I-140 RFE and Educational Evaluation

O

obsoza

Registered Users (C)
Hey Guys,

Got an RFE saying that I dont have the min education as mentioned on the AEC.

AEC requires:

BS in CS/CE/EE or RELATED Degree.



I have:

1) BSc (3 years)
2) 1 year course work in CS from US University as a prerequisite for Masters
3) MBA from US

Total years of education 12+3+1+2 = 18 years

INS sent back RFE saying I dont have the degree in the mentioned field as specified on the AEC.


This is what we replied back with:

1) 2 Evals from two different sources saying that I have a equivalent to a BS in CIS based (BSc 3 years and 1 year US course work)

2) Letters from University Professors saying that a degree in CIS is related to CS so my degree is clearly related, thus I qualify.

My Questions:
1) Will the INS accept our evals or they don't accept evals which combine education.
2) Is the response appropiate enough to get an approval?

Thx.
 
Hello,

Did u get credit for your prerequiste courses in MS ? If not , then it should be problem. This is my understanding. U wrote that u had Bsc but in what? did u have BSc in CE or CS?
 
It sounds as if you will be ok but it is very difficult to say much for sure without actually seeing the documents. Sometimes people miss critical issues.
 
Thanks Jim.

I was concerned if INS accepts evals (3 year degree and 1 year course work) equivalent to a BS degree in the US? Have had cases where the INS has accepted this for GC purposes?

Thanks.
 
Hi chijan,

Its is just a BSc..not in any specific field. The one year course work in the US (around 24 unit hours) was all CS courses.

Thus my concern. The eval combines the 3 year BSc degree and the 1 year course work and says its equivalent to a BS in CIS. I got this confirmed from two different sources. Thus, the question to Jim, will this eval be acceptable to the INS and will they agree to this eval as I am not sure if they accept evals, however I have been told that the INS accepts a combination of education but not education + experience. Furthermore, my course work was not toward any specific degree, but i need 16 years of education, thus I took that coursework. Is that going to be a problem?

And no, I was not given any credit for the course work in the US. I did it as I had to have 16 years of education before I entered a Master's Program.

Thanks.
 
Education

I have similar doubt..

My educational background is 10 Years of school education + 3 years diploma (Electronics & communication engineering) +
AMIE in Electronics & communication engineering (through distance education)

I have an evaluation from FIS stating that my education is equivalent to BS degree in US. It says the diploma is equivalent to 2 years course
and AMIE is equivalent to BS in US).

MY I140 is pending from July 2002 and I received a RFE on my education on Dec 2002. It was replied on Jan 2003.

Still no response. Please advise!!
 
Hi thiru_123,

Can you please give me the details of your RFE. Was it something like they don't agree with the eval or something of that sort.

Thx.
 
Hi Obsoza,

The RFE is not regarding evaluation. It was reg. the duration of attendence for the AMIE course. The evaluation was submitted earlier while filing the I-140.

I don't know how they treat the distance education like AMIE?

Any idea?

Thanks.
 
Listen everybody. Stop worrying about these RFE's. You have enough educational qualification as well as experience.
It's my personal experience that INS accept evaluations based on your qualification as well as experience.
Don't worry about what degree you have and in which stream as long as you have a 'Bachelor' degree. I did my BA from India and then did some computer courses. INS asked for RFE at the time of processing H1, first time. Nothing happened when I renewed my H1. But at the time of I-140 they again asked for RFE since my case was filed under EB2 category. I got my qualification and experience re-evaluated again and they cleared my I-140.
So, stop worrying. Just wait and your case will also be approved.

Good luck to everybody.
 
Hi abcd_123_xyz

This is the nicest thing I have heard in sometime. Aap ke moo mae "ghee shakkar", if you know what I mean.

I hope what you say comes true :)
 
Hi abcd_123_xyz,

Nice to hear this good news!!

Can you tell us how long you waited for approval after you submitted the reply for your RFE?

This will give an estimate for our wait.


Thanks
 
Hi abcd_123_xyz,

Quick questions:

1) Was this a labor substitution?
2) Did you LC allow the use of Expericen + Education?

Thanks.
 
I note that this is "abcd"'s first post. I've processed several hundred LCs (note that I agree that using experience for an H-1 presents no problems but we are discussing Green Cards here and that is an entirely different situation) and my experience (and the information published in the H-1 Handbook by Fragommen and Bell) is that experience is only acceptable in lieu of education if the LC SPECIFICALLY says that experience will be accepted in lieu of education. Having less than a bachelors presents no problem in the GC processing but if the LC states that a bachelor's is required, then the alien candidate must have a bachelors.
 
In addition to Jim's Post:

I have seen this and am a victim of this system. In my experience a Bachelors degree is not sufficient, but also has to be in the specifed field as stated on the LC. This is also "VERY" important. So for eg, if a LC states a BS in CS, then one cannot have a BS in Communications. It has to be in CS!!!!!!! Evaluations again work fine as long as they are not a combination of education + experience (unless the LC explicitily states that it will allow it). I would take this one step forward and say that evals may also not work. If you dont have a four year degree and are relying on a education eval (3 year degree and some course work), good luck. It may or may not work.

Ofcourse, there are cases where one gets lucky and the GC goes thru in one case, but similar cases got denied for 10 others. As I have said before, if your case is not extremely straight forward (your qual and experience completely match the LC), then luck will play an important role here.

abcd_123_xyz, if your LC had some strict requirement and you did not meet all of them, but still got approved, I would say you are extremely lucky :rolleyes: .

Thanks
 
However on a brighter note, I would say look at the posts on this forum. We will see some very encouraging posts from folks working for small, bankcrupt companies with no obvious ability to pay wages getting I-140 petitions approved. Folks who clearly did not meet the education and experience criteria are getting approved.

So there is still hope on the other side of the tunnel. It may be just a matter of time before we get our approvals. If not, this is not the end of the world :D Life will move on.

However, I do feel angry that one who is making my decision is not the most qualified person to make that decision and may have denied me because he does not know that a CIS degree is related to a CS degree, but since it was not stated on the original LC, "you are outa here"
 
It sounds as if many of the approvals that you are citing to should be happy that the most qualified people are not adjudicating the cases. INS and DOL make mistakes, and sometimes the mistakes are to the benefit of the alien, that does not change the requirements. The question SESA/DOL/INS ask when comparing the alien's experience with the LC is "If a US citizen or GC holder applied for this job during the recruitment process, could the company have validly deemed the person unqualified?" If yes, then the alien cannot be deemed qualied for the position either.

There is a rule in law that states that when a writing is ambiguous, the abiguity should be construed against the side that drafted the writing. The idea being that the side making the writing could have been clear but either chose not to, or was sloppy, either way the ambiguity is construed against the drafter. The employer could have stated specifically that experience would be accepted in lieu or the required bachelors degree, but did not. It also provides an incentive to clearly state the requirements.
 
hey buddies,
Like I said before....Stop worrying. You people have enough qualification and experience to get the Green Card. But at the same time I do understand the anxiety. Even I went through that. I had to wait for 60 days after the submittal of the evaluation for RFE for I-140. Again, god forbidden if something bad happens that won't be the end of the road. Have faith in God (whatever God you trust in :) ) and all of you will get the GC. If you have enough qualification to get the H1 then you will get the GC also. There may be slight procedual difference/problems but in the end it will be in your favour. So, Cheer up!

Good Luck to everybody!
 
I was interested to come across this thread as I recently had a I-140 denied based on the INS's decision that my credentials did not meet the credentials of the Labor Certification. In a nutshell the ETA -750 stated that the college degree required should be "Bachelors or equivalent" that is what was put in that little box on the form - question 14. The reason my attorney did this was because the position for the labor certification was identical to my H1B position which of course, had to require a Bachelor's degree - for that I was able to use a combination of college and experience as I do not hold a Bachelors. We thought that by putting 'equivalent' we were covered. Although the Labor Certification was approved with my credentials the the INS requested proof that I met the educational requirements and subsequently told us that equivalency was not acceptable in an immigrant visa. We 'argued' that it was always our intention to look at applicants with a college degree or it's equivalent (we put that in the ads) and we would not have denied anyone who had the relevant experience but not the degree. No dice - the petition was rejected. It is too late to appeal as the denial was more than 30 days ago but I am definitely wondering if the INS case officer has misinterpreted our use of the 'equivalent' on the ETA-750. Any thoughts? Jim?
 
Details from skywriter

Skywriter,

If you could please let us know in detail what equivalent qualification you had and what kind of experience you had it would really help and the help will be appreciated. Later on if someone with an identical case succeeds it may help you to get your case be reopened.

Thanks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top