Industrial Scientist - NIW

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muji100

Registered Users (C)
I am looking into NIW. I have a PhD in Organic Chemistry and work in the pharmaceutical industry for 5 years now - currently employed in the US on H1-B. (1) Do my letters of recommendation need to be based on my PhD work (3 publications) or on what I do in my current position. I can get more letters from industrial scientists than academic ones and as for govermnet agencies - I don't know where to start.

A potential attourney says I have a case but not a strong one as my work is not research (I work in research and development in drug discovery but more towards development- which is equally important) - she says there is a bias towards non-research petitons at the VSC :(

I have 3 publications, 33 citations (scientific journals and text), presented at conferences, am listed as an article reviewer for 2 major journals (although I have not actually reviewed just yet) and have been contacted by numerous executive search companies, amongst the usual stuff. Should I risk $5000-$7000 as my company is sponsering Labour Certification (VERY SLOW).

Finally, will the law ever change to allow spouses of H1-B visa holders the option to work.

I am already finding this forum very useful.
 
muji100 said:
I am looking into NIW. I have a PhD in Organic Chemistry and work in the pharmaceutical industry for 5 years now - currently employed in the US on H1-B. (1) Do my letters of recommendation need to be based on my PhD work (3 publications) or on what I do in my current position. I can get more letters from industrial scientists than academic ones and as for govermnet agencies - I don't know where to start.

A potential attourney says I have a case but not a strong one as my work is not research (I work in research and development in drug discovery but more towards development- which is equally important) - she says there is a bias towards non-research petitons at the VSC :(

I have 3 publications, 33 citations (scientific journals and text), presented at conferences, am listed as an article reviewer for 2 major journals (although I have not actually reviewed just yet) and have been contacted by numerous executive search companies, amongst the usual stuff. Should I risk $5000-$7000 as my company is sponsering Labour Certification (VERY SLOW).

Finally, will the law ever change to allow spouses of H1-B visa holders the option to work.

I am already finding this forum very useful.
Click to expand...

You might also want to consider EA-EB1.

Personally, I have never heard of this bias at VSC. Working in synthetic org chemistry in a discovery position, especially if you work in Big Pharma, should be a shoe-in if your attorney is not lazy and is willing to build a case. I am an analytical chemist working in product development and got NIW and EA approved at VSC. I see you are in NY. Send me a pm and I will recommend my (old) attorney who has an office in Manhattan. He does these petitions all the time.

And no, there are no plans to allow H4's to work.

Brian
 
Fees

If I apply for the EA-EB1 category in addition to the NIW, do I need to submit two I-140s and pay twice.

muji100
 
Yes, you do, but it's not a ton of money. The real question is which one to file I-485 with.
 
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