On May 11^th, 2016, we received another EB-1A (Alien of Extraordinary Ability) approval for a Clinical Engineer in the Field of Systems Engineering (Approval Notice).

General Field: Systems Engineering

Position at the Time of Case Filing: Clinical Engineer

Country of Origin: India

Service Center: Texas Service Center (TSC)

State of Residence at the Time of Filing: Virginia

Approval Notice Date: May 11^th, 2016

Processing Time: 82 Days (Premium Processing Requested)

Case Summary:

A clinical engineer from India sought North America Immigration Law Group’s help when he decided that he wanted to obtain green cards for himself and his family. After going through his CV and professional accolades, we confirmed that he qualified for EB-1A (Alien of Extraordinary Ability).

Thanks to the 8 scientific articles, 4 conference papers, and 3 scientific magazine articles to his name, we were able to prove to the USCIS that our client’s research is being disseminated amongst other professionals who are also progressing the field of systems engineering. We also noted the 94 citations gathered from his work and the 15 times he judged the work of his peers for several scientific journals. According to a prominent assistant professor who signed a recommendation letter in support of our client’s EB-1A petition: “[Client’s] continued work is of great importance to the U.S., as it has and will continue to further our understanding in areas such as biomedical, human factors, and usability engineering. This directly benefits the medical industry and ergonomics as a whole, both of which are vital to the scientific interests of the U.S.” Another expert in the field, a manager, stated that “It is my expert opinion that [Client’s] continued work in this area will help to educate the American public on important hospital environmental factors such as ICU noise levels and will further help in establishing effective strategies for dealing with such issues.” Four other experts joined the aforementioned two supporters in advocating for the approval of our client’s EB-1A petition by also contributing recommendation letters, and as is apparent by the approval notice that our client received 82 days after filing, they certainly helped. Because our client opted for Premium Processing, his case should have been processed within 15 days but it took far longer than that because of the RFE issued.

What is an RFE?

According to the USCIS, a Request for Evidence (RFE) is issued when “… an application/petition is lacking required documentation/evidence (initial evidence) or the officer needs more documentation/evidence (additional evidence) to determine an applicant’s eligibility for the benefit sought.” As soon as we received the RFE, our legal team and support staff got to work putting together a strong response to it. A couple of months later, we submitted the RFE package to the USCIS and they approved our client’s EB-1A case just 7 days later. We are pleased that our meticulous response to the RFE convinced the USCIS that our client’s achievements are warranted and that he will continue conducting functional research that benefits the United States.

We recently filed an I-485 application for our client and his dependent and we join them as they eagerly await a favorable outcome from the USCIS. In the meantime, we wish our client the best as he continues to addresses some of our nation’s most pressing issues in understanding how to improve hospital ergonomics by decreasing harmful environmental factors.