By Michael H. Markovitch, Esq. on December, 14, 2015
The filing for the H-1B petitions will begin on April 1, 2016. From here until then I will be periodically posting pointers on certain aspects regarding the H-1B visa and what to pay particular attention to.
This article will address the following regarding the job and your university degree to be most mindful of as you begin to investigate whether the position will be appropriate for H-1B purposes.
1. Prove that your H1B job is a specialty occupation requiring a U.S. bachelor’s degree or its equivalence or higher. You can do this by showing the advertisements for your job, documentation that similar jobs for similar companies require a bachelor’s degree or higher, and, sometimes, with an expert letter.
2. Clearly show that your degree is a U.S. bachelor’s degree or higher or its equivalent. If your degree is from outside of the U.S., you will need to have your education evaluated by an authorized credential evaluation agency. If you have a three-year degree, you will need to find an agency with the authority and expertise to convert classroom contact hours and years of work experience into college credit hours to account for the missing fourth year.
3. Your degree must be specialized. This means if you have a liberal arts degree, or a generalized degree, USCIS will not accept this as proof that you actually possess the specialized skills and knowledge necessary to be qualified for your H1B job. If you have a generalized degree, you need to talk to a credential evaluation agency that will take a close look at your course content and your work experience, and make the proper conversions to college credit hours to show equivalence to a specialized degree.
4. Your degree must fit your job offer. This means that even though your employer hired you because your degree in a related field and your experience working in the field was enough to prove to them you have the specialized skills and experience necessary to be successful in your new job, CIS needs more. If your degree is not a direct fit for your job, you need a credential evaluation from an evaluator who can take a close look at the course content of your degree and make the necessary conversions, and who can also convert your years of work experience in the field into college credit to show equivalency to the exact degree USCIS requires you to have.
For further information or questions you may have, please do not hesitate to contact The Law Offices of Michael H. Markovitch.