‘Market Research Analyst’ Officially Recognized as Specialty Occupation

By Dillan Wright

Attorneys and H-1B petitioning companies recently managed to gain more ground in the ongoing battle over specialty occupation definitions. Following a series of lawsuits, a settlement was reached in a case against USCIS, and as a result, the role of ‘Market Research Analyst’ must now be recognized as a specialized occupation when considering candidates for an H-1B visa, courts say.

Before this ruling, USCIS had been blanketly denying candidates on the basis that the role was not in fact a specialty occupation.

The success of this lawsuit is not without precedent. Just last December, USCIS was forced to recognize ‘Computer Programmer’ as a specialized occupation (Ambiguous Language: USCIS Loses Appeal against Tech Company | Park Evaluations) as a result of a previous lawsuit.

As was the case after that initial victory, the hope for US employers, and those representing them, is that these rulings will push USCIS to reconsider their policies in which hundreds of candidates may be denied work visas based on the organization’s current interpretation of what constitutes a specialized occupation.