EB1A - Researching to understand the process
Laying the groundwork needed to prepare for the EB1-A journey.
In the previous post I talk about What is EB1A and Why does it matter?
My Profile
I have an undergraduate engineering degree in Computer Science from India and also have a Masters of Science from a university in the US. In school I published one paper but I was not heavily involved in research in general. Post university education, I started working for startups as a software engineer and a few years back transitioned into Engineering Management. One of the startups that I worked at got acquired and I was an early stage employee of the startup. In total I had around 11 years of experience when I filed for the EB1A green card.
As you can see, my profile before I started was very similar to many engineers working across the US. As a person working in industry, many of us do not actively seek out avenues where we show our expertise outside of our company. To give an example, you might be an electrical engineer working for a hardware company on battery technology and your work has helped improve battery performance of the latest smartphone by 0.1%. This has a huge impact if you extrapolate the time/electricity saved to millions of phones on which this technology is used. But since this work never got published, you were not able to show the impact of the work externally. This example should hopefully help you in understanding why a PhD holder is not the only person who is an extraordinary individual in their field. I have seen QA engineers, Data Infrastructure engineers, Senior Consultants with a Big 4 company awarded the EB1A visa.
In regards to the criteria that I targeted and successfully fulfilled were :
High Salary
Critical role in a distinguished organization
Judging
I also published some articles across designing online systems on various tech blogs, published a paper, got IET & IEEE membership, did a podcast where I was interviewed by a popular tech journalist that was published on spotify and a blog interview that was published online.
Researching to understand the process
I started with researching about EB1A on my own before engaging with lawyers. There were a few blogs and youtube videos that were super helpful to build an initial context. Some of the ones that I found the most helpful were
Blogs/Articles by lawyers
BreakThroughUsa.com (Chris Ingram)
VisaBuilder.com ( Mary M. Kearney)
WeGreened.com (Victoria Chen)
Videos
Self file vs Employer sponsored application
EB1A can be self filed and one does not even need a job offer to apply. Your employer can also file the application but in case your application is approved but you have not yet filed for Adjustment of Status (I-485), and your employment terminates for any reason, your application will be automatically void. The plus side of employer sponsored application is that
you can work with company attorneys which saves you attorney fees and
you will face significantly less pushbacks to get recommendation letters and corroborating evidence from your peers and managers.
I personally went thru self filing as I wanted to keep control of my application in case my employment got terminated. Also, the adjustment of status could have taken longer if my priority date was not current which meant even if I had the approval, I had to stay with my employer.
Lawyer Consultation
I talked with a few lawyers to get an idea of the process and also what in their professional opinion were my chances. I learned a lot about the requirements mentioned above. The main takeaway was that anyone can file for an EB1A visa as long as they can meet the requirements. One does not need to have a PhD or need a lot of research papers cited. This is the common misconception which deters a lot of people from digging deeper on this option.
You can also reach out to your employer’s immigration attorneys. I have seen that their consultation was heavily bent towards PhD applicants as their intake form included questions like how many research papers you have published and what is the citation count. Conversation with outside lawyers came in handy as they helped me divert the conversation away from PhD based immigration applications to engineering related one.
Reasons to hire an immigration attorney
EB1A can be self petitioned and you can file the application by yourself. There are websites where you can buy a sample EB1A application template.
Once I did the initial consultation, I found that it will take a lot of effort for me to get the application in a way that is of high quality, organized and has the evidence presented in a way which is easy to digest for the adjudicating officer. I was also extremely busy with my work and family, and after spending time gathering evidence, I did not want to get the application rejected because of a clerical error.
A good analogy that I use to describe the attorney and applicant relationship is of a ship’s captain and navigator. Consider your attorneys as the navigator for your EB1A ship. You are still the captain and crew and will have to do the leg work to gather evidence but they are going to tell you the direction.
Separately, attorneys (especially good ones) have many cases in flight at a point in time and they have a pulse on how the uscis officers are adjudicating the application. It is my hunch that every officer has an internal checklist when they are making a decision on these applications. The attorney will help you in organizing your application in a way that provides the right amount of information which does not overwhelm the officer but at the same time meets the stringent requirements, thereby helping them check off requirements on the list.
Moreover, they will be the first litmus test for you to pass in regards to fulfilling the requirements. Besides analyzing and organizing the evidence, they will also draft the customized recommendation letter, cover letters that will need to be endorsed by folks who themselves are at the top of their profession and can evaluate your expertise.
I realize that there are a few lawyers who are willing to work with non traditional (non-phd) applicants. I focused on getting their opinion and if they thought that there were around 50-60% chance of me getting approved, I was willing to go through the application process.
Here is a template that I used for sending an initial email to few lawyers
Hello,
I am interested in exploring the EB1A green card option for myself and my family. My aim with this email is to provide good enough information to help you make a call on whether my profile can be considered as a potential candidate for EB1A or not.
Currently, I am working in <XXXX, YY> for a successful YYYY tech startup . <Add a blurb about your company>
At YYYY, I led various critical projects which played an important role in YYYY’s huge growth. I work as a ZZZZZ on H1B work visa. My I-140 is approved under EB2 category. I joined this company in YYY as a <XYZ> and grew from being an individual contributor to <current role>.
I have a Master's degree in <Field> from <Name of University> and undergrad in Computer Science and Engineering from India.
During my research to see if I can qualify for EB1A, I found the following points that I need to qualify for
Person's presence will substantially/prospectively benefit the USA : I think your expertise can help here in crafting the argument that supports this requirement.
Person will continue to work in the field of endeavor in the USA : I think I satisfy this requirement as I am currently working.
Demonstrate sustained acclaim in the field of endeavor
Review of other people's work : Working as a manager, I review work of others. I am not sure if this can be considered as a supporting evidence.
Employed in critical essential capacity in a distinguished organization : Considering the above mentioned information, I would consider that <Your current work> is a distinguished organization. Working in a Managerial capacity currently on very critical projects should support this requirement.
Command a high salary relative to others : My yearly salary here at XXX is $<number>. I think that will satisfy this requirement.
There might be other points that you can suggest based on your expertise but I wanted to bubble up what I thought will be useful information to you. Please see my resume (attached) for further details of the projects that I have worked on.
I look forward to hearing back from you about your evaluation and potential next steps.
Regards,
<Name and Phone>
How to evaluate the attorneys?
After talking with a few lawyers, I had built an internal rubric.
Are they engaging in a productive conversation?
I found that many attorneys will not share information with you and you will have to poke them consistently to get answers. This was a big let down for me as I was willing to learn as much as possible about the process and wanted to be involved in it.
Do they have avenues where they share their knowledge about the subject?
As I shared above, many immigration attorneys have strong experience working on complex cases and are thought leaders. If they have a blog, video or any other avenue where they share their content, it meant to me that they understand all the nuances of the application process deeply.
How responsive is their team
You will be working with the lawyer and a back office staff. As part of the initial intake form, they will schedule an appointment and will need some time to evaluate your profile before they agree to work with you. You would like to see how responsive they are in setting up meeting slots, getting back to you etc. If there is too long of a delay, you should avoid them.
What are the timelines that they are looking at?
Some lawyers I talked with mentioned that it will take them more then 1 year to prepare an application even though I had already done some legwork. You should be ideally looking for someone who after analyzing your profile gives you a reasonable break down of the timelines. I was on top of my application and was done with my process in 6 months as it was my #1 priority. In return the lawyer I worked with was also very responsive. Anywhere between 6 months - 9 months is reasonable amount of time.
How much does it cost?
There are two dimensions of the cost associated with the EB1A application.
USCIS Fees:
I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker : $700
I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service : $1,440 (optional)
Lawyer Fees:
Range is pretty wide and is between $4,000 - $15,000
I personally found that a good lawyer based on above criteria will cost somewhere between $7500-10,000.
In the next post, I talk about fulfilling the EB1A Criteria
Stay away from Sharif Silmi , total fraud ,
Thanks I ll also share my experience shortly, its a tough journey with countless times I almost gave up. I ll include your post in my experience it was helpful.