H-1B Approved for Non-Profit Business Consulting Firm

Year: 2019
Nationality: Chinese
Applicant (U.S. employer): Business consulting firm (government & university partner nonprofit)
Beneficiary (foreign employee): Ms. Ko
Beneficiary’s education: US MBA
H-1B Position: Market Research Analyst

TIMELINE
06/28/2019 Formal Engagement Tsang & Associates
07/19/2019 Complete H-1B petition preparation, filing
07/22/2019 Immigration Intake
07/24/2019 Successfully approved with no addendum

DIFFICULTIES
– The U.S. employer is a not-for-profit business consulting firm working with the government & university, and is neither an educational institution nor a research center, and needs to demonstrate that the employer’s organizational structure qualifies for the H-1B lottery waiver petition.
– The U.S. employer is a newly established company that has never hired for a similar position before.
– The United States employer is very small, with only four regular full-time employees, and hires part-time interns to work most of the time.
– Ms. Ke’s position: Market Research Analyst is the “worst hit” by H-1B petitions.
– Ms. Ko’s prior work experience is not related to Market Research Analyst.
• The application was urgent, with less than a month to prepare.

BACKGROUND
After working on several business consulting projects, her employer was very satisfied with her work ability and decided to apply for an H-1B visa for her after her graduation. In June, Ms. Ko’s boss contacted Tsang & Associates for a fee to evaluate the requirements for a lottery-free H-1B petition. The terms and conditions of the H-1B petition.

Ms. Ke and her boss originally agreed that as long as the company was a nonprofit, it would meet the criteria for the lottery waiver, however, after Ms. Zang’s attorney carefully inquired about the company’s business, they realized that their perception was wrong. Ms. Ke’s company, whose main business is business consulting, is neither a higher education institution nor a pure research center, but only has cooperation with the government and universities, and needed a detailed explanation of the organizational structure to prove that the employer was eligible for the lottery waiver.

Ms. Ke felt worried and thankful that the lottery waiver application was far more complicated than she thought and the 60-day grace period was coming to an end; thankful that she had found a professional lawyer and had a more comprehensive understanding of the application. In the end, Ms. Ke’s boss decided to appoint Tsang & Associates to handle her H-1B petition on the spot.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
Key Point 1: Employers are eligible for the nonprofit visa waiver application
The key to the employer’s eligibility for the lottery waiver was to demonstrate that the business consulting firm was a research-based nonprofit. Through our communication with Ms. Ko’s boss, we found a breakthrough in the argument that the employer relies on donated funds from several organizations to maintain its daily operations, all of which are professional organizations focused on research. This provides indirect evidence that although the nature of the employer’s business is to provide business consulting services, its services are funded entirely by grants from professional research organizations.

In addition, the Tsang & Associates team carefully analyzed the different categories of donations and found that U.S. employers received the most donations for applied research, demonstrating that the firm’s business consulting services are based on a strong foundation of applied research.

Key point 2: Explain “Specialty Occupation” professional positions
After careful discussion with Ms. Ke’s boss, we confirmed that the position had the strongest connection to Ms. Ke’s profession and future job duties. In order to dispel the immigration officer’s prejudice against the Market Research Analyst, we guided and helped Ms. Ke to prepare the documents from the following aspects.

– Letters of Recommendation: Ms. Ke had many professors and company executives who were willing to write letters of recommendation for her, but they did not understand the requirements of the USCIS and did not know how to write them. Tsang & Associates provided detailed guidance on what the USCIS wanted to see and understand in the letters of recommendation, explaining how Ms. Ke’s references could be more efficient and write persuasive letters of recommendation in a short period of time.

Mr. Zang reminded that the recent H-1B denial notices all mentioned one point, that is, the reference letter was not authoritative enough. The immigration officer thought that the content of the reference letter was too vague and did not mention the employer’s business operation model nor did it reflect the foreign employee’s personal qualifications, so it was obvious that the reference was not familiar with the employer and the foreign employee, which led to the submission of an invalid reference letter. Therefore, the content and quality of the reference letter is of paramount importance.

– Work Report: We submitted Ms. Ke’s research report on her daily work, which can be used to prove that the business information service of the U.S. company is based on strong research on the one hand; on the other hand, it can also show the immigration officer that the job must require someone with at least a bachelor’s degree through the complex and professional content of the report.

– Industry peer job ads: Finding nonprofits with a similar business profile to Ms. Ko’s employer wasn’t easy. So, the Tsang & Associates team switched gears and searched for specific divisions or subsidiaries of large companies. Many large companies have specific departments or subsidiaries that conduct the same market research that Ms. Ko does, and we gathered this information to prove that these departments or subsidiaries require the same expertise and education as Ms. Ko when hiring for the same position.

– Linking the course content of Ms. Ko’s graduate studies to her duties as a Market Research Analyst is also one of the key points necessary to prove Specialty Occupation. We developed a table to explain in detail how Ms. Ko’s courses corresponded to her H-1B job duties, demonstrating that her expertise was relevant to the job.

OUTCOME
Tsang & Associates sent Ms. Ke’s H-1B petition by FEDEX on July 19, 2019, received it by USCIS on July 22, and received the approval news on July 24, with no addendum. The U.S. employer and Ms. Ke expressed their disbelief at the good news coming so quickly, and Ms. Ke was so excited and thankful that she was able to bridge the F-1 and H-1B status perfectly without wasting any time. The employer praised us for our efficient and high quality service and said that they would definitely entrust Ms. Ke with the EB-2 immigration process next.

Lawyer Comments:
The position itself is not the decisive factor to trigger RFE. In this case, Ms. Ko chose the “hardest hit” position of Market Research Analyst and was approved within 3 days. There is no doubt that immigration officials are becoming more and more stringent in their consideration of H-1B cases. However, how can one adequately explain “specific specialty knowledge learned in specific courses used for specific job duties, which result in large impacts However, if you can adequately demonstrate “specific specialty knowledge learned in specific courses used for specific job duties, which result in large impacts,” and prepare your petition in a quality manner, your chances of passing the petition are greatly improved. If you have any questions regarding your application, whether you are applying for the first time, changing companies, or applying for an extension, please call Tsang & Associates to schedule a consultation.

*To protect customer privacy, customer names are pseudonyms.