I-140 Approved Despite Having Foreign Education

• Prove that Mr. Val qualified for the position.
• Prove that Mr. Val met all educational requirements for the position.
• Prove that a foreign bachelor’s degree was equivalent to a U.S. degree.
• The immigration officer misunderstood the validity of our client’s education.
• Conducted extensive research to prove that Mr. Val’s education was adequately equivalent and acceptable according to the USCIS regulations.

BACKGROUND

Mr. Kent, the petitioner from Good Residence Home Furnishings LLC, filed a Form I-140, (Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker) with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, as their company needed to hire a Computer Information Systems Manager and offered the position to Mr. Val, a qualified candidate from Australia. Mr. Val believed he would have no problem getting his case approved because he thought he was qualified, but just because he believes this does not mean the immigration officer will see it that way. The immigration reviewing officer questioned the validity of the beneficiary’s education and ended up denying the case.

This incident caused Mr. Val severe anguish, and he did not know where to go from here. He did not want to give up on a promising career and he needed an experienced attorney to help him, which led him to Tsang and Associates. He sought out legal advice from us and immediately hired our legal team to represent him.

KEYS TO SUCCESS

The keys to success, in this case, required a great deal of time to conduct research as our legal team was faced with the challenge to prove that our client, Mr. Val, had been awarded a formal academic degree. We needed to prove this so that the USCIS immigration officer could further establish whether or not the beneficiary’s education, which he earned in a foreign country, qualified him for the position.

In our response to the USCIS, our legal team worked hard to state our case and submitted essential documents as evidence such as a copy of Mr. Val’s Bachelor’s Degree from Asia Pacific Institute of Information and Technology (APIIT) and transcripts that showed he completed twelve courses in his first year of undergraduate studies. A copy of his diploma from Staffordshire University, along with transcripts that showed he completed twelve courses in his fourth year of undergraduate studies as well. We further demonstrated that the Malaysian Qualifications Register showed the approval of a Bachelor of Science degree in computing together with Staffordshire University, are awarded through educational partnership to students who have completed three years of studies with APIIT, and final year of studies with Staffordshire University, thus we proved that Mr. Val had met the educational requirements to fill the position he has been offered in the United States.

In our efforts to further establish the validity of our client’s hard-earned education, we also submitted an Advisory Evaluation to demonstrate that Mr. Val completed a proper bachelor’s degree from Staffordshire University of the United Kingdom, administered jointly with the Asia Pacific Institute of Information and Technology in Malaysia. Additionally, authorities on international education, unanimously agree that a bachelor’s degree awarded by the United Kingdom universities, fundamentally provide a basis for the equivalencies to a four-year bachelor’s degree in the United States, thus mandated under the guidelines for Employment-Based Immigration Visa: Third Preference EB-3, Mr. Val’s higher education clearly qualified him for the position.

OUTCOME

It took hard work to win this case, but in the end, it was worth it because Mr. Val got his I-140 Immigration Petition approved, not to mention pleased with our legal team who helped make this possible. Our legal team worked effortlessly to provide an extensive amount of evidence and felt a great sense of relief when we found an organization that described the similarities of both degrees to be equivalent. This key piece of evidence was helpful as it enabled us to demonstrate that Mr. Val’s education qualified him for the position as the Computer Information Systems Manager. The anguish left Mr. Val’s body as he realized his dreams were about to become a reality.