On April 11^th, 2016, we received another EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) approval for a Mechanical Engineer in the Field of Mechanical Engineering (Approval Notice).

General Field: Mechanical Engineering

Position at the Time of Case Filing: Mechanical Engineer

Country of Origin: India

Service Center: Texas Service Center (TSC)

State of Residence at the Time of Filing: Texas

Approval Notice Date: April 11^th, 2016

Processing Time: 1 month, 13 days

Case Summary:

Only 1.5 months after we filed an EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) petition on our client’s behalf, Texas Service Center approved his case. We are thrilled that our client received notification of case approval in such a short time (on average, it takes between 4-9 months). Our client, a mechanical engineer from India, had solid credentials to qualify for the national interest waiver, and North America Immigration Law Group did everything it could to persuade the USCIS of the fact.

Submitting a strong EB-2 NIW petition:

Not every petitioner qualifies for EB-2 NIW, and we had to prove to the USCIS that our client’s petition deserved to be approved. To support his case, his petition packet contained data on his doctoral degree, the 51 citations to his work in the field of mechanical engineering, his 6 journals articles, and his 2 conference papers. Additionally, it was also composed of six recommendation letters provided by other well-known mechanical engineers. These professionals agreed to advocate for the approval of our client’s EB-2 NIW petition by signing strong testimonials describing the significance of his work to the United States as well as to other members of the scientific community. According to one of these recommenders—a professor and associate dean—our client’s skills “… are far above those of many others in the mechanical engineering field, setting him apart from other individuals. Time and again, he has used these unique skills to produce work that has been and will continue to serve the nation’s industries, to the benefit of millions.”

Significance of a current priority date:

Although our client obtained an EB-2 NIW petition approval, he cannot take the last step towards a green card: filing an I-485 application. This is because his priority date is not current, meaning he has to wait for it to become current before he can submit an I-485 application. Unfortunately, this will likely take several years. Our client may now choose to wait for this to happen or amass stronger credentials and file another I-140 petition under EB-1A (Alien of Extraordinary Ability) or EB-1B (Outstanding Professors and Researchers). The thing about these EB-1 visa categories is that unless there are special circumstances, there are usually no priority date restrictions in place. When the time comes for either, we look forward to helping our client once again. Till then, we wish him well as he continues his important work on heat transfer, fuel combustion studies, and chemical reaction kinetics to benefit the United States military, economy, and energy and transportation industries.