NIW approved--Job Change?

L

lex2004

Registered Users (C)
Good news: Just received an email from USCIS that my NIW is approved (haven't received the official paper approval notice yet).

Bad news: My company just started layoff this week, and it might be my turn in a few months. I cannot file 485 due to retrogression, so how risky is it to change jobs?--I will certainly stay in the same field.

I got a lot of useful information from this site. Thanks guys.

My case:
RD at TSC Jan 2006
AD at TSC Today
PhD in Engineering, a dozen publications, few citations (since publications are pretty recent), 5 very strong letters, 3 professional memberships, and journal reviewer for 2 professional journals.
 
Not very risky to change jobs. This is the intrinsic benefit of EB1-EA and EB2-NIW (i.e., self petitions). But you must work in the same or similar field of your approved I-140 petition. For example, if you are a R&D engineer, it is recommended that you change job that have significant R&D component (i.e., it may be risky if you change job to be a production engineer, for instance).
 
COngrats for I-140 approval.
The rule says its after 6 months of I-140 approval and pending I-485.....you can change jobs..............i beleive its applicable for all categories....but some got away with NIW some not!
 
ebdoc, thanks for the caution. The following is what I found at a lawyer's site:

http://ti.3law.com/eb1a_niw_advantages.htm
EB-1A and EB-2 NIW do not require labor certification (also true for EB-1B and EB-1C). Furthermore, a petition in EB-1A or EB-2 NIW (but not EB-1B and EB-1C) is a so-called independent petition and the petitioner is not tied to a specific employer or a specific job description. The only requirement is that the person must stay in the same or similar field.

I understand I cannot rely on what one laywer says so I will be doing more research. Since you mentioned that some NIW failed 485 due to job change, can you provide some details of those cases to help me avoid possible pitfalls? Thanks
 
I am interested in knowing your guys' opinion about this as well. My NIW was approved with my title being "Senior Programmer" working in fMRI (function magnetic resonance imaging) related research (developing a software for that), now I want to switch job to another commercial company to work on software development but it will be focusing on just medical imaging, instead of the specific fMRI. Do you guys think there might be issues? Sorry to throw the term fMRI there.

By the way, after switching job, are we supposed to inform USCIS about it? Thanks.
 
eb1doc,
Yes AC21 portability requires I-140 approval and I-485 pending more than 6 months. But this is generally true only for employer based petitions and not self-petitions. This information is provided to me by my attorney when he suggested that I apply for EB1-EA.
 
Please check the USCIS websites: 1. http://uscis.gov/graphics/howdoi/eligibility.htm: "While the EB-1 worker of extraordinary ability may petition for himself or herself, the employer must file the petition for an outstanding professor or researcher and a multinational executive or manager."

2. http://uscis.gov/graphics/howdoi/eligibility2.htm : "EB-2 petitions must generally be accompanied by an approved, individual labor certification from the Department of Labor on Form ETA-750. Please see the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration for more information.
If you are a worker with exceptional ability in the sciences, arts, or business, you may apply to waive the requirement that you have a job offer if such a waiver would be in the national interest. "

They match very well. EB1-EA or EB2-NIW petitioner is not tied to a specific employer or a specific job description.



lex2004 said:
ebdoc, thanks for the caution. The following is what I found at a lawyer's site:

http://ti.3law.com/eb1a_niw_advantages.htm
EB-1A and EB-2 NIW do not require labor certification (also true for EB-1B and EB-1C). Furthermore, a petition in EB-1A or EB-2 NIW (but not EB-1B and EB-1C) is a so-called independent petition and the petitioner is not tied to a specific employer or a specific job description. The only requirement is that the person must stay in the same or similar field.

I understand I cannot rely on what one laywer says so I will be doing more research. Since you mentioned that some NIW failed 485 due to job change, can you provide some details of those cases to help me avoid possible pitfalls? Thanks
Click to expand...
 
lex2004 said:
Good news: Just received an email from USCIS that my NIW is approved (haven't received the official paper approval notice yet).

Bad news: My company just started layoff this week, and it might be my turn in a few months. I cannot file 485 due to retrogression, so how risky is it to change jobs?--I will certainly stay in the same field.

I got a lot of useful information from this site. Thanks guys.

My case:
RD at TSC Jan 2006
AD at TSC Today
PhD in Engineering, a dozen publications, few citations (since publications are pretty recent), 5 very strong letters, 3 professional memberships, and journal reviewer for 2 professional journals.
Click to expand...

To my understandind you do not need an employer for NIW. SO why to change job would be a problem? There is no reason for that.

Can you give us some more info about your case? Did you file your application with an attorney? To which SC? Any helpful tip you conceived through your experience in this application process?

thanks
 
No, NIW doesn't need to be filed by an employer. And I was my own petitioner for this case. I filed my petition at Texas (TSC in my original post means Texas SC)

I filed the case my case without a lawyer. I am working with a decent company/employer but due to some difficult family situations, I cannot afford a lawyer. Luckily, I have a wife who used to be an English major (she's a foreigner too) and a perfectionist. After agreeing to help me with the case, she started from scratch. She told me to her it was a 'complicated research project' involving a lot of new research/knowledge in the field of immigration law. She was trying to prove a point and she just needed strong evidence to show that point was true. So it is the same concept as writing for a difficult literary work as an English major to her--only the subject matter changed.

Another interesting point of hers was that the letters should be written by the recommenders themselves since then it would sound various and credible and thus interesting. Again, these recommenders are all highly educated and can write well. My wife informed the recommenders what points should be covered and they would come up with their first drafts. The letter came back and my wife would read them again and again and again to make sure all criteria of NIW are thoroughly discussed and proved. If not, she would make suggestions for improvement. So each letter went through multiple revisions till she was full satisfied.

In addition to that, she also read everything she could find about NIW (mainly from the Internet) and wrote the cover letter. She also suggested to send a 'thin' package (for instance, I just included title and reference pages of my publications) so as to keep the officer focused on my credentials instead of the hundreds of pages I sent him. Certainly my wife sincerely thinks I am great and writes passionately about my achievements--that helps too.

Overall, I am very lucky...
 
Sorry I forgot to mentioned it took us almost a year to get the case ready, so I feel that a good lawyer will be very helpful!
 
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