prince101 said:
4. What is your background?
PhD Biochemistry and 10 years of research experience, 16 papers, 10 meeting abstracts, several research fellowships and awards, several reviews, 13 letters, 7 from outside US (Italy, Germany, Australia, Sweden) 6 from continental US, more than 200 citations some of them with my name in the text. No letters from current employer or friends or colleagues of the department. All of my references are well known (Professors/Directors) and each of them has over 130 publications.
I replied my RFE three month ago. I did see LUD change for 4 times, but no online message change
I feel you will get it. Because you have not received the decision by regular mail after LUD changes.
Your background looks very strong to me. I would say, your NIW is going to be approved. If I am at your place, I would try to organize the evidence you already have plus get more letters from the U.S. professors. Remember, this is the U.S. national interest, so I would concentrate on few more recommendations from the American scientists (it would be very good to find such people who are willing to endorse you that are somehow affiliated with the federal organizations like NIH, NASA, VA, etc.). Attach their CVs to the letters.
I would try to put an emphasis on certain points in your new cover letter.
1. Discuss in details that the problems you work on are national in scope (I understand that you are in biomedical research, so pull the national disease statistics from the NIH website).
2. Discuss in details your awards, how competitive they are, what foundations gave them to you, try to find out the names of other big scientists who were awarded the same awards in the past. It would be good if people who recommend you mention the significance of your awards in their letters.
3. Give more details about the journals that published your papers, how good are they, what is their impact factor (e.g., the journal is in the top 10% impact factor in the Biochemistry category, etc.).
4. Try to mention every citation that discuss your findings separately (prince 101 found this, prince101 discovered that, etc.).
If you do not feel confident that you are going to make a convincing answer, try to find a lawyer. Preparing an answer to RFE will not cost you much, and again, you background looks very strong to me. You must win your NIW case.
The best of luck!