Interim Decision #2850 

MATTER OF SHEIKH 

In Visa Petition Proceedings 

A-22718086 

Decided by the Regional Commissioner November 24, 1980 

(I) Where an employment position does not require that the employee be a physician or 

perform medical services within the meaning of section 212(a)(32) of the Act, an alien 

physician need not take the visa qualifying examination to qualify as a beneficiary for 

labor certification in such position. 

(2) The position of professor of environmental epidemiology is not an occupation limited 

to physicians end rinen not involve the performance of services in the medical profession within the meaning of section 212(a)(32) of the Act. 

ON BEHALF OF PETITION= Alice Davis Irani, Esquire 

111 S. Fourth Avenue 

Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104 

This matter is before me on appeal front the District Director's 

decision of July 31,1980, denying the petition to classify the beneficiary 

as a professor of environmental epidemiology under section 203(a)(3) 

of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended. The appeal will 

be sustained. 

The petitioner is a department of epidemiology within the School of 

Public Health of the state university system in Michigan. The beneficiary is a native of Pakistan and citizen of Great Britain who is a medical 

doctor and has an extensive background in the field of epidemiology. 

The petitioner seeks to employ the beneficiary as an assistant professor of environmental epidemiology primarily in order to develop and 

teach this new interdepartmental program which involves the study of 

how environmental hazards (both inside and outside the workplace) 

impact upon health. He would be engaged in some research in this area 

as well. The minimum requirements for this position, as stated in the 

approved labor certification, consist of an M.D. degree and/or Ph.D. or 

Dr. P.H. (Public Health) degree. 

Section Z12(a)(32) of the Act, in part, mandates excludability and 

precludes approval of third or sixth preference visa petitions on behalf 

of aliens who are graduates of medical schools (unaccredited by the 

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Commissioner of Education) and are coming to the United States 

principally to perform services as members of the medical profession 

unless they have passed the visa qualifying examination (V.Q.E.). The 

beneficiary is a physician and has not passed the V.Q.E. With this in 

mind, the District Director then referred to a dictionary definition 

describing epidemiology as "a branch of medical science that deals 

with the incidence, distribution and control of disease in a population." 

He also cited the Federal Register, Vol. 42, No. 13 (January 19, 1977), 

which states the Service interpretation that Congress intended that 

foreign medical school graduates coming not only to practice as physicians but also to engage in teaching or research in the medical field fall 

within the terms of section 212(a)(32), excluding those aliens coming 

"principally to perform services as members of the medical profession." From this, the District Director concluded that this job constitutes performance of services principally in the medical profession and 

he therefore denied the petition. 

I have carefully reviewed the entire record and find that this position 

as professor of environmental epidemiology may not properly be 

characterized as principally involving the performance of services in 

the medical profession. The District Director's conclusion to the contrary seems based in large part upon the incomplete and therefore 

misleading dictionary definition of epidemiology. A better definition is 

found in Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary (24th ed., 1965) 

which identifies epidemiology as "the field of science dealing with the 

relationships of the various factors which determine the frequencies 

and distributions of an infectious process, a disease, or a physiological 

state in a human community." (Emphasis supplied.) Thus, this field is 

not per se in the medical profession but rather is more closely related 

to statistics or biostatistics. The petitioner is not a part of the university medical school and awards no medical degree but offers degrees of 

Master and Doctor of Public Health, Master of Science, and Doctor of 

Philosophy. Approximately half of the petitioner's faculty members, 

including the school's dean, are not medical doctors. The position 

which the beneficiary will occupy involves an interdisciplinary program offered jointly by the petitioner and the Departments of Environmental and Industrial Health, and Biostatistics. Significantly, an 

M.D. degree is not a mandatory prerequisite for qualification as an 

epidemiologist nor for this particular position. The beneficiary will not 

need to obtain licensure as a physician in the United States in order to 

perform these services. 

Based upon the foregoing, it is clear that the position of professor of 

environmental epidemiology is not strictly an occupation for physicians and does not involve the performance of services in the medical 

profession within the meaning of section 212(a)(32) of the Act. Ines6S5 
Interim Decision #2850 

much as the beneficiary meets the requirements of the approved labor 

certification, the petition yin be approved. 

ORDER: The appeal sustained and petition approved. 

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