Got this from web. A guy tried to port from Sr.Support Engineer to Software
Engineer. He got this when he talked to his lawyer.
--My Lawyer says.
(1) If you are support Engineer then you do talk to customer, you install
the software at your end, you try to reproduce the problem, you go through
code, Do some Unix shell script/javascript etc.
So Basically you are using software/programming etc.
Now when you will become software Engineer, you will do the job of writing
the code/fixing bugs/designing /documentation etc.
Now as long as you play with software(either support or develop or do both)
they can defend this as AC21 portable.
They they say that generally at the time of sending the letter to USCIS
about AC21, they mix/match/mingle the old role (in the labor) and the new
role so it becomes difficult for USCIS to judge if they are not same/
similar
:-)
They say even that if you switch between Software Engineer/Software
Architect/Product Support Engineer/Database Admin/Database Programmer/QA
Testing Engineer etc they can easily defend you under AC21
However they say that they can not defend(or it will be difficult) if
(1) You change your role to Manager/Supervisor.
(2) You join IT department where they fix hardware.
(3) Of course if you go to other department HR/Marketing/Product Management/
Legal etc.
They also say that they have never heard of a case in which USCIS has
denied
I-485 on the basis of AC21 if it was in the Software industry.(Development/
QA/Support etc).So USCIS seems to be on easy for this topic unless
otherwise
People change to different indistry itself (Hardware/HR/Marketing/Legal etc
). Even he gave example that he has defended a case in which Software
engineer promoted to Manager (By showing 50 % role as of Software
Development/coding etc ).
He also said that as per USCIS Field Manual(Rule book) Officers are
instructed not to reject any AC21 case themselves unless they get
confirmation from headquarters that jobs are not similar. This may be one
of
the reason that they don't bother rejecting the case on AC21, as they don't
want to go in hassle of communicating with headquarter and approve the case
unless it is obvious different.
I am not sure if my lawyer is more than flexible or what ? May be different
for different lawyer .
