in specialty occupations.  These jobs require a bachelor’s degree or higher as a minimum requirement to perform.  At the same time, H-1B […]

When USCIS finds one issue in an H-1B petition, they tend to find more.  That’s because an RFE issue raises a red flag that triggers a close scrutiny of the rest of the petition.  The most common Double RFE we see is the Specialty Occupation + Wage Level Issue RFE. In this case, Wage Level […]

When USCIS finds one problem with an H-1B petition, they usually find more.  One RFE issue opens the door for close scrutiny of the entire case, and that is how we get situations like the Nightmare RFE. This RFE is virtually impossible to answer by its own guidelines in the given timeframe and includes absolutely […]

While specialty occupation, wage level, and employer-employee issue RFEs have been all the rage since 2017, the classic 3-Year Degree H-1B RFE has not gone away.  H-1B beneficiaries with 3-year bachelor’s degrees earned outside of the United States consistently receive RFEs and Denials for the missing fourth year of college.  Even though the Indian 3-year […]