Case Summary:

An expert in the field of geographic information science from China wanted our help with his NIW (National Interest Waiver) petition. His proposed endeavor was to continue investigating human thinking, perception, learning, and behavior in virtual environments. He wanted to create high-quality virtual applications for navigation systems, professional training, and virtual learning environments. Our team could easily see that his proposed endeavor is of great importance because of the value of his advances in virtual applications for the global VR market. Thus, while preparing his case, we looked at his academic and professional records and collected the following data to convince the USCIS of his merits:

• We gave a detailed description of his proposed endeavor and made certain that it was linked to the national interests as per the requirements of the NIW category.
• Due to its clear national importance, his research has also been supported with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
• He has been invited to conduct reviews for prestigious magazines and has completed at least 23 reviews to date.
• His research has resulted in 15 peer-reviewed journal articles (5 of them first-authored) and 18 conference articles (4 of them first-authored).
• These publications have been cited a total of 415 times according to Google Scholar, thereby demonstrating that these publications are widely recognized and relied upon in the field of geographic information science.
• At the same time, he has pursued research directly related to his proposed endeavor for 4 years already.
• Last but not least, he has received 4 letters of support from experts in the field recommending his work in the area. One of them had the following to say of them:

“[The client’s] virtual reality experiences is on the forefront of utilizing virtual programs to educate students. [The client’s] virtual field trip programs provide a flexible learning method for students in a variety of environments, and his project has also resulted in increased motivation in students. Not only did [the client] develop virtual programs for education, but he also conducted further study into the details of virtual environments so that he could personalize the design and allow equal access to virtual environments regardless of the participant, promoting wider use of VR in the US education and research. These repeated successes prove that [the client] will continue to develop technologies that advance the field, and as such his current and future research presents an invaluable opportunity for the United States.”

Thus, we are glad to have had the opportunity to work with him and help him with his NIW case. We thank him for his trust and our firm wishes him the very best in all future endeavors.