In the Matter of Sun

Board of Immigration AppealsDec 16, 1966
12 I&N Dec. 535 (B.I.A. 1966)

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A-11744231.

Decided by District Director December 16, 1966.

Beneficiary, who has a bachelor's degree with a major in hotel management and has approximately 3 years' experience in hotel management and related fields, is a member of the professions within the meaning of section 101(a)(32) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, and is eligibile for preference classification under section 203(a)(3) of the Act, as amended, as a hotel manager.


DISCUSSION: The petition was filed to accord the beneficiary a third preference classification as a member of the professions based upon his qualifications as a hotel manager. The beneficiary is a male, single British subject and citizen of the United Kingdom. He was born in Hong Kong, British Crown Colony, March 17, 1941.

On June 10, 1963 he graduated from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York and was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree. His transcript reveals that he majored in hotel management with food preparation and food and beverage control and merchandising an important part of the curriculum. He has been employed as the Assistant Manager and Manager from October 1963 to October 1965 at the Grand Hotel, Kowloon, Hong Kong, and as Food and Beverage Manager from October 1965 to July 1966 at the Ambassador Hotel, Taipei, Taiwan. He is presently employed as a Director, Food and Beverage at the Jack Tar Hotel, Galveston, Texas. The beneficiary intends to engage in a field related to his profession of hotel manager in the United States.

A certification pursuant to section 212(a)(14) of the Act, as amended, has been issued by the Department of Labor.

Hotel managers are listed under professional, technical and managerial occupations code 187.118 in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, Volume 1, third edition, prepared by the United States Department of Labor. A hotel manager manages a hotel to insure efficient and profitable operation, establishes standards in matters concerning personnel administration and performance, service to patrons, room rates, and type of patronage to be solicited. He allocates funds, authorizes expenditures, and assists in planning budgets for departments. He delegates authority and assigns responsibility to department heads. In small hotels, he processes reservations and adjusts guests' complaints. Beneficiary has successfully completed college courses in accounting, business law, personnel administration, restaurant management, hotel supervisory training, quantity food preparation, hotel structure and maintenance, special hotel equipment, basic hotel accounting, and other technical, special courses relating to hotel management.

The vocations included in the term "profession" encompass constantly expanding areas of activity consistent with the greater knowledge and specialized training a highly industrialized society demands. In addition to various scientific fields, highly specialized activities in business administration, finance, management, and the like require training gained only by an extended course of specialized instruction and study of at least the baccalaureate level. The term "profession" originally contemplated only theology, law and medicine. However, as applications of science and learning were extended to other areas of human endeavor, other vocations were included in that term, which implies professed attainments in special knowledge as distinguished from mere skill. It is concluded that the vocation of hotel manager in its more complex form involving the duties described above for a large hotel may be considered as a profession. It is also concluded that the beneficiary, by virtue of his specialized high-level education in the field of hotel management and his experience in that field is qualified as a member of that profession.

Under section 203(a)(3) third preference status may be accorded to qualified immigrants who are members of the professions.

Accordingly, the petition will be approved.

ORDER: It is ordered that the petition be and the same is hereby approved.