Category: Immigration

The NIW Flight Path for the Aviation Industry

Posted by: Park Evaluations

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 ...

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New York State Launches a New Platform for SWA Job Orders

Posted by: Park Evaluations

As Park Advertising closely monitors State Workforce Agency (SWA) updates, we want to keep our clients and partners informed about changes that may impact recruitment and compliance processes. One of the most important requirements companies face when hiring foreign employees is posting job openings with the appropriate SWA portal in the state where the job will be performed. These postings ensure that local job seekers have fair access to available opportunities and help employers meet Department of Labor (DOL) recruitment guidelines. While the DOL requires job orders to remain live for 30 consecutive days, each state has its own set of rules and requirements that must be followed. Some require salary ranges, others request benefit details, and some others may include occupation-specific ...

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Atlanta Journal-Constitution Going Digital

Posted by: Park Evaluations

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the latest major daily newspaper to transition to digital only, with its final print edition scheduled for December 31, 2025. This raises concerns for PERM recruitment in the Atlanta metro area, since current regulations do not allow digital editions to satisfy the requirement for two separate Sunday ads in a newspaper of general circulation. So, what happens now? When a paper announces it is going digital, the Park team immediately begins researching alternative options for every affected area. We contact all available newspapers in each market and confirm their circulation and print schedules to ensure we have accurate options for clients. For example, in Cobb County, Georgia, where the AJC was previously used, we will begin ...

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How an Expert Opinion Letter can help avoid an RFE on Extraordinary Ability cases

Posted by: Park Evaluations

Even the most impressive, highly qualified applicants can receive RFEs on their Extraordinary Ability visa cases. This doesn’t mean they lack achievement, but the evidence package may not explain or verify candidates' accomplishments in ways immigration officers expect. The good news? Many RFEs stem from predictable issues that a well-crafted expert opinion letter can address. Some of these common RFE triggers include: Achievements that don’t appear extraordinary Applicants list impressive accomplishments, but without proper context, USCIS may view evidence as commonplace for someone in their field. Adjudicators need to see how the work stands out and why it’s rare, influential, or groundbreaking. Indication of international acclaim and reputation, as a result of the candidate’s accomplishments in their field, aids in reaching a successful determination ...

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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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