EB2 VISA ADVANCED DEGREE OR EXCEPTIONAL ABILITY

Professionals with advanced degrees (Advanced Degree Professionals), classified as EB-2A in US immigration law, generally refer to masters, doctors, or equivalent advanced degrees (bachelor’s degree plus five years of work experience).

An advanced degree is defined as having a US master’s degree or higher or a foreign equivalent. An advanced degree is not limited to a single degree awarded by a single educational institution, but can be interpreted as the equivalent qualification of multiple courses taken at multiple institutions.

A bachelor’s degree plus five years of work experience in the corresponding professional field can be considered equivalent to a master’s degree. Five years of work experience can be counted cumulatively inside or outside the United States, but to be counted under this rule, it must be post-baccalaureate work experience. However, if a U.S. employer requires a master’s degree for a position, a bachelor’s degree plus five years of work experience cannot be substituted.

Exceptional Ability Aliens (Exceptional Ability Aliens), classified as EB-2B in the U.S. immigration law, that is, having special abilities in science, art, education, business or sports, and working in the United States can benefit the economic, cultural or educational excellence of the United States professional.

Special ability refers to the ability to have the academic qualifications and professional experience that are obviously beyond the general colleagues in this field. Compared with the internationally renowned and world-renowned outstanding talents in special fields (EB-1A) in the first priority category of employment-based immigration, this category of people has a smaller scope of fields, lower achievements, and at most has a national reputation. Foreigners must provide at least three of the following six proofs:

• Official academic records certifying that the foreign national has received a degree, diploma or similar award from a university, college or other institution of further study in the field of study;
• Certificate from current or previous employers, proving that the foreigner has more than 10 years of full-time work experience in the field of employment for which he or she is applying;
• Occupational licenses or certificates proving that foreigners are qualified to work;
• Compared with their colleagues in the same field, expats enjoy high salaries;
• Proof that the foreigner is a member of the professional association to which he belongs;
• Certificates issued by peers, government units or professional and business associations, recognizing the achievements and major contributions of the beneficiary in the industry or field.

On average, it takes about 6 months to process your form I-140. If you have to go through PERM Labor Certification, it can even take up to 8 months to 2 years.

In most cases, the Department of Labor will not allow an applicant to count the time they worked for a sponsoring employer as time where they gained progressive experience.

For nationals who are applying for the EB2 visa, relying on having a bachelor’s degree and 5 years or more of progressive experience should be aware of the following stipulations.

1. the applicant must meet the minimum education and experience qualifications before the employer files for a labor certification.
2. the visa applicant must have met these basic requirements before beginning to work for the sponsoring company.

A foreign national must hold an advanced degree from an academic institute, such as a Master’s degree, a Ph.D. Juris Doctor law degree, or if they are in the field of medicine to have a M.D.

The USCIS does not require a foreign national to have an advanced degree beyond a baccalaureate if they have a B. A. or a B.S. as well as five years of progressive work-related experience. This is considered to be equal to a Master’s degree. The term “progressive” signifies that the responsibilities and the level of complexity of the assignments a worker has done will have increased in a progressive way during their five years of employment.

The Immigration Bureau stipulates that lawyers applying for employment-based immigration must obtain an advanced degree in law before they are eligible to apply for the second priority of employment-based immigration. A very small number of people obtain the LL.B. Bachelor of Laws without first obtaining a general university bachelor’s degree. Such individuals qualify as professionals under the third preference category of employment-based immigration and do not fall under the second preference category.

In addition, the USCIS also emphasized that foreigners who have obtained degrees from foreign law schools must prove that they are eligible to obtain a license to practice law in the United States. A common form of proof is to show that the alien has taken or is eligible to take the bar exam in the state of residence. Even if a foreign lawyer has not obtained a lawyer’s license, he is eligible to apply for the second priority of employment immigration as a lawyer, as long as the foreigner has obtained a license issued by a certain state as a foreign legal consultant.

Your academic qualifications meet the conditions for applying for EB-2A, but if you want to apply for a green card through EB-2A, you must also meet the following conditions:

• You have a permanent full-time job offer from a U.S. employer;
• Apply for a labor certification issued by the Ministry of Labor;
• You personally meet the minimum requirements for the position;
• Your employer has sufficient payroll capacity;
• Your desire to have an employment relationship with your employer.

Although your U.S. company is small in scale, as long as your employer presents relevant documents to prove that it has sufficient salary capacity and can pay your current and foreseeable future salary, it can apply for an EB-2B visa for you. It should be noted that you must prove that you have “sufficient salary-paying capacity” on the day you submit your labor certification application, otherwise your application will be denied.

Maybe. Although you are eligible to apply for EB-2A and have been offered a job by a U.S. employer, USCIS will still evaluate whether the intention of the employer and the employer is still genuine after the alien receives the green card. Of course, this question is difficult to judge, and the Immigration Bureau will not reject the application without evidence. You and the U.S. employer need to be aware of whether you are overqualified for the job offered by the U.S. employer, or whether you are trained in a field that is irrelevant to the job offered by the employer (for example, the employee Physician, the job position offered by a US employer is restaurant manager).

You are eligible to apply. It needs to be clarified that the so-called academic qualifications are not limited to a single degree awarded by a single educational institution, but can be interpreted as the same qualification that is the sum of multiple courses taken in multiple institutions. For example, in your case, after academic evaluation, it may also be equivalent to having a degree equivalent to four years of computer science education in the United States. It is recommended that you find an American academic qualification evaluation agency to evaluate your academic qualifications. Once approved, such a mixed academic background can meet the requirements for EB-2A academic qualifications.

Yes. One of the conditions for applying for EB-2B is that the employer must be a US company, and the company’s ownership can be foreign, as long as the employer has a branch or an office in the United States to meet the conditions. The company you work for belongs to a branch of a Chinese company in the United States and fully meets the requirements for this application.

If your employment-based immigration application has been approved and your adjustment of status application has been pending for more than 180 days, there will be no adverse effect as long as your new job is in the same or similar occupational field. But at this time, USCIS will ask your new employer to produce a letter in order to determine whether your new job is the same or similar to the job you originally applied for, and also to determine whether you will become a public charge in the United States. However, if the waiting list for the employment-based immigration application quota is long and the application for adjustment of status cannot be submitted in a short period of time, it is better not to act rashly, so as not to invalidate the approved I-140 application.

• The EB-2B application of the second type of occupational standard of Schedule A only requires two kinds of evidence in the basic evidence, and EB-1A requires at least three kinds of evidence;
• The EB-1A category allows for other more relevant evidence, such as a nationally recognized award instead of an internationally recognized award;
• The EB-1A category requires applicants to have reached the top of the professional category, so the review will be much more stringent than the EB-2B of the second category of occupational standards in Schedule A.

There are some positions for which there is no need to hire because these positions are chronically in short supply in the United States or the hiring does not make sense for these positions. When it comes to these jobs, it is not necessary to apply to the Ministry of Labor, and the application can be submitted directly to the Immigration Bureau. These work types are collectively referred to as Schedule A.