Despite significant evidence that an Assistant Project Manager was a specialty occupation which required at a minimum a bachelor’s degree and sophisticated knowledge of construction systems, advanced project scheduling, cost estimation and analysis, information systems, and supply chain management, USCIS arbitrarily and unlawfully denied an employer’s H-1B extension petition.
The employer is a major commercial construction company attempting to maintain its US-based workforce to continue to deliver projects of vital importance in the transportation, health, and utility fields. It employs over 2,500 people in the United States and has a gross annual revenue of $3.8 billion. It finances, builds, and maintains complex and vital US infrastructure.
The employee has a master’s degree in Construction Management from Michigan State. He was working for the employer for more than six years and waiting for his green card priority date to become current.
Since the denial, the employer has been deprived of a key employee to complete a major hospital construction project in Texas.
The employee can no longer work in the United States. He and his family are being forced to leave the country.
Why was the H-1B extension denied? Because the USCIS arbitrarily and unlawfully determined that a bachelor’s degree was not required for this construction manager position. Additionally, USCIS wrongly concluded that engineering is not a specific specialty field.
This is yet another example of harsh and legally wrong current adjudicatory trends. USCIS is routinely misrepresenting and ignoring valid demonstrative evidence to deny petitions with complete disregard for the consequences.
The American Immigration Lawyers’ Association shared information about this case, and we’re sharing to continue to alert you about these disturbing trends.
How Can You Prepare for Unwarranted Visa Denials
Plan and implement a different approach. Allow more time, money, resources, and flexibility in the process to preserve your best assets – your hardworking, talented, and engaged employees; your immigration status and ability to live and work in the United States.
We get different results when we change the inputs into the systems.
We are partnering with our clients to change the approach and the evidence – and then monitor, measure, and make more changes. Don’t expect that the same evidence you filed a year ago will be sufficient for a petition approval; it will not.
We are partnering with our clients to optimize, maximize, and revamp the evidence, and the different approach is leading to different results. Yes, we’re still getting RFEs. However, most often we receive approvals for clients who have partnered with us to change the approach and increase the resources allocated to the immigration filings.
It is not easy to make a change in your approach to immigration filings. It will not be easy to allocate more money, time, and resources to the process.
But if you do, you will move the needle in your favor. Instead of being pressured, stressed, and anxious, you’ll find the mental space you need from having done your best.