Help! Got an RFE on my EB-2 NIW application

[Highrise 0]

Okay, thank you. I plan to resubmit the evidence and some more evidence like grants, fellowships, a citation report, the awards including how many people are eligible to compete for the award, the frequency of the awards and the institution granting the awards as suggested in the RFE letter

[TBoneTX 45,303]

Let us know how it goes.

[Highrise 0]

Sure! Any other advice out there will be appreciated. Thanks everyone!

[AnneGG 1]

Hi,

I am a postdoc on J-1, and have been researching the EB2 NIW for a while now, and will soon start gathering materials. As far as I can see, your lawyer seems to be hugely optimistic about your wife's chances, given that she only has one publication (how many citations?). Maybe he/she is a great lawyer and can produce a compelling RFE, but it would have to be really good. I have 7 publications (4 first author), many conferences, got my own competitive fellowships, I have been reviewer for many journals, etc. and all the lawyers I talk to say I have a decent chance, but none of them seem to think that it would be trivial. I have been told repeatedly that the letters should be from people in my field who do not know me personally, but through my work, and they should be highlighting (like the other poster said) my achievements in the field. This is truly important, and that is why a good lawyer needs to vet letters carefully. You don't want letters saying that your wife is great and that she has potential. They should contain facts about her achievements, which seems to be harder in your case since she only has one publication.

Just my 2 cents. I wish you the best of luck.

[Highrise 0]

Hi AnneGG,

Thanks for your comments. She has 2 pubs now and some manuscripts in preparation. Her work was cited by two authors from the FDA and another public health organization. While i know that publications are very important, i know they consider the whole application based on its own merit. I know of someone with a Phd and 2 masters degree without any publication or citation who recently got approved in the health sciences. I am trying to gain some insight into how he presented his case but have not been able to reach him yet. I think the issue was the letters we sent in, and i feel we need to get very strong independent letters for the rebuttal in addition to the other documents they requested. Any other thoughts?Thanks

[AnneGG 1]

Hey,

yes, for sure there is a chance even if she has few publications. I was just relaying my own experience. Most of my friends who applied and got it were postdocs like me and had several publications, so I don't have any personal experience with an application like your wife's. When you look online, you definitely see many cases of people who were successful with little or no publications, but of course we don't know the statistics. For those cases, I think that you do need a great lawyer who is able to make a complete, compelling package, which will definitely include many independent letters that vouch for your wife's accomplishments. I think you are on the right track and know what to do, so let's cross our fingers everything goes well!

[randomstairs 303]

NIW cases are very counter-intuitive and it's best to seek advice from an attorney who specializes in them. I'm going through the process now and here are a few mistakes you seemed to have made (to my amateur understanding):

1) Too much evidence. You don't need that many letters. You need to minimize the number of letters, limiting them only to the specific claims in your petition letter. Three reasons for this are: a) The more letters you have the more holes they can "poke", the more potentially unsupported statements there are. b) many letter make it harder to find just the evidence that you refer to in your petition letter, and c) you look desperate with so many letters. 3-6 strong letters, directly supporting your claims will do. Also, the letters don't have to be from important or famous people. Best letters show that you helped to advance your field and those often come from new researchers, gard. students, post-docs, etc.

2) Citations. Citations are best evidence for the impact of your work. Your petition letter should be referring to specific citations where other researchers utilized your work. The value of citations depend on where they are used (best is Methods sections of peer-reviewed papers).

3) You have to make a case that your work is of national scope (not localized), outstanding (only present evidence that puts you in 10th percentile of citations, impact factors, etc) and that it is against the national interest for you to apply for labor certificate. So, again, only present evidence to support these 3 points and NOTHING else.

Best luck with your RFE or with new filing.

Edited March 16, 2016 by randomstairs

[Highrise 0]

Hi Randomstairs,

Thank you so much for your advice. I really appreciate your input and will try to institute that in our response. Would you suggest getting new independent letters alone or independent letters and 2 letters from the authors whose letters were poked? The Rfe already established that prong 1 and 2 were satisfied, hence the statement asking for evidence showing influence on the field. Thanks a lot!

[randomstairs 303]

Highrise,

If you can get any letters that specifically refer to how your work has been implemented (e.g. referring to citations and funding) that would help. Just stating that you are great and super smart is not enough. Letters must specifically point at your contributions to the field. Evidence you present should show what sets you apart from others in the field so try not to focus on things that other people in the field are normally doing (conferences, reviews, etc). Unfortunately being a good scientist or an engineer is not sufficient for NIW. As I mentioned earlier, best is to seek an attorney who specializes in these cases (they will charge a lot but financially that may be your best investment ever). The good thing is that you can file for I-140 as many times as you wish. So if your RFE doesn't go through, you should file a new case with updated citation record and letters that specifically refer to it. (I hope you are not filing concurrently with I-485.)

NIW cases are quite difficult (and, as mentioned, counter-intuitive) so most info you will get here may not be sufficient. Please note that I am not qualified to give advice regarding NIW and am only talking from my experience and research. A good lawyer will know the best strategy to take and will do most work for you.

[Highrise 0]

Thank you Randomstairs!

[fs2439 46]

On 3/19/2016 at 6:31 PM, Highrise said:

Thank you Randomstairs!

How did this go? All best, fs2439

[TBoneTX 45,303]

Thread from 2016 is now closed to further comment.