Timeline of the GC process:
2007-July: Submitted I-485 application as dependent (EB2)
2010-Oct: Divorced
2011-Nov: Received GC (consulted with N atternoies, all informed that this GC is problematic, or will invalid my H1b status at
the same time)
2012-June: Voluntarily gave up GC (Beijing, China)
*** *** *** *** ***
2012-July: employer agreed to sponsor GC application, started the discussions between EB2 and EB1
HR didn’t agree with EB1 at first when I only showed my list of publications. Preparing the first draft of the petition support letter helped me to solicit the arguments. With hard copy of evidences, HR changed mind and supported EB1
2012-Dec/Jan: completed the package with petition support letter (4 revisions) and all the evidence, and gathered all the references letters for EB1 application
2013-Feb/Mar: employer handed my case to external attorney, the documentations need to be re-organized, and all the reference letters need to be re-review and modified
2013-Apr: finalized the reference letters and got all the signatures, attorney re-organized the evidences and the petition
support letter, didn't include all the evidences I prepared before
2013-May: preparing the filling forms, discussed how to handle the previous GC
2013-July: submitted I-140 petition (receipt date: 07/08/2013)
2013-Oct: I-140 approved (10/01/2013)
2013-Nov: submitted I-485 (receipt date: 11/14/2013)
2013-Dec: finger prints (12/23/2013)
2014-Jan: USCIS requested RFEs regarding previous GC (01/21/2014). We included all the materials, but USCIS overlooked them. Anyway, the attorney sent the documentations (Affidavit, I-407, divorce files, previous GC approval and the GC copies) on 01/29/2014
2014-Feb: received the EAD card (approved for two years)
Waiting for GC
Total cost for EB1: Not quite sure how much, employer covered everything
Included materials in final EB1 application:
· Employer: non-profit medical center (among top 3 in US) -- practice, research, education
· Research field – clinical trials in oncology
· Biostatistics Ph.D. in Dec 2007, joined employer’s institution in Jan 2008, assistant professor in Sep 2009
· Total of 41 peer-reviewed publications
o 7 first/last author, 10 second author
o 7 in journal with impact factor of 18, 5 in journals with impact factor of 7 or up
· Total of 4 book chapters (2 published, 2 accepted)
· Total citations > 650 by google scholar
· Total of 45 abstracts
· References:
o Oncologist and professor, Director of clinical research, US (I drafted)
o Oncologist and professor, Head of the oncology department, France (referee’s writing)
o Oncologist and professor, Journal associate editor, Denmark (referee’s writing)
o Statistician and associate professor, associate director, US (referee’s writing)
o Statistician and professor, director of cancer center statistics, US (I drafted)
o Reserved for potential REFs: statistician/professor from Belgium; Oncologist/director from Switzerland
Notes: None of them were my advisors or professors back in the graduate school. All of them had > 200 publications in the fields, are PIs of high influencing clinical trials, solid evidences of the international recognitions. They are all my collaborators. When preparing the letters, we tried to give them directions of not mentioning the direct collaborations with me. I contacted 10 potential referees and was rejected by 3 of them.
· Peer-review work for 20 high-profile journals with a total of 38 reviews
· Member of committees which review the work of others:
NCI task force committee,
grant reviewer for genesis oncology trust assessment committee in New Zealand
· Highlights of the citations by others:
highlighted by Agency for healthcare research and quality in their recommendations for the field,
talked about in editorials of two journals,
results used by MSKCC doctor for case diagnosis,
highlighted in the Leading News section of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) eDigest,
highlighted in New York (Reuters Health), and subsequently reported in Fox News, NBC News, Yahoo News, Lifestyles and Medline Plus
Notes: Google your articles, the Fox news etc. will show up if they talked about your articles. Always pick the 1st or 2nd author publications if you can
· Receipt of awards/research grants: > $7 million on multiple grants (PI for one small grant, co-I for couple large grants)
· Voting member for 4 NIH committees
Wish everyone good luck!
