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Nearly every H-1B1 applicant qualifies the same way: by holding a degree in the field of the job. That expectation comes from the statutory definition itself. INA 214(i)(3) describes a specialty occupation for this category as one requiring the theoretical and practical application of a body of specialized knowledge and, as a minimum for entry into the occupation in the United States, a bachelor’s or higher degree in the specific specialty or its equivalent. Two occupations are treated as exceptions to that expectation.
The first is the disaster relief claims adjuster. A person entering to work in that occupation may qualify without a post-secondary degree in the specialty, on the strength of appropriate training and experience in disaster relief claims adjustment instead.
The second is the management consultant. Here the exception addresses a different problem. The applicant may hold a degree, but in a field other than the specialty in which the consulting work will be done. Alternative documentation of experience in that specialty area can be presented in place of a matching degree.
Both carve-outs should be read narrowly. They originate in the professional annex to the United States–Singapore Free Trade Agreement and are applied through the State Department’s consular guidance rather than appearing in the Immigration and Nationality Act or in the Department of Homeland Security regulations, and the precise alternative credentials a post will accept are set out in that guidance. Everything else about the classification is unchanged: the position must still be a specialty occupation, the employer must still obtain a certified labor condition application, and the applicant must still satisfy the consular officer that the stay will be temporary.
A separate route exists for applicants who simply lack a degree. Work experience can substitute for formal education under the equivalency rules, which apply to H-1B1 as they do to H-1B.