EB-OR RFE....Please help

E

eb2007

Registered Users (C)
Hi friends,
This is the content of RFE I recieved for my EB1-OR petition. I request others to please help me in responding to this.
1) USCIS acknowledges the evidence provided to establish that the beneficiary was the recipient of major prizes or awards for outstanding academic achievements; however, please note that scholarships, fellowships and awards that are open only to students generally do not qualify. Therefore, if the beneficiary has been the recipient of any prize or award other than those listed above, please submit documentary evidence of this award and also, evidence from the entity establishing the criteria for the award and scope and nature of the competition.
2) It is acknowledged that the petitioner submitted evidence to establish that the beneficiary had participated, either individually or on a panel, as a judge of the work of others in the same or an allied academic field. Please submit documentary evidence to establish that it is outstanding relative to others who participate in the peer-review process.
3) The petitioner claims that the beneficiary has made original scientific or scholarly research contributions to the academic field; however the evidence submitted with the petition is insufficient to establish that the research of the beneficiary has had an impact in the field. For example, it appears that the beneficiary may have developed a complex model and an automated ***** system; however there is no documentary evidence to support this development. Therefore please submit documentary evidence to show that the beneficiary’s original scientific or scholarly research have contributed to the field.
4) In support of the petition, the petitioner also included evidence of that the beneficiary has membership in associations with the field of the study; however, please submit the constitution or bylaws of the organization that enumerate the specific criteria for membership.
I am totally confused about collecting extra evidences to support my petition. Please guide me what shall I do??
 
I had a similar RFE. I am surprised that it has been asked for EB1-OR, Are you sure whether you(employer/lawyer) mentioned EB1-OR.
1. If you have not provided any details of the awards. try to get documentary evidence(news from media or letters from award committe) explaining the nature of the award, criteria, number of people applied/selected details.
2.try to get letters from journal editors that you are established yourself in the field which is the reason that you have been selected as a reviewer.
3.probably some letters from the experts would suffice.
4. Same thing for the membership, if is paid, forget about it

which center?? TSC/NSC
 
1. If it is a student award it is better not to provide additional evidence

2. skvadivel is right. Try to get letters from journal editors. They generally write good letters. Also, whenever they (editors) base their decision on your review of the manuscript, they send you a letter saying that the decision to accept/revise/reject was solely/mainly based on your review. Such letters help. Get printouts of such e-mails from Outlook. I say Outlook because the printout comes out in a letterhead fashion. Also, take printouts of emails from the editor's office/editor that invites your to review an article. Those that begin with 'Due to your substantial expertise in the subject..' are good.

3. Citations! Number of citations, who cites, and what they talk about your work in their citations is the key. Get as much documentation as possible. In the absence of citations, letters from experts vouching for the significance of the work would suffice.

4. If your membership resulted from some sort of a criterion, then send documentation of that criterion. For example, Sigma Xi requires that a full membership be granted only if the person has atleast two first author publications or has done research in the field for x number of years.

Good Luck!

PS: Also, would you mind sending me your credentials? Please PM me. Thanks!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
skvadivel said:
I had a similar RFE. I am surprised that it has been asked for EB1-OR, Are you sure whether you(employer/lawyer) mentioned EB1-OR.
1. If you have not provided any details of the awards. try to get documentary evidence(news from media or letters from award committe) explaining the nature of the award, criteria, number of people applied/selected details.

2.try to get letters from journal editors that you are established yourself in the field which is the reason that you have been selected as a reviewer.
3.probably some letters from the experts would suffice.
4. Same thing for the membership, if is paid, forget about it
which center?? TSC/NSC
Click to expand...
Thanks skvadivel! I filed at NSC. Please have a look at my credentials:
1) Ok as mentioned in my credentials below: Ihave received fellowships from ICMR and also couple of travel awards. Only few people receive these fellowships and travel awards. I am not sure how many people apply for it as I could not find this info. Still I feel I should defend these fellowships/awards.
I am trying to get letters from one of my supervisor in India and also another eminent Professor (India) who can probably talk about these awards in there letter.
2) As mentioned below I have independently reviewed papers for 3 journals. I emailed to editors but only 1 of them agreed to provide the letter 2 of them didn't reply at all. I dont know what to do??
3) Yes that's what I'm banking upon-letters!! Thankfully CEO of a company for whom I tested the software agreed to provide me the letter.
4) It was a paid memebership....So should I not claim it?? If I claim it...will it backfire??

I know my case is not very strong but still I have seen people with lesser credentials walking away with it. Gurus please guide me....how should I prepare I response.

My credentials:
PhD from India in 2005
Presently working as Post Doc in a renowned lab in my field

Awards/Fellowships:
•Travel Grant from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)) to present a research paper in US
•Travel grant from Department of Science and Technology (DST) to present a research paper in US
•Senior Research Fellowship from Indian Council for Medical Research
•A fellowship for PhD scholars from my University in India
•Junior Research Fellowship from Indian Council for Medical Research
•Junior Research Fellowship from University Grants Commission (UGC, India)
GATE Qualification:
97.3 percentile

Research Publications: 14 (9 as First author)
1 review article recently accepted for publication
Conference presentations: 5

Research Papers reviewed for Peer-review journals: 5
2 reviewed with my boss
3 Independently reviewed

Membership:
I have International Behavioral Neuroscience membership but it’s a paid one.
 
Thanks GC-Hopes!! I have provided my credentials in the above post.
1. If it is a student award it is better not to provide additional evidence
It is difficult to categorize it as a student award- I had SRF from ICMR, 2 travel awards-CSIR and DST, and also fellowship from my Institution.
2. skvadivel is right. Try to get letters from journal editors. They generally write good letters. Also, whenever they (editors) base their decision on your review of the manuscript, they send you a letter saying that the decision to accept/revise/reject was solely/mainly based on your review. Such letters help. Get printouts of such e-mails from Outlook. I say Outlook because the printout comes out in a letterhead fashion. Also, take printouts of emails from the editor's office/editor that invites your to review an article. Those that begin with 'Due to your substantial expertise in the subject..' are good.
As mentioned in my response to skvadivel, I have got 1 of the editor to write a letter. May I know if getting only letter from 1 journal is sufficient. How do i push the editors from 2 other journals. They even didn't reply to my email. Should I call them?
3. Citations! Number of citations, who cites, and what they talk about your work in their citations is the key. Get as much documentation as possible. In the absence of citations, letters from experts vouching for the significance of the work would suffice.
Since I tested a program for a Company, fortunately the CEO agreed to provide me a letter.
4. If your membership resulted from some sort of a criterion, then send documentation of that criterion. For example, Sigma Xi requires that a full membership be granted only if the person has atleast two first author publications or has done research in the field for x number of years.
Membership is not an invited one. Its a regular paid membership. Should I defend it?

Presently I am confused and consulted an independent attorney and she said that this RFE is not that bad and surely can be handled.
Friends please advise...
 
1. I think SRF can be justified as a non-student award. You should be able to get some documentation stating the award is national in scope and more importantly, the selection criteria and the ratio of number of applicants to number being awarded. For the other awards, it is still worth a shot to submit documentation detailing the selection procedure. Are these travel award only given to students, which the RFE letter claims? I'm not sure how you worded in your petition but you should make sure that some of the awards are not student awards.

2. Its unfortunate that the editors are not responding. Sometimes, they do respond after sometime. Give them at least a week.

3. Since you have 14 publications, I'm sure you must have some citations. Write to those who cited your work and get their letters.

4. If it is a regular paid membership, I'm sorry to say there is no point in defending it. However, do provide the selection criteria that the organization uses in electing its members.

You have excellent credentials - I can tell because I am from India and I know the significance of each of those awards. If you can somehow bring the immigration officer to the same page as we are, then you will have good chances.

Also, good performance on the GATE exam!!

Good Luck!
 
Thanks GC-Hopes for the encouragement. Fortunately I got confirmation from one more editor for the letter.
1) You are right I received SRF as a grant by submitting my Independent research proposal which had nothing to do with my PhD. I remember how difficult it was to get those travel awards and I just can't let them go as some IO feels that they aren't worth it.
2) That's a great suggestion I will write to the people who have cited my work. But again if they ask for the draft letters than believe me I'm running out of new words and sentences.
3) I feel like just touching upon the regular membership and not offering as a solid claim.
I am really surprised that I am not getting inputs from other people of the forum who are otherwise always very helpful.
Thanks GC-hopes for kind words....it has boosted me to work further towards collection of new evidences..
 
JRF and SRF are student awards only. On the other hand Young scientist is the one you can claim as the nationally recognized award.
you have more SRF than JRF. JRF is given only to those who clear the exam. but SRF can be given to some one who has two years of research whether they have JRF or independent research (own money/ project money). so the number of people getting SRF is more than JRF.

Some people tried to get more information about CSIR and GATE fellowships to say they are very difficult to get. but it is really a Himalayan task to convince the IO about it. better not to stress it. If you claim this as one of the criteria then there is a possibility that your case can be denied. so do not count on it.
I have CSIR too but did not claim it as an award. not even as some additional appendix/information. I just ignored it after reading various forums.

none of the travel award matters. even you are the only one who got it. It is also similar to student award. the same goes with poster presentation awards too.

membership criteria also will not fly since it is paid one.

for the 14 publications how many citations you have. this is the crucial evidence for you. try looking at all the databases. some times what you miss in one may show up in the other. Scifinder, scopus, google scholar are a few to search.

you earlier asked what to do with the new publications you got after submitting EB1OR. just use them as extra evidence. that may or may not help. but do not stress that. just mention that you are continuing the excellent research you are doing.

you said you are a postdoc and you also said you got a permanent position. did you get the position after submitting or at the time of submitting?

as mentioned earlier if you can get at least one reference letter from those who cite your work will be great.

good luck. since you applied to NSC it is little tough. I hope you can sail through.
 
Thanks NIW help!! As you see in my credentials I don't have any other awards other than SRF from ICMR and couple of travel awards. So SRF from ICMR is like a funding grant where you have to initially submit the research proposal and then it is subjected to expert review (panel). Before making decision they also take into consideration credentials of the applicant. My concern is that if I don't claim any award than my chances of sailing through will be lesser as I am not going to claim the membership also.
I may be wrong but in the RFE they have questioned both membership and awards. So my sense is if I'm not going to defend even one of them than it can be outrightly denied.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Other than that, I have e-mail invitations from several journals to submit my work in there respective journals. Also I'll be able to get letters from editors of 2 journals for whom I reviewed the manuscripts.
Also CEO of a company for whom I tested the software agreed to provide me the letter.
I am getting more letters from 2 clinicians in my field and other researchers who cited my work.
Please let me know what else I can submit.
For permanent nature of job....my University attorney will handle it.....BTW the IO has also asked for the job letter/contract letter along with administrative codes of University.
 
the three criteria which will sail through may be

# Evidence that the alien has judged the work of others, either individually or on a panel;
you have this

# Evidence of the alien's original scientific, scholarly, artistic, athletic, or business-related contributions of major significance to the field;

you have this your publications

# Evidence of the alien's authorship of scholarly articles in professional or major trade publications or other major media;
you have this you can use the citations here
 
I agree with the three criteria that NIW_help pointed out. I think that since you have reviewed 5 journal articles, this criteria is easier to satisfy compared to awards. But I am not sure if you should completely ignore addressing the award section since it was questioned in RFE.

For the citations, other members had recommended earlier to create a bar chart of different countries referencing your work and hence show the international impact of your work. I think it is a very good suggestion since international recognition is a big part of a EB1 OR petition. You can even list the impact factors of the journals citing your work, if those impact factors are high. Finally, you can provide quotes from the papers that discuss your work rather than just a footnote citation.

Good Luck with the RFE response.
 
Thanks gc app07!! I am trying to get at least 7-8 letters from different people including editors, CSIR, ICMR, couple of clinicians, some professors ,etc.
Do you guys feel I should try for more letter? If yes, how many more should I try to get?
Thanks
 
eb2007 said:
Thanks gc app07!! I am trying to get at least 7-8 letters from different people including editors, CSIR, ICMR, couple of clinicians, some professors ,etc.
Do you guys feel I should try for more letter? If yes, how many more should I try to get?
Thanks
Click to expand...
do not get lot of letters from India. For international recognition that will not add much. instead try to get from different countries.
1-2 from Europe, 2-3 from India, couple from Korea/Japan
 
eb2007,
You should be fine. Your RFE is a mild one. Handle it carefully and appropriately, you can sail through.
All other helpers' suggestions and comments are wonderful. Here I add two more points.
1. For the letters, also emphasize that the references are not inside your loop. In your response letter, emphasize that they are independent references (i.e. they know you simply because of your excellent research work). The letters from collaborators, supervisors, colleagues don't weigh much. The number of letters doesn't matter much, it is the quality of the letters. You have your purpose for each letter. Then in your response letter, quote the statements from the letters to make your claims, i.e. use the quotes as evidence to support your claim.
2. It is true that your best bets are judge of others work, significant contributions, and authorship. However, don't simply ignore the other two. Try to gather and provide positive evidence as much as possible, and let the IO make the final judge. While realizing those two are not your strong points, don't stress too much. In your response letter, you could discuss the three strong points first, and put the award and membership at the end.
 
Thanks NIW help and IIp1!! Your suggestions are really valuable and I'd try my best that my attorney (University lawyer-very stubborn) includes these points before drafting the response. The graph of citations from different part of the world is a great idea. I'll do that.
Also IIp1, thanks for boosting me up by mentioning my RFE as mild one....I thought its a tough one....but do people get nasty RFEs in EB1-OR?? I mean worse than mine....
I am feeling really nervous about it..
Also how long it takes to get the decision after submission of response to RFE.
Thanks
 
I got a similar one in EB1a, should say tougher than yours.
My friend got RFE in Eb1b, similar. He answered, and he got approved.
I mailed the response on 10/02 and got approved 10/17. The decision usually is fast.
NSC is a bit tougher than TSC. But you should be all right. The permanent position usually is the most difficult issue in EB1b, again to my understanding.
 
The good thing is they have asked for details of my offer letter and University administrative code, etc. So I think University can handle that. I am finding it hard to get letters from Europe as people who have cited my work haven't replied at all....
I'll shoot the reminders tomorrow to them...
So as if now I have following people willing to provide me letters:
1) CEO of the company for whom I tested a software (he has already provided...really a good one).
2) One Prof in US who cited my work.
3) 3 letters from Journals for whom I worked as a Reviewer
4) Another Prof in US who is in my field but hasn't cited any of my work.
5) 2 letters from Clinicians (MDs) in my University Hospital.
6) A letter from AIIMS (India), Head of the Dept.
7) 1 letter from my co-supervisor in India.
8) Another researcher in India working in one of the top institute (NIMHANS, Bangalore).
I'd try to arrange more letters from people who cited my work.
Also should I ask for another letter from my Boss here...

I have a related question here......should I attach the letters again which I already submitted with initial petition. I am asking because those letters were from very strong people in the field and has highlighted the importance of my current work which is definitely in National Interest...
Thanks for all your inputs...
 
I have a related question here......should I attach the letters again which I already submitted with initial petition. I am asking because those letters were from very strong people in the field and has highlighted the importance of my current work which is definitely in National Interest...

Remember they are asking for additional evidence. You can quote the already submitted letters in cover letter asking them to refer to the attached exhibits in original petition. Ofcourse you will be substantiating these with new letters.
eb2ph
 
Hi eb2pharmacy,
Thanks for the info...But should I have a letter again from my supervisor?
BTW have you already submitted your response??
 
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