Compare professional qualifications

[Werniman 0]

Hello,
There are academic and non-academic professions. If you work here in Germany in a non-academic profession (for example, as a hairdresser, as a plumber, as a mason), you need in some professions a special qualification to be allowed to open your own company. This is called a master craftsman. This "master" has nothing to do with an academic master, but is legally equated with a bachelor's degree.

If you apply for a green card in the category EB3, you have the choice between 2 versions: professional worker and skilled worker. Professionals must hold a U.S. bachelor degree or equivalent is usually required for the profession. Education and experience may not be substituted for the degree.

Would the USCIS accept a master craftsman title as a replacement for a US undergraduate degree if the master craftsman title in Germany is equivalent to a bachelor's degree?

In other words:
Master craftsman in Germany = German bachelor.
German Bachelor = US Bachelor.
But: Is a master craftsman in Germany = US bachelor?

[randomstairs 266]

Why are you so focused on the degrees? The EB3 doesn't require one. You should be able to demonstrate your skill and your employer will have to sponsor you. That's it.  

[Caro1 78]

A master craftsman IS NOT EQUAL to a German Bachelor. It is ranked equally, but it is not equal.

In German, it is gleichwertig, but not gleichartig. (valued equally, but not of the same kind)

For example, a master craftsman does not give you the right to get a masters degree nor are you allowed to call yourself a bachelor.

[Werniman 0]

11 hours ago, randomstairs said:

Why are you so focused on the degrees? The EB3 doesn't require one. You should be able to demonstrate your skill and your employer will have to sponsor you. That's it.  

 

In Germany, the education system is structured in most cases:
a) One goes 9-10 years to school and then changes for another 3.5 years to a vocational school. This concerns non-academic professions. If you want, you can later visit another school, which ends with the title "master craftsman". In some professions, this title is required to open your own company.

b) You go to school for 12-13 years and then go to college or university. These can then be completed after 3 years with a Bachelor or after 5 years with a Master's degree (academic professions).

In Germany master craftsmen and Bachelor since 2013 legally equivalent. However, a master craftsman may not say that he has a bachelor's degree.

Why am I writing this? Well, our old lawyer has done what she thought was right throughout the green card process. But she knew that my wife does not have a bachelors degree.  The communication between the company and her was very poor. As we found out much too late, she has been trying all the time to apply for a greencard as a professional worker. For a professional worker, USCIS requires a US Bachelor or equivalent foreign degree.  
The problem: In the H1B process, you can compensate for a missing bachelors degree by having enough work experience. But this is not possible with green card applications, so "professional worker" is the wrong category. To make matters worse, the working evaluation certification states that the education + work experience of my wife corresponds to the skills of a bachelor. The result: we got an RFE, the USCIS wants a proof that my wife really has a Bachelor's degree.

The boss of my wife now had the idea that she could now simply train to become a master craftsman. He believes that the legal equality to the German Bachelor's degree makes it possible to equate the master craftsman with a US Bachelor.

Meanwhile, my wife has found out that this is not possible. The reason is the duration of the study. In Germany, you get the bachelor's degree after 3 years of study, in the US after 4 years. This means that a German bachelor's degree is not accepted by the US as equivalent to a US Bachelor's degree. It does not matter which other qualifications in Germany are equated with a German Bachelor's degree, because the German Bachelor's degree is not accepted in the USA.