I-140 EB1a denied, please advise!!

Green Carl

New Member
Hi, All:

My I-140 (EB1a) was filed on 1/20/04, denied on 05/24/2005. Please advise me how to response: appeal, or reorganize the material and file again?My comment is highlighted in blue.

My qualification:

• 5 year research experience in a top university in China after MS degree
• PhD: 1/2000 in a famous research center in Germany
• Postdoc and research scientist in two very good universities in US.
• 40 papers in journals including Nature Materials, Applied physics Letters, Journal of Applied Physics, Physical Review B etc. (12 of them are first author), citations about 200.
• 5 research patents in US (2 are directly from my work)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------


(i) Documentation of the alien’s receipt of lesser nationally or internationally recognized prizes or awards for excellence in the field of endeavor;

Natural Science Award Second Prize from National Education Commission of the People’s Republic of China, May 1995.

While the award may show the self-petitioner’s competitiveness within the field it does not rise to the level of prominence or significance of a lesser nationally or internationally recognized award. In this sense, the major international prize criterion is meant to be even more extremely restrictive than the lesser criteria. ......... Even the general public recognizes these awards as being the highest possible honors in their respective fields, and eligibility is not restricted to any one nationality. Overall, the petitioner has not established that he, individually, was the recipient of lesser nationally or internationally recognized prizes or award in his field of endeavor. The petitioner has not established that the alien was the recipient of lesser nationally or internationally recognized prizes or awards in his field of endeavor and sustained national or internationally acclaim. As such, this criterion has not been met.

(iii) Published material about the alien in professional or major trade publications or other major media relating to the alien’s work in the field for which classification is sought. Such evidence shall include the title, date, and author of the material, and any necessary translation;

In this case, the self-petitioner asserts that he and his work has been the subject of numerous publications in professional or major trade publications or other major media. Counsel for the petitioner claims these publications include the New York Times, Nature Materials, Nature Science update, Scientific American, etc. However, counsel for the petitioner asserts that the petitoner’s work was specifically published in The New York Times, Nature Materials and Scientific American. The petitioner also claims to be the first author of several important publications and U. S. Patents.

A review of the evidence of the article in The New York Times demonstrates that the majority of the article is predominantly about Superconducting Compound and not about the actual petitioner. The majority of the other articles only briefly mention the petitioner and his work devoting only 3 paragraphs to the petitioner. The petitioner is not even mentioned in the Scientific American article and is cited (referenced) in Nature Materials. Additionally, the evidence must be considered in the context of origin. Corroborative evidence was not submitted to show the article’s national coverage such as the level of circulation (local, national or international); frequency of publication (how often I is printed); and the circulation (number of copies printed) that proves the specifics of this criterion. (In my response to RFE, I did provide the details of media, and I also discarded some less important media reports. Indeed some reports are brief, some in more detail. Why they do not look the whole picture of evidences?)

Therefore, counsel for the petitioner has not successfully demonstrated the petitioner has published materials about himself in professional or major trade publications or major media. As such, this criterion has not been met.

(v) Evidence of the alien’s original scientific, scholarly, artistic, athletic, or business-related contributions of major significance in the field;

The petitioner claims that the alien to have made original scientific contributions as a Research Scientist by virtue of 6 (six) letters of attestation and support from others in the scientific field. Counsel for the petitioner also asserts that Patents are of major significance and hold five patents.

The letters of attestation and support confirm that the petitioner is talented, highly skilled, productive and successful. The letters assert that the alien to be an Outstanding Research Scientist. They indicate that the alien’s work is very impressive and his contributions to various projects were consistently excellent. However, it should be noted that the definition of extraordinary ability for purpose of this benefit is a much more specific definition that is clearly different from how it is being used in the letters of support. US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) does not contest that the alien is talented. Clearly, the documentation submitted shows such a talent. The requirement for this category has highly restrictive definition and criteria, which need to be reached in order to qualify for this benefit. It is not sufficient to simply show that the alien has achieved three of the ten criteria list above. This alone would not be sufficient if the sustained acclaim either nationally or internationally has not been reached and the recognition of achievement in the field ha not reached the level expected within this highly restrictive definition. Further, evidence of the alien’s original contribution is in the form of letters from individuals whom, for the most part, have either worked with, instructed, or have been acquainted with the alien throughout his career. It appears that these individuals do not offer an unbiased opinion regarding the contribution to the field, which have been made by this alien.

The petitioner claims that the alien to have made original scientific, scholarly, artistic, athletic, or business-related contribution to of major significant in the field by virtue of the 5 patents has put him in an elite class of researcher. However, a review of the evidence shows that the petitioner is not an individual patent, but was part of a team with other inventors. (2 of thye 5 patents were directly from my research and my ideas, for others I helped in the experiment. Since I used professor’s funding, and worked in the group, that is why I am not the only author of patents.)


(vi) Evidence of the alien’s authorship of scholarly articles in the field, in professional or major trade publications or other major media;


The petitioner claims the alien to have met this criterion.

In this case, the petitioner submitted evidence that shows the alien authored and coauthored published specific paper. The evidence further indicates that some of the papers appeared in such publications as The American Institute of Physics, The Journal of Applied Physics, Physical Review B, ....... Superconductivity, Citation by peer Scientists and Review Articles. However, mere submission of published work does not in itself sufficiently establish that the alien has extraordinary ability-that he is one of that small percentage who has risen to the very top of this field. The some of the articles in question were coauthored with other researchers. The petitioner did not submit evidence to establish that his individual contribution to e research which resulted in the publications was substantially more significantly than other coauthors. Numerous experts and professional publish articles in professional, major trade publications or other major media. The evidence submitted does not show the importance of the alien’s articles in the international community and how it compares to other publications in the order of importance to the field. Most professors, researcher scientist and experts in the scientific field; are required to write papers documenting their findings. As such, virtually, every PhD holder is able to present evidence of a similar body of work. The petitioner has failed to establish the significance and the importance of the alien’s articles in question, and how they specifically have set him apart from others in the same field. Therefore, it appears that this criterion has not been met. (My papers are about the discovery of new physics, invention of new technology, still the best method to make the best thin film in our field, and my method is used by several other groups, my papers are widely cited. This is supported by independent letters from UK, Janpan and US. My research has significant impact in the field. I do agree that many PhD holder and experts write papers, but not everyone or most of them can write papers which have significant impact in their field. That is the difference between me and most of them. So again, I do not think it is fair at this point.)

...... The petitioner has not submitted evidence to sustain the alien’s claim of extraordinary ability. The petitioner has not provided evidence that fulfills the three criteria needed to meet the initial requirement for the “Extraordinary Ability”, as well as proving that the alien has risen to the very top of the field of endeavor. The alien has not shown that he has sustained national or inter national acclaim and that his achievements have been recognized in the field of expertise.

As such, the alien is ineligible for classification as an alien of extraordinary ability in the sciences, ..... Therefore, the petition is denied.
 
hmmm...

I was wondering if you hired a lawyer to file this petition. Your backgroud seems to be strong enough. Did you try tp prove more than these three criteria, such as reviewing journal papers etc?
 
Sorry for the denial. Your background looks strong enough to file OR comparing with many OR approvals posted in this forum. However, you might not present your case very well. Did you have an attorney to file I-140? My suggestion is find an attorney and try to appeal first. During appeal, your EAD and AP are still valid if you have one. If appeal is not successful, reapply I-140, but you may have to go a different category.

I have two questions for you. Which service center you are at? Did they give you 30 days to appeal?
 
(III) I think your mistake was to put too much weight on magazines like The New York Times etc. These are not scientific related journals and so there is no evidence that they published your research because your research is the best because their journalists can't evaluate this with there background. Purely scientific journals in your area of research are much more important. The other questions is if all these journals focused on you, as a person, in their reports or on the research you were with other involved with. If these reports desribe the research but doesn't mention you as the main driving force they are not really helpful.

(V) Six letters are not much you should have send more. Are all these letters from absolute independent researcher with no connections to you or one of your former bosses ? And patents are always a bad way to establish evidence for EA cases. A patent is not peer reviewed. To have patents is not a sign of excellence in science, everybody can file patents. Peer reviewed papers in major journals are much more important. In addition, no independent scientists can evaluate your input on a patent since a patent is highly confidental (so you need to be the inly author of a patent to use it for GC purposes). It is always important to have reference letters from independent scientists claiming that you are the main driving force in a project and that is not possible with patent but with papers and conference abstracts etc.

(VI) Do you have numerous letters from independent scientists around the world that you are the main driving force in all the papers and that the large majority of the results in all those papers is based on your research alone ? Did your different bosses clearly wrote letters that you were the main part of his group who pushed the whole project forward ? To be part of a successful project is not enough for EA. You have clearly to establish by independent sources that the project wouldn't be successful without your help. (Only a letter from your boss is by far not enough).

Overall it seems for me that you couldn't establish that the whole successful project was based on your research alone. It looks like that you couldn't clearly distinguish for the USCIS between your impact and the impact other coworkers and your boss had on the project.

Overall I would say that you should try OR or get better evidence for EA and start the process again, just my two cents.
 
Green Carl said:
Hi, All:


--------------------------------------------------------------------------


(i) Documentation of the alien’s receipt of lesser nationally or internationally recognized prizes or awards for excellence in the field of endeavor;

Natural Science Award Second Prize from National Education Commission of the People’s Republic of China, May 1995.

While the award may show the self-petitioner’s competitiveness within the field it does not rise to the level of prominence or significance of a lesser nationally or internationally recognized award. In this sense, the major international prize criterion is meant to be even more extremely restrictive than the lesser criteria. ......... Even the general public recognizes these awards as being the highest possible honors in their respective fields, and eligibility is not restricted to any one nationality. Overall, the petitioner has not established that he, individually, was the recipient of lesser nationally or internationally recognized prizes or award in his field of endeavor. The petitioner has not established that the alien was the recipient of lesser nationally or internationally recognized prizes or awards in his field of endeavor and sustained national or internationally acclaim. As such, this criterion has not been met.

I am not familiar with Chinese awards but how many scientists get this award every year. And since you got your PhD in 2000 but the award in 1995, the award is based on what part of your research ?
 
honkman and graduation 2003:


Thank you very much for your detailed comments and suggestions.

My case is in California Center. My initial filing had 5 letters (3 were from former bosses, 2 were independent). In my response to RFE (3/9/05), I submmitted 5 more independent letters. it seems that the USCIS officer did not listen to the independent opinion at all, still saying that some of the recommenders are my former bosses, so their letters may not be unbiased.

About the Chinese award, it was based on my work on device research, it included device fabrication, characterization and set up of measurement system. It was huge amount of work. I was one of the major researchers.
 
Green Carl said:
honkman and graduation 2003:


Thank you very much for your detailed comments and suggestions.

My case is in California Center. My initial filing had 5 letters (3 were from former bosses, 2 were independent). In my response to RFE (3/9/05), I submmitted 5 more independent letters. it seems that the USCIS officer did not listen to the independent opinion at all, still saying that some of the recommenders are my former bosses, so their letters may not be unbiased.

About the Chinese award, it was based on my work on device research, it included device fabrication, characterization and set up of measurement system. It was huge amount of work. I was one of the major researchers.

I guess the USCIS officer was a little bit biased because you only send 2 independent letters with your initial filing which is way, way too less for EA. Were the independent letters (including the ones for RFE) from several different countries around the world and also include some people from industry ?

It seems that your award was not specifically for you but for your research team. Than it is not surprising that USCIS didn't except it as a evidence since they expect that awards for EA are for your personal research and your accomplishments only.
 
Hi Green Carl,

I want to draw your attention to the following written by the adjudicator

"Even the general public recognizes these awards as being the highest possible honors in their respective fields, and eligibility is not restricted to any one nationality"

This is written in response to your stating that you had received an award given to someone from the People's Republic of China.

What do you think of that?????

You might consider hiring a good attorney and filing an MTR.
 
They had almost the same concern about my awards (4 first and 1 second prize in 5 years in the most prestigious, government organized software competition in my country). Luckily, they issued an RFE and I submitted additional evidence including:
- A list of all organizations / institutions I competed against (for 2 years since I lost official printed material about the others)
- Proof that the competition was open to all
- Proof that one can not automatically be accepted to participate. You have to apply and a large number of entries are rejected and not allowed to participate
- Proof that the judges were selected from both industry and academia and represent the most senior people in the field in the whole country
- Proof that companies from all over the country participated

Finally, I added several newspaper clips providing reasonable coverage to the competition to proof that "everyone knows about this competition"

Also, looks like they confused your "lesser national" award with "major international award" you should clearly mention that your award was a national level award for people in China.

I strongly believe that if presented correctly, your case should be approved without any problems
 
Hi, Logicators:


Thank you very much for your encouragement and the informatoion how you anwsered their concern.

I am considering appeal, but I am afraid that I can not find enough new independent letters in time (they gave me 30 days, but 10 days already past when I received the decision). I will consult with a lawyer. Also, I do not know whether it is possible to refile the petition in the same catagory.
 
Green Carl said:
Hi, Logicators:


Thank you very much for your encouragement and the informatoion how you anwsered their concern.

I am considering appeal, but I am afraid that I can not find enough new independent letters in time (they gave me 30 days, but 10 days already past when I received the decision). I will consult with a lawyer. Also, I do not know whether it is possible to refile the petition in the same catagory.

Hi Green Carl,

I would suggest first MTR and then refile. AAO decisions take much longer and chances are lower. If you are in the sciences, you will have plenty of citations. Contact each one of them and beg for testimonials (not reference letters). Also, if you can't get new letters get your lawyer to (re)summarize the previous ones. This is common practice.

Some good law firms are familiar with the vagaries of different processing centers. Your credentials appear great, but your petition might need better 'marketing'.
 
similar situation

:mad: I just completed my RFE (EB1A) on 9th June 2005. From your case, I don't think I have the chance to get approved. :( :( :(

For my case (8 years in the field):
30 refereed papers
5 recom. letters

If you appeal successfully, let me know.
 
Chen....
what is your RFE about ? What are notice date, receipt dates of your case.....what is the name of service center
 
My case is almost the same as you, even the submission date and denial date, but I am at Nebraska. I Got PhD and did my postdoc all in USA and even had USA national recognized awards, But I do not have so many publications as you, but I do have more patents and some patents are commercialized. However, it still got denied. The true denial reason is the same as you, no attorney and no luck. I hired a lawyer to look at my denial case, like he said, the case is strong and but is not presented in a right way.

I want to share this story with you and hopefully you can feel better. I have been there and I know it is very hard. Right now, to tell you the truth, you can do the appeal as you want, but do not put any hope in, try to file in another category as soon as possible. I am doing this right now. New recommendation letters are needed.
 
Hi, chiron:

Thank you very much for sharing your story and your suggestion, and good luck for you. Now I work in a company as a scientist, I will try other catagory such as OR, or go through regular LC. The time is crucial for me.

Green Carl
 
right referee

Hi,

Luckily I got approved with my EB1A. I have no intention to use attorney because their fee are expensive and they have no exp. in my field.
If I used them, I think my application would be denied.
I have only six years working exp. in my field.
I prepared my application by myself. I never asked my friends to provide me recommendation letters directly. But I asked top scientists to put comment on my CV directly. I never worked with them on any publication or research. Those top scientists or directors came from Federal government, top research centres around the world. In addition, I compared my CV with two professors quantitatively. Citation is important in the application if you know how to compare and use it.
None of membership (IEEE senior membership, accredited statistician or fellow) in my field are worth to classify as "extraordinary". So, I pointed it out that why I never joined them. I tried my best to get pass in five criteria.
They requested RFE. From the letter, it was highly likely that I got two criteria pass. So I concentrate on the other three criteria.

To let you stand out in your field, you need comparison objectively and quantitatively (top 10%). To prove that you are one of the top in the field, you need letters of recommendation from top scientists from state, federal govs. from different countries. They must have no direct link with you.
You must provide evidence or activities that the other top scientists do not have. Don't expect papers published in top journals is eqivalent to extraordinary. Scientists or professors with 20 or more papers should only consider EB1-OR but not EB1-A. Most of the uni.s help professor in immigration, they use labor certification instead of EB1-OR. They know that high quality papers did not mean outstanding or extraorindinary.


I am waiting for my I-485 approval now.
 
chengywc....i do not agree with you.......uscis do not follow an exact science......i know people with much less credentials than green_carl get approved in 4 weeks...

sometimes it depends on luck...maybe the officer who is handling the case...

but most of the times....if you have a Phd, 5-10 publications, 10-20 citations, 7-10 reference letter(not necessarily independent, i know many people who had submitted only 1-2 independent letters...), few namesake memberships, awards ....you are good enough..

but for EB1-EA or NIW you have to be in a field which is a higlight of current works...like gene therapy or nano technology etc..
 
logicators, can you describe this contest a bit more? Is this a contest for students, or for professionals? Was it open to any citizen of your country? Or were there age / student status limitations?

logicators said:
They had almost the same concern about my awards (4 first and 1 second prize in 5 years in the most prestigious, government organized software competition in my country). Luckily, they issued an RFE and I submitted additional evidence including:
- A list of all organizations / institutions I competed against (for 2 years since I lost official printed material about the others)
- Proof that the competition was open to all
- Proof that one can not automatically be accepted to participate. You have to apply and a large number of entries are rejected and not allowed to participate
- Proof that the judges were selected from both industry and academia and represent the most senior people in the field in the whole country
- Proof that companies from all over the country participated

Finally, I added several newspaper clips providing reasonable coverage to the competition to proof that "everyone knows about this competition"

Also, looks like they confused your "lesser national" award with "major international award" you should clearly mention that your award was a national level award for people in China.

I strongly believe that if presented correctly, your case should be approved without any problems
 
Top