Case Summary:

A Ph.D. student approached the North America Immigration Law Group to file his alien of extraordinary ability (EB-1A) petition. Born in China, he has completed double masters in M.S. in Public Health in Environmental Health and Epidemiology and M.S. in Epidemiology and Biostatistics and is also currently employed in the field of Public Health.

Since, a petition for the first preference category of individuals with extraordinary ability, (“EB-1A”), unlike the employment-based immigration visa under the second preference (“EB2”) at least requires the following:

• Evidence of original contributions, usually through publication, of major significance in the foreign national’s field of science, scholastic, artistic, or athletic.
• No specific job offer/labor certification is required for a foreign person as long as he/she is entering the United States to continue work in the field in which he/she has an extraordinary ability, therefore self-petition is allowed.
• Performance in a significant role for organizations or establishments that have a distinguished reputation.
• Receipt of a higher salary or remuneration than is usual in the field.
• Other comparable evidence if the above types of evidence do not readily apply to the foreign national’s occupation.

Therefore, we included the following essentials from his academic and professional records in his petition packet to make a convincing case in his favor:

• His public health and environmental health research addresses some of our nation’s and the world’s most pressing issues, including the development of birth defects as a result of parental exposure to metal pollutants, the establishment of non-invasive methods for performing metabolomic profiling, and the assessment of the impact of air pollution on cognitive function.
• His strong background in the application of biology techniques to environmental research has allowed his research to be particularly original, resulting in his success in fundamentally transforming public health and environmental health research.
• His research has resulted in 19 peer-reviewed scientific articles (7 of them first-authored) and one patent, being cited 225 times in at least 28 countries.
• He has conducted at least 17 reviews to date.

Our client’s work has thus been relevant to the completion of several studies aimed at the degree to which exposure to various environmental pollutants impacts the health and development of communities.

• Four fellow experts in the field further provided insight into the significance of his continuing research in the field, one of whom remarked:

“The organic and inorganic pollutant measurement method [client] developed is critical for improving the ways doctors monitor secondhand smoke exposure among pregnant women…Thus, [client’s] analysis technique is especially valuable for mitigating the unknown risk of second-hand smoke for pregnant women in the United States. His method successfully combined the operations of organic and inorganic pollutants to simultaneously analyze these components in hair samples. In this and all of his research projects, [client] is advancing the field of public health research. It is for this reason and the others listed above that I am recommending [client] be allowed to remain in the United States to continue his commendable work.”

Finally, he achieved his EB-1A (Alien of Extraordinary Ability) approval in just 25 days (thanks to premium processing). We are happy to have been a part of his successful journey and wish him a flourishing life ahead.