Dear all,
I filed (e-file) NIW I-140 to TSC at the end of July. I got email notification from CRIS last week about the RFE, and I got the letter two days ago. The whole content of the RFE is as following:
REQUEST FOR EVIDENCE
This office is unable to complete the processing of your petition without further information. Please read and comply with the request below, then submit the evidence to the above address. Include a copy of this letter and place the attached gold sheet on top of your documents.
The petitioner has filed Form I-140 for classification under Section 203(b)(2)(B)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act as a member of the professions with an advanced degree or a petitioner of exceptional ability. In addition, the petitioner is requesting that the job offer and the correlating labor certification from the Department of Labor be waived in the national interest.
A recent precedent decision, Matter of New York State Dept of Transportation, enumerates factors that must be considered when evaluating a request for a national interest waiver. See Matter of New York State Dept of Transportation I.D. 3363 (Act. Assoc., Programs, August 7, 1998). First, it must be shown that the petitioner seeks employment in an area of substantial intrinsic merit. Next, it must be shown that the proposed benefit will be national in scope. The final threshold is that it must be persuasively demonstrated that the national interest would be adversely affected if a labor certification were required for the petitioner.
The labor certification process exists because protecting the job opportunities of U.S. workers is in the national interest. The petitioner must establish that the petitioner will serve the national interest to a substantially greater degree than would an available U.S. worker having the same minimum qualifications. Because the labor certification process is already in place to address labor shortages, the national interest waiver is not to be based on ameliorating a local labor shortage.
The petitioner appears to be part of a talented team doing research that could be of national interest. The team is just one of many that are working on the same type of research.
Submit evidence to establish persuasively that the national interest would be adversely affected if the beneficiary were required to obtain labor certification fro the U.S. Department of Labor. Would a U.S. worker with the same minimum qualifications be able to perform the same occupation and serve the national interest to a similar degree? How will the individual alien serve the national interest to a substantially greater degree than other individuals having similar credentials in the field? Please submit persuasive documentary evidence to substantiate your response.
Submit evidence that demonstrates the alien’s specific prior achievements which would justify the projected future benefit of the alien to the national interest. Evidence may include, but is not limited to, copies of articles, publications, testimonial letters from others in the alien’s field, and other evidence to demonstrate all of the beneficiary’s exact prior achievements and the exact influence the beneficiary has had on the field. Include copies of the beneficiary’s published material and evidence to indicate the number of citations of each of the beneficiary’s published works. Such evidence may take the form of a citation index.
Any additional evidence submitted will be considered in conjunction with the current record to determine the petitioner’s eligibility for this classification.
Please submit the requested information within 42 days from the date of this letter. Failure to do so may result in denial of your petition.
Sincerely,
David L. Roark, Director
Texas Service Center
Officer #1010
Before we go any further, here is a summary of my credentials:
M.S. + Ph.D. from a top tier U.S. university.
4 papers in good journals (all English) with 80+ citations and 4 international conference presentations at the time of filing.
8 reference letters, 4 independent and 4 from people I personally know.
The weird thing is that it seems the officer either did not read my supporting documents at all, or they got lost somewhere. The reason why I say this is because I have specifically included a citation index PLUS some statistics about how my citation numbers stand up compared to the others in the field, along with the excerpts from some of the most prestigious review journals where my stuff was specifically discussed (rather than mere footnote citations). Yet, the officer still wanted to see the citation index?
Since the timing (the July VB fiasco) cannot be even better, I think there is a good chance that my supporting documents are missing. Is there any way to confirm this? As for the RFE itself, do I need to re-submit ALL the documents I sent previously, or just focus on what mentioned in the RFE? Also, do I need to mention all three prongs of NIW again in the covering letter for RFE, or just the third one (why my case merits the waiver of LC)?
Finally, I notice that they only gave me 42 calendar days to reply. It is actually only 5 weeks, since I got the actual RFE hard copy one week after the letter date. Is it a little bit short (particularly, it's the holiday season and it will be very tight to find more independent letters)?
As always, all your comments and suggestions will be greatly appreciated and happy holidays! (I wish I could say that to myself under this situation...)
I filed (e-file) NIW I-140 to TSC at the end of July. I got email notification from CRIS last week about the RFE, and I got the letter two days ago. The whole content of the RFE is as following:
REQUEST FOR EVIDENCE
This office is unable to complete the processing of your petition without further information. Please read and comply with the request below, then submit the evidence to the above address. Include a copy of this letter and place the attached gold sheet on top of your documents.
The petitioner has filed Form I-140 for classification under Section 203(b)(2)(B)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act as a member of the professions with an advanced degree or a petitioner of exceptional ability. In addition, the petitioner is requesting that the job offer and the correlating labor certification from the Department of Labor be waived in the national interest.
A recent precedent decision, Matter of New York State Dept of Transportation, enumerates factors that must be considered when evaluating a request for a national interest waiver. See Matter of New York State Dept of Transportation I.D. 3363 (Act. Assoc., Programs, August 7, 1998). First, it must be shown that the petitioner seeks employment in an area of substantial intrinsic merit. Next, it must be shown that the proposed benefit will be national in scope. The final threshold is that it must be persuasively demonstrated that the national interest would be adversely affected if a labor certification were required for the petitioner.
The labor certification process exists because protecting the job opportunities of U.S. workers is in the national interest. The petitioner must establish that the petitioner will serve the national interest to a substantially greater degree than would an available U.S. worker having the same minimum qualifications. Because the labor certification process is already in place to address labor shortages, the national interest waiver is not to be based on ameliorating a local labor shortage.
The petitioner appears to be part of a talented team doing research that could be of national interest. The team is just one of many that are working on the same type of research.
Submit evidence to establish persuasively that the national interest would be adversely affected if the beneficiary were required to obtain labor certification fro the U.S. Department of Labor. Would a U.S. worker with the same minimum qualifications be able to perform the same occupation and serve the national interest to a similar degree? How will the individual alien serve the national interest to a substantially greater degree than other individuals having similar credentials in the field? Please submit persuasive documentary evidence to substantiate your response.
Submit evidence that demonstrates the alien’s specific prior achievements which would justify the projected future benefit of the alien to the national interest. Evidence may include, but is not limited to, copies of articles, publications, testimonial letters from others in the alien’s field, and other evidence to demonstrate all of the beneficiary’s exact prior achievements and the exact influence the beneficiary has had on the field. Include copies of the beneficiary’s published material and evidence to indicate the number of citations of each of the beneficiary’s published works. Such evidence may take the form of a citation index.
Any additional evidence submitted will be considered in conjunction with the current record to determine the petitioner’s eligibility for this classification.
Please submit the requested information within 42 days from the date of this letter. Failure to do so may result in denial of your petition.
Sincerely,
David L. Roark, Director
Texas Service Center
Officer #1010
Before we go any further, here is a summary of my credentials:
M.S. + Ph.D. from a top tier U.S. university.
4 papers in good journals (all English) with 80+ citations and 4 international conference presentations at the time of filing.
8 reference letters, 4 independent and 4 from people I personally know.
The weird thing is that it seems the officer either did not read my supporting documents at all, or they got lost somewhere. The reason why I say this is because I have specifically included a citation index PLUS some statistics about how my citation numbers stand up compared to the others in the field, along with the excerpts from some of the most prestigious review journals where my stuff was specifically discussed (rather than mere footnote citations). Yet, the officer still wanted to see the citation index?
Since the timing (the July VB fiasco) cannot be even better, I think there is a good chance that my supporting documents are missing. Is there any way to confirm this? As for the RFE itself, do I need to re-submit ALL the documents I sent previously, or just focus on what mentioned in the RFE? Also, do I need to mention all three prongs of NIW again in the covering letter for RFE, or just the third one (why my case merits the waiver of LC)?
Finally, I notice that they only gave me 42 calendar days to reply. It is actually only 5 weeks, since I got the actual RFE hard copy one week after the letter date. Is it a little bit short (particularly, it's the holiday season and it will be very tight to find more independent letters)?
As always, all your comments and suggestions will be greatly appreciated and happy holidays! (I wish I could say that to myself under this situation...)