Schedule A Group II Explained: A Shortcut to Permanent Residency

Posted by: Park Evaluations

By: Shela Ward When it comes to U.S. immigration, most employment-based green card applicants face a big hurdle in proving there aren’t qualified American workers available for the job. The standard PERM labor certification process can be long, complicated, and stressful, involving a time-consuming labor market test. Schedule A Group II is a special category of green cards that provides a shortcut for certain individuals with exceptional ability in the sciences or arts. What is Schedule A Group II? Instead of going through the lengthy recruitment process, Schedule A Group II allows employers to sponsor individuals directly for a green card. To qualify, the individual must receive a job offer for a position requiring their exceptional ability and demonstrate proof of their exceptional ...

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A Historical Look at PERM: How Labor Certification Evolved in the U.S. 

Posted by: Park Evaluations

By: Anna Martins Longo Pereira The PERM labor certification process may feel like a box-checking exercise today, but its history reflects decades of effort by the U.S. government to strike a balance between meeting economic needs and protecting opportunities for U.S. workers. To understand where PERM stands now—and why it matters so much for employment-based immigration—it helps to trace how we got here.  The Early Roots of Labor Certification Labor certification was born out of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1952. Section 212(a)(b) required that foreign workers could only be hired when no qualified, willing, and available U.S. worker existed, and that wages would not be undercut. Employers needed to test the U.S. labor market to prove ...

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Major Updates from USCIS on TN Visas: Here’s What You Need to Know

Posted by: Park Evaluations

By: Shela Ward USCIS has just released a major update to its Policy Manual for the temporary nonimmigrant (TN) visa. What does this mean for your clients? These changes impact how employers can determine who’s eligible and what the application process looks like moving forward. At Park Evaluations, we stay on top of immigration policy updates like this, so we can help draft TN letters tailored to the new guidelines to make sure you and your clients stay ahead of the curve. What’s Changed for TN Visas? USCIS’ updates to the Policy Manual are significant – and they touch on everything from employment requirements to the application process. Regarding employment requirements and eligibility, candidates still need to be Canadian or Mexican citizens with a ...

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PERM Audit Triggers and How Park Can Help

Posted by: Park Evaluations

By: Amy Frederickson The Department of Labor randomly selects approximately 30 percent of PERM filings to be audited each fiscal year. In addition to these randomized audits, the department issues targeted audits to more closely evaluate PERM applications that set off alarm bells. Increasing rates of PERM application denials over the past few years underscore that the Department of Labor is not only more frequently rejecting applications outright but also increasing their issuance of audits and intensifying their scrutiny of responses. While several arguments surface as to why PERM denials and audits are increasing, there is a general consensus that this enhanced scrutiny stems from mounting concerns that foreign workers are being unfairly selected for employment over U.S. citizens: a worry that ...

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Green Card Gridlock: What Employers and Immigrants Need to Know

Posted by: Park Evaluations

By: Hannah Welbourn Concerning the growing delays for green card processing, the Cato Institute stated, “America will lose the global talent competition when other countries grant green cards in a matter of a few weeks or months, not years.” 1,256 days (or 3.44 years) was the average processing time in Q2 of 2025. Since 2016, the U.S. government has added an average of 2.8 years to green card processing, and paying the $2,805 premium fee only drops the average wait time to 2.8 years. These delays affect hundreds of thousands of households in the U.S. This is on top of the extensive backlog of green card cap slots, where if a candidate’s application is approved, they may have to wait for a ...

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Specialty Occupation Challenges – How disparate is too disparate?

Posted by: Park Evaluations

By: Hannah Welbourn During the first Trump administration, one highly scrutinized area of the H-1B was the acceptable degree requirements for a specialty occupation. While we can’t predict what this year's RFEs will look like, specialty occupation remains the main challenge we see on H-1B RFEs, and degree requirements remain the crux of the issue for many, if not most, of those cases. Specialty occupations such as computer programmers were significantly challenged during the first Trump administration. In most cases, these roles would require a degree in computer science. While some degree fields, such as information technology, software engineering, or computer engineering, often overlap significantly with computer science in coursework and skills, others may pose challenges. As an example, a candidate with a ...

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A Closer Look at 3-Year Degrees: Not All Created Equal

Posted by: Park Evaluations

By: Hannah Welbourn and Mai Bui While navigating employment-based petitions, especially the H-1B, the duration of a program can be a frequent point of confusion. One question we often see: How could a three-year degree be equivalent to a U.S. Bachelor’s? It’s important to consider not only the number of years of study but also the structure, educational conventions, and historical contexts of the academic system behind the credential. In the United States, a Bachelor’s degree typically involved four years of post-secondary education. However, in many countries, especially those following British or Commonwealth systems, Bachelor’s degrees are often completed in three years. Whether these degrees are considered equivalent to a U.S. Bachelor’s degree depends largely on two factors: what is required to ...

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What is a Work Experience “Combo” Expert Opinion?

Posted by: Park Evaluations

By: Hannah Welbourn Last time, we covered necessary information for ensuring a strong petition support by one of Park’s Academic EDGE-enhanced evaluations. But what about cases where the beneficiary’s underlying academic credentials don’t make the Specialty Occupation cut? For cases where academic credentials alone don’t meet the necessary standards for immigration purposes, reach out to [email protected] for a Work Experience or “Combo” Expert Opinion Letter. These letters apply USCIS’ 3:1 rule, which allows three years of progressive, relevant work experience to be evaluated as equivalent to one year of college-level experience, up to four years. Our team of experts, who are college professors in a wide range of fields, are authorized to grant college-level experience through their university’s Prior Learning ...

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