sustained EB-3 Case: Business Analytics

U.S. Citizenship 
and Immigration 
Services 
Non-Precedent Decision of the
Administrative Appeals Office 
Date: OCT. 8, 2024 In Re: 34545439 
Appeal of Nebraska Service Center Decision 
Form 1-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers (Professional) 
The Beneficiary's qualifications for the offered U.S. business analyst job tum on whether her graduate 
field of study - environmental health sciences - relates to management science, statistics, 
mathematics, or marketing analytics. The Director of the Nebraska Service Center found insufficient 
evidence that the Beneficiary's academic field relates to any of the job's acceptable degree disciplines. 
The Beneficiary's petitioning employer, however, demonstrated that graduate programs in both 
environmental health sciences and statistics focus on the collection, management, analysis, and 
reporting of data - skills the offered job requires. We will therefore withdraw the Director's decision 
and sustain the appeal. 
I. LAW 
Immigration as a professional under Immigration and Nationality Act (the Act) section 
203(b)(3)(A)(ii), 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(3)(A)(ii), generally follows a three-step process. First, a 
prospective employer must apply to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) for certification that: there 
are insufficient U.S. workers able, willing, qualified, and available for an offered position; and a 
noncitizen's employment in the position would not harm wages and working conditions of U.S. workers 
with similar jobs. See section 212(a)(5)(D) of the Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(5)(D). 
Second, an employer must submit a DOL-approved labor certification with an immigrant visa petition 
to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). See section 204(a)(l)(F) of the Act, 8 U.S.C. 
§ 1154(a)(l)(F) ; 8 C.F.R. § 204.5(1)(3)(i). Among other things, USCIS determines whether a 
noncitizen beneficiary meets the requirements of a DOL-certified job and a requested immigrant visa 
category. 8 C.F.R. § 204.5(1)(3)(ii)(C). 
Finally, if USCIS approves a petition, a beneficiary may apply for an immigrant visa abroad or, if 
eligible, "adjustment of status" in the United States. See section 245 of the Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1255. 
TI. ANALYSIS 
A. Facts and Procedural History 
The Beneficiary, a Chinese national and citizen, has worked in the United States for the Petitioner -
an online retailer- in the offered job ofbusiness analyst since February 2022. Her H-lB nonimmigrant 
visa status allows the company to temporarily employ her as a professional worker. See section 
10l(a)(15)(H) of the Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(l5)(H). 
In December 2022, the Petitioner filed a labor certification application for the Beneficiary, seeking 
permission to permanently employ her in the offered job. After DOL approved the labor certification 
application in November 2023, the Petitioner filed this petition in January 2024. 
The Director denied the petition in June 2024, concluding that the Petitioner did not demonstrate the 
Beneficiary's possession of a degree in an acceptable field of study. This timely appeal followed. 
The Petitioner bears the burden of demonstrating eligibility for the requested benefit by a 
preponderance of the evidence. Matter of Chawathe, 25 I&N Dec. 369, 375-76 (AAO 2010). We 
review questions in this matter de novo. Matter of Christo 's, Inc., 26 I&N Dec. 537, 537 n.2 (AAO 
2015). 
B. The Required Education 
A professional must have at least a baccalaureate degree. Section 203(b)(3)(A)(ii) of the Act. Also, 
a petitioner must demonstrate that, by a petition's priority date, a beneficiary met all DOL-certified 
requirements of an offered job. Matter of Wing's Tea House, 16 I&N Dec. 158, 160 (Acting Reg'l 
Comm'r 1977). This petition's priority date is December 6, 2022, the date DOL accepted the labor 
certification application for processing. See 8 C.F.R. § 204.5(d) (explaining how to determine a 
petition's priority date). 
When assessing a beneficiary's qualifications, USCIS must examine the job-offer portion of an 
accompanying labor certification to determine a job's minimum requirements. USCIS may neither 
disregard certification terms nor impose unstated requirements. See, e.g., Madany v. Smith, 696 F.2d 
l 008, 1015 (D.C. Cir. 1983) (holding that DOL "bears the authority for setting the content of the labor 
certification") ( emphasis in original). 
The Petitioner's labor certification states the offered job's primary educational requirements as a U.S. 
master's degree, or a foreign equivalent degree, in management science, statistics, mathematics, 
marketing analytics, "or a related field." The job also requires one year of experience in business 
analysis, business intelligence engineering, data engineering, or data mining. The labor certification 
further states the company's acceptance of an alternate combination of education and experience: a 
bachelor's degree and three years' experience. 1 The Beneficiary's experience is not at issue. 
1 Part H.14 of the labor certification - "Specific skills or other requirements" - further describes the type of experience 
needed to meet both the primary and alternate job requirements. 
2 
On the labor certification, the Beneficiary attested that, by the petition's priority date, a U.S. university 
awarded her a master's degree in environmental health sciences. The Petitioner submitted copies of 
her 2019 diploma and university transcript. 
The Director found insufficient evidence of the Beneficiary's claimed qualifying education for the 
offered job. The Director stated: "The [Beneficiary's] master's degree in Environmental Health 
Sciences is not related to the Management, Math, Statistics or Marketing realm of acceptable fields of 
study listed [on] the Labor Certificat[ ion]." 
As the Petitioner argues on appeal, however, the Director overlooked materials in the company's 
response to the Director's request for additional evidence (RFE). A letter from the Beneficiary's 
supervisor discusses the offered job's duties and how the Beneficiary's graduate courses in 
environmental health sciences provided her knowledge and skills needed to perform the job's tasks. 
For example, the letter states that her courses in "Introduction to Biostatistics," "Data Management & 
Statistical Computing," and "Principles of Epidemiology" taught her data analysis programming, 
statistical concepts, and how to design statistical experiments and identify key performance indicators 
(KPis). The supervisor stated that the Beneficiary needs these skills to develop and implement KPis 
and model automated reporting/process solutions in the offered job. 
The Petitioner's RFE response also included an expert opinion letter from a U.S. associate professor 
of mathematics/director of graduate programs. He further described how the Beneficiary's graduate 
coursework in environmental health sciences prepared her for the offered job. For example, the letter 
notes her completion of the course "Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS)," in which 
she developed database knowledge and skills. The course involved using GIS platforms to track 
environmental health concerns, such as disease outbreaks and the spreading of tainted food and 
contaminated soil. The Petitioner does not generally monitor such matters. But it uses GIS platforms 
to track its delivery routes and times. The letter states that the course taught the Beneficiary how to 
collect and input spatial data, manage them, and create automated data dashboards and reporting tools. 
The letter states: "Having studied data dashboard and visualization methods and best practices, [the 
Beneficiary] will be able to create automated data visual tools tailored to the needs of [the Petitioner], 
one of her primary duties as a Business Analyst." 
The associate professor concluded that the Beneficiary's: 
master degree program in Environmental Health Sciences at [her university] may be 
seen as being closely related, in terms of course and content overlap, to master's-level 
programs in Statistics and Mathematics. Common to her program as well as programs 
in Statistics and Mathematics was an intensive focus upon the development of 
knowledge in data collection, management, analysis, and reporting methods and best­
practices. She also developed computer database and statistical programming skills. 
Most notably, her coursework is closely related to that completed by students majoring 
in Statistics and Mathematics. 2 
2 Because we find that the Beneficiary's graduate field of environmental health sciences relates to statistics, we need not 
consider whether her discipline also links to math. See INS v. Bagamasbad, 429 U.S. 24, 25 ( 1976) (stating that agencies 
need not make "purely advisory findings" on issues unnecessary to their ultimate decisions). 
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We also note that the labor certification shows DOL's classification of the offered job under the 
occupational category of "statistician." This classification further suggests a relationship between the 
Beneficiary's academic field of environmental health sciences and the job's accepted degree discipline 
of statistics. 
III. CONCLUSION 
A preponderance of the evidence demonstrates that the Beneficiary's graduate field of environmental 
health sciences relates to the offer job's acceptable degree discipline of statistics. Thus, the 
Beneficiary met the job's educational requirements. We will therefore withdraw the Director's 
contrary finding. 
ORDER: The appeal is sustained. 
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