## Facts

- A software development and consulting company petitioned for H-1B classification for a beneficiary to work as a programmer analyst.
- The beneficiary held foreign degrees described as a bachelor’s degree in math, physics, and electronics and a master’s degree in marketing management, plus three years of related work experience.
- The petitioner submitted a private credential evaluation (World Academic Research Center) opining the foreign education was equivalent to a U.S. bachelor of business administration.
- The proffered job description for “programmer analyst” was general and did not provide detailed, task-level duties beyond assisting with current and future projects.
- A USCIS service center director denied the petition, and the petitioner appealed to the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO).
- Publicly available information does not disclose the AAO’s disposition (affirmance, reversal, or remand) or its full reasoning.

## Issues

1. Whether the petitioner established that the programmer analyst position qualified as a “specialty occupation” under the H-1B statutory and regulatory framework.
2. Whether the petitioner established that the beneficiary met the position’s educational requirements, including through a private evaluation of foreign degrees.
3. What weight USCIS/AAO may give to a third-party credential evaluation when the asserted U.S. degree equivalency is not clearly related to the offered position.

## Decision

- The AAO issued a decision resolving the administrative appeal from the service center director’s denial.
- The outcome and the specific grounds for the AAO’s ruling are not available from the accessible record summarized here.

## Legal Principles

- In an H-1B petition, the petitioner bears the burden to show the offered position is a specialty occupation and that the beneficiary is qualified for that position.
- Specialty-occupation analysis commonly turns on the specificity and substance of the described job duties and whether the position normally requires at least a bachelor’s degree in a specific specialty related to those duties.
- A credential evaluation from a private entity may be submitted as evidence of foreign degree equivalency, but such evaluations are not necessarily binding and may be scrutinized for methodology and relevance to the proffered role.
- A claimed degree equivalency in a field not clearly connected to the proffered position may be insufficient, standing alone, to establish qualification for a specialty occupation.

## Conclusion

This AAO appeal concerned an H-1B petition for a programmer analyst in which USCIS questioned the specialty-occupation showing and the probative value of a private foreign-credential evaluation; however, the accessible record does not reveal the AAO’s final disposition or detailed reasoning.


In re ____________ (Immigr. Rep. LEXIS 12874) (AAO 2008)