How We at Chen Immigration Law Associates Draft Reference/Recommendation Letters for Clients

Posted by wegreened on in EB1 Green Card
by Chen Immigration Law Associates  04/10/2012 Reference letters are important since they serve as crucial evidence for the meeting the necessary criteria. They can be used to demonstrate or confirm the significance of the applicant’s work and the recognition of their achievements. Therefore, we at Chen Immigration Law Associates draft reference letters for clients to help them build up their credentials and strengthen their cases. First of all, after retaining us, clients will have a detailed Read more [...]

Cases Denied due to USCIS Administrative Errors No Longer Need to File Motion to Reopen but Only Need to Make Service Requests

Posted by wegreened on in EB1 Green Card
by Chen Immigration Law Associates   04/05/2010 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has established an expedited process for reviewing and correcting decisions resulting from certain administrative errors. This process enables customers to request an expedited review of their case and correction of the decision where data entry and/or an administrative error resulted in a denial or rejection of their petition or application. A customer or his or her authorized representative Read more [...]

Can I still apply for EB-2 National Interest Waiver if I have a minimal citation record and no scientific or scholarly articles? – Key Strategies for Petition Approval

Posted by wegreened on in NIW
Victoria Chen, J.D., Esq. -   What if I have no scholarly publications, no citations, and no major academic contributions to the field of endeavor; can I still apply for an EB-1 or EB-2 visa?           This is a frequently occurring question we at Chen Immigration Law Associates get from potential clients planning to apply for first- and second-preference employment-based visas.  The answer is “YES.” There are many foreign nationals who apply lacking the above credentials, Read more [...]

EB-1 Evidentiary Criteria: Claiming the “Major Media” Criterion (Do NewsRx articles Qualify?)

Posted by wegreened on in EB1 Green Card
Victoria Chen, J.D., Esq. “Major Media” criterion:  “Published material about the alien in professional or major trade publications or other major media relating to the alien’s work in the field for which classification is sought.” EB-1 categories have consistently had a very high standard of law, especially EB1A Alien of Extraordinary Ability and therefore we at Chen Immigration Law Associates have always evaluated all the credentials of our clients carefully before we claim any evidentiary Read more [...]

USCIS Reverts to Original I-797 Receipt and Approval Mailing Practice

Posted by wegreened on in EB1 Green Card
by Chen Immigration Law Associates, 03/05/2012 On September 12, 2011, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) undertook changes in policy for mailing original I-797 receipt and approval notices. The USCIS, which is a branch of the Department of Homeland Security, began sending original I-797 receipt and approval notices directly to petitioners and applicants, rather than to their attorneys or accredited representatives. Due to public feedback and opinions by USCIS stakeholders, Read more [...]

Ombudsman Raises Concerns and Makes Official Recommendations to the USCIS after the I-140 Memo Regarding EB-1A, EB-1B and EB-2

Posted by wegreened on in EB1 Green Card
by Victoria Chen, Esq., J.D.  01/20/2012 On December 22, 2010, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a statement that applies a Ninth Circuit decision, Poghos Kazarian v. US Citizenship and Immigration Services, to policy regarding certain employment-based petitions files for individuals with extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, and exceptional ability professionals. This I-140 policy memorandum provides for a two-part test to determine eligibility: 1. Read more [...]

February 2012 Visa Bulletin: Cut-off date for people born in India and China will Jump to Jan/2010

Posted by wegreened on in Uncategorized
Victoria Chen, J.D., Esq.   The January Visa Bulletin shows that the cut-off dates for the India and China Employment-Based, second preference (EB-2) category rapidly moved forward by “nearly 10 months, to January 1, 2009.  Now, Chen Immigration Law Associates wants to share the good news of a further advancement in the cut-off date.  The February 2012 Visa Bulletin reports that the cut-off date for those born in India and China applying under EB-2 is now January 1, 2010.   What Read more [...]

Case Study: Appeal Sustained and Petition Approved by AAO on a NIW petition which held that the number of citations, by itself, does not appear to be sufficient to establish eligibility, but the petition does not rest solely on those citations

Posted by wegreened on in Uncategorized
Background: The petitioner is a member of the professions holding an advanced degree. The petitioner is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSMC), Dallas. The petitioner asserts that an exemption from the requirement of a job offer, and thus of a labor certification, is in the national interest of the United States. The director found that the petitioner qualifies for classification as a member of the professions holding an advanced degree but that Read more [...]

Case Study: Appeal Sustained and Petition Approved by AAO on a NIW petition where the AAO has not designated any arbitrary number of independent citations as the cutoff point for waiver eligibility

Posted by wegreened on in Uncategorized
Background:  The petitioner was about to begin a postdoctoral research position at the University of Texas at Austin (UTA). The petitioner asserts that an exemption from the requirement of a job offer, and thus of a labor certification, is in the national interest of the United States. The director found that the petitioner qualifies for classification as a member of the professions holding an advanced degree but that the petitioner had not established that an exemption from the requirement Read more [...]

Case Study: Appeal Sustained and Petition Approved by AAO on a NIW petition for an Alien with little citations but high download number

Posted by wegreened on in Uncategorized0 Comment
Background: The petitioner seeks classification pursuant to section 203(b)(2) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (the Act), 8 U.S.C. s 1153(b)(2), as a member of the professions holding an advanced degree. At the time she filed the petition on March 30, 2007, the petitioner was a doctoral student and graduate research assistant at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. The petitioner received her Ph.D. on August 15, 2007, and subsequently undertook postdoctoral training Read more [...]