By Mai Bui
Park regularly helps attorneys and their clients navigate tricky evaluation cases. Below, we are spotlighting how our top evaluators navigate accounting qualifications in India to determine their potential equivalency to a US bachelor’s degree.
Established by Indian Parliament, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is a professional body that regulates the accounting profession. It sets standards for education, examination, and professional practice. To practice as an accountant, you must be a Chartered Accountant by earning membership with ICAI. Membership requires completing a series of regulated examinations and a period of workplace training.
From a credential-evaluation perspective, the most significant milestone is the completion of the Final Examination. In the US, for evaluation practices that follow AACRAO principles, ICAI membership granted following completion of the Final Examination is considered comparable to a US Bachelor’s degree. When evaluating ICAI credentials, the most important criteria is confirming full completion of the program and membership status.
What documents are needed for this evaluation?
Typical documents used in an evaluation include:
- Final Examination Certificate, certifying that the last stage in the examination series has been completed;
- ICAI Certificate of Membership, confirming the person is a Chartered Accountant;
- Every underlying academic degree earned prior to the beginning of the ICAI examinations.
To avoid unnecessary RFEs about ICAI qualifications, Park strongly recommends that all three items above are included for review.
Vocational training or partial completion: When an ICAI qualification is not equivalent to a bachelor’s degree
Because of the scope of ICAI as a governmental body, not every qualification coming out of the Institute qualifies toward an evaluation. Other than the series of examinations leading to membership status, the organization also offers extensive training programs, specialized “pathways to practice,” certificate courses, and general post-qualification professional development. However, none of these programs hold a U.S. academic equivalency.
The second scenario where candidates with ICAI qualifications might be rejected is partial completion of the examination series. Many candidates pass some levels but do not finish the entire sequence. These stages represent progress toward the Chartered Accountant qualification, but do not equate to completion.
How Park can help
We review ICAI documents, confirm whether the Chartered Accountant qualification has been fully completed, and guide clients on how the credential should be presented in an evaluation. In the case of an RFE, Park is also well-positioned to craft specialized letters to assist with the petitions. Have questions about these or other Indian credentials? Reach out to [email protected] today!
By: Tais Vilela Ribeiro Quinhones
As Park Advertising continuously monitors updates from State Workforce Agencies (SWAs) across the country, we aim to keep our clients informed about policies that may influence recruitment timelines and compliance processes. One practice that often raises questions is the Veteran’s Hold on SWA job postings.
A Veteran’s Hold is a temporary period, typically lasting between 24 and 72 hours, where a newly posted job is visible only to eligible veterans before it becomes available to the public. This early access allows veterans to view and apply for positions before other job seekers. Veteran’s Holds are connected to the concept of “Priority of Service,” meaning that veterans receive access to employment services earlier than others.
Although priority of service for veterans is federally required, veteran job hold policies are determined at the state level, since there is no federal mandate requiring states to place a temporary hold. Many states implement short holds to give veterans early access to new job opportunities, while some states apply holds to only specific types of job listings. Other states do not implement Veteran’s Holds at all.
How Veteran’s Holds Can Affect PERM Recruitment
SWAs also play an important role in employment-based immigration recruitment, particularly within the PERM labor certification process. As many states implement Veteran’s Hold policies, these temporary delays can affect the timing of job postings.
Under federal recruitment guidelines, SWA job orders used for PERM must remain active for 30 consecutive days. When a job posting is placed on a Veteran’s Hold, the posting may appear live, but it will not be visible yet to the general public. In these situations, the official 30-day recruitment period does not begin until the hold period ends and the job becomes publicly visible.
Due to these potential delays, accurately estimating when a job posting will go live is an important part of managing recruitment timelines. Monitoring posting status and identifying the reason for delays helps ensure that the required recruitment period is completed correctly and prevents unnecessary disruptions to the labor certification process.
At Park, our team closely tracks SWA policies across different states and monitors job postings to ensure they are activated as expected. By identifying issues such as Veteran’s Holds or employer verification delays early in the process, we help our clients and partners maintain accurate timelines and ensure compliance with recruitment guidelines.
Helpful Resources:
- National Association of State Workforce Agencies – Veteran Job Hold Issue Brief
https://www.naswa.org/national-labor-exchange/veteran-job-hold-issue-brief - Priority of Service for Veterans and Eligible Spouses (DOL Guidance)
https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ETA/advisories/TEGL/2009/TEGL10-09.pdf - Veteran Services – California Employment Development Department
https://www.caljobs.ca.gov/vosnet/veteran.aspx
By Shela Ward
The National Interest Waiver (NIW) can serve as a powerful tool for professionals looking to secure residency via their own consulting business. For these cases, the candidate’s specialized expertise is delivered directly through their business to solve meaningful problems in the US. When paired with a well-structured business plan and an expert letter, an NIW can translate a simple vision into credibility.
Park can help develop strategies for NIWs around a foreign national’s existing business plan. Our expert opinion letters can cultivate a full story that shows how these professionals generate ongoing and far-reaching benefits in the US through their very own consulting business.
In a recent case, Park received a candidate’s business plan to establish a medical laboratory services consulting company. We quickly got to work, crafting a detailed letter that contextualized the business’ overall themes. For example, the plan outlined efforts to expand clinical laboratory access in rural and underserved communities. Park’s expert added onto this, discussing how folks in rural areas typically do not have access to quality healthcare. In this way, Park’s letter demonstrated the business’s measurable benefits to national public health.
Another recent case involved an individual hoping to establish a business for aeronautic technical and mechanical maintenance consulting within the aviation industry. This candidate provided strategies for cultivating specialized workforce training programs for aviation professionals. Our expert then crafted an opinion letter detailing the emerging need for trained aviation personnel due to the impending labor shortages. Park’s expert effectively outlined the positive national impact of the candidate’s business on filling these aviation positions.
Finally, for an NIW applicant specializing in energy efficiency, we worked with an expert to produce an opinion letter guided by the candidate’s plan for a consulting firm that would help public and private sector buildings reduce energy consumption and lower utility costs. Our expert’s arguments supported this individual’s mission and business model, focusing on areas like optimizing energy infrastructure, decreasing energy costs, and minimizing the effects of climate change to drive home the national importance of their work in the US.
When it comes to crafting NIW letters for folks looking to start consulting businesses, we’ve got your back! We’ve worked with professionals across a multitude of fields, ranging from hospitality, agriculture, HR, workforce management, and more. Park’s expert opinion letters can perfectly pair with your client’s existing business plans to take their case to the next level and further exemplify their true national importance in the US!
By: Becca Matson
“The wife’s name is wrong,” the lawyer explained. “Can you change it to just her given name?”
Our translator’s response was immediate and firm: “No, that’s not what the document says.”
What seemed like an error served as an example of why understanding cultural traditions is just as important as linguistic accuracy in legal translation. Legal documents don’t exist in a cultural vacuum. They reflect the traditions, practices, and conventions of their source countries.
In many parts of India, it’s standard practice for a married woman’s name to be recorded in civil documents using her husband’s given name and/or surname after marriage. To someone unfamiliar with Indian naming traditions, this may look unusual or incorrect.
Park’s professional translators understand these cultural contexts. As language service providers, Park’s job is to accurately represent what appears in the source document, rather than “correct” cultural practices to match the target country’s expectations.
Instead of changing the name, we provided additional cultural context via a translator’s note. This note accomplished several important goals: it maintained translation accuracy, educated the immigration attorney about Indian naming practices, preemptively addressed potential confusion, and ensured legal protection.
Other cultural practices often require explanations as well. For example, in Iceland, names are based on the father’s given name, and in Indonesia, individuals legally only have one name.
Linguistic precision, cultural understanding, and detailed explanation through translator’s notes all matter as much as the standard translation. Park’s translations team takes the delicate art and science of professional legal translation seriously. We provide accurate and useful translations that serve all our clients’ unique needs.
Learn more by emailing [email protected] now!
By: Becca Matson
In immigration documentation, the rules of spelling matter enormously. At Park, our professional translators don’t just know multiple languages, they understand additional rules and standards that play important roles when converting languages.
While reviewing a translated Russian birth certificate, one client had a very specific request: “Can you update the middle name to ‘Valerievich’ instead of ‘Valeryevich’?”
The difference between “Valeryevich” and “Valerievich” might seem trivial and like an oddly specific concern. After all, both spellings refer to the same patronymic name. However, in immigration documentation, these details matter immensely.
Park’s translator was able to clearly explain; this wasn’t about personal preference; it was about aligning with official Russian government standards that have evolved over time. In immigration cases, matching current official preferences can be the difference between smooth sailing processing and confusing discrepancies.
Here’s what most people don’t realize: when you’re dealing with Russian documents, you’re not just translating, you’re also transliterating. Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which must be converted to Latin characters for English documents. The problem? There’s more than one way to do it.
For the patronymic “Валерьевич” (pronounced “vah-LEHR-yeh-vich”), historically common transliterations included: Valeryevich, Valerievich, Valeryevitch, Valerievitch. None of these translations are inherently “wrong,” as they’re all reasonable attempts to represent Cyrillic sounds using Latin letters. But, over time, official Russian authorities have developed preferences for how names should appear in international documents.
This isn’t unique to Russian. Other languages face comparable transliteration challenges, including: Ukrainian, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Greek.
By updating older translations to match current official standards, it eliminates possible red flags. When a Russian passport issued in 2024 shows “Valerievich,” immigration documents should ideally match this spelling. However, older Russian documents may have been legitimately translated using different standards.
This is why including a translator’s note detailing these discrepancies becomes critical. Park’s professional translators understand: official romanization standards, how these standards evolve, when to match current preferences, and how to explain variations clearly. It’s this expertise that transforms a simple translation into an extremely valuable immigration tool.
Reach out to [email protected] for translation services today!
By Shela Ward
An L-1B blanket petition can be a powerful, streamlined option for global companies seeking to transfer multiple employees with specialized knowledge to the United States, even if candidates do not hold a bachelor’s degree.
Many specialized professionals get their start through vocational training or apprenticeships, and it’s common for them to lack a formal bachelor-level education. While this would normally disqualify them from inclusion in an L-1B blanket petition, their extensive expertise and years of training may provide another pathway: an experience-based bachelor’s degree equivalency.
Park’s expert network houses university professors from a wide variety of technical disciplines who specialize in assessing how work experience translates to undergraduate education. L-1B blanket candidates with at least twelve years of progressively responsible work experience in their specialty may qualify for an experience-based bachelor’s degree equivalency.
Our team recently helped a candidate through this exact L-1B blanket process. We provided an expert-based work-experience evaluation that outlined how a candidate’s nineteen years of work experience equated to a bachelor’s degree in Logistics Management. Our expert first examined how the candidate’s work history, specialized knowledge, and technical skills developed over the duration of their career. Then, they compared these facets to what students would typically learn in a traditional bachelor’s program within the same field.
Our expert found that this candidate had ample experience in logistics planning, inventory management, personnel oversight, and operations management, all of which fall under the concepts taught in bachelor’s-level logistics programs. From this, it was clear that the candidate’s background directly corresponded to the depth of knowledge they would have received in a bachelor’s program. Through this equivalency letter, Park effectively aided in this individual’s case for an L-1B blanket.
Another candidate, with thirteen years of experience at a global cable and optical-fiber development company, demonstrated significant specialized knowledge in Engineering Technology. Their career covered everything from installing aluminum conductors to supervising a team of engineers. This candidate’s practical experience allowed them to master the analytical and technical skills they would have gained in a bachelor’s-level Engineering Technology program, including industrial safety, project planning, and manufacturing processes.
Park’s team is dedicated to guiding our clients through these tricky elements within the L-1B blanket petition process. Our robust network of experts can clearly demonstrate how employees’ skills are equivalent to education in their field. We’re here to help connect you with the right independent experts across a variety of fields that you need to successfully bring high-value talent into the US.
By Amy Fredrickson
O-1B and EB-1A petitions for candidates in the arts often face increased scrutiny due to the subjective nature of assessing what constitutes “extraordinary ability” in this area. Sufficiently demonstrating extraordinary ability in the arts requires nuanced arguments that speak to niche concepts. Proving the artistic merit and cultural relevance of a contribution, as well as the caliber of an award, helps establish a position within the arts as leading or critical.
Park helps deliver these nuanced arguments for O-1B and arts-related EB-1A petitions through specialty expert letters. We provide support on behalf of applicants in fields ranging from film, television, music, culinary arts, dance, and even graphic design.
We recently supported a cinematographer applying for an O-1B visa. Through a detailed letter, our film expert demonstrated the importance of cinematography for a film’s success. They outlined the candidate’s artistic merits and contributions within the larger industry, picking apart the dynamics of visual storytelling that elevated the beneficiary’s work to “extraordinary ability” level.
To strengthen the case of an art director also seeking O-1B status, our graphic design expert provided a comprehensive assessment. They showcased how the media outlets that had published the candidate’s work were considered “major” within the graphic-design community.
Furthermore, our culinary arts professor supported a chef filing an EB-1A petition by successfully navigating niche arguments. They outlined what constitutes a “critical role” in the restaurant industry, detailing why awards (little known by those outside the culinary arts) are indeed recognized within the field.
These case studies are just a few samples of the many artists our experts have supported with authoritative analysis and defense of their work. We’ve also provided opinions on behalf of television actors and personalities, user-experience designers, music producers, typographers, interior designers, choreographers, and a host of other creatives in traditional and non-traditional artistic disciplines.
If you are working to get an extraordinary ability in the arts petition approved, Park and our network of experts can help! For additional information, please reach out to [email protected].
By Becca Matson
Date accuracy matters in immigration filings. Birth certificates, educational diplomas, and employment records all form the foundation of a petition. When dates on these documents are altered or reformatted during translation, risks emerge. USCIS regulations require that translations be “accurate and complete.” Therefore, translations must reflect what is written in the original document, including how dates are formatted and presented.
When translating documents from countries that use the Islamic Hijri calendar, including Saudi Arabia, much of the Gulf region, and various Muslim-majority nations, translation vendors face a critical challenge: how to handle dates that don’t conform to the Gregorian calendar system used as the US standard.
While some translation services may take shortcuts (i.e. converting Hijri dates to approximate Gregorian equivalents or reformatting dates to match U.S. conventions), the Park team takes a more detailed approach to accurately reflect source documents.
The Hijri calendar is a lunar calendar of approximately 354 days, meaning it does not align with the solar Gregorian calendar. Conversion requires precise calculation, and even small errors can result in discrepancies and raise red flags. Reformatted dates may not match the source document, casting doubt on the translation’s accuracy. When a translator converts a Hijri date to a Gregorian equivalent without notation, or reformats dates to match American conventions, they are arguably providing something other than what the source document contains.
However, Park’s translation team is trained to recognize and handle non-Gregorian dates. Our translators do not convert, reformat, or standardize dates, unless the source itself provides multiple date formats. When our team identifies Hijri dates, they reproduce them exactly as presented in the source document, maintaining their original format. We include a clear translator note to signal the dates that follow the Hijri calendar. If a document contains both Hijri and Gregorian dates, we translate them exactly as they appear, without attempting to standardize them.
Park’s translators proactively identify and flag date-related issues before the translation is delivered. When documents contain non-Gregorian dates, mixed calendar systems, ambiguous date formats, or dates that may require clarification, our team brings these issues to our client’s attention through detailed translator notes. By flagging date issues early and providing clear documentation, our clients have the information and time to make strategic choices before the case is presented to USCIS.
By Becca Matson
- Identify issues early
Immigration filings frequently include documents that are partially illegible, handwritten, stamped, or damaged. Birth certificates may be decades old and faded. Other documents might bear handwritten annotations. How a translation vendor handles these imperfections can have a significant impact on the record’s integrity and the case’s success.
Park’s process begins with identifying every portion of text that is faint, blurred, obscured, or otherwise questionable. Instead of pushing forward with assumptions, we surface these issues upfront, so attorneys can see exactly where the document may pose challenges.
- Translate without guessing
Park never reconstructs, interprets, or “fills in” unclear content. If a portion of the source document is illegible or unreadable, we note it in the translation. If handwriting cannot be confidently interpreted, we flag it, rather than speculate.
Guessing introduces inaccuracies that can contradict other evidence, create inconsistencies in the record, or can lead to problems during adjudication.
- Be transparent for USCIS
USCIS requires that translations reflect the source document fully and honestly, including any limitations caused by illegibility or damage. A translation that appears complete but is based on speculation can undermine credibility and complicate a case later.
Park ensures each translation communicates exactly what the source document conveys. When a portion cannot be read, our notation signals that the issue lies with the document, not with the applicant or attorney. This level of transparency aligns with USCIS expectations and protects the submission’s integrity.
- Enable proactive case strategy
Park explicitly flags illegible, damaged, or unclear portions of documents during the translation process. By identifying this illegible or missing content, Park allows our clients to decide how to address the issue, whether through additional documentation, explanation, or affidavit.
This advance warning system has proven invaluable to our clients. Rather than discovering document deficiencies after submission, when options are limited and delays are inevitable, attorneys can address issues proactively.
By Shela Ward
The aviation industry is facing a growing demand for skilled pilots, safety experts, and maintenance managers. The National Interest Waiver (NIW) has increasingly become an appealing immigration pathway for professionals in this field.
Unlike many of the employment-based options for a green card, the NIW lets individuals self-petition without an employer sponsor or labor certification, offering a powerful route to residency. This is a strong option for aviation professionals, as it offers flexibility and independence in an industry where job opportunities can shift quickly due to fluctuating hiring cycles, mergers, or operational changes. By demonstrating that their skills and contributions benefit the country, aviation professionals can position themselves as valuable assets to the country’s national interest.
At Park, our network of independent experts extends to the field of aviation, with reputable authorities wielding their expertise to craft NIW advisory letters for aviation-industry professionals. They have advocated on behalf of pilots, flight instructors, and aviation operators and mechanics, highlighting their contributions to safety, training, and technology.
One of our aviation experts provided a NIW letter for a candidate serving as an airline captain and flight instructor. By directly highlighting the foreign national’s work in improving the safety of air travel while also focusing on combatting the shortage of trained pilots in the US, our expert crafted an advisory opinion that included both the significance of the candidate’s aviation-safety procedures and US national interests. This opinion letter delivered a strong “merit and national importance” argument, focused on the necessity of safety and security in the aviation industry and the candidate’s work. This analysis also included statistics and policies from regulatory bodies like the FAA and NTSB to support the substantial benefit of the candidate’s efforts to improve aviation safety.
For a different petition, our aviation expert worked with a candidate in the field of aeronautic technical and mechanical maintenance. Their work aimed to improve the safety, efficiency, and reliability of the aviation industry. Our expert prepared a letter discussing the aviation industry’s economic value in the US, including how the candidate’s work contributes to lowering costs and enhancing productivity. This letter highlighted federal safety standards and regulations, while also noting how the candidate manages safety compliance for aircraft manufacturers, developing robust safety training programs for workforce development.
Park’s goal for aviation candidates is to showcase how their work directly contributes to improvements in the aviation industry, effectively crafting arguments that strengthen NIW cases. Reach out to Park today to learn more about how we can help your specialized clients follow the NIW path to permanent residency.