Tag: expert opinion letter

Declaring “National Importance” with an Employer-Focused Proposed Endeavor

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By: Hailey Sylvander We recently facilitated an interesting expert opinion letter for one of our clients’ National Interest Waiver (NIW) petitions. The beneficiary worked in mechanical engineering and robotics, specifically as it applies to biotechnology – a field with countless benefits to the United States, its economy, and its society. While demonstrating the national importance of this work would not normally be a challenge for our experts, the stated endeavor at the heart of this petition carried a strong focus on the beneficiary’s work for the petitioning company. And supporting a “proposed endeavor” that is employer-focused does require extra care, as USCIS often does, and most likely would ...

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Reopening Continues: Impact on H-1B Visa Petitions

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By Ben Chappelow With Mark Rogers  Special thanks to Susanne Heubel, Special Counsel with Duane Morris, for contributing to this post. Be sure to follow Park Evaluations on LinkedIn for future updates. Introduction As vaccination rates increase and COVID-19 restrictions ease, companies will be looking to safely reopen offices. Reopening continues to present challenges as business leaders, especially in spaces served by foreign nationals immigrating the United States on a non-immigrant work visa, work hard to keep up with the latest guidance to ensure safe and effective workplaces. Leading IT services companies are transitioning to a hybrid model, where select employees will come into the office on designated workdays. Industry watchers believe this return-to-work model of work will have a comparative advantage ...

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The O-1: Eight Ways to Identify Extraordinary Ability

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By Maddie Carlson When a beneficiary’s innovations have been recognized either nationally or internationally, an O-1 visa may be the ideal application process for highlighting their importance to their field. An O-1, or Extraordinary Ability or Achievement letter, focuses on up to eight different criteria that demonstrate an individual’s excellence in their career. The O-1A details a beneficiary’s excellence in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics. This visa can also be further specified as an O-1B, which focuses on individuals with extraordinary ability and achievement in the motion picture or television industry. Forming an O-1 application requires enough evidence to build a case that the beneficiary is indeed hard to come by ...

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Outside the H: Park takes on the L, O, and other specialized visas.

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Outside the H: Park takes on the L, O, and other specialized visas.

By: Ryan Mernin Park is well-known throughout business immigration for specialty occupation expert opinion letters for H-1B visa petitions. However, Park also services L-1, O-1, EB, and a host of other visas offered by the United States government. In this series, “Thinking Outside the H,” we take a look at the unique challenges posed by these other visas, starting here, in this article, with the L-1B “specialized knowledge” petition. The L-1B: How to Make Specialized Knowledge Stand Out in Your Petition When it comes to filing an L-1 petition, perhaps the most difficult thing to do is gauge what USCIS is prone to challenge in your case. If you’re a client is a company executive transferring to the United ...

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The Key to an Effective O-1A Visa Expert Opinion Letter

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The Key to an Effective O-1A Visa Expert Opinion Letter

By: Rebecca Anderson What is an O-1 Visa? According to the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, “an O-1 nonimmigrant visa is available for the individual who possesses an extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, or who has a demonstrated record of astonishing achievement in the motion picture or television industry and has been recognized nationally or internationally for those achievements.” The O-1A visa, in particular, is for individuals with extraordinary ability in the sciences, education, business, or athletics. These visas are a beautiful thing. First of all, they are the only non-specific work visa, and while candidates must show a letter of intent for future work, they are by no means bound to any single ...

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Top 4 Reasons Why USCIS Might Challenge a Work Experience Evaluation and How to Prevent an RFE

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Top 4 Reasons Why USCIS Might Challenge a Work Experience Evaluation and How to Prevent an RFE

By: Angela Cook One of the more common evaluations H-1B beneficiaries obtain is an experience expert letter that assesses a beneficiary’s academic history and prior work experience. For nearly three decades, this type of expert opinion letter had largely gone unchallenged, as long as the conclusion (that a beneficiary has earned the equivalent of a Bachelor’s degree) was defensible, and the documentation on which the letter was based is accurate and detailed. However, over the last few years, USCIS has taken a tougher stance and has been challenging work experience evaluations more and more. Here are four things to consider when procuring a work experience evaluation that just might help avoid an RFE. 1. The 3:1 Rule – the crux of the ...

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How do I prevent or answer a USCIS “First-Hand Knowledge” RFE?

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How do I prevent or answer a USCIS “First-Hand Knowledge” RFE?

The changing tides of immigration laws have brought with them a host of new requirements for the H-1B Visa application process. What’s more, as is almost always the case with new requirements, they have provided immigration authorities with new opportunities for objections and denials. First-Hand Knowledge Issue The objection is this: USCIS has been challenging how the expert writing the opinion letter gained his or her knowledge about a given position, knowledge leading to the conclusion that the position does qualify as a Specialty Occupation. USCIS believes “the [expert] reached this conclusion by relying on [the organization’s] description of the position rather than any specific study of the position at [the] organization” and wants to see evidence that “the [expert] visited ...

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