Undergrad : EE (India) MBA from Top 5 US university 5 years experience as SWE + 10 years as a PM at MSFT. Currently L66 at MS. New role is also PM. Just learned I got an RFE via premium processing. Don't know the reason yet as its in the mail and the lawyers don't yet have it. I've had 3 H1 extensions before this, including one last year ( after trump). Never had an RFE. Current TC: 370. New TC: 450 Any advice? Other folks in this situation what were the documents or paperwork required to answer the RFE?
I bet some attorney or paralegal screwed some paperwork up, I won't stress over it just yet, wait and see
I'm hoping this is the case. They just renewed my MS H1 for 3 years so not sure why the transfer is an RFE.
Extensions go through without RFEs, it’s the amendments and transfers that get Major RFEs. EE and MBA are both RFE triggers but you should be good.
Don't worry. 2 years back I was moving from FB to Google. Google offered me around 370k. I am having masters from top school. I had 2 rfe :). Even lawyer was surprised. However, transfer was approved later. If you are Indian, get used to it. We are looking at long dirty immigration battle.
2 RFE? Dude that is brutal. What were they if you don't mind sharing? And what docs etc do I need to prepare? I'm trying to understand if I need to get letters from my previous managers or stuff like that...
First was regarding latest paycheck. USCIS said I didn't submit latest paycheck. They were wrong but we don't have right to argue. Second was regarding some missing doc due to lawyer's carelessness. It got approved later but I started job before approval and was bit nervous till it got approved.
I would highly recommend not to use Premium Processing anymore. Everyone is getting RFE on Premium Processing. A friend of mine had his L1 extension denied (Premium Processing), he applied for extension again with the same document(w/o Premium Processing) and was approved. Given your experience and education, I don’t think you would have much problem. Just don’t use Premium Processing.
I've heard the same anecdotally. Why though? Are they just trying to slow things down?
Looks like it... Looks like xenophics in the USCIS are promoted and now occupying top levels. Totally lame... These people give subtle signals to adjudicators that asking for as many evidence as possible is strongly preferred. You see some folks in Blind that goes around spreading anti-immigrant ideas and trying to pit Indians vs Chinese etc? USCIS must have some of those people and it appears that they are overworked right now. Also they can't seem to make up their mind. They say low wages are a problem and hurting Americans which is a fair argument but they also seem to have problem with higher wage jobs because pretty much everyone is getting RFEs. Employers get a lot of control over H1B because the employer is the key to determine there's a high demand for a role and the salary is an indirect but very strong corroboration of that demand. The employer is central to the H1B approach because of that (unlike say Canada's system). It also aligns with the ethos of this country giving a strong deference to businesses' needs. USCIS is supposed to defer to employer's justification esp. when all other factors incl. the salary, wage level etc are considered. There's also an extremely strong disincentive to hire an H1B when an equivalent candidate is available locally. I think the idea now is to create uncertainty for the employer, the employee and increase the overall cost associated with H1B further. People with this thought process need to understand that introducing subjectivity in government processes will come back to bite their ass. China will never be the US because there's no objectivity in their government but if the govt here starts doing whatever it wants without obeying the law passed by the Congress it's not going to take too long for that attitude to spread to other areas that deal with other domestic issues outside of immigration.
This is because PM is not considered a specialty occupation, according to what I am hearing from some other people in similar situation. You worked as swe and pm, which doesn't relate to EE. PM relates to mba but then like I said, nowadays uscis is not considering it a specialty occupation.
It could be this. But keep in mind I just got a H1 extension last year for a PM role. Its very arbitrary...
Previous successful H1 extensions in the same company doesn't relate to successful H1b transfers esp for non speciality occupations. In your previous job, you must have proved that you had engineering and functional skills that were important to your PM job and hence they must have approved. Unless you have a very similar profile and with the same domain and technical skill sets with the new company that you apply for, it would be difficult to prove a case that you are special for the new job. I'm also a PM and feel it's a risk to do H1B transfer in the current environment unless I have a very similar job role including the domain at an another company
Why didn’t you get ead?
OP, there’s another thread out here from where you will get more inputs. Just search “h1b transfer thread” on blind and post your queries there. We’re all in the same boat.
Thanks will post there
Adding my two cents - I got my H1B denied the first time after an RFE but got the second one approved in 4 days. The difference - I was very involved with the lawyers and had a supportive manager who let override the (in my opinion) stupid decisions by the lawyers. Yes the USCIS has changed its policy but big immigration law firms are continuing to submit sub par applications and expecting an RFE ( I was told as much by my lawyer) if you work in a non-shady company and provide the right job description, you should get approved. Now on the inside i finally got to look at my rejected petition and it was poorly crafted and submitted - so yes regulations have changed but immigration lawyers especially ones working for big corporations need to put in a little bit of effort
Update: the RFE asks why undergrad degree is required for this position. Any tips on how to answer this successfully. I'm not sure how much to trust the lawyers on this so want to be more hands on in the reply
Relate your undergrad courses to your job description. You can also provide similar job descriptions from LinkedIn for other companies that also mention undergrad degree as a requirement. All the best.
Thanks
M7?
That is serious bullshit. Sorry to hear that. You are the kind of immigrant we want. F*** our immigration policies.
Thanks bro. Yeah I'm quite frustrated with this. Luckily the hiring manager is very understanding and is ok to wait it out for this process to play out. Not everyone would wait :(
Good you have the manager on your side. I recently lost an offer just because of the rfe