dear hadron

[DRVR]

I am a physician in internal medicine and started to my J 1 waiver job on May 2001,I have my NIW I140 approved on March 2005, I will be finisihing five year period in May 2006. Can I pursue my fellow ship from July 2006. I had applied for I 485 in March 2004.

Thanks for the answers and suggestions

DRVR

 

[hadron]

My understanding is: Yes. You get the GC for 5 years of service in an underserved location and once you have submitted your evidence of 5 years of full-time practice you are free to work the night shift at the 7-11 with your EAD.

However, as there is no clear guidance on this issue from USCIS (as there is no clear guidance on about 99% of what they expect us to do), there are conflicting recommendations from various immigration attorneys on the wisdom of this strategy.

I cannot give you legal advice on this. I am a very risk-averse person and would consider to stick it out for another 6 months until you have that plastic card in your hands. But thats just me.

There are other people on this board who have gone through exactly your scenario (going for fellowship after 5 years), they would be able to give you better information.

 

[posmd]

To some extent it would depend on whether you are from a retrogressed country and what your priority date is. If you are "close" then indeed why take even a small chance. If you are looking at years then it might be worth a thought.
I had this same question for my lawyer(A prominent DC based one)today and her take was that to be safe since there is no specific guidance on this issue you should use that of AC21 which allows you to move to a like job.
Most conservative lawyers feel a job move would be OK but whether you could consider a fellowship spot as such is up to interpretation, you could say that might be a stretch.