EB-OR RFE....Please help

Like Ilp1 suggested above letters from collegues/supervisers carry less weight unless you have to prove your role in the research projects etc. So If I were you I would concentrate on getting independent letters. I know how difficult and frustating to draft 10 versions of the same letter but what else is there to submit additional evidence.
I am waiting to receive couple of letters and drafting my cover letter meanwhile. I am using a recommendation/reviewer letter from editor, a letter from another editor, a letter from FDA, 1 from industry and 2 more from independent professors and finally one from my boss since my RFE asked for my role in any colloborative projects. So I am using 5/6 letters only but trying to answer all the questions through those letters.
Good luck
eb2ph
 
It seems you will be able to get 7/8 strong letters from US and India, which is great. But continuing bugging some european and japanese professors as 1 or 2 letters from them might be very helpful. BTW, I thought that having a "permanent position" was the most common point of RFE in EB1 OR and the cause of denials. I hope the univ is able to respond to USCIS effectively, given that you are a post doc and not a faculty. Good Luck with the response.
 
eb2007 said:
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....
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I would also pay attention to the question to your university: the details of your offer letter etc. Make sure your university handles that well. (Don't over trust your university). Not that they cannot handle it, just that people may not pay much attention if it is not urgent to themselves.

In my response to the RFE, I submitted five more letters from independent references. Among the five, one invited me to review papers for his journal (US), one invited me to offer a talk for his special session (Italy), one invited me to write a review paper for his journal (China), one invited me to her conference (travel expenses covered, Canada), one was in the related field (in the faculty search committee, but I didn't go to that institution, Canada).
If you emphasize the truly independence of your references, four or five should be enough, from what I heard.

The important thing is the content of the letters, not the number of letters.
For example, one well worded letter from a journal editor is better than three so so letters from three journals. This is why I drafted all the support letters. I know what the IOs are looking for, while my references don't know and they don't have time to search for the appropriate words.

The worldwide location of the references is not sufficient to prove your international reputation, while this has to be addressed specifically in the letters.

No need to ask another letter from your co-supervisor if you don't have any special purpose. If the clinicians ever worked with you (colleagues), their letters don't weigh much. If the letters are so so worded, they may not help much your case. Some may have negative effects if not worded appropriately. In my original evidence, one letter said that I was a promising young mathematician etc. The RFE specifically quoted that and said that statement meant I hadn't established yet.

What I said in the above is for EB1A, the requirement for EB1b should be less than that.
 
gc_app07 said:
It seems you will be able to get 7/8 strong letters from US and India, which is great. But continuing bugging some european and japanese professors as 1 or 2 letters from them might be very helpful. BTW, I thought that having a "permanent position" was the most common point of RFE in EB1 OR and the cause of denials. I hope the univ is able to respond to USCIS effectively, given that you are a post doc and not a faculty. Good Luck with the response.
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I think my University attorney should be able to address permanent position issue as she frequently handles EB1OR petitions and in fact she got it approved recently for one of my friend.
I'll try to e-mail some european Proffs tomorrow....I wish atleast one of them respond. A US prof who cited my work agreed to give me a letter....this is the latest development in my case (How helpful will that be, I don't know??).
 
eb2pharmacy said:
Like Ilp1 suggested above letters from collegues/supervisers carry less weight unless you have to prove your role in the research projects etc. So If I were you I would concentrate on getting independent letters. I know how difficult and frustating to draft 10 versions of the same letter but what else is there to submit additional evidence.
I am waiting to receive couple of letters and drafting my cover letter meanwhile. I am using a recommendation/reviewer letter from editor, a letter from another editor, a letter from FDA, 1 from industry and 2 more from independent professors and finally one from my boss since my RFE asked for my role in any colloborative projects. So I am using 5/6 letters only but trying to answer all the questions through those letters.
Good luck
eb2ph
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Thanks eb2ph..
You are getting 1 from FDA....that would surely help..
My list of independent people:
1) Company CEO- for whom I tested the software
2) 2 Professors from India (AIIMS and NIMHANS- both top institues)
3) 2 Profs from US (never worked with them- 1 of them cited my work).
4) 3 from journals for whom i worked as reviewer.

I have also requested letters from ICMR and CSIR for the awards I received. I hope I get those letters. Other than that I'll also send reminders to professors who cited my work...being a weekend it was very slow response rate for my requests...
 
llp1 said:
I would also pay attention to the question to your university: the details of your offer letter etc. Make sure your university handles that well. (Don't over trust your university). Not that they cannot handle it, just that people may not pay much attention if it is not urgent to themselves.

In my response to the RFE, I submitted five more letters from independent references. Among the five, one invited me to review papers for his journal (US), one invited me to offer a talk for his special session (Italy), one invited me to write a review paper for his journal (China), one invited me to her conference (travel expenses covered, Canada), one was in the related field (in the faculty search committee, but I didn't go to that institution, Canada).
If you emphasize the truly independence of your references, four or five should be enough, from what I heard.

The important thing is the content of the letters, not the number of letters.
For example, one well worded letter from a journal editor is better than three so so letters from three journals. This is why I drafted all the support letters. I know what the IOs are looking for, while my references don't know and they don't have time to search for the appropriate words.

The worldwide location of the references is not sufficient to prove your international reputation, while this has to be addressed specifically in the letters.

No need to ask another letter from your co-supervisor if you don't have any special purpose. If the clinicians ever worked with you (colleagues), their letters don't weigh much. If the letters are so so worded, they may not help much your case. Some may have negative effects if not worded appropriately. In my original evidence, one letter said that I was a promising young mathematician etc. The RFE specifically quoted that and said that statement meant I hadn't established yet.

What I said in the above is for EB1A, the requirement for EB1b should be less than that.
Click to expand...

My attorney's assistant mentioned that this is a common RFE and not bad at all. I think they have to address the permanent position issue as this was the 1st point on RFE and they also have to provide administrative code for University. I have listed my independent list of references in post above...pls let me know how it looks.
Also I keep on receiving invitations from editors to submit some article in there journals....I was wondering if I should ask them for letters? Will that hae some weightage?? If 4 or 5 letters are generally sufficient than should I stop asking for more letters now??
The clinicians I mentioned never worked with me but they were part of our seminar series (in my field) where they both attended it with me. So will there letters be helpful? I thought if they can provide the clinical perspective of the disease, then it might boost importance of my role (i work on animals-preclinical research). Am I thinking on the right track??
Please guide....I am really amazed to see the interest of forum members in helping each other....Sincere thanks to all of you..
 
General invitations for articles don't help. Everybody gets that kind of invitations.
If you say that the clinicians were part of your seminar series, they may be counted as colleagues. They are not strictly independent references. Anyone from your institution (or the institution you ever worked at) is not independent reference including your supervisor, group head, etc. But, for EB1b with less requirement, it may be fine.
I wouldn't bug for more letters, while concentrate on the quality and the content of the letters. For Eb1b, you still need to demonstrate that you are an outstanding researcher in your field. Focus on answering the RFE questions through the letters from independent people. Quote the strong statements/comments from the letters as evidence to answer the RFE questions in your response letter. General appraisals may not work well.
 
Thanks IIp1 ! I have one more related question- What should be the content of letter from people who cited my work in there papers? Three researchers from -spain, mexico, US are willing to provide me the letter. But I am not sure about the content in this case.
Can you please suggest some important words for those letters...
 
look for what for they cited your work:
1) Dr. eb2007's research helped explain our research and able to published in xx journal.
2) we desgined our experiments based on the method eb2007 developed.
3) His papers helped shaped line of thought our research and produced some important results.
4) eb2007 research as foundation we further showed xxx.
good luck
 
eb2007,
i agree with most of the people's suggestions on responding to the RFE.. for my petition, i got a letter from a prof in Japan saying that my research results clarifiedd many prior confusions that helped him accomplish many new findings. also, he also wrote that my research is constantly discussed among his peers/meetings.

i hope i atleast get an RFE and not an outright denial of my petition. let us know finally what you respond for each of your questions. my question to others is can you just focus on your strongest three ignore the other criteria in the RFE even though you have claimed them at the beginning?
good luck
 
shankyyy said:
eb2007,
i agree with most of the people's suggestions on responding to the RFE.. for my petition, i got a letter from a prof in Japan saying that my research results clarifiedd many prior confusions that helped him accomplish many new findings. also, he also wrote that my research is constantly discussed among his peers/meetings.

i hope i atleast get an RFE and not an outright denial of my petition. let us know finally what you respond for each of your questions. my question to others is can you just focus on your strongest three ignore the other criteria in the RFE even though you have claimed them at the beginning?
good luck
Click to expand...

Thanks shankyyy!! I'll surely post when I end up providing all stuff to my attorney. Today I had a meeting with my attorney and she mentioned that I stand a good chance of approval. But my sense is that you never know as even people with strongest of credentials has got denials in the past. Anyways I will do my best to collect evidences so that IO will have to think twice before denial....at least that part is in my hand....I am really glad to see the helpful nature of the members of this forum as the suggestions kept on pouring in from all quaters....both people with approved and pending status provided their inputs....
Cheers
 
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