jmxu said:
Sorry, I didnot make myself clear in my last post. I mean the lawyer (actually Murthy) thinks we are not very qualified but we want to have a try by self petition anyway.
Thank you!
fly
To jmxu, to apply for NIW, please remember one thing that is very important: your work has to be in the national interest of USA. So the key is the nature of your work, not how strong your academic (PhD, postdoc) or professional background is, although the latter is also very important. So I guess when Murthy said you are not qualified, they might refer to the nature of your work, not your degrees.
You may be surprised by how "weak" my background is. I only have a master degree (from a top U.S. univ.), only one conference paper and one conference poster, no citation. I'm doing IT work for a niche market in healthcare industry and I initiated most of the work. Despite of my weak background, I was able to get strong reference letters from several industry heavy-weights who didn't personally know me at all. I also obtained several comment letters (not in the format of refernce letters) from federal government agencies acknowledging the importance of my work. I believe these letters mentioned above made my case successful. In fact, after Attorney Murthy reviewed the case prepared by her staff, she was so impressed by the letters that she asked them to put those letters at front to impress the case reviewer, and I guess it worked.
Anyway, make sure you know what Murthy really meant by saying you are not qualified. And you can always ask other lawyers for second opinion. I first asked another famous lawyer and he refused to accept my case because of my weak background. Then I turned to Murthy firm, and they actually gathered a few lawyers together to discuss whether they should accept my case or not. Eventually they decided to do it and also told me they thought I only had 70% chance to get approved. Later their staff and I worked very hard together on my case. My case was approved without RFE. and I'm really appreciative of Murthy firm.
So, if you think you have a shot, go ahead to try it and try it hard. But make sure you know what you need to prove for national interest.