EB1 Visas / Green Cards: Documentation for Outstanding Professors and Researchers by US Immigration Attorney Chris M. Ingram.

EB1 Visas / Green Cards – Checklist: 

EB1 Visa / Green Card - US Immigration is looking for top professionals from all walks of life to step up and consider relocating to America.

I’d like to talk about EB1 visas for Outstanding Professors and Researchers and in particular documentation their publications. A.k.a – EB1 Green Cards. In fact, there EB1 green cards for anyone with an extraordinary ability and there are EB1 green cards specifically for Outstanding Professors and Researchers

The first thing to point out here is that US Immigration officers have no particular PHD level educational specialty outside of immigration. Therefore, if they are reviewing an application where the specialty might be that of the work of Doctor of nanotechnology for example, it is not possible for them to in any way assess the importance of that alien’s work no matter how clever that US Immigration Officer is. Instead, US Immigration Officier must use a series of objective tests so they can check off their boxes without having to understand the qualitative attributes of the documentation. So when  compiling documentation pertaining to a publication here are some guidelines that will make it easier for the US Immigration adjudicator to evaluate the publication according to the EB1 green card requirements.

For each published article submit the following: –

1. Take a photocopy of the article directly from the magazine. Do not cut and paste the article it on to a plain sheet of paper. 

2. Solicit a letter, if you can, from the publisher confirming the reason why the article was selected for publication. If possible have the publisher outline their selection criteria for publication, for example, is the article subject to any peer review before publication. This will help the US Immigration get a better sense as to what weight or value to attribute to the article.

EB1 Visas / Green Cards: Documenting your achievements in this way should not be a challenge since documentation is the cornerstone of all academic work.

3. Send in a 1-2 paragraph Word document statement in layman’s terms outlining what the article is about and why you think it is important. Also mention the significance of that particular publication and the market it serves.  Remember, the US Immigration official is not going to read your articles because quite frankly unless he/she has specific understanding of the subject it’s really going to be double dutch, instead the US Immigration official is looking for indicators such as a letter from the publisher.

 4. Print out the “circulation figures”  of that magazine, sometimes this is posted in the inside cover of the magazine, or you can ask the publisher for their “rate card” this is the card they send to would be advertisers to thinking of advertisers and these advertisers would definitely want to know what circulation that particular magazine could boast. The US Immigration Offcial will  want to be able to determine  if the magazine’s circulation is large of tiny. You can go the extra mile to get the publication circulation number of comparable magazines to add better context.

5. Print the front cover of the magazine your article appeared in.

6. The US Immigration Official will want to know whether the article when published had any impact whatsoever. This is important since many PHD students get their articles published as a matter of course on their way to being granted a PHD. The alien can show the impact of the magazine in a variety of ways such as, finding people who had read the article who can write a letter as to why it was important to them. The alien may have received invitations to speak at various venues as a result of the article, if so send me a copy of  the letter of invitation. Maybe there are other academic peers who could write supporting letters as to reception of the article. Be creative and find as many ways as possible to distinguish the article as being important.

A good EB1 green card case should have three to six articles comprehensively covered in this way. Thoroughly completing this exercise can make a big impact in the success of the case. I would be the first to concede that this can be quite an exhausting and time consuming exercise. However, when you think about what is at stake here, an EB1 green card, it’s certainly worth the effort. Remember, as your attorney I can only submit to US Immigration what you send in. Send in great material I can present great material, send in incomplete documentation then I’ll either refuse to send it to US Immigration at all or have to do battle with you until I do get the documentation to the above standard.

EB1 Visas / Green Cards: Working these cases once you understand how US Immigration adjudicators think is very straight forward. Sure there’s a lot more to these cases than just documenting publications, but this is a good place to start.

EB1 green cards are there for the picking, but many cases will fail because the US Immigration official was unable to determine the significance of the article because of the lack of corroborating evidence as outlined above.

As an experienced EB1 immigration attorney I do try and set the bar very high indeed. As a result I am able to get EB1 green cards approved fairly routine. However, getting clients to go to extraordinary lengths to send in their documentation to the above comprehensive standard is an entirely different matter. My solution is to write articles like this to educate and inspire my clients to go that extra mile because at the end of the day getting that EB1 green card prize for you and your family is certainly worth it all.

If you would like this type of representation for your case please do not hesitate to contact me. Your case would be my pleasure.

To find out more please visit my website and get in touch. I’d love to hear from you.

By Chris M. Ingram LL.M., ESQ.  

US Immigration Law Offices of Chris M. Ingram

US Immigration Law Offices of Chris M. Ingram
Chris M. Ingram LL.M., ESQ – Immigration Attorney
Admitted in New York.
Practice Specializing in US Immigration Law
520 Broadway, Suite 350,
Santa Monica,
California 90401
Tel: 310 496 4292

Everyday the Law Offices of Chris M. Ingram provides a comprehensive range of US Immigration expertise. We also provide a free consultation for our prospective clients. 

General Location: Santa Monica. Santa Clarita, Los Angeles, California, USA.
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