Business Administration Degrees and H-1B Specialty Occupations

Posted by: Park Evaluations

By Shela Ward Business administration is one of the most versatile degrees in the professional world, but that versatility can create challenges when it comes to H-1B petitions. When a position requires a degree in business administration, USCIS may question whether the educational requirement is sufficiently specialized to qualify the role as a specialty occupation. Since business administration programs can encompass finance, accounting, management, analytics, and more, simply identifying “business administration” as an acceptable field of study may not adequately demonstrate the specialized knowledge required for the position. The key becomes providing context that USCIS may otherwise overlook. Namely, how does a business administration education provide the specific academic preparation necessary to perform the offered role? And how does the relevant coursework directly relate to ...

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Reposting Michigan and Montana SWA Job Orders to Meet the Thirty-Day PERM Requirement

Posted by: Park Evaluations

By Tais Vilela Ribeiro Quinhones State Workforce Agencies (SWAs) play an important role in employment-based immigration recruitment, particularly within the PERM Labor Certification process. Under the U.S. Department of Labor recruitment guidelines and 20 CFR § 656.17, the SWA job order must be placed for at least thirty consecutive days, and the specific start and end dates entered on the application serve as documentation of this step. At Park Advertising, we keep clients ahead of the state-by-state rules that affect SWA recruitment. In both Michigan and Montana, this comes down to timing and duration. In Michigan, the SWA is Pure Michigan Talent Connect. According to the state's Employer User Guide, postings on the platform can run for a minimum of two days and a maximum of thirty ...

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Why Transcripts Matter in Academic Evaluations

Posted by: Park Evaluations

By Howard Borenstein As a credential evaluator, I occasionally receive this very reasonable question from our clients: If a diploma clearly states someone earned a degree, and that degree is widely recognized as equivalent to a U.S. credential, why is it necessary for Park to also review the individual’s transcripts?   In my experience, there are two primary reasons. The first reason is based on my nearly twenty-five years of experience as a Senior Credential Evaluator. During this time, I’ve reviewed thousands of RFEs and have been called upon to defend my equivalency determinations to USCIS on numerous occasions. One trend has become clear: USCIS has increasingly emphasized the importance of reviewing and providing complete academic documentation, including transcripts, as part of the immigration process. Sometimes, the request is simply for completeness, requiring applicants to submit their entire academic record, ...

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Overcoming USCIS Scrutiny of Engineering Degrees in H-1B Petitions

Posted by: Park Evaluations

By Shela Ward A common issue we see in H-1B RFEs arises in specialty occupation cases in which the candidate’s qualifying degree is described simply as “engineering.” USCIS frequently views a broad engineering degree requirement as evidence that the position does not require a sufficiently specialized body of knowledge. If a role can be filled by graduates from numerous engineering disciplines, USCIS may conclude that the position lacks the degree specificity required for H-1B classification. Therefore, the burden of establishing how any engineering degree provides highly specialized knowledge directly related to the job duties falls squarely on the petitioner. At Park, our experts have developed several strategies for overcoming this regulatory hurdle by carefully defining the relationship between the position offered and ...

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Establishing the Suitability of Alternate Prevailing Wage Data in H-1B Petitions

Posted by: Park Evaluations

By Nikki Ummel In the new H-1B weighted lottery system, more nuanced wage-related issues have triggered H-1B RFEs. We’ve seen a huge culprit of RFEs occur because a petitioner relied on an alternate prevailing wage source, including a private compensation survey, to establish the prevailing wage. Although USCIS may recognize the survey itself as an independent authoritative source, they can still question whether the occupation and professional level selected within that survey appropriately correspond to the requirements of the proffered position. In these cases, the petitioner may be asked to demonstrate not simply that the wage source is reliable, but that the particular occupational classification and level used to determine the prevailing wage accurately reflect the work being performed. At Park, our experts can address this issue through an ...

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How Patents Can Support the Original Contributions Criterion for Extraordinary Ability Visas (0-1 and EB-1)

Posted by: Park Evaluations

By Amy F Ever encounter RFEs that challenge the use of patents as evidence for the original contributions of major significance criterion in Extraordinary Ability visas? In Park’s experience, these patent-specific challenges usually argue one or more of the following: Since the patent is assigned to a company, it cannot be clearly associated with the beneficiary’s work. Because the candidate is one of several inventors listed, it is not clear that their work constitutes a meaningful contribution. There is no evidence that the patented system, methodology, or technology has garnered industry attention or been used in the field. Addressing these arguments can be tricky, but Park’s industry experts can help. Our experts have detailed experience in responding to all three of the above challenges typically raised by USCIS. In a recent case, Park’s engineering experts reviewed the citations that a beneficiary’s patent had received. Our expert ...

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The False Master’s Degree: Four Foreign Educational Credentials that are Master’s in Name Only

Posted by: Park Evaluations

By Mai Bui  Have you ever encountered a translated foreign degree that says “Master” or “MBA” right front and center, but then turned out to be unusable for filing? The cross-border assessment of higher education requires more than a simple linguistic translation of degree titles. We often encounter “Master” titles that imply a level of postgraduate research that is actually misleading. Here are four common “false Master’s” and their actual equivalencies. The Brazilian Pós-Graduação Lato Sensu In Brazil, graduate education bifurcates into stricto sensu (traditional Master’s and Doctorate degrees), designed for deepening research, and lato sensu programs, which are specialized, professionalizing courses leading to postgraduate certificates, rather than full academic degrees. The False Impression: Because the certificate bears the nomenclature “Master” or “MBA” on the certificates, it is often presumed to be a comprehensive graduate degree with U.S. Master’s equivalency. The Reality: These are primarily continuing education courses designed for professional ...

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Wage Transparency Law Changes in Virginia and Maine

Posted by: Park Evaluations

By: Tais Araujo Virginia (effective July 1, 2026) and Maine (LD 54, effective July 29, 2026) are the latest states to require salary ranges in job postings, joining a growing list of jurisdictions in the US. For PERM cases, this creates compliance questions that go beyond the state laws themselves. PERM postings already carry a wage requirement tied to the Prevailing Wage Determination. This wage must be consistent across every recruitment source used during the recruitment period. Wage transparency laws add a second, state-specific disclosure requirement on top of the PWD wage requirement, often on the same postings. In practice, salaries can easily become misaligned on different ad postings. Usually, this happens when an employer's standard job board template runs a generic salary ...

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