• H1B is there to allow qualified people to live and work in the US
• Specialty occupation is an occupation that requires a bachelor degree or the equivalent in education and experience
• But it doesn’t mean that just because your job is not within the occupations that are most common to get H1B visas it doesn’t mean that you can’t get it

Raw Transcript:

Introduction: You ask we answer your immigration questions, simple. And now your host immigration lawyer Jacob Sapochnick.

Jacob: Hello everybody, this is Jacob Sapochnick here and welcome to another episode of Ask An Immigration Lawyer.

We’re getting a lot of H1B questions these days and we know its H1B filing season here. April 1st is the deadline to file those visas and if you miss it’s going to be another year of wait so a lot of people are getting ready.

This question is coming from Melanie. Melanie is Canadian based in Seattle, Washington and her question is I hear there’s so many denials of H1B visas because people were not doing the correct things, they’re not filing for the correct occupations. What specialty occupations are accepted for the H1B visa?

Well, before we dive in to that answer I just want to explain that a specialty occupation is defined by law as occupation that requires a bachelor degree or the equivalent in education and experience. And that person … if you qualifies you’ll be able to get that visa. The job must require this degree or higher and the job that is involved must be specialize or complex enough that such a degree is necessary. So that’s a specialty occupation.

The H1B visa is there to allow qualified people to live and work in the United States. This particular occupation by the way is defined as an occupation that requires the theoretical and practical implication of a body of highly specialize knowledge and [inaudible 00:01:53] bachelor degree of higher.

So some examples after this definition may include but not limited to Computer Science, people work in computer related fields, mechanical, electrical, doctors, architect, social scientist, artist, biologist, writer, economist, therapist, professors, lawyers and accountants and administrators and many, many others who are working in related fields. But those are what they consider to be a specialty occupation.

Now bear in mind that people who are, for example, in marketing or sales or on business development, those are not necessary defined in the regulations as specialty occupation but it is possible still to get H1B visas if you can show that the job is highly specialize and complex and that a bachelor degree is required and that others also, other employers in similar capacity require it. Just because your job title or occupation is not within the occupations that are most common to get H1B visas it doesn’t mean that you can’t get it. It requires a careful planning, careful explanation to the government as to why you’re marketing or sales position. And the reason I mention that is those are the ones that are highly scrutinized. Social media, all that kind of stuff, it is possible to still get H1B with the proper description explanation to the government as to why a degree is still required.

So hopefully that gives you an explanation and a sense as to what occupations are usually accepted for H1B visa purposes. Thanks for listening. Once again you ask, we answer, simple. See you at our next episode.

Closing: Thank you for listening to the Ask My Immigration Lawyer Podcast, the show that’s dedicated to answering your immigration questions – simple as that. See you next week for another round of questions and much needed answers.