please help evaluate my EB1A qualifications.

Y

yytd

Registered Users (C)
Hi gurus,

Please help evaluate my qualifications and strong/weak points for EB1A application. Thank you in advance !

My background first:

1. Education: PhD in biology (cancer biology) from an OK university (ranked 40th) in US. Currently doing Postdoc (cancer biology) in a top university of US for 4 years.

2. Papers: 10 peer-reviewed papers. Best ones are 4 PNAS (co-first-author in 2 of them, still in press, may come out together by December). 4 first-author: two in PNAS (co-first author, 4th and 2nd in order, IF=9.5), one in Cancer Research (IF=7.6) and one in Oncogene (IF =6.4). All English. All within last 5 years. One manuscript in writing (only co-author, will submit in 2 months to a very good journal).

3. Conferences abstracts and presentations: 9 in international conferences. All first authored. 8 posters (including one late-breaking poster --- considered a breakthrough by the society) and one invited talk.

4. Citations: Total 53 from 6 published papers (26 from 2 first author papers). The 4 PNAS papers are still in press -- no citation yet.

5. Reviewer: invited by the editors to review 8 manuscripts (11 times including revisions) for 3 oncology journals (ranked 3rd, 4th and 18th most cited oncology journals).

6. Invited to be a Guess Executive Editor by the editor-in-chief for one review issue on my sub-expertise for an OK oncology journal (IF=5.4, 20th among 132 Oncology journals). Have not done anything yet, may have to turn down the invitation since it will take too much time, but will probably do it if it will help my green card application A LOT.

7. Reference letters: 8 letters from ok/good-named professors. I drafted 6 (strong). 4 independent (know from meeting, 1 international--a little weaker).

8. Three memberships in scientific societies: two asked for qualifications such as Sigma Xi and AACR.

9. An institutional award from my PhD university for my outstanding graduate research. Some graduate fellowships (may not count).

10. No media report. No grant or postdoc fellowship.


My questions:

1. How necessary I should do the Guess Editor work? It will certainly help, but by how much? It will take tons of my time, since I have to find 4-6 people to write the reviews and then 8-12 reviewers to evaluate these reviews. I rather like reviewing manuscripts.
2. Should I wait to have more reviews?
3. Should I try to get more international reference letters? The only international letter I have is only warm, not as strong as others.
4. Can I claim to meet the membership criteria? Two of the 3 memberships are selective, but not too selective.

I think I can claim to meet 3 EB1A criteria: Reviewer (still a little bit weak, will be stronger if I do the Guess Editor work); Publications (10 journal papers and 9 conference presentations); Original Contributions (reference letters + memberships + one small award + citations). Or separate out the memberships.

What do you think? Should I wait a little longer or submit it as it is now. I may have 3-4 more reviews and 3-4 more citations if wait for another 4 months. But I am thinking of submitting it in 1-2 months, since I need greed card for grant application and better job hunting.

BTW, I submitted a NIW I-140 last July to TSC -- still pending. Plus, my submitted NIW I-485 is not current anyway (have EAD and AP in pocket though).

Your comments are deeply appreciated.
 
Quick answers:

1. Highly necessary to bolster your application. I recommend doing it if you have the time. Guest editorship will def. help a whole lot than being a reviewer or getting invitation(s) to review. Nowadays USCIS considers peer-reviewing a normal part of a researchers life/job. So, editorship will certainly help.

2. No, unless you know for sure you will get invited to review 20-25 manuscripts in the next few months. Otherwise, there is no big difference between 11 and lets say 21.

3. Certainly. The more independent and international, the better.

4. I see mixed results for memberships such as Sigma Xi. Wouldn't hurt to claim this as one of the criteria.


IMO, you stand a very good chance to go through. As usual, the way you/your lawyer presents this case would be critical. You could present your case (like most people do) on the three main points: 1. Judging others work, 2. Original contribution in your field, and 3. Scholarly articles/publications.

I think the awards and memberships may not qualify but doesn't hurt the application either.

Good luck!
 
Thank you, GC-Hopes. Really appreciate your suggestions. Very helpful.

I will see how much time I can invest in the editorship. Please allow me to push my original question a little further -- if I really can not affort the time, do you think being a reviewer for 11 times is bit weak to claim that point ?
 
I think you have a good shot at EA, but you should do NIW as backup as well. Cancer research is definitively national interest.
 
Thank you, nscagony. Congrat for your green card approval. I have a NIW I-140 (last July), but it is still pending.
 
Eb1b

yytd said:
Thank you, nscagony. Congrat for your green card approval. I have a NIW I-140 (last July), but it is still pending.
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yytd,

why don't you explore the possibility of filing through your University - EB1B

I am sure you would have absolutely no problems getting through and, being EB1, you can expect a fast decision !
 
Thank you. My university does not sponsor EB1B for postdoc. And I am also thinking of finding a real job.
 
If there is a possibility (see the requirements) you can file EB1-EA through premium processing and see what turns out.
TSC is little better than NSC.
you have most of the things required for a successful application. The better you write the application and letters the chances are more.
few words to avoid (young, aspiring, in the beginning of the career, postdoc, etc)
Good luck.
 
yytd said:
Thank you, GC-Hopes. Really appreciate your suggestions. Very helpful.

I will see how much time I can invest in the editorship. Please allow me to push my original question a little further -- if I really can not afford the time, do you think being a reviewer for 11 times is bit weak to claim that point ?
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I would not explicitly state the number (i.e., 11 times) in my application then. Instead, I would present myself as a reviewer for three prestigious journals, get letters from the editors attesting to the fact that I played a key role in reviewing often and that my review decided the outcome etc.
 
GC-Hopes said:
I would not explicitly state the number (i.e., 11 times) in my application then. Instead, I would present myself as a reviewer for three prestigious journals, get letters from the editors attesting to the fact that I played a key role in reviewing often and that my review decided the outcome etc.
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I second the opinion of GC-Hopes.

Its a good idea to get letters from the Editors. In my case I obtained letters from Editor-in-chief/Senior Editors of 4 journals for whom I reviewed manuscripts. Also, I printed out the relevant web-page of 2 journals - one showed me as an associate editor and the other had my name in the list of guest reviewers.

Additionally, I also obtained 8 letters from people who cited my research work in their publications (though only 2 could arrive by the time I filed my petition....and I held on to the remaining 6 just in case of RFE !!!)

Hope this helps ...
 
yytd said:
BTW, I submitted a NIW I-140 last July to TSC -- still pending. Plus, my submitted NIW I-485 is not current anyway (have EAD and AP in pocket though).
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I don't think you should worry about your I-485 being current (mainly because you have your EAD and AP). You are all set once your I-140 gets approved.
 
Thank you GC-Hopes and akmm for your advices. I will try to get letters from the Editors.
 
akmm said:
you are very welcome

:)
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akmm, congratulations to the approval of you EB1B.

Would it be possible at all that you provide some kind of templete for the letter from journal Editor ? What are the key points in the letter ?

I can provide my email address if you prefer. Thanks a lot !
 
yytd said:
akmm, congratulations to the approval of you EB1B.

Would it be possible at all that you provide some kind of templete for the letter from journal Editor ? What are the key points in the letter ?

I can provide my email address if you prefer. Thanks a lot !
Click to expand...


GC-Hopes has provided link to one such template. I think the letter covers all the points.

In my case I had several letters and they ranged from half page long to about one and half pages long. The longer ones were those where the editor-in-chief wrote in detail about his own qaulifications, experience as editor and about the journal - its impact, coverage etc.

The key points for such letters, in my opinion, would be -

1. "International" nature of the journal.
The editor should mention explicitly that the journal has wide international circulation and that the journal publishes research articles of scientists from all over the world.

2. If the journal has high impact factor, those figures can go in the text.

3. Mr. X (the applicant) has reviewed manuscript(s) for this journal based entirely on his/her expertise on the subject.
I beleive that this is the essence of the letter. The editor should be very clear in stating that he/she, or any member of the editorial board, does not know you personally but its the policy of the journal to seek out for best qualified scientists for evaluation of scientific manuscripts.

These are the different points around which you have to build up your letter. In most instances when you write to an editor for help, he/she will write back to draft a letter. You can then build up the letters by making changes in the above sections to reflect that they were written by different people (much like the recommendation letters). Also you can make look letters apart by adding other information...for example, in case the editor has a powerful CV himself/herself....you can exploit that by adding a paragraph on editors qualifications in the letter. In another letter, you can copy and paste from journal's web-page about the journal - its scope and the subjects covered, its circulation etc. In yet another letter, you might copy and paste from journal's webpage about the editorial policy, selection of reviewers etc.

I am sure this would be of help. Feel free to comment if you need more sepcific information.

Best of luck...
:)
 
Thank you so much, akmm and GC-Hopes. Those posts are very helpful. I will use the information to draft a few different versions of the letters.
 
yytd said:
Thank you so much, akmm and GC-Hopes. Those posts are very helpful. I will use the information to draft a few different versions of the letters.
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very well....best of luck.

remember....we are just a shout away..;)
 
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