EB2 eligibility

[macman]

Hello All -- I finished my bachelors in India in 2005 and came here to the USA for my masters in 2006. Since graduating in 2009 I have been working for the same company (Its been 5+ years). I was recruited as a software developer for full time but was hired initially as an intern on CPT since they wanted me in ASAP before my graduation date. I then went straight to H1B after about 3 months bypassing the  OPT and officially became a full time employee. I did graduate soon after that. They in my company are filing my green card now and they aren't sure if I am eligible for EB2 since I did not complete the masters degree when I joined my company initially as an intern(I did complete my masters 4 months after joining).

Could somebody please help me out in figuring out if I am still eligible to file the green card in Eb2 status ? Thanks in advance.

PS: I did switch teams twice in my company and was promoted once. The last switch I made was in June this year and this position requires a lot of experience that I have gained until now.

[JoeF]

It is likely that you would get into problems with EB2. The job has to require a Masters degree, and the person had to have the degree when starting the job. Internal promotions generally do not change that, because otherwise, an external candidate who didn't have the chance to show his value to the company and get promoted would be disadvantaged.

 

You are also likely to get into problems for abuse of CPT. CPT is only for work as integral part of the curriculum, whereas you used it to work in an arbitrary job, which clearly wasn't part of the curriculum.

[macman]

Thanks for the help, but could I not use my 5+ years of experience that I have gained in the same company and my bachelors degree and still qualify for EB2 ?

[JoeF]

Thanks for the help, but could I not use my 5+ years of experience that I have gained in the same company and my bachelors degree and still qualify for EB2 ?

 

Experience gained in the same company generally doesn't count for a GC, unless the GC job is at least 50% different from the current job.

It is the same reasoning: an external candidate would be disadvantaged because he doesn't have the experience in the company.