On April 22^nd, 2016, we received another EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) approval for a Senior Hardware Development Engineer in the Field of Electrical Engineering (Approval Notice).

General Field: Electrical Engineering

Position at the Time of Case Filing: Senior RF Engineer

Country of Origin: Iran

Service Center: Nebraska Service Center (NSC)

State of Residence at the Time of Filing: Minnesota

Approval Notice Date: April 22^nd, 2016

Processing Time: 16 months, 3 days

Case Summary:

A couple years ago, a senior RF engineer from Iran approached North America Immigration Law Group (WeGreened.com) to help him and his spouse obtain green cards. Despite his strong credentials, the USCIS spent 16 months and 3 days reviewing his EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) petition before granting their approval. His petition was transferred twice and we raised a couple of service requests and one Ombudsman inquiry after the average processing time went beyond the norm. Our client also contacted his congressperson as well as the White House to find out more about the status of his case. The USCIS finally approved his EB-2 NIW petition and our client is now waiting for them to take action on his and his wife’s I-485 applications (which they filed while his EB-2 NIW was pending approval).

Building an EB-2 NIW petition:

With a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and years of experience working in the same field, our client had strong credentials to qualify for the EB-2 NIW visa category. In building a strong case for our client, here are some of the details that we included in his petition packet.

1. Citation Count: Using Google Scholar and other relevant websites, we confirmed that our client’s work had gathered 213 citations when we filed the case. This impressive figure proved that our client’s findings are being used by other researchers working in the field.
2. Publication Record: The many years that our client spent researching led to the publication of 9 scientific articles, all of which were well-received by the scientific community.
3. Research Results: Our client’s research efforts are focused specifically on improving telecommunications capacities. They have directly contributed to bettering wireless communications technology in the United States. Additionally, his pioneering research in more efficient, powerful, and smaller communications systems are contributing to America’s economic wellbeing across a wide spectrum of industries, from commercial telecommunications applications to the military.
4. External Support: To make our client’s EB-2 NIW petition even stronger, we encouraged him to contact a handful of his peers for recommendation letters. Before contacting them, we helped him decide who would make the best recommenders; we made sure that the shortlisted candidates were familiar with his work either through his publications and/or they had worked with him. Our client returned with six signed recommendation letters, one of which stated that “[Client] represents one of the most innovative and talented minds behind these developments, and the United States would be remiss to deprive him of his continued stay.” Another expert wrote, “The advancement of science and technology for both military and commercial applications in the United States would be greatly aided and continue to benefit from his technical contributions.”

Our client waited a long time to have his EB-2 NIW petition approved, and we are glad that it finally happened. We congratulate him on this milestone and join him as he waits for more good news from the USCIS.