On April 25^th, 2016, we received another EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) approval for a Postdoctoral Associate in the Field of Mechanical Engineering (Approval Notice).

General Field: Mechanical Engineering

Position at the Time of Case Filing: Postdoctoral Associate

Country of Origin: Iran

Service Center: Texas Service Center (TSC)

State of Residence at the Time of Filing: Pennsylvania

Approval Notice Date: April 25^th, 2016

Processing Time: 13 months, 12 days

Case Summary:

An Iranian postdoctoral associate working in the field of mechanical engineering hired North America Immigration Law Group to file an EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) petition on his behalf. Our client, who is immersed in the field of mechanical engineering, is currently characterizing the properties of nanoscale materials with molecular modeling techniques and investigating nanoscale transport phenomena for a wide variety of commercial and industrial applications.

In order to prove to the USCIS that our client qualified for the national interest waiver, we had to demonstrate that he is a leader in the field and that his work is important to the United States. We did this by listing his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, his 10 publications that had gathered 99 citations, and the 8 times he conducted peer reviews for 5 scientific journals. We also demonstrated that his research findings contribute to the United States economy, environmental objectives, alternative energy transition, health care industry, manufacturing, and commercial sector, as well as ongoing nanoscale heat transfer and fluid flow research efforts in his interdisciplinary field.

Although we already had enough information to present a strong EB-2 NIW petition to the USCIS, we wanted to be sure that it was bulletproof. We urged our client to contact other experts in the field of mechanical engineering and ask them to sign recommendation letters. Our client persuaded five of his peers to advocate for his EB-2 NIW approval, one of whom stated: “An asset to any investigative team of which he is part, [Client] comes equipped with a considerable knowledge base and a competency in research that make him a key member of the nanotechnology community through his efforts to develop safer, more reliable products and establishments, whether buildings and transportation methods or energy storehouses and converters. [Client’s] ability to bring unconventional findings to this field renders him a standout achiever in translational science and its offerings to the social, environmental, and economic world.”

The road to EB-2 NIW petition approval was a bumpy one: the USCIS spent more than 13 months adjudicating our client’s case (the average processing time is between 4-9 months). After our client’s case was considered outside the normal processing time, we raised a service request on his behalf to enquire about the status of the case. We also advised our client to contact his congressperson. We are pleased that the USCIS ultimately granted their approval, propelling our client significantly closer to green card success. We congratulate him on this milestone and wish him well with his continued research efforts.