On March 11^th, 2017, we received another EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) approval for a Volunteer in the Field of Medicine (Approval Notice).

General Field: Medicine

Position at the Time of Case Filing: Volunteer

Country of Origin: Cameroon

Service Center: Nebraska Service Center (NSC)

State of Residence at the Time of Filing: New York

Approval Notice Date: March 11^th, 2017

Processing Time: 17 months, 9 days

Case Summary:

When a Cameroon-born health care volunteer working in New York approached our firm –– North America Immigration Law Group (NAILG) –– for assistance with filing both I-140 and I-485 petitions simultaneously, we carefully evaluated her credentials to assess her chances of approval. At first glance, it seemed like a challenging task to successfully secure EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) approval because our client’s research focus is trauma medicine, a tough field in which to gather a high publication and citation count. At the time of filing, our client had published 2 peer-reviewed journal articles which had garnered a total of 13 citations.

In spite of the aforementioned impediments, our team was convinced that we could build a solid case for our client and proceeded with countersigning the retainer agreement.

As the first step in building a convincing petition, we encouraged our client to collect recommendation letters from experts who were familiar with her work. Our client successfully secured 6 recommendation letters, 2 from dependent recommenders and 4 from independent experts. An excerpt from one of the letters provided by an assistant professor is as follows:

“[Client] has a unique ability to apply existing knowledge regarding biomedical engineering and clinical medical practices to refine clinical understanding supporting the development of more effective methods for trauma care.”

Undoubtedly, these recommendation letters laid a solid foundation for our client’s NIW petition as they supported the argument that our client’s work is important to the United States and that she is an asset to the nation.

We further demonstrated to the USCIS that our client’s research focuses specifically on blood transfusion, prehospital transportation, and acute intestinal ischemia. In a nutshell, we determined that her efforts to refine clinical practices for superior trauma care are of great importance to the United States’ medical industry and public health.

We carefully put together all the required documents for both the I-140 petition and I-485 application and mailed the packages to the USCIS. Nearly a year after filing, a Request for Evidence (RFE) was issued for the I-140 petition. Our team efficiently tackled this hurdle and sent a response within 2 months. Not long after, our client’s NIW petition was approved (it took exactly 17 months and 9 days from the date of filing). An RFE was also issued for her I-485 application and once again, our team promptly responded to it. Roughly 2.5 months after obtaining the national interest waiver, our client surpassed the final milestone in the journey towards permanent residency and was granted green card approval.

We congratulate her on this success and wish her the very best in her future endeavors here in the United States.