guyneedshelp
Registered Users (C)
Hello,
First some background for my case:
I am a Research Associate(a sexier name for postdoc) at a university. Have been working in this position for more than 3 years. 30+ publications by the time I filed the I-140. More than half of them in PRL.
The I-140 was filed in December of 2005 to Vermont center. It was transfered to Nebraska center in May of 2006 and the nightmare starts. It was sitting there for the past 13 months. On 6/29/07, I paid the $1000 PP and on 7/2 got RFE. Here is the full text of the RFE:
The letter from the Department Chair indicates that the beneficiary is employed as a Postdoctoral Research Associate. The academic community itself hold postdoctoral appointments as being training assignments, precursors to full-fledged academic or research careers. White it is not impossible for an individual in such an assignment to have been made an offer of permanent employment, the burden remains on the petitioner to establish the facts about the employment, beginning with the actual job offer. The copy of the job offer you have submitted states that the appointment is contingent upon the continuation of funding in the form of grants. Addtional information is required.
How long has this project been funded? Contingent on funding year-to-year, what is the expected term of this project? Submit evidence demonstrating prior renewals for extended long-term research projects. Are the benefits attached to the beneficiary's position the same as those offered to tenured or tenure track positions? You must submit evidence that this is a permanent research position.
My lawyer said the only letter that bore the Department Chair's name is the original job offer, which only states I am hired as Research Associate(i.e., no P word in it). But I guess nowadays the immigration officers are all fully aware of the nature of this position.
What should I do next? Would a letter from the Department Chair explaining the nature of the project(this is a big group and has been in business forever and will continue to be so, by the way) be sufficient? What counts as 'evidence that this is a permanent research position'?
I did some research on this board, and I got the feeling that this case is more or less doomed... Any remedy to this?
By the way, that was the only thing(s) asked of me in the RFE.
Any advice/comments are highly appreciated.
---guyneedshelp, I mean, he really does.
First some background for my case:
I am a Research Associate(a sexier name for postdoc) at a university. Have been working in this position for more than 3 years. 30+ publications by the time I filed the I-140. More than half of them in PRL.
The I-140 was filed in December of 2005 to Vermont center. It was transfered to Nebraska center in May of 2006 and the nightmare starts. It was sitting there for the past 13 months. On 6/29/07, I paid the $1000 PP and on 7/2 got RFE. Here is the full text of the RFE:
The letter from the Department Chair indicates that the beneficiary is employed as a Postdoctoral Research Associate. The academic community itself hold postdoctoral appointments as being training assignments, precursors to full-fledged academic or research careers. White it is not impossible for an individual in such an assignment to have been made an offer of permanent employment, the burden remains on the petitioner to establish the facts about the employment, beginning with the actual job offer. The copy of the job offer you have submitted states that the appointment is contingent upon the continuation of funding in the form of grants. Addtional information is required.
How long has this project been funded? Contingent on funding year-to-year, what is the expected term of this project? Submit evidence demonstrating prior renewals for extended long-term research projects. Are the benefits attached to the beneficiary's position the same as those offered to tenured or tenure track positions? You must submit evidence that this is a permanent research position.
My lawyer said the only letter that bore the Department Chair's name is the original job offer, which only states I am hired as Research Associate(i.e., no P word in it). But I guess nowadays the immigration officers are all fully aware of the nature of this position.
What should I do next? Would a letter from the Department Chair explaining the nature of the project(this is a big group and has been in business forever and will continue to be so, by the way) be sufficient? What counts as 'evidence that this is a permanent research position'?
I did some research on this board, and I got the feeling that this case is more or less doomed... Any remedy to this?
By the way, that was the only thing(s) asked of me in the RFE.
Any advice/comments are highly appreciated.
---guyneedshelp, I mean, he really does.