Case Summary:

The EB1-A or Alien of Extraordinary Ability status is reserved for those foreign individuals who can prove that their research endeavor is of extraordinary ability. If such people want to continue their work here in the U.S., they apply for EB1-A status via petition application producing evidence of their extraordinary abilities. So when we got an EB1-A request from a leading laser and sensing expert in fiber optics from China, we made sure to gather evidence of his abilities to use in his petition writing. Some of these facts are:

• He has achieved a consistent and notable record of success and influence in this area of study and he is especially well-known for developing a graphene-saturable absorber-based fiber optic pulsed laser. Furthermore, his work developing a silicon Fabry-Perot interferometer-based fiber optic bolometer and designing a silicon-tipped fiber optic temperature sensor has received support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s SBIR Phase 1 funding initiative.
• The field has recognized his authority by inviting him to review and evaluate the work of his peers no fewer than 29 times. In addition to directly advancing the design of fiber optic lasers and sensors through his original research and peer review service, he has actively engaged his peers in the field of fiber optics by authoring and co-authoring 26 peer-reviewed journals articles, 5 peer-reviewed conference papers and 1 granted U.S. patent that have been published in international journals and conference proceedings.
• These publications have been cited 455 times by researchers in at least 29 countries according to Google Scholar, thereby demonstrating that these publications are widely recognized and relied upon in the field of fiber optics. This has also placed him in the top 1% of most highly cited authors publishing on topics in fiber optic sensors and optics over the past 10 years according to OpenAlex.
• His study, for which he is the principal investigator, has also been granted funding from the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR), Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), National Science Foundation (NSF), and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). These entities also support research that enhances areas including national security, health, energy, and overall economic benefit, showing that his work is broadly recognized for its relevance to national interests.
• And finally, his work has been supported by 4 experts via letters of recommendation, two of which stated the following about his work:

“[The client’s] work is, therefore, a cornerstone of progress in the field, with his trailblazing approach in enhancing fiber optic flow sensors overcoming previous obstacles in the field. Given the valuable and impactful nature of his work to the United States as well as the scientific community at large, it is inarguable that [the client] is an asset to the fiber optics field.”

“[The client’s] efforts were recognized by the Department of Energy (DOE) through their SBIR Phase 1 award, which funded the commercialization of [the client’s] sensors. Being funded by a government agency indicates that [the client’s] work and its commercialization is of the utmost importance to the interests of the United States.”

With this in mind, our team filed this petition and waited for the results. As expected, we got his approval in just 24 days of application. We are privileged to have worked with him and we wish him all the best in future endeavors.