Evaluate for EB1 EA

[Opinion Seeker]

Peers please give your honest opinion on my credentials for EB1 EA


Ph.D. from US University (Jan 2008) in entomology (less known field), currently working as post-doc

Publications 15 (12 first author, 2 second author, 1 third author) and 5-6 (all first author) in various stages for publication (criteria 1)

Citations 15 (coming from my first two papers which came out during 2004-05), mostly cited by coauthors (10) in their papers than outside people (out of 15 papers, >10 papers are new i.e. published in 2008-09)

Can get good number of recommendation letters from both references and referees (criteria 2)

Peer reviewer for three international journals and reviewed 14 manuscripts so far (in 15 months) upon invitation from editors (criteria 3)

Co-PI in three grants reviewed by NAS ($500,000)

International conference presentations 20 (both oral and poster) out of which 2-3 were invited

Member of American Chemical Society and Sigma Xi and an Honor Society (may be not strong for this criterion, so won’t stress much)

Best poster award, few travel grants, and a fellowship; all during Ph.D. (may be not strong for this criterion, so won’t stress much)

Since my university does not sponsor me for EB1 OR, I am planning to go for EB1 EA either by end of this year or first half of next year , because doing everything myself (no lawyer) takes quite a bit time it seems

Thanks in advance for your opinions

 

[baikal3]

Peers please give your honest opinion on my credentials for EB1 EA


Ph.D. from US University (Jan 2008) in entomology (less known field), currently working as post-doc

Publications 15 (12 first author, 2 second author, 1 third author) and 5-6 (all first author) in various stages for publication (criteria 1)

Citations 15 (coming from my first two papers which came out during 2004-05), mostly cited by coauthors (10) in their papers than outside people (out of 15 papers, >10 papers are new i.e. published in 2008-09)

Can get good number of recommendation letters from both references and referees (criteria 2)

Peer reviewer for three international journals and reviewed 14 manuscripts so far (in 15 months) upon invitation from editors (criteria 3)

Co-PI in three grants reviewed by NAS ($500,000)

International conference presentations 20 (both oral and poster) out of which 2-3 were invited

Member of American Chemical Society and Sigma Xi and an Honor Society (may be not strong for this criterion, so won’t stress much)

Best poster award, few travel grants, and a fellowship; all during Ph.D. (may be not strong for this criterion, so won’t stress much)

Since my university does not sponsor me for EB1 OR, I am planning to go for EB1 EA either by end of this year or first half of next year , because doing everything myself (no lawyer) takes quite a bit time it seems

Thanks in advance for your opinions

You have a shot but in my personal opinion you chances at the moment are not that great and it may be better for you to wait a year or so.
Incidentally, I think the numbering of EB1-EA criteria that you use does not correspond to that used by USCIS. Here is a list of these criteria from the USCIS website: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=3a4df271ab0fd010VgnVCM1000000ecd190aRCRD&vgnextchannel=91919c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD


"...evidence of EB-1 classification based on at least three of the types of evidence outlined below, is permitted ... :

1. Receipt of lesser nationally or internationally recognized prizes or awards for excellence;


2. Membership in associations in the field which demand outstanding achievement of their members;


3. Published material about the alien in professional or major trade publications or other major media;


4. Evidence that the alien has judged the work of others, either individually or on a panel;


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


6. Evidence of the alien's authorship of scholarly articles in professional or major trade publications or other major media;


7. Evidence that the alien's work has been displayed at artistic exhibitions or showcases;


8. Performance of a leading or critical role in distinguished organizations;


9. Evidence that the alien commands a high salary or other significantly high remuneration in relation to others in the field;


10. Evidence of commercial successes in the performing arts."

You don't really qualify for 1 and 2. You probably pass 4, based on your refereeing work, but even there the case could be stronger. You do pass 6, based on your publications. You can try to make a case for 5 but my impression is that for scientists it is fairly hard to convince USCIS to count both 5 and 6 together. Your weak spot is 3: the number of citations is fairly small and those that come from your co-authors are likely to be assigned lesser value. My feeling is that if you wait a little longer before applying and get more citations of your work, you can make a more convincing case for passing both 3 and 4 (plus maybe but that time you'll also get asked to review some grant proposals).
Having said this, you probably do have something of a shot now, if you make a convincing case for passing 4, 5 and 6. For 5 you could try to use the letters of recommendation, grants, conference presentations etc. My 2c.

 

[Opinion Seeker]

Thanks baikal3 for your reply.

I am also thinking that I am kind of strong in criteria 3 and 5 and reco. letter from peers in the field will make up for the criterion 4.

Yes, I am weak in citation aspect and since my publications are new, if I wait for 9-12 months they might go up. Anyways, since I am planning to prepare the petition myself in which case it could go up to one year by the time I prepare the whole package.

Have you taken lawyer help or did by yourself? I am looking for some help regarding reco. letter writeup and most importantly the cover letter. If you could give some ideas or sources where I can get access that would be great. I request others in this forum for such material, if they have.

Thanks.

 

[baikal3]

Thanks baikal3 for your reply.

I am also thinking that I am kind of strong in criteria 3 and 5 and reco. letter from peers in the field will make up for the criterion 4.

Yes, I am weak in citation aspect and since my publications are new, if I wait for 9-12 months they might go up. Anyways, since I am planning to prepare the petition myself in which case it could go up to one year by the time I prepare the whole package.

Have you taken lawyer help or did by yourself? I am looking for some help regarding reco. letter writeup and most importantly the cover letter. If you could give some ideas or sources where I can get access that would be great. I request others in this forum for such material, if they have.

Thanks.

I am still not sure which system of numbering the EB1-EA criteria you are using.

In my case when I was applying for a GC I already had a tenure-track job. So I had the university start the EB2 process (by submitting a labor certification) and at the same time I started collecting documents for an EB1-OR case, just to see which one goes faster. It took me a few months (but certainly less than a year) to put an EB1-OR case together and by that time my labor certification has just gotten approved. So at that point it was easier to just go with EB2, which is what I did. A number of my friends did EB1-OR (all of them without the help of lawyers). I only know a couple of people who did EB1-EA, while still postdocs. One of them did it while a postdoc at Harvard, without a lawyer. The other was a postdoc at Columbia, and she did use a lawyer but mainly because of the difficulties in removing the 212(e) condition which she had because of a prior J-1 visa. As for resources, look carefully through the back history of this forum, there is quite a bit of valuable info here.