EB1b REF help!!

E

EB1b-S

Registered Users (C)
Just got an email from my lawyer about the RFE for my EB1b.
My basic background is: MD & PHD from China. 11 journal pubs (6 first authored), 4 conferences with 30 citations; now working in an hospital based lab.

The REF is as follows:
Criteria (A) The listed recognition(an outstanding award issued by a national Society in China) has not been shown to qualify as a major prize or award for outstanding achievement.
Criteria (B) The listed associations (1. Sigma Xi; 2.Society of Neuroscience; 3American Heart Association) have not been shown to qualify.
Criteria (C) The referenced articles are not about the alien's work and the record otherwise lacks published material about the alien's work in qualifying publications.
Criteria (D) is not claimed.
Criteria (E) It is undisputed that the beneficiary has engaged in original scientific research, but the record does not demonstrate the contributions have resulted in his being recognized internationally as outstanding in the academic field.
Criteria (F) It is undisputed that the beneficialy has co-authored scholarly articles and chapters, but the record does not demonstrate the aline is recognized internationally as outstanding on account of this authorship.

Finally, the REF ends with:"Outstanding professors and researchers should stand apart in the academic community throuth eminence and distinction based on international recognition" . Please submit any available additional documentary evidence, such as addtional citation or comparable recognition by others of the beneficiary's research, in existence as of the petition priority date, to demonstrate such recognition.

Do you think this REF difficult? Can anyone give me some hint about showing "international recognition"?

Thank you very much!
 
EB1b-S said:
Can anyone give me some hint about showing "international recognition"?

Thank you very much!
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Citations ... excellent recos from outside of the usa .. invited talk/presentation in international conference/universities ... above all a very good cover letter .. I don't think your attorney did a good job in presenting your case .. good luck
 
I got 1 invited speak at the international ginseng symposium, and an oral presentation at the 2006 Neuroscience symposium. Do you think these experiences count?
 
EB1b-S said:
I got 1 invited speak at the international ginseng symposium, and an oral presentation at the 2006 Neuroscience symposium. Do you think these experiences count?
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why not ? but hope you attained these symposium and already mentioned in your 1 st petition package ! now just highlight them !
 
Dude, I will try to be frank. I think as pana said, your atty blew it big time and unfortunately, your application went to a conscientious USCIS staffer. They only spend 20 minutes reading our months of work. This is a tough RFE. But, any RFE can be cleverly worked out.

Now, the main way out for you, is not just to answer the RFE but to "work in" a statement that you can provide 'comparable evidence' and provide it alongside buttressing the petition. This might be similar stuff, not precisely defined by the criteria. You can use the "invites" you mentioned as "comparable". All three merit categories EA, OPR, NIW allow 'comparables'. Note that invited talks is not a required criterion for OR category.

The objection to criteria (B) is valid; cant rebut it They are expecting conferred memberships like "National Academy of Sciences" etc, not just professional bodies. Similarly, nothing can be done about (C). Try to claim (D). (A) and (D) are particularly strong criteria. Try to prove that your Chinese award was indeed given for outstanding work. If you can get some authority in China to state this in a "whom it may concern" letter, that will work. Also, if you know someone with similar credentials as you, who GOT APPROVED for this category, try to link your qualifications to them, and say you are similarly qualified. This is allowed by INS rules.

Every single line of your letter should focus on international nature of your work, as must your referee's letters. I had people who knew my work, write in from 5 countries and thought this wasn't enough, since most of them had a US connection anyway.

For (F) adopt a two pronged strategy. Their objection is overreaching. You are only expected to have authored scholarly publications. They dont need to be definitive works in the field. Get your atty to put this across effectively. However, after stating this, explain why your work is internationally important also, and quote from your referees' letters, as necessary.

For (E), again, do any of your referees say your contributions have been outstanding internationally? Or have you created "innovations" not known internationally before you did them? You just have to strenuously argue your case here. Get technical and talk in medical terms if needed, and then explain them in layman's terms, about the value of your work.

Hope this helps. Lastly, being creative and persistent helps. I have just 1 citation and just dont write papers, simply because I was working in industry under "secrecy". I am a researcher but not an "academic" researcher, who has to write papers. So, I explained this in 2 pages of my letter and got a couple of referees to vouch for it. Instead, I showed how people were using my technolgies, for research impact. It worked out fine.
 
The suggestions are really good. I have some ideas to handle this REF now. As i remember, all the reference letters just emphasized that my work was really important for Americans, my applications fell into the outstanding category, etal. Seems that none of them mentioned " internationally recogonized". I submitted 8 refer letters for the application, do you think i should try to get more of them?
 
Yeah get more, sure. But, see that the achievements mentioned in them, arent what you have accomplished SINCE you filed the I-140, but before. In fact, they have asked for it in the RFE. Also try this. If you are close to any of the 8 people already submitted, request 1 or 2 of them to give supplementary letters explaining their endorsements in some more detail, this time claiming your international impact.
 
Another thing is that the online status of my case still says:Case received and pending. Looks like my attorney received the REF by mail. shouldn't the USCIS update the online condition accordingly?
 
Calactus
You seems to be lucky to get u r 485 approved so fast that too in NSC. I applied my EB1-OR 140 and 485 in 1st week of October 2006. 140 was approved in March 07 and there was a RFE on 485 in general asking for all papers that I had submitted in October. I replied to this RFE in April but have not heard anything yet.
I thought they are processing 485 submitted in Sept as per the processing time report dated June 18 but your case was in December. I hope I am not stuck in NC.


Galactus said:
Yeah get more, sure. But, see that the achievements mentioned in them, arent what you have accomplished SINCE you filed the I-140, but before. In fact, they have asked for it in the RFE. Also try this. If you are close to any of the 8 people already submitted, request 1 or 2 of them to give supplementary letters explaining their endorsements in some more detail, this time claiming your international impact.
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EB1_OR1 said:
Calactus
You seems to be lucky to get u r 485 approved so fast that too in NSC. I applied my EB1-OR 140 and 485 in 1st week of October 2006. 140 was approved in March 07 and there was a RFE on 485 in general asking for all papers that I had submitted in October. I replied to this RFE in April but have not heard anything yet.
I thought they are processing 485 submitted in Sept as per the processing time report dated June 18 but your case was in December. I hope I am not stuck in NC.
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Even simple RFEs cause variable delays.. sorry to hear you have had one. Based on the "processing time" predictions over the last few months, I was expecting my 485 to be approved in late July or early August. But, I was caught in the June "Surge"... I am one of the 60000. That is all. However, before this little piece of luck, I had had to struggle many times over, as I posted in the other thread: http://immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?t=256258 From yours and other cases, I think, in June they just gave "seemingly innocuous" new 485s quickly and didnt spend time closing out the old pending cases. Another sign of an inconsistent process.
 
EB1b-S said:
Another thing is that the online status of my case still says:Case received and pending. Looks like my attorney received the REF by mail. shouldn't the USCIS update the online condition accordingly?
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Won't be the first case of CRIS getting criss-crossed. Paper is more reliable than CRIS anyway.
 
Eb1b-S,

It is better to take few more letters from the experts in your field and ask them to mention about the importance of your research. Also ask them to talk about your chinese award. The other you can do is, you can get letters from your colleagues congratulating you for your award (but, the letter should have date in the month you received the award. So, that you can claim this point. I have seen lot of people doing this. Get appreciation/congratulations letters on your work from different scientists.

Hope it helps
 
Galactus

How can you get refer. Letters from all over the world? Do you know all those referees? I am worried about that very much.

Thanks
 
No, get congrats from "all over the world" if possible; OPR category stresses "international" a lot. Congrats are not a big help, but good to have. For your Chinese award, the best document you can provide is one from a reputed scholar (get his CV also), or from the award granting body in China itself. This letter should clearly state what the criteria for the award are, how you were picked for it, how many others were considered, as also the reputation of the award itself. For example, take "knighthood" or Fellow of the Royal Society in Britain. They are both really only for Britishers. But they are considered at a par with international honors. This letter about the award will be extremely valuable, and should be your first priority.

As for letters from all over the world, I can't answer that directly. They need not know you personally; if they know your work and papers that is enough; in fact people who dont know you personally, are much more valuable in the eyes of INS. All I can say is, use the grapevine, reach out to your immediate collaborators, ask who their other collaborators are, for these other collaborators will likely work in the same field as you... and so on. i.e. I'm just suggesting common sense methods for acquiring these letters :)
 
Talked with my attorney yesterday, he said his office got many REFs recently. Don't know what happened to those immigration officers. It's a bad thing if they just want to pick on everybody.
 
EB1b-S said:
Talked with my attorney yesterday, he said his office got many REFs recently. Don't know what happened to those immigration officers. It's a bad thing if they just want to pick on everybody.
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Sorry to say this, but your atty is likely to have done patchy work on all these cases; a couple of the RFE comments you mentioned, would never have occured if the dude did his job properly. Watch him carefully this time around.
 
Rfe

Not sure whether your lawyer did this properly, but based on the RFE, I am guessing that he didnt. I would guess your is cover letter screwed up. You may have 1000 pages of great supporting evidence but if your first 10 pages stink, you will get a RFE and in worst case, a denial.

(a) Try to get letters from places far away from where you work/worked. Farther the better. It is even better that they dont know you personally and should mention that in their letters. And you should highlight that in your cover letter.

(b) Highlight how your research work is beneficial. Not just to your boss, but for other people, internationally and to the USCIS officer :). You will have to show where your research has been published and discussed. Not just cited. Citations are good to some extent (number purposes) but the usage of your work by other people and the discussion of your work in other papers are more important. Write in letter something like: (a) This work has been cited widely by researchers in countries like Europe, Australia etc. (b) People in Timbuktu have used this work (c) People in Brazil have adapted this work etc. and finally, and more importantly (d) provide evidence for these claims. Choose papers that have "discussed" your wok. Note: Not cited but discussed! Mark the discussed areas in the papers and send them in.
(c) Has your lawyer done anything in your petition w.r.to Impact factor and Rankings etc.? May be you should check on that as well.

Basically, get involved with your cover letter. Dont assume your lawyer knows everything. It is your work and you know it better. The lawyer may know how to present it (probably not your lawyer) but you should know about your work better.
 
Aroma_Kills said:
(b) Highlight how your research work is beneficial. Not just to your boss, but for other people, internationally and to the USCIS officer :). You will have to show where your research has been published and discussed. Not just cited. Citations are good to some extent (number purposes) but the usage of your work by other people and the discussion of your work in other papers are more important. Write in letter something like: (a) This work has been cited widely by researchers in countries like Europe, Australia etc.
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Good point. Also give a layman's presentation of what your work means to the common man, and how the man in the street in moscow, cairo and oslo, needs it/is already using it.

Cover letter is everything. remember- you got only 20-30 minutes of a USCIS evaluator's time. That when they arent on the phone telling their kids to not burn the house down, or worrying about finding a sitter for tomorrow, second mortgages, therapists and lunch. I read elsewhere that not all of them are college educated; and even college education doesnt mean, they can understand your work.

And if you attorney doesnt start working overtime on the RFE, fire him and get a more thorough going fellow.
 
Many Thanks for all the suggestions.
I work in a world renowed lab and our work is pioneering in this field. The thing is if there is any discussions about our work, it's always referred as Dr--'s group. My name has never being mentioned. How should i deal with it? Please advice.
I agree with your guys about my attorney. The thing is i already paid all the money (almost 6000 bucks) to him. I guess i'll have to stick with him for the REF.
 
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