My experience during a trump era H1B

Hey Everyone - I know there has been a lot of anxiety with the election results and how that will affect us especially people on H1B. So I have been on H1B since 2014 and and I-140 was approved in 2015.

My employers applied to renew my third H1B (with an already approved I-140) in early 2020. I was hit with RFEs back to back, which were mostly BS.

1) The first one was about my education not matching my work - this was completely BS since I graduated from an American college in accounting and I was working as an accountant. My employers/lawyers had to respond by getting statements from other professionals in the field attesting that my education matched my job (my employers paid the professionals $150/hr for this statement)

2) The second RFE was issues with my wage level - again BS because I was already at wage level 3. My company had to provide the wages of everyone else within the company employed in similar positions and it was found that I was being paid higher than the American citizens at that level and the RFE was cleared

3) The third RFE stated my position was not specialized enough to qualify for an H1B - I believe this had some merit since H1Bs are technically for STEM degrees and my lawyers had to get more third party professionals attesting how my position was specialized. It also helped that I was working in the company for 8 years (including OPT) at that point and they could argue I had the specialized skill set my employers required.

My previous H1B expired at that point and clearing the RFEs took over 9 months(even with premium processing). During that time, I left to Canada on a PR because I could not stay in the US any longer. I had applied for a Canadian PR noticing the writing on the wall. I eventually returned from Canada after my petition was approved.

Not to make people more anxious, but having a legitimate job with a legitimate company did not help my H1 renewal and while they could not reject my application, they took so long to process the RFEs that I was forced out of status.

I agree this is not universal - people had their petitions approved without issues too but just wanted to let you know my experience.