The Basics of Employment-based Visas
The visa that you are applying for was created via the Immigration Act, a bipartisan national reform of immigration in the United States. Fundamentally, the goal was and remains to strengthen the United States via the contributions of immigrants.
The Immigration Act led to the creation of a variety of employment-based visas including the EB-1, EB-2, EB-3, EB-4, EB-5, and H-1B visas. By petitioning for one of these visas, then you are, or your employer is, asking the United States to provide you with legal benefits. The USCIS has the authority to grant these benefits if you demonstrate that you will benefit the United States in ways specifically aligned to the visa you are petitioning for.
Thus, USCIS agents seek to award the right benefits to the right people at the right time. In making an assessment of your background, a USCIS agent will review the evidence that you provide to them.
Why will the USCIS issue a Request for Evidence (RFE) or Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID)?
It is common for a client to share with us their Request for Evidence (RFE) and Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID). Thus, we have reviewed thousands of responses from the USCIS.
A USCIS agent's job is to determine whether a petitioner or beneficiary meets the requirements of the visa that they or their employer have applied for. USCIS agents generally follow a templated approach in their responses.
Not surprisingly, their decisions are guided by the category of visa you are applying for:
EB-1 Visa
Sometimes, referred to as the "Einstein" visa, the EB-1 is for professionals who recognized leaders within their field based on one of three categories. In addition to the required USCIS forms, a Business or Professional Plan, and their petition letter written on your behalf, your attorney will typically submit evidence based on your sub-category of the EB-1.
Extraordinary Ability
A person of Extraordinary Ability is someone who demonstrates excellence via achievements with "international acclaim", which means that they are internationally recognized as a top professional within their field. To demonstrate Extraordinary Ability, a petitioner must meet at least 3 of 10 requirements outlined by the USCIS (read on the USCIS page). In addition to their resume and an Immigration Business Plan or Professional Plan, a petitioner must provide original documentation of these abilities. For instance, one criterion is "receipt of lesser nationally or internationally recognized prizes". A petitioner would need to share copies of the award, along with detailed description of the importance of the award. It should never be assumed that a USCIS agent is aware of an award, even if it is among the most prestigious within your field. An Expert Opinion Letter can then be used to explain from an independent expert whether or why the award demonstrates Extraordinary Ability within the field.
Outstanding professors and researchers
An outstanding professor and researcher must be applying for a Tenure Track role at a U.S. College, University, or other employer with a research-related purpose. The criteria that the USCIS will use is three years of experience in the profession, along with meeting three criteria related to: major prizes, membership in associations that require outstanding accomplishments, participation in panels, published materials about their work, scientific or scholarly contributions, or authorship of books (1). An Expert Opinion Letter can be used to explain whether or how a petitioner meets these criteria. For instance, in academia, publications, panels, books, prizes, and scholarly contributions are not all equal. Journals, for example, vary considerably in quality and can be assessed both on qualitative and quantitative criteria. Judgment of each criterion, thus, can be difficult to assess for a USCIS agent who may be unfamiliar with a particular discipline. An Expert Opinion Letter can provide a USCIS agent with an honest assessment of each criterion based on factors that are important to their discipline. Source: 1). https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent-workers/employment-based-immigration-first-preference-eb-1)
Multinational manager or executive
An EB-1 multinational manager or executive is someone that will be employed as a manager or executive within a business that has a qualified U.S. presence. Much of this will be argued by your attorney; she or he will demonstrate the qualifying relationship between you and your employer. They will also confirm that the employer has been in the U.S. for at least a year. An Expert Opinion Letter may be used to demonstrate that the role itself, based on its responsibilities, is one that is of managerial or executive capacity.
EB-2 Visa
Professionals applying for an EB-2 visa will do so based upon one of two occupational categories: 1) Advanced Degree or 2) Exceptional Ability.
Notably, an individual who qualifies for one of the two categories may also qualify for the other. Attorneys thus must make a determination of which category is most likely to lead to a favorable decision.
Additionally, an EB-2 petition can either be sponsored via an employer or can be self-sponsored via a National Interest Waiver (NIW) petition (read more below).
ADVANCED DEGREE
To qualify for an EB-2 petition via Advanced Degree, you must show that you have no less than the U.S. equivalent of a Bachelor's Degree along with five years of experience. For roles that would require an advanced degree (i.e. a PhD), this degree would need to be documented. Beyond holding the above credentials, you must show that your endeavor or role requires your qualifications. An Expert Opinion Letter can either be used to describe how your credentials align with a role that your employer has offered, or to focus on your endeavor and its National Interest implications for self-sponsors.
EXCEPTIONAL ABILITY
Persons of Exceptional Ability must meet three of seven criteria, which seems simple as these criteria relate to: holding an academic degree, having 10 years of experience, a license or certification, a high salary, membership in professional associations, recognition from your peers, or other similar evidence. The challenging part for many petitioners, however, is that a person can objectively meet more than three of the above qualifications and still be deemed unqualified for the EB-2. This is because the USCIS requires that one must hold "a degree of expertise significantly above that ordinarily encountered". To understand what this means, let’s dig into work experience. Objectively, an individual can demonstrate a decade of work experience via their resume and through employment verification letters from prior employers. Doing this, however, is a required but insufficient step to demonstrate exceptional ability. One must also meaningful progression in their career in ways that lead to distinct capabilities that are uncommon and concurrently qualify them to succeed in a role that they have been offered or in their proposed endeavor. An Expert Opinion Letter from ExpertOpinionLetter.com thus examines each criterion of a petitioner’s experience and specifically relates it to their offered job or proposed endeavor. If the petition is for a National Interest Waiver (NIW) petition, it must also describe the national implications of the endeavor.
National Interest waiver
The most exciting thing about the EB-2 is the potential to self-sponsor via a National Interest Waiver (NIW) petition. When assessing a NIW petition, USCIS agents will assess your endeavor based on three prongs guided by Dhanasar (2016). The three prongs relate to: -Substantial merit and national importance of the endeavor -Whether you are positioned to succeed in the endeavor based on your EB-2 credentials -And whether it would benefit the United States to waive the requirement of a job offer and approve your visa without a labor certification In an EB-2 petition, most of the clients who contact us have already been determined to meet the requirements of holding EB-2 credentials, whether they relate to Advanced Degree or Extraordinary Ability. The hard part is thus demonstrating that a petitioner’s endeavor has national importance to a degree that it would benefit the U.S. if the labor certification is waived. Thus, there are two documents that that a petitioner may require: 1)A business or professional plan 2)An Expert Opinion Letter An EB-2 NIW Expert Opinion Letter from ExpertOpinionLetter.com will assess a petitioner’s endeavor based on their qualifications and relate these abilities back to their business or professional plan. The letter will thus examine the petitioner’s endeavor based on their qualifications and explain how they align to their endeavor and also the national interests of the United States of America.
H-1B Visa
An H-1B visa is one of the most popular visas within the United States. It is a non-immigrant visa, which means it is a temporary visa that allows employers in the United States to hire workers for a specific period of time assuming that the workers meet certain requirements.
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H-1B2: DOD Researcher and Development Project Worker
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H-1B3: Fashion Model
At ExpertOpinionLetter.com, we focus exclusively on Specialty Occupation requirements. This means that we focus on two core areas: whether a position meets specialty occupation requirements and whether a beneficiary qualifies for a specialty occupation role.
To learn more about the H-1B, you may wish to visit H1Bexpert.com.
Does a position meet specialty occupation requirements?
An H-1B specialty occupation role is a position that requires the following knowledge: "(A) theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge, and (B) attainment of a bachelor’s or higher degree in the specific specialty (or its equivalent) as a minimum for entry into the occupation in the United States.” Section 214(i)(1) of the INA, 8 USC 1184(i)(1) Part of what people love about the H-1B is the simplicity of this definition. At a very basic level, the government has simply shown that a specialty occupation is one that requires the U.S. equivalent of a bachelor’s degree. To demonstrate this, an Expert Opinion Letter from ExpertOpinionLetter.com will be authored by a professor in a related discipline. She or he will then assess the role and the specific responsibilities of it and then explain whether or why the knowledge imparted from a degree would be required for the role.
Does a beneficiary meet specialty occupation requirements?
When the USCIS questions a beneficiary's qualifications, there are two good ways to respond: 1. Get an academic transcript evaluation to show academic equivalence. If the degree is shown as the required degree and the USCIS hasn't questioned the role, you may not need an Expert Opinion Letter. 2. If the USCIS questions the position as well or if you wish for additional support, an Expert affiliated with ExpertOpinionLetter.com would then create a two-part evaluation. In the first part, they would complete a specialty occupation assessment. In the second part, the expert would then evaluate the beneficiary's academic preparation and work experience and then specifically relate it to the specialty occupation requirements of the role.