Cap Exempt H-1B Approval for School District Petitioner (Nonprofit Organization Affiliated with an Institution of Higher Education) in Mohave Valley Arizona and Filipina Elementary Education Teacher

CASE: H-1B Visa Petition

PETITIONER: School District in Mohave Valley, AZ

BENEFICIARY: Filipina Elementary Education Teacher

ISSUES: Cap-Exempt, Research Organization

Our client is a public school district affiliated with several institutions of higher education. They contacted our office in March 2019 to seek legal assistance from our office for their foreign employee. The beneficiary is an Elementary Education Teacher from the Philippines who has been working for this employer for last 5 years under J-1 status. Though she was subject to INA 212(e), two-year foreign residency requirement, she already obtained a J-1 waiver from the USCIS.

The proffered position for the Beneficiary is an Elementary Education Teacher. We showed that this is a “specialty occupation” because the minimum requirement for this position is a Bachelor’s Degree in Education or its equivalent.

In the first week of April, the numerical cap of H-1B visas for fiscal year 2020 was already reached. However, our client is qualified for cap-exempt petitions since it is a non-profit organization affiliated with an Institution of Higher Education as defined in 8 C.F.R. 214.2(h)(19)(iii)(B).

Once retained, our office filed the H-1B visa petition with various supporting documents on April 29, 2019, via premium processing. However, the USCIS issued the Request for Evidence (RFE) and requested our client to submit her I-612 J-1 waiver approval notice once again. Our office filed the Response to RFE on May 14, 2019. Eventually, our client’s H-1B application was approved on May 23, 2019.  She can now work for her employer for three years on an H-1B status.

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