Success Stories: Transportation Engineer Associate from Iran in the Field of Civil Engineering Receives NIW Petition Approval
Client’s Testimonial:
“I am really satisfied with the service. Despite the fact that the security background check and USCIS administrative tasks took longer than expected, the Chen Immigration group helped me immensely with this process. They were respectful and responsible through my application process.”
On March 29th, 2016, we received another EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) approval for a Transportation Engineer Associate in the Field of Civil Engineering (Approval Notice).
General Field: Civil Engineering
Position at the Time of Case Filing: Transportation Engineer Associate
Country of Origin: Iran
Service Center: Nebraska Service Center (NSC)
State of Residence at the Time of Filing: Oregon
Approval Notice Date: March 29th, 2016
Processing Time: 15 months, 19 days
Nearly 16 months after North America Immigration Law Group (WeGreened.com) filed an EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) petition on our client’s behalf, the USCIS finally granted their approval. We traveled on a long and bumpy road to reach this point, but we are pleased that our client has surpassed a significant hurdle in the green card journey.
EB-2 NIW Petition Dossier:
Our client, a transportation engineer associate from Iran, had the necessary credentials to file his I-140 petition under the EB-2 NIW visa category. We documented his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, the 27 citations to his work, his 3 journal articles, his 6 conference proceedings, and his numerous conference papers. We also listed our client’s peer review experience and proved that his insights are greatly valued by other experts in the field of civil engineering. As with all our cases, we helped our client select several recommenders who could support his EB-2 NIW petition. After we shortlisted the candidates, we urged our client to contact them and ask for recommendation letters. Our client returned with six signed letters, all of which paid homage to the significance of the data mining methodology that he had developed. One of his recommenders wrote, “This type of recognition demonstrates how [Client’s] research has become a very useful part of the improvement of transportation systems in the United States. Having the tools to better understand how issues such as weather and incident events affect travel performance measures enables the transportation system industry to provide safer and better facilities and management for commuters and freighters all around the US, and, by extension, the world.”
Extended Adjudication:
Here is a brief breakdown explaining some of the things that happened while our client waited for his EB-2 NIW petition to be approved:
- His case was transferred twice—from Nebraska Service Center to Texas Service Center, and back again.
- We raised a service request when our client’s petition was pending beyond the USCIS’s posted processing times. They responded saying that pending security checks remained.
- We provided our client with the congressperson approach. In this instance, he contacted his congressperson to inquire about the status of his pending EB-2 NIW petition.
- We raised another service request on our client’s behalf, and similar to the previous time, the USCIS responded saying that they were conducting security checks.
- Over four months after the USCIS responded to our second service request, they ultimately granted their approval.
We are glad that the USCIS approved our client’s EB-2 NIW petition. Because our client chose to file I-485 applications for himself and his wife while his NIW petition was pending approval, they are currently awaiting a favorable decision from the USCIS regarding their applications. As this is the final step in the green card process, they will receive their green cards once the USCIS approves their I-485 applications. We join them as they await a favorable decision.