Need an opinion on RFE

B

ben70

Registered Users (C)
Hi all,
I applied in EB1-OR category and got an RFE. In RFE,

1) They like to know that I am internationally recognized.

2) They had a problem with my advisor\'s letter saying that he was "modest"
in praising me

3)I work at a university as a research specialist and they question if
this position is the highest research position at the university. I think
research associate is the highest position and I am not a research associate.

I talk to the person who filed the application on behalf of me and she suggested that it may be better the withdraw the application at this point and reapply when I get my PhD degree. I am currently a last year PhD student. She told me my chances can be higher then.
What do you guys think about this decision? Is it better to wait and have
my PhD then apply again or give it a shot now?
Any opinion will be appreciated.
Thanks all
 
I just got my EB1-OR approval

To qualify for EB1-OR, you must meet three minimum requirements and AT LEAST two out of six accomplishments stated on Form I-140. You need hard evidence for all these requirements. PhD degree is not a requirement, but it is a very very very strong plus. It is hard to justify that an outstanding researcher has no Ph.D. degree.

To justify "internationally recognized", you may
1) state explicitly "you are internationally recognized" in most of supporting letters;
2) Get supporting letters from Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, ... Letters from China and India have less weight.
3) Ask someone who does not know you personally and lives outside of USA to sign, I mean to sign not to write, letters for you. Do not be shy to say you are a leading scientist in ...

Here is what I did. My PhD advisor wrote a "modest" letter for me. I simply threw it into trash can. Instead, I got two letters from other committee members. I got a letter from Italy, a letter from Canadian professor who reviewed a paper of mine but I have never met and talked to him. I volunteered as a session chair in an international conference, and also as a reviewer of a top journal in my field. The funny thing is that I only reviewed one paper and the conference will be held in Feb 2002 but I already got approval.

FYI, I did everyting by myself. If you post your background here, I am more than happy to evaluate your application.
 
My qualifications

Thank you eb1tsc,
Here are my qualifications.

1)I have an MS Degree in Electrical Engineering from a US university.
I am a last year PhD student and hoping to get my PhD degree soon.
My PhD will also be in Electrical Engineering.

2)My research is health related. It is on the prediction of the heart attacks, sudden death before it happens, development of new techniques. Every year more than 300,000 people in USA die from heart attacks and we are developing new methods to prevent or minimize sudden death caused by heart related problems. I work with people from both medical and engineering field. I have the engineering background and plus have the knowledge of medical aspects of our research.

3) I have 5 journal papers all published in medical journals but I am
not the first author in any of of them. (Mostly second author)
I have more than 25 abstracts and conference papers. (More abstracts than conference papers) Again I am the first author in
3 of them and mostly I am the second author. Those conferences are international conferences.

4) I have one US patent. (actually by the time I applied for EB1-OR I had one patent but I got another approved recently so I have two now) Second author in patents. Actually the patent got attention of some
companies and a major US company in health industry supported our research financially for 3 years.

5) 6 citations. (Journal papers are recent)

6) I also had 6 reference letters. 3 from my university and 3 from other. All from US except one.

I have not reviewed a paper and have not been a session chair in a conference.
 
You have a chance, NIW may be better

In the three minimum requirements, I assume you have 3 years employment experience.

Out of other six qualifications, you have
1) Original contribution (papers and patent)
2) Authorship of articles
3) Published materials written by others (citations)
Number (3) is not strong. I may say you meet 2.5 qualifications.

Do you have any prizes or awards such as famous scholarship, best paper or best presentation? Awards from your home county count!

Do you have any advanced membership in any society? The membership by paying a fee does not count.

Are you or have you ever been any reviewer of journals or member of any academeic committee?

With 2.5 qualifications and no PhD and sound position, your case is not strong. Anyway, it is worth trying. But you have a strong case for NIW if the health-related issue is one of eight NIW categories. Check immihelp.com for more information.

After you got your PhD and have a sound research position, you should have a very strong case then.

For your RFE about "internationally recognized", get several letters out of USA. Remember that you do not have to get letter from famous professor or scientist. Think about those IIOs have only high-school diploma and do not know who is famous in your field. Anyone with a PhD should be OK. Note that a Walmart cashier has no authority to say you are an outstanding researcher. So you may praise the author of suport letter first with the best words you can find such as top, leading, one of a few, ... making him/her an outstanding researcher first and establishing his/her authority to judge you.

Excuse me, my boss is knocking my door ...
 
No Title

FYI, I have five journals articles, 3 in a small journal of my home country, 2 in a small journal in US. I was not first author in any of these articles. But I have more than 10 conference papers, mostly as the first author.

I am a mediocre scientist. But after reading my supporting letters and cover letter, most of people will believe that I could be the candidate for Year 2002 Nobel Prize. Something amazing is that I stated everything based on facts.

I interviewed an attorney first. I asked the attorney 3 very basic questions. He had to look Form I-140 for answers and kept saying that I am board certified and asked for $7000 for a EB1-OR case. I paid $50 in order to see this idiot board-certified attorney. After that I decided to do everything by myself.
 
Thank you eb1tsc. But....

Thank you for really useful information,
I have a few questions:
1) Did you have a format for the support letter or every indivudual
wrote the letter by themself ? Did you tell them how to write it?

2) In those letters , do they specificly state the words "internationally recognized" ? Should they do it ?

3) You are saying that you are a mediocre scientist then how did you
make yourself so good and stated everything based on a fact? I just like to know an example to see how it is done.
 
my opinion

You had better to withdraw and do it after you have a PhD. Your case is weak.
The reason:
1. You do not have a PhD yet;
2. your rank is NOT high;
3. your case is NOT strong;
The advice from the person who filed the petition for you, is sincere.
 
No Title

yitizhu is right, you do not have a strong case like I stated. But You will lose nothing to respond to an RFE. Why withdraw it? It usually takes about one month to get a decision on RFE. A denial will not hurt your future application. I had NIW denial, but I appealed. The appeal is still pending which did not block the approval of my EB1-OR.

I said I am a mediocre scientist since I have no journal article bearing my name as the first author. But as a PhD, you must have done something new, otherwise your PhD is fake. Therefore, you can claim you are a leading scientist in ... of ... of ... of. You are one of very few in the world who did ... ... ... ooa on the forum posted plenty useful info, go and search for it.
 
discussion

hi, eb1tsc:
Nice to hear your opinion. The reason for me to suggest withdraw is that he does not have much chance to get it approved. He definitely can respond.
By the way, research specialist is not a high rank, lower than a post Dr, research associate, from my opinion.
 
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