Success Stories: Nebraska Service Center Approves EB-1A Petition for Postdoctoral Fellow in California in the Field of Biology
Client’s Testimonial:
“That's great news […] Also, thanks for your great work [in making] this happen! I will definitely share my great experience with North America Immigration Law Group…”
On March 22nd, 2016, we received another EB-1A (Alien of Extraordinary Ability) approval for a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Field of Biology (Approval Notice).
General Field: Biology
Position at the Time of Case Filing: Postdoctoral Fellow
Country of Origin: China
Service Center: Nebraska Service Center (NSC)
State of Residence at the Time of Filing: California
Approval Notice Date: March 22nd, 2016
Processing Time: 2 months, 17 days (Premium Processing Requested)
A postdoctoral fellow from China hired North America Immigration Law Group (WeGreened.com) to file an EB-1A (Alien of Extraordinary Ability) petition on his behalf. Once we had compiled everything we needed, we submitted the carefully prepared EB-1A petition under Premium Processing.
Premium Processing:
So what exactly is Premium Processing (PP)? It is a paid option offered by the USCIS for certain EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3 visa categories (EB-1A is one of them). By paying an additional $1,225 to the USCIS, petitioners can enjoy rapid adjudication: action will be taken within 15 days whereas petitioners who opt out of/do not qualify for PP have to wait between 4-9 months. Petitioners may elect to file their case under PP either from the get-go, or any time during the adjudication process. In this case, our client initially decided to forgo PP but changed his mind a little over two months later. After the USCIS received our request for PP service (Form I-907) and the associated fee, his case was immediately upgraded to PP. Our client only waited 12 days after the upgrade for an approval notice.
Compelling EB-1A Case:
Although PP was largely responsible for rapid adjudication, we have no doubt that our meticulously prepared petition detailing our client’s impressive credentials paved the way for petition approval. Here are some of the key pieces of information that our petition focused on:
- Publication Record: When we filed the case, our client had published 14 peer-reviewed scientific articles, 3 book chapters, and at least 20 conference presentations.
- Citation Evidence: Using Google Scholar and other references akin to it, we determined that our client’s work had collected 130 citations when we filed the case.
- Peer Review Involvement: Our client had assessed the work of his peers over two dozen times for approximately 10 scientific journals. As journals only invite leading researchers to conduct peer reviews, our client’s outstanding record highlighted the value of his opinions.
- Independent and Dependent Support: We prompted our client to reach out to other experts in his field of biology. We needed him to persuade them to furnish us with strong recommendation letters to bolster our EB-1A petition. To our delight, our client returned with six recommendation letters, all of which confirmed the value of his research to the United States; his approaches on early diagnosis and treatment of diseases and disorders, including cancer, diabetes, and inflammation greatly advance the country’s medical sector. One of his recommenders stated that “[Client’s] past achievements, as reflected by his extensive publication and citation record, have been outstanding. It can only be expected that [Client] will continue to be influential in his field and the global community of health science researchers. It is for these reasons that he should be allowed to remain in the United States, where he has access to the best tools to further his research.”