Logistics Specialist’s H-1B in 2 Months with No RFE

Year: 2020
Nationality: Chinese
Applicant (U.S. employer): Home improvement company
Beneficiary (foreign employee): Ms. Jane
Position: Logistics Specialist (Logistician)

Timeline
06/22/2020 H-1B petition filed
06/23/2020 Immigration Receipt
08/24/2020 Case successfully approved, no addendum

Application difficulties:
– (a) Under the Trump New Deal, USCIS has determined that logistics positions have low educational requirements, and that H-1B review standards for logistics-related positions are very stringent and prone to receiving Retroactive Notices of Filing (RFEs).
– Difficulty finding job advertisements for logistics specialists requiring at least a bachelor’s degree from companies of the same type and size.
– The employer lacked a clear development plan for the position and Ms. Jane’s job duties were not specific.
– The company’s operation mode is relatively mature and already has a perfect logistics system, so the position does not play a key role in the development of the company.

BACKGROUND
Ms. Jane got her master’s degree in supply chain management in 2019 and then joined this American home improvement company to start her internship. The company was expanding its business overseas, so it needed to find logistics graduates with international background. After comparing and consulting with several law firms, the company decided to appoint Tsang & Associates, PLC to complete the application.

Although Ms. Jane’s resume is excellent and her major is relevant to the position, the Immigration Bureau continued the two years of strict criteria, that logistics positions do not require a bachelor’s degree much less a graduate degree, the review of such positions has been very selective, the possibility of direct approval without additional documents is very low. In addition, it is difficult to find companies of the same type that require a bachelor’s degree for this position, and the company is not specific about Ms. Jane’s job duties plan. There are many difficulties with this application.

Considering the business characteristics of Ms. Jane’s company and her background, Tsang & Associates, PLC spent a lot of time researching and discussing the company’s and Ms. Jane’s situation, combined with last year’s RFE requirements for logistics positions, and customized a full set of H-1B petition documents.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
1: Prove that the logistics specialist is a Specialty Occupation
Since the USCIS does not consider logistics positions to be highly specialized and the entry barrier is low, it was necessary to prove that the position held by Ms. Jane in this company required high academic and professional skills and was a Specialty Occupation. After repeatedly communicating with the employer and Ms. Jane, we were able to find supporting documents that were highly relevant to her background and served as a breakthrough in the argument.

“A bachelor’s degree or higher is essential to apply for the position”: by submitting multiple academic studies on supply chain management, it is demonstrated that today’s logistics specialists start with a high bar, requiring dozens of skills such as data analysis, market research and at least a bachelor’s degree in expertise.

“Other similar positions in the same industry require a bachelor’s degree or higher”: this requirement was one of the key challenges, as it was difficult to find job advertisements for the same type of firm that met the “taste” of the immigration authorities. Therefore, the Tsang & Associates, PLC team conducted a needle in a haystack search of job postings in the industry, extracting similarities from the job descriptions of similar positions and summarizing them according to the USCIS requirements, and then arguing that similar standards existed in the industry for Ms. Jane’s position.

2: Prove that Ms. Jane’s major is relevant to the requirements of the position she is appointed to
Ms. Jane studied in the logistics industry, but the company’s planning for her job duties is not specific.We had to demonstrate that her expertise could accurately fill the company’s needs in logistics, so that the immigration officer would understand the reasonableness and necessity for the company to hire Ms. Jane.

Tsang & Associates, PLC presents arguments and collects supporting documents from the perspective of the company’s growth prospects. By presenting the company’s immediate growth plan, it proves that the company has started to investigate international markets to expand overseas. Therefore, the company had to invest in international logistics and supply chain management, and needed someone with that particular background to complete the blueprint. And Ms. Jane’s expertise fits perfectly with the company’s needs.

3: prove that Ms. Jane has the skills required for the position
Ms. Jane joined the company for just six months, and even though she has excellent academic qualifications, she lacks work experience and only received a Level I minimum salary at the application stage, making it difficult to convince the immigration office that her position requires high professional skills. To help allay the immigration officer’s concerns, in addition to submitting basic data such as transcripts and resumes to prove the academic ability that Ms. Jane possesses. We further submitted her research results and her work work over the past six months at the company, which proved that the position played a key role in the company’s expansion and Ms. Jane’s outstanding work ability.

OUTCOME
Tsang & Associates, PLC filed Ms. Jane’s H-1B petition with FedEx on June 22, 2020 and received the good news that the USCIS approved it directly on August 24. The company and Ms. Jane were very excited to learn the good news and thanked us for our professional service and rigorous attitude. The employer is happy to continue to cooperate with the new employee’s H-1B petition next year and other employees’ H-1B change of employer or extension.

According to data from the AILA survey, the number one reason for USCIS to issue H-1B petitions in 2018 is to prove that the position is a “specialty occupation” and indications are that this high rate of petitions will continue. This year, the H-1B petitioning model has been reformed to a lottery registration process, with two lotteries held for the first time ever, but the filing rate remains high. In such a difficult environment, Tsang & Associates, PLC’s 2020 H-1B petitions (including initial H-1B petitions, extensions, and change of employer) were all approved in one sitting with no back filings!


 
*To protect customer privacy, customer names are pseudonyms.