Category Archives: Visa Info

Information about all types of US Visas and the best ways to obtain one

E3 Visa – The Bachelors Degree & Specialty Occupation Conditions

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Back after a mini break which in the end was only 4 days without posting 🙂 Hope you all did not miss me too much. Since the title is a common question I get asked, I thought I would do a mini post about it.

So the E3 Visa has this requirement about Bachelor Degree and the role being a specialty occupation. Look even if you read the US Embassy FAQ about this, the definition is really a whole bunch of words that mean nothing.

In short the E3 Visa will apply if the job you are applying for in the US has a Bachelors Degree as one of the requirements or conditions for hiring a candidate. Now that does not necessarily mean you need a bachelors degree that is relevant to the role you are being hired for or even a Bachelors Degree at all.

In the US the undergraduate degree system is a lot more general so people may major in Political Science for example but go into Investment Banking. So if you have an Arts, Commerce, Science, Engineering or Law Degree as an Australian that will pretty much cover you for most roles.

They may ask you a question at the Consulate interview about this but that is easily answered by “you having a desire to go into **** field because that is where your talent and passion lies and your degree gives you great underlying knowledge to pursue it” (or something to that effect 🙂 haha) Most likely it will never even come up.

If you don’t have a bachelors degree, the so-called rule is that you have 2 to 2.5 years of relevant work experience in lieu of each year of a standard degree in the field you are applying for. Now in Australia you can get Bachelors Degrees in 3 years but in the US it generally takes 4 years to get an undergraduate bachelors degree.

My tip is if you don’t have a degree but you have 9-12 years of verifiable work experience that is directly related to the role you have applied for and won in the US, and the employer has successfully filed an received the LCA from the US Department of Labor for you to take to the Visa Interview, then you will be fine! (of course the more experience the better!!)

So a specialty occupation for the E3 visa really becomes a role which requires specialized knowledge that can be obtained either by you having a Bachelors Degree or enough relevant work experience.

Of course for the E3 Visa, if your role requires some sort of certification that you need to do in the US to ply your trade in addition to your background qualifications, then you will have to that as well soon after entering the US.

Hope this clears things up.

CJ

What is the makeup of Immigrants in the US?

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US Immigration census figures released this week show the potential end of an era of white majority dominance in the United States in the foreseeable future. 47% of children under the age of 5 in the US are now from so-called minority groups (mostly Hispanic, African American and Asian)

The US minority population reached about 105 million which is over a third or 34% of the US total population. This has grown almost 10% since the last time these figures were released in 2000 when it was 31%.

So nearly one in six residents, or about 47 million people, are Hispanic which is the largest minority group in the US and also the fastest growing. Hispanic people tend to have more children than all other groups. Hispanics represent 14% of the population but a quarter or 25% of the live births of the US. The US is the only western industrialized nation with a fertility rate above the 2.2% replacement rate to maintain the same population.

Additionally Latinos and other minority workers contribute to keeping the Social Security system solvent, according to Monique Morrissey, an economist for the Economic Policy Institute. Both the legal immigrants and illegal workers among them often pay more into the Social Security pool than they will take out in benefits. Another dagger in the facts of the ridiculous H1B visa legislation.

From 2000, the other minority groups also grew and are outpacing the White population in the US. Asians are the second-fastest growing group and increased 2.7% year-over-year to  about 15.5 million. The African-American population rose 1.3% to 41.1 million which is about 12% of the US population.

In terms of the state and city breakdown, Los Angeles, with 4.7 million people has more Hispanics than any other part of the US confirming a reputation as a bilingual city.

California also has the most Latinos of any state, with 13.5 million with an increase of 313,000 in just this past one year alone. New Mexico has the highest percentage of Latinos at about 45% which means that soon they could almost just drop the “New” part of the state name. 🙂

New York State has the greatest number of black people with 3.5 million. Washington DC and Mississippi have the highest percentages of African Americans with 56% and 38% respectively. Chicago has 1.4 million African Americans to lead all city locales.

As for the other big minority in the US in California alone there are more than 5 million making it the largest state as well for Asians. However Hawaii goes one better than New Mexico, with an Asian demograpic of 54%, it is not only the highest proportion Asian state in the US, but the only one currently where a so-called minority group is dominant.

Los Angeles has 1.4 million Asians and not surprising Honolulu on Owahu Island in Hawaii at 58%, had the highest proportion.

So once again it is the Immigrant population keeping the US alive through having children to ensure it is not a dying population like most of the Western World including all of Europe. Additionally it is saving Social Security and working to support the retiring Baby Boomer generation.

Essentially the moral of the story is to to keep the US alive and vibrant they should be issuing more H1B visas and E3 visas!

CJ