Is my job offer H1B eligible?

This week, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has begun to accept H1B visa petitions from United States employers.

H1B is a work visa that allows an alien to work in the United States.

As I’ve pointed out in my previous posting, re: File early- to get a slice of the H1B visa “pie,” since Fiscal Year 2004, the H1B visa cap has been set at 65,000. However, after deducting 6,800 visas set aside for the U.S. Chile and U.S. Singapore Trade Agreements, what is up for grabs is a net of 58,200 visas. Because of the limited visas, there’s now a mad scramble for submission of H1B visa petitions. Many observers believe that with the number of visa petitions pouring in at the USCIS, the H1B visas may run out anytime soon.

Caloy, a Certified Public Accountant in the Philippines, is one prospective H1B beneficiary who called me to ask if the job that the employer has offered him is H1B eligible. He has been offered the job of an accounting clerk.

I told him that the job doesn’t qualify for H1B.

Why? He asked in disgust. To be H1B eligible, the job must be one that’s categorized as a “specialty occupation.” In plain and simple language, it must be a professional level position that normally requires a four-year college degree.

Let’s get into some details.

Caloy is a B.S. accounting graduate. No question about that.

It’s true that the accounting clerk position is related to Caloy’s academic background. But it’s also true that a college degree is not the minimum requirement for entry in the accounting clerk position. Meaning, one doesn’t need to be a holder of a bachelor’s degree in accounting to perform the duties of an accounting clerk. In short, the duties of an accounting clerk are not complex as to require an accounting degree.

This makes the accounting clerk position not H1B eligible under immigration rules.

So, the point is- to meet H1B eligibility, both the person to be petitioned and the position to be offered must be PROFESSIONAL.