U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has issued policy guidance (PDF, 321.14 KB) in the USCIS Policy Manual to add the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) definition of "science or art" with respect to Schedule A, Group II cases.

For many employment-based second and third preference (EB-2 and EB-3) petitions, employers must obtain a certification of employment status from DOL prior to filing Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, with USCIS. For certain occupations referred to as Schedule A occupations, DOL has predetermined that there are not enough U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified and available. For these occupations, employers send the labor condition certification directly to USCIS, without going through DOL review. Currently, DOL has designated two groups of occupations in Schedule A: registered nurses and physical therapists (Group I), and beneficiaries with exceptional ability in the sciences or arts (except performing arts) and beneficiaries with exceptional ability in the performing arts (Group II). 

Because USCIS considers DOL regulations when adjudicating petitions based on Annex A occupations, we have now added a reference to the DOL's statutory definition of "science or art" in our policy to be consistent with the DOL as it relates to Group II. In designating Annex A, Group II, the DOL defines science or art as "any field of knowledge or skill with respect to which colleges and universities commonly offer specialized courses leading to a degree in the knowledge or skill." We made an additional update to explain that, as with all awards, we review both the quantity and quality of the evidence provided.

This guidance, contained in Volume 6 of the Policy Manual, is effective immediately upon publication. This update does not change the guidelines or operations. This is an update to incorporate the DOL definition into the USCIS Policy Manual.

For more information, please refer to Volume 6, Part E, Chapter 7 of the USCIS Policy Manual.

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