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Hello everybody,
My name is Tommy, new here.
been reading quite a few articles and posts, now it's my time to post
Background:
29 years old, married with kids
no bachelors degree, some career certifications, many courses.
participated in over dozen conventions
3 years of service and 6 additional months as non-commisioned officer (NCO)
11 years total of employment history (excluding non-employment based experience)
contributed to large open-source projects (some are used by my employer)
documents supporting exceptional abilities (key contributor achievements, perfect annual reviews and awards granted for my work)
19 months ago, I started working for {CORP} as a senior DevOps engineer.
My team has been broken up and other members assigned to different projects.
I was key to success of the project, and have expert level knowledge in many fields not frequently found by similar candidates.
It is now my sole responsible to handle the product's development and maintenance.
The product is being handed to the U.S team, handling similar products to which I'm supposed to join.
My company filed for L1-B Individual in the beginning of Aug.
Initially, the petition targeted proving the "specialized knowledge", claiming being
since I was key to the development of the product, and no other employees are familiar
with it as me, the U.S team needs my knowledge moving forwards, with multiple large scale projects in the horizon.
Not surprising, we received a massive RFE mid Aug (premium processing) - roughly 70 days remaining to reply.
USCIS brings up the following:
It's clear to me and my employer that I possess a unique set of skills not frequently found in the field,
and that other members of the U.S team do not fully understand how the product I worked on is designed.
Moving forward, we decided to attempt showing that I posses both, "exceptional skills" and "specialized knowledge".
This would explain USCIS how I managed to become key to the project in such a short duration.
In addition, we were required to provide the minimum time to obtain similar knowledge to mine.
currently, that is estimated came to 20 months, longer than the time that I've been employed.
My questions are:
1. Can claiming that obtaining similar knowledge to mine takes longer than the time I've been employed cause any issues? (More of an O visa point?)
2. Can the decision to peruse both "specialized knowledge" and "exceptional skills" backfire on us?
I'm trying to figure out what I should target specifically on the documents I should provide to the lawyers.
My deepest appreciation to this wonderful community,
Tommy
My name is Tommy, new here.
been reading quite a few articles and posts, now it's my time to post
Background:
29 years old, married with kids
no bachelors degree, some career certifications, many courses.
participated in over dozen conventions
3 years of service and 6 additional months as non-commisioned officer (NCO)
11 years total of employment history (excluding non-employment based experience)
contributed to large open-source projects (some are used by my employer)
documents supporting exceptional abilities (key contributor achievements, perfect annual reviews and awards granted for my work)
19 months ago, I started working for {CORP} as a senior DevOps engineer.
My team has been broken up and other members assigned to different projects.
I was key to success of the project, and have expert level knowledge in many fields not frequently found by similar candidates.
It is now my sole responsible to handle the product's development and maintenance.
The product is being handed to the U.S team, handling similar products to which I'm supposed to join.
My company filed for L1-B Individual in the beginning of Aug.
Initially, the petition targeted proving the "specialized knowledge", claiming being
since I was key to the development of the product, and no other employees are familiar
with it as me, the U.S team needs my knowledge moving forwards, with multiple large scale projects in the horizon.
Not surprising, we received a massive RFE mid Aug (premium processing) - roughly 70 days remaining to reply.
USCIS brings up the following:
- There was no timeline in regards to the development, testing, and deployment stages of {THE PRODUCT}, which we assert is a proprietary software solution built on top of an open-source foundation. Given the relatively short tenure that the beneficiary has with {CORP} prior to the filing of the petition, you have not established the beneficiary’s level of participation in the development, testing, and deployments of the {PRODUCT}
- You have not compared or contrasted the beneficiary against other employees with similar job titles and similar tenure within your organization. Nor have you explained how this knowledge is different from other similarly employed individuals in the industry.
- You have not demonstrated that the beneficiary was directly responsible for the design and development of any of the referenced tools and methodologies. Rather, it appears that such tools and procedures were developed within your organization, and that use of these tools, processes or procedures would be widespread within your organization for individuals employed in a similar capacity.
and that other members of the U.S team do not fully understand how the product I worked on is designed.
Moving forward, we decided to attempt showing that I posses both, "exceptional skills" and "specialized knowledge".
This would explain USCIS how I managed to become key to the project in such a short duration.
In addition, we were required to provide the minimum time to obtain similar knowledge to mine.
currently, that is estimated came to 20 months, longer than the time that I've been employed.
My questions are:
1. Can claiming that obtaining similar knowledge to mine takes longer than the time I've been employed cause any issues? (More of an O visa point?)
2. Can the decision to peruse both "specialized knowledge" and "exceptional skills" backfire on us?
I'm trying to figure out what I should target specifically on the documents I should provide to the lawyers.
My deepest appreciation to this wonderful community,
Tommy
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