On January 5^th, 2017, we received another EB-1A (Alien of Extraordinary Ability) approval for a Petitioner in the Field of Environmental Science (Approval Notice).

General Field: Environmental Science

Country of Origin: China

Service Center: Nebraska Service Center (NSC)

Approval Notice Date: January 5^th, 2017

Processing Time: 27 Days (Premium Processing Requested)

Case Summary:

Not long ago, North America Immigration Law Group (NAILG) filed an EB-1A (Alien of Extraordinary Ability) petition on behalf of an environmental scientist from China. Less than 2 weeks after filing, our client chose to upgrade his case to Premium Processing (PP). PP is an add-on service offered by the USCIS that allows petitioners to have action taken on their cases within 15 days instead of 4-9 months. True to their word, the USCIS finished processing our client’s EB1A petition 11 days after the upgrade. Armed with an approved EB-1A petition, our client is now one big step closer to accomplishing his goal of obtaining a green card (all that stands in his way is the I-485 application).

Securing EB-1A approval:

It is no secret that EB-1A is one of the toughest visa categories to obtain approval. Petitioners must prove that their work benefits the United States and that not many others can say the same. Despite our client’s impressive credentials, he needed our expert help to present his achievements to the USCIS in a clear and concise manner. These are the key points we chose to focus on:

1. We detailed our client’s peer review experience (50 reviews conducted for various scientific journals) and demonstrated that only the most respected researchers in their fields are invited to judge the work of others.
2. Using Google Scholar, we confirmed that our client’s 32 published articles had amassed 732 citations at the time of filing. These citations were made by independent and dependent researchers, all of whom are working to advance the very important field of environmental science.
3. Thanks to the detailed research summary which our client provided us so that we could better understand his research efforts, we were able to determine that his work on the characterization of vehicle tailpipe emissions and the estimation of vehicular emission inventories is of particular importance to the US. In a nutshell, we proved to the USCIS that our client’s research addresses some of our nation’s most pressing issues in understanding optimal carbon pollution abatement strategies, which impact energy policy.
4. To bolster our client’s case, we also presented 7 recommendation letters signed by other experts in the field. According to one of them: “[Client] is one of the very few people who has demonstrated such versatile, yet integrated expertise in the field. […] I am confident in concluding that [Client] is one of the top scientists involved in the assessment of transportation fuel and vehicle systems for energy and the environment.”

We congratulate our client for securing a highly sought-after EB-1A petition approval and thank him for trusting us to help him get it. Our client will now file an I-485 application with the help of the complimentary D.I.Y Packet which we offer to clients who retained us for their I-140 petitions. We wish him the best with this and look forward to updates.