Case Summary:

A graduate research assistant with a record of completing at least 4 peer reviews to date approached the North America Immigration Law Group to help him file I-140 NIW (National Interest Waiver) petition. Since peer review is considered “the only widely accepted method for research validation” with publishers relying on the peer review process “to uphold the quality and validity of individual articles and the journals that publish them”, we knew we had a well-proofed case at hand.

• Given the specifications of USCIS for NIW cases, his consistent peer-review experience served as evidence of his authority in the field.

However, we even looked further into his credentials to build our petition packet. We were able to find the following details of his publishing record, citation count, and funding evidence as well.

• His publications have been cited by researchers around 53 times according to Google Scholar coming from independent and leading researchers from well-regarded institutions and organizations around the world, indicating the major significance of his work.
• He holds an extensively documented record of authorship in his field of mechanical engineering. As evidence of this research success, his work has resulted in 6 peer-reviewed journal articles (2 of them first-authored) and 6 peer-reviewed conference articles (1 of them first-authored), making it clear that his work is also considered to be among the best in the field.
• His study has been supported by funding from NSF, NAVAIR, NIST, and NASA MSFC. These institutions fund projects that promote scientific and technological innovation, as well as industrial competitiveness. This support of our client’s research, therefore, serves as evidence that he is moving the field of mechanical engineering forward, as well as promoting innovation and economic productivity.

Furthermore, his research advancing his proposed endeavor is of great importance because:

• It enhances the manufacturing of parts critical to the biomedical implant and aerospace/transportation industries.
• His work helps deliver additively manufactured parts with the highest structural integrity, which holds great economic benefits for the biomedical implant and aerospace transportation industries.

The client’s research is therefore essential to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting environmental sustainability in manufacturing processes in the United States.

• Experts in the field have also attested to the importance of our client’s published body of work. He has gathered advisory opinions from four dependent and independent experts out of which one of the four independent experts had the following to say about him:

“[Client’s] research into advanced additive manufacturing techniques has myriad implications for several major industries, including the aerospace industry…[Client]has advanced the body of knowledge in additive manufacturing, allowing for improved fabrication processes which result in stronger, more reliable parts. His investigations into constructing heat-diffusing, flexible, lightweight lattice structures is another key advancement in his field.”

• As made clear by this objective evidence and expert testimony, our client’s proposed endeavor of investigating how feedstock and geometry affect the material properties of additively manufactured components in order to create stronger and lighter parts for such applications as biomedical implants and aerospace transportation has significant substantial merit.

Consequently, his impressive background, strong record of past achievements, recognition of expertise by journals seeking his services to review manuscripts, and unique knowledge relevant to his current and future work all indicate that our client is well-positioned to advance the proposed endeavor.

We were thus very happy to know the positive response in his favor from the adjudicating judge and are grateful to him for his continued trust in us. We wish him the very best in his life.