Becoming a permanent resident through the EB-1B category for researchers and professors is an option for some. Beyond that, getting permanent residence through the EB-1B is an attractive option, a preferred option, too. Often, foreign national workers and their employers prefer the EB-1 category over some other categories because there is rarely a shortage of EB-1 visas and because the category requires no labor certification.
What this means is that adjudicators often adjudicate EB-1B petitions. When adjudicating them, the adjudicators are required to use a two-part approach.
First, the adjudicator must determine whether the petitioner has submitted evidence to meet the criteria for the EB-1B classification.
Second, the adjudicator must consider all of the submitted evidence to make a determination of whether the foreign national meets the requisite level of expertise for the EB-1B classification.
The First Part of the Two-Part Process
The AAO has stated that “outstanding professors and researchers should stand apart in the academic community through eminence and distinction based on international recognition.”
To document that the researcher or teacher is recognized internationally as outstanding, the rules require submission of at least two of the following:
- Documentation of the immigrant’s receipt of major international prizes or awards for outstanding achievement in the academic field.
- Documentation of the immigrant’s membership in associations in the academic field which require outstanding achievements of their members.
- Published material in professional publications written by others about the immigrant’s work in the field.
- Evidence of an immigrant’s participation, on a panel or individually, as the judge of the work of others in the same or allied academic field.
- Evidence of the immigrant’s original scientific or scholarly research contributions to the academic field.
- Evidence of the immigrant’s authorship of scholarly books or articles in scholarly journals with international circulation.
- Comparable evidence. (USCIS adjudicators can consider comparable evidence when the previously-listed criteria do not readily apply to the professor or researcher’s field of expertise).
It’s important to recognize that simply submitting evidence within the listed categories is not enough to merit EB-1B classification. The evidence must also satisfy the second part of the two part analysis: the evidence must demonstrate “eminence and distinction.”
In following posts, we will look at AAO decisions concerning each of the evidentiary categories. These decisions shed light on what the AAO considers to be “eminence and distinction.”