Green card for Postdocs / Phds

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has a  new fee schedule that goes into effect starting Nov. 23, 2010.  According to USCIS,  ”Applications or petitions postmarked or otherwise filed on or after this date must include the new fee, or they will be rejected”. After a comprehensive review of public comments, USCIS published the new fee schedule in the Federal Register on Sept. 24, 2010. The new fee schedule increases application and petition fees by an average of about 10 percent. Some relevant application fee changes are mentioned below.

Form No.

Application/Petition Description

Existing Fees (effective through Nov. 22, 2010

Adjusted Fees (effective beginning Nov. 23, 2010)

I-140

Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker

$475

$580

I-485

Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status

$930

$985

I-131

Application for Travel Document

$305

$360

I-765

Application for Employment Authorization

$340

$380

Biometrics

Capturing, Processing, and Storing Biometric Information

$80

$85

Sincerely
Green card for Phd Team

Disclaimer:
The contents in this web site are only for your information and are not intended to be legal advice.

Question

Thank you for coming up with such a wonderful website for people like us. You guys are doing a “GREAT” job. Keep it up As for me, I am working as a postdoc. I am interested in applying for a green card in EB1A category. Before knowing about your site, I contacted a lawyer farm to ask about my chances to acquire a green card but their response was not very encouraging. After going through the contents posted in your site, I am really feeling positive about my credentials. I think, I suit more to the EB1A rather than NIW but not sure enough. So, it would be really very kind of you and extremely helpful to me, if you can evaluate my CV to let me know where do I fit in to apply. I am attaching my CV for the same. Hope, I am not asking for much. Thank you once again.

Looking forward to hear from you. Please do reply.

Have A Great Day Ahead.

Answer

Typically with 5-6 publications, EB1a requires a compelling justification that the work performed is radically important to the research community or a certain field. For EB1a you have to satisfy 3 of 10 uscis criteria. For NIW, you need to be able to justify that the work is important to US national interest. We suggest you look at USCIS eb1a and niw criteria. Also looking at some example petitions would help. It is possible your application can work for both niw or eb1a. However, in our experience, applicant has a better judgement on which is the best category for them. Also there is always a possibility of applying in both categories, since it really does not double your effort. In many cases one who qualifies for one also qualifies for other.

You can also read our free e-book which answers various application questions.

Best of luck

Sincerely
Green card for Phd Team

Disclaimer:
The contents in this web site are only for your information and are not intended to be legal advice.

Bulletin Source: Department of state

Applies to: Green card applicants

Detailed Bulletin

Summary of Visa Bulletin Relevant to EB1A and NIW

1. EB1 is current for all countries
2. EB2 is current for all countries except for India and China.  EB2 cutoff date for India and China are  8 MAY 06 and 8 JUN 06 respectively.

Sincerely
Green card for Phd Team

Disclaimer:
The contents in this web site are only for your information and are not intended to be legal advice.