Green Card DIY: A very helpful link from CIS and some tips

Dear all

 

I just got my GC recently. This was my 2^nd petiton. 1^st one filed in 2005 under EB1B, DIY, case was screwed by INS. They said they sent RFE to me but I have never received. Learned this 1 month after filing SR with my dept clerk. Received denial notice when was preparing for RFE because my response was out of time. 2^nd filed Sep 2006, NIW, hired a lawyer in NY, $2500 total. Approved without RFE in 2007. Looked back, I was not the luckiest, but not the unluckiest either.

 

Lessons learned:

The failure of my 1^st case, partial reasons was that I didn’t follow it close enough. My bad. Secondly, I didn’t use the forum well. If I were to come here to request assistance, could have appealed and I would have a good chance. Back then I collected all the case record from INS over several months among which none of them showed a RFE had been sent out.

 

Recently when I was going through my files I found some cases I downloaded from INS websites. They are real cases. I was going to share with you. Accidentally I ran into recent ones when I was surfing the new CIS website. This is the link:

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.2540a6fdd667d1d1c2e21e10569391a0/?vgnextoid=0609b8a04e812210VgnVCM1000006539190aRCRD&vgnextchannel=0609b8a04e812210VgnVCM1000006539190aRCRD

 

This is very long link. If it doesn’t work, follow these directions:

Go to CIS homepage,

click” Law” on the top,

click “Administrative Decisions from the USCIS Administrative Appeals Office” in the center,

chose the category. (See blow)

B2 - Aliens with Extraordinary Ability (EB1A)

B3 - Outstanding Professors and Researchers (EB1B)

B5 - Members of the Professions holding Advanced Degrees or Aliens of Exceptional Ability (NIW)

Chose the year you want to look

Then download the files.

 

NOTE:

These are REAL files sent to the appeal office. They could succeed or fail. Either way, in the arguments you will see all kinds of pitfalls in other petitions. You might never know you have them if you don’t read these files. It will help you avoid any potential problems in your petition. Your lawyers may make the same mistakes. YOU are the most reliable immigration lawyer of yourself. Moreover, you can easily find those who had similar background as yours. I benefited from them a lot.

 

Some quick tips:

For NIW, generally you don’t need to find referents form other countries. USA is enough. Better find someone works in government such as NIH, DOD, Washington etc. Their testimonies carry much more weights as regards to what areas are National Interest. For EB1B, you definitely need international referents. This is a must have to prove your are recognized internationally.

 

About recruiting referents:

If you boss don’t volunteer, don’t have to rely on them. My personal experiences with my EB1B was that you can do just as well, if not better. Find those whose work have been cited by you, tell them how important their work are to you, most of them will be willing to help. Or find those who cited your work. Don’t be intimated by who they are. You will never know who they are unless they reply you. I found those from Europe and Japan are generally very friendly. One of Japanese professor even sent me his lengthy CV that I didn’t even ask for. Another Germany Professor delayed his response but got back to me telling me if I need further assistance definitely tell him. As long as you sent enough letters, something like 20~30 you could possibly got 6~10, I mean internationally. Another thing to be careful, most of them will ask you to provide a draft letter. When you write several letters you could easily find you are writing pretty much the same thing with same style. I think that is one of the reasons I got RFE. Try write differently. Some big people do have big hearts. I was lucky enough to get one from former director from  NHLBI for my NIW petition. Very big name but very nice and humble. I was luck because I (not my boss) asked. If you don’t ask, you never have the chance.

 

Lastly, I would like to thank Pjiang and Little Rabbit (she was old chief for this forum) for their past and present, selfishless help. They are ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things. Also thank 863211 who stepped up recent years. Wish everybody good luck! But remember, good luck doesn’t just come down from the sky. You need to be brave, and work hard. I remembered one of the former presidents said sth like this: I felt when I work harder I will have a little more luck than others.