The Law Office of Matthew I. Hirsch has many years of success filing applications for permanent residence on behalf of “outstanding professors and researchers.” This category, arising under the Employment-based First Preference, and referred to as the EB-1(2) category, and has several important characteristics:
- It is employer-sponsored and requires an offer of tenure-track or “permanent” employment from a college or university of qualified research institution.
- It does not require Labor Certification; no recruitment, advertising or other test of the labor market is required.
- The demand for visas in this category does not exceed the supply. This means that, unlike the EB-2 and EB3 categories, there are no backlogs or wait times for visa numbers, even for applicants from China and India.
To be considered an “outstanding professor or researcher”, an applicant must show that he or she has at least three years of teaching and/or research experience and that he or she is “recognized internationally.” “International recognition” may be shown with evidence in at least two (2) of several categories including:
- Receipt of major prizes or awards for outstanding achievement,
- Membership in associations that require outstanding achievements,
- Published material written by others about the alien’s work,
- Participation as a judge of the work of others in the same field or concentration,
- Original scientific, scholarly, or artistic contributions in the field,
- Authorship of scholarly books/articles internationally circulated journals.
In an “outstanding professor/researcher” case, the emphasis is on the individual’s recognition and the impact of their work. The preparation of a successful case in the EB-1(2) category depends on careful preparation combined with knowledge of the law, precedent, policy and the adjudicator expectations. At the Law Office of Matthew I. Hirsch, we have achieved successful results for many clients in this category. Examples of successful cases include:
- An Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering from Russia, whose research focuses on control techniques for hybrid and impulsive dynamical systems, large-scale aerospace systems, and thermodynamic modeling of mechanical and aerospace systems,
- A citizen of Bermuda, with a tenure-track appointment, engaged in research on the physiology of bleached and recovering corals, the composition of corals and the presence of isotopes which affect the resiliency of corals under stress,
- A Ph.D. in Physics from China working for a private company on commercial scale production of ultra-thin films and solutions used to produce electroluminescent devices,
- A citizen of India, with a doctorate in Chemical Engineering, working for a research and development firm on hydrogen fuel cell technology and the development of computer-based models for predicting longevity of fuel cell stacks,
- A German citizen with Ph.D. in Philosophy and a tenure-track appointment at a prestigious liberal arts college, engaged in teaching and research in epistemology and the theory of knowledge, the nature and limits of rationality and the history of philosophy in the 17th and 18th Centuries,
- A Research Associate from India employed at a large state university, working on advanced research on Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (“IPF”), a chronic, incurable disease of the lungs affecting people worldwide,
- A citizen of Poland and an Assistant Professor of Physics engaged in scientific research and teaching relating to the structure and behavior of soft condensed matter and glass transition.
These are examples of the kinds of complex, yet interesting, “outstanding researcher” cases that we have successfully filed in the past few years. We look forward to the chance to review the qualifications of highly-credentialed professors and researchers for eligibility under the EB-1(2) standard. For a preliminary assessment of your case by Matthew I. Hirsch, please contact us or send an e-mail with C.V. to [email protected].