On January 10^th, 2017, we received another EB-1A (Alien of Extraordinary Ability) approval for a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Field of Molecular Biology (Approval Notice).

General Field: Molecular Biology

Position at the Time of Case Filing: Postdoctoral Scholar

Country of Origin: India

Service Center: Texas Service Center (TSC)

State of Residence at the Time of Filing: South Carolina

Approval Notice Date: January 10^th, 2017

Processing Time: 3 months, 11 days (Premium Processing Requested, RFE Received)

Case Summary:

A postdoctoral scholar from India hired North America Immigration Law Group (WeGreened.com) to file an EB-1A (Alien of Extraordinary Ability) petition on her behalf. After months of hard work, we filed her petition under Premium Processing (PP). PP is a supplementary service offered by the USCIS. By paying them $1,225 more, our client hoped to trim the overall wait time from 4-9 months to less than 15 days. However, she ended up waiting close to 3.5 months before receiving notification of case approval. This is because the USCIS issued a Request for Evidence (RFE). As we needed time to collate as much evidence as we could in order to put together an effective RFE response, our client had to patiently wait longer than planned to reach her green card goal. She filed her I-485 case on January 23, 2017 (self-petition) and was approved on April 13, 2017. On April 17, 2017, our client finally received her permanent resident card.

What did the EB1A petition contain?

As we needed to prove that our client possesses extraordinary ability in her field of molecular biology, we paid special attention to her research on the plant leaf extract she was working on and its benefits. We persuaded the USCIS that our client’s findings have various applications, one of which is in developing anti-cancer treatments. Furthermore, we listed the 275 citations accumulated from her 13 publications as well as the 17 times she conducted peer reviews for highly regarded scientific journals.

Strengthening the case:

In order to fortify our client’s EB1A petition, we urged her to gather recommendation letters from several of her peers. In a nutshell, we needed other expert molecular biologists to vouch for our client’s work and her reputation as a respected researcher. Not long after we helped our client narrow down a list of suitable recommenders, she returned with five signed letters, one of which contained this statement: “I feel that [Client’s] continued research is a necessity to invent new treatments for rapidly increasing ailments (cancer and neurological disorders) in USA and worldwide. It is therefore of paramount importance that her research be allowed to proceed uninhibited.”

Securing petition approval:

We congratulate our client for obtaining EB-1A petition approval and her green card, and we thank her for placing her trust in us. We also wish her the best as she continues her work in the US.