Recent Administrative Appeals

Recent Administrative Appeals Office Decisions Regarding Outstanding Researcher/Professor Petitions By: Nicole C. Dillard, Esq. The Administrative Appeals Office最近發布了有關支持移民局對外國人士尋求申請Outstanding Professor或Researcher categories的決定。以下是有關消息以及案件介紹。 The Administrative Appeals Office, the division of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service which hears appeals of decisions made by the regional service centers, have recently issued notable opinions for upholding some decisions made by the Service centers. These recent decisions have pertained specifically to aliens petitioning as an Outstanding Professor or Researcher. For beneficiaries of this category, the alien must be: n internationally recognized as outstanding in a specific academic area; and n have at least 3 years of experience teaching or researching in the academic area; and n be seeking to enter the U.S. for a tenured position within a university or institution of higher learning, for a comparable position with a university or institution of higher education to conduct research in the area, or for a comparable position to conduct research in the area with a department, division, or institute of a private employer, if the department, division, or institute employs at least 3 persons full-time in research activities and has achieved documented accomplishment in an academic field. n the petition must be accompanied by an offer of employment from a prospective U.S. employer. In the January 17, 2006 issue of Interpreter Releases (83 No. 3 Interpreter Releases 129), there was a discussion of five cases pertaining to Outstanding Researchers or Professors. The focus of most of these cases centered on the formal job offer requirement. Despite the fact that a beneficiary of an Outstanding Researcher or Professor petition does not need to first pursue a Labor Certification, they do need a bonafide job offer. In the first case, the petition was for a university who sought to employ the beneficiary permanently in the U.S. as a scientist. Although the package included several letters of support from personnel at the university indicating that the university wished to have the petitioner to work for them on a permanent basis, the package was absent a formal job offer in writing. Therefore, the Nebraska Service Center’s director determined that as of the date of filing the petition, the university had not offered the beneficiary a permanent position and the Service Center denied the appeal. On appeal to the AAO, the Service Center director’s decision was affirmed based on the fact that the offer of employment must be in writing, from the petitioner to the beneficiary, setting out the title, terms, and conditions of the position. In another case matter, the petitioner was a global electronics company, who sought to employ the beneficiary permanently in the U.S. as an advisory engineer/scientists. The petitioner sought to establish the beneficiary’s international recognition by submitting evidence of judgment of the work of others in the same or allied academic field, original scientific or scholarly research contributions, and authorship of scholarly books or articles in scholarly journals with international circulation. The submitted evidence consisted of records of past employment, requests for the beneficiary to peer review a handful of manus for journals, a listing of past research projects, evidence of a pending patent, reference letters from colleagues in Singapore and India, and publications of co-authored articles in journals with international distribution. While the California Service Center felt that the evidence demonstrated that the beneficiary is a “skilled engineering scientists, who has won the respect of individuals from the institutions where he has studied and worked while securing some degree of international exposure for his published and presented work,” it did not established an international reputation as an outstanding researcher or professor. The AAO affirmed this decision and also noted that the petition lacked a written offer of employment. The remaining cases reviewed by the AAO as discussed in this issue of Interpreter Release continued to address the issue of a proper offer of employment. With this said, it is important to recognize that despite the fact that your employer may write letters in support of your petition, there must be an actual job offer for a permanent or tenured track position from a person who is authorized to offer you employment. Fortunately, for those applicants applying through Fan, Fitzpatrick and Thompson, LLP, we carefully guide our clients in drafting all letters, and particularly the job offer letter for the Outstanding Researcher and Professor. Our job offer letter guidance is based specifically on the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Code to Federal Regulations to ensure that the requirements of a valid job offer have been met. Regardless of whether you seek the assistance of Fan, Fitzpatrick and Thompson, LLP or not, it is advisable that you carefully review your job offer to ensure that it meets the standards set forth to qualify you as an Outstanding Researcher and Professor. ______________________________________________________________________________ 本文由範毅禹律師事務所提供 本律師事務所精辦各類勞工應聘及專業移民申請 (包括H-1，L-1，EB-1，EB-2，NIW，勞工卡，綠卡等申請)。所有申請由多位美籍律師及擁有15年經驗的範毅禹律師親自處理，我所並特設中英移民網站。內有最新移民新聞資訊及由律師主持的移民問答集，歡迎讀者流覽查詢。 www.Fan-Law.com CALIFORNIA : Fan, Fitzpatrick & Thompson, LLP. 370 E. Glenarm St., Pasadena , CA 91106 Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone] MARYLAND : Fan, Fitzpatrick & Thompson, LLP. 230 North Washington Street, Suite 400 , Rockville , MD 20850 Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]