In 2007, Attorney Jerry Zhang received an email from Dr. Gupta asking for a free evaluation for an EB-1(a) I-140 petition. Dr. Gupta obtained his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from an Ivy League University and now works inNew York Cityfor a Fortune 500 company.  He had no confidence that his background would meet EB-1 or NIW standards. Moreover, his company attorney informed him that his qualifications were not strong enough for EB-1(a) or EB-(b) petitions. However, Dr. Gupta wanted to seek an honest and professional opinion from Jerry Zhang. Dr. Gupta’s outreach started a pleasant collaborationbetween himself and our firm.

An Alien of Extraordinary Ability, or EB-1A, classification applies to aliens who can demonstrate that they "have risen to the very top of their field of endeavor." To establish that he/she is a top member within his/her respective field, evidence of receipt of an internationally recognized award such as the Nobel Prize or Academy Award is recommended. In the absence of an internationally recognized award, one can establish him/herself as an Alien of Extraordinary Ability by providing documentation of any three (3) of the following:

1. Receipt of lesser nationally or internationally recognized prizes or awards for excellence.

2. Membership in associations which require outstanding achievements of their members, as judged by recognized national or international experts in their fields.

3. Published material in professional/major trade publications or major media about the alien and relating to the alien's work field.

4. Participation as a judge (individually or as a part of a panel) evaluating the work of others.

5. Original scientific, scholarly, or artistic contributions of major significance.

6. Authorship of scholarly article in professional journals or other major media.

7. Artistic exhibitions/shows.

8. Leading role within an organization/establishment with a distinguished reputation.

9. High salary/compensation for services in comparison to others.

10. Commercial success within the performing arts, as shown by either box office receipt figures or cassette, compact disk, video, or DVD sales figures.

11. The alien must also show that the alien's admittance into the United States will substantially benefit the United States in the future.

For the case of Dr. Gupta, although he was a new Ph.D. graduate without journal publications, we believed he still had a decent chance to file a successful immigration petition through EB-1A with our representation since the totality of Dr. Gupta’s situations set him apart from his peers. In this case, a strong petition letter and well-designed application strategy could play an import role.

The whole process of application was very quick and effective. It only took one month from the time Dr. Gupta first contacted us by email to receive approval of his I-140 petition. This case may shed some light on people who are contemplating their immigration petitions under EB-1A. Therefore, we share the whole application process in the following timeline:

Thursday, April 12, 2007, 6:31 PM
 
Dr. Gupta sent an email to Attorney Zhang at jzhang@hooyou.com with his CV for a free evaluation for an EB-1A petition. In the inquiry email, Dr. Gupta indicated that he was then in F-1 OPT status and his OPT would expire on September 30, 2007. As shown in his CV, Dr. Gupta had impressive academic accomplishments. He had reviewed the works of others as a reviewer, been a committee member in some Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) Conferences and had some documented conference papers and presentations.  Regarding work experience, he held a Research Scientist position in a prestigious Fortune 500 company, being involved in advanced research projects. His employer planned to file an EB-1B outstanding researcher petition for him. As his company’s attorney told him that his case was not strong enough for either EB-1A or EB-1B, he had no confidence for the planned EB-1B petition at all. Therefore, he wondered whether he could file an I-140 petition, such as NIW or EB-1A on his own.

Thursday, April 12, 2007, 7:22 PM

After reviewing the CV of Dr. Gupta, Attorney Zhang confirmed in the reply email that Dr. Gupta was qualified to file an EB-1A petition since we had successfully handled many EB-1A petitions for clients with similar backgrounds. Attorney Zhang’s affirmation gave Dr. Gupta great confidence. 

Thursday, April 12, 2007, 7:33PM

Dr. Gupta immediately emailed Attorney Zhang. He was very happy to know that he was qualified to file an EB-1A petition. As his OPT would expire soon, Dr. Gupta wanted to file his application as soon as possible. He asked when we could file his case.

Thursday, April 12, 2007, 7:40 PM

Attorney Zhang immediately replied that we could file the case to the USCIS within one week after all the materials were ready. The time to file depended on how long Dr. Gupta could get all the supporting materials and recommendation letters ready. As EB-1(a) and EB-1(b) share some common bases with regard to the qualifications, we could use the same recommendation letters Dr. Gupta had prepared for his EB-1(b) petition. This would help Dr. Gupta to file his case quickly. 

Friday, April 13, 2007 5:56PM

Dr. Gupta sent an email to Attorney Zhang inquiring whether he should file a NIW petition together with the new EB-1A to secure success. He was still concerned about his case, because his company’s attorney had told him his background was not strong enough for either EB-1A or EB-1B. That attorney suggested he do a PERM petition instead of EB-1 or NIW, given the fact that Dr. Gupta was a new graduate with little work experience and no journal publications. Dr. Gupta was worried that he had no decent chance for an EB-1A or EB-1B petition,so he was thinking about filing an NIW petition as well to enhance the chance of approval.

Friday, April 13, 2007 6:07PM

In his immediate reply email, Attorney Zhang advised Dr. Gupta that an additional NIW petition was not necessary. Based on his extensive experience on EB-1 petitions, Attorney Zhang believed that the EB-1A petition of Dr. Gupta would be approved. Although Dr. Gupta was a new graduate and had no journal publications, a well-executed application strategy could prove that he was qualified for an EB-1A petition. Moreover,it would also be a waste of hismoney to file another petition.

Friday, April 13, 2007 9:01 PM

Being convinced by Attorney Zhang’s careful and detailed explanation, Dr. Gupta gainedmore confidence with our firm and decided to take the advice of Attorney Zhang. He sent another email to Attorney Zhang expecting to have a meeting with one of our attorneys in person and discuss the details of his case on Monday, April 16 in our NYC office. 

Friday, April 13, 2007 9:22PM

Attorney Zhang would travel from Houston to our New York office on April 15 to 19. He made an appointment with Dr. Gupta for2:00PM on Monday, April 16 in the reply email.

Friday, April 13, 2007 9:27PM

Attorney Zhang made a task for himself in our CRM system to remind him of the appointment. (For more information about our CRM system, please click here.)

Sunday, April 15, 2007 8:33AM

Assistant Yanchao Li emailed the prepared Attorney-Client contract to Dr. Gupta.

Monday, April 16, 2007 2:00PM

Because of heavy rain and flooding in the New York City area, Attorney Zhang arrived at NYC at 4:30am on Monday, April 16, 2007. He met Dr. Gupta in our NYC office and talked about the details of his petition. After the meeting, Dr. Gupta said that it was really an interesting and valuable meeting with Attorney Zhang.  Dr. Gupta said that he was impressed by the quick responses from Jerry by e-mail, as many e-mail replies were made within a few minutes and even in the evening and weekend. He said that Attorney Zhang’s professional advice had given him full confidence to retain the firm for his EB-1A petition. 

Tuesday, April 17, 20079:30AM

Dr. Gupta signed the contract and mailed the it along with a check and the necessary supporting materials to our Houston offices.

Thursday, April 19, 2007 10:05AM

WithAttorney Zhang still at the NYC offices, our Houston offices received all the necessary documents.

Thursday, April 19, 2007 11:00AM

Attorney Zhang informed Dr. Gupta by email that Ms. NosheenNowab, a clerk at the firm, would contact him and make the logistic arrangements. Attorney Zhang would be in charge of Dr. Gupta’s case withAttorney Ben Wisniewski to provide assistance.

Friday, April 20, 2007 10:05AM

Nosheen emailed the I-140 questionnaire to Dr. Gupta.

Saturday, April 21, 2007 9:15AM

Nosheen received the completed questionnaire sheet from Dr. Gupta. 
 
Saturday, April 21, 2007 2:15PM

Because of the quick work of our assistant, Yanchao Li, the I-140 form of Dr. Gupta was completed on the same day. Nosheen emailed the prepared I-140 form to Dr. Gupta for his review.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007 3:07PM

Attorney Ben Wisniewski spent five days, including the weekend, on the first draft of the petition letter. As we noticed that Dr. Gupta was a new graduate with little work experience and no journal publications, a strong and convincingpetition letter was extremely important in his case. On April 24, Attorney Wisniewski completed the draft and Nosheen sent it to Dr. Gupta for review.

Thursday, April 26, 2007 11:00 AM

While the petition letter was under review, Attorney Zhang sent an email to Dr. Gupta and advised him to offer more materials to support the petition. These supporting materials are the conference papers Dr. Gupta had published in the international conferences of his research field. Because Dr. Gupta did not have any journal publicationto support his petition, Attorney Zhang decided to emphasize Dr. Gupta’s other achievements like the review of works of others in his field, novel and original contributions of great importance, and membershipin a professional organization that requires outstanding achievements to join.

Friday, April 27, 2007 3:00 PM

Following the suggestion of Attorney Zhang, Dr. Gupta selected four conference papers and sent them to Nosheen to prepare the exhibit list.

Saturday, April 28, 2007 9:00 AM

Dr. Gupta raised another issue about the petition. His company attorney warned him before that his I-140 petition would adversely affect his F-1 OPT status. Dr. Gupta was concerned about this possibility and wrote an email to seek Attorney Zhang’s advice.

Saturday, April 28, 2007 9:07 AM

Attorney Zhang immediately replied to the email and explained to Dr. Gupta that the I-140 immigrant petition would not affect his F-1 OPT status as our firm had successfully helped hundreds of clients in F-1 or OPT status  get their green cards. In the meantime, Attorney Zhang suggested that Dr. Gupta read a memo about the issues on our website (Please clickhere). Moreover, Attorney Zhang advised that Dr. Gupta also read some successful stories on our website. Many clients in F-1 or OPT status successfully received their green cards with our help.  Dr. Gupta’s concern was alleviatedby Attorney Zhang’sresponse.

Wednesday, May 2, 2007 9:05AM

Nosheen e-mailed all the supporting documents to Dr. Gupta for the final review. These documents included the petition letter, the forms, the exhibits, and so on.

Thursday, May 3, 2007 4:05PM

Dr. Gupta mailed all the signed documents to our office.

Friday, May 4, 2007 9:00 AM

The petition letter was finalized.

Since Dr. Gupta feared that his lack of experience may be detrimental toward his petition, another experienced attorney, Victor Bush, was involved with the preparation work andrevisedDr. Gupta’spetition letter. From April 24 to May 4, in order to get a high quality petition letter, Attorney Zhang kept communicating with Dr. Gupta. Ben and Jerry revised the petition letter repeatedly. OnMay 4, the final revision was completed after more than three rounds of revision.
 
In the final version of the petition letter, we emphasized that Dr. Gupta was an alien of extraordinary ability on the basis that he had served as a judge of the work of others in the field of specialization; he had membership in associations in his field which required outstanding achievements of their members; he had made original scientific research contributions of major significance to his fields of endeavor; and he had authored scholarly articles in conferences. His future stay in the U.S. would greatlybenefit the U.S.

Monday, May 7, 2007 10:00 AM

After the weekend, we sent Dr. Gupta’s EB-1A I-140 petition package to the FedEx office. FedEx shipped out the 5 lb. package to USCIS.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007 8:52 AM

The petition package was received by USCIS.

Thursday, May 10, 2007 9:00 AM

Only one day after USCIS received the application package, an approval e-notice was sent to Attorney Zhang and the EB-1A I-140 petition of Dr. Gupta was approved. Attorney Zhang called USCIS and confirmed this approval.

Thursday, May 10, 2007 9:16AM

When we informed Dr. Gupta of this good news, he was delightfully surprised. In his thank-you email to the firm, he wrote that:

“This is quite incredible!!! You people deserve all the praise in the world. Please accept my deepest gratitude for doing an impeccable job.

Jerry, I feel extremely lucky to have met you in person. You were positive, encouraging, convincing, extremely accessible and deeply sincere from the very first day.

Nosheen, thanks a lot for all your efforts and diligence in handling my paperwork. I also appreciate your promptness in all the communication matters regarding my case.

Ben, thanks for being patient with me during the numerous iterations that we went through. I learned a lot about drafting quality petitions myself during this whole process. This was a great educational experience for me.

Let us talk about the procedure for I-485. Nosheen, you can mail me the required agreements?”
We at the firm are also very happy and excited for such a fantastic result for Dr. Gupta’s case. The success of the application can be attributed to our teamwork. Nosheen, Ben, Jerry and Victor worked closely to develop a good application strategy and a convincing petition letter. Yanchao prepared all the required application forms. Our CRM administrator,Hongmin, coordinated all activities related to the case in CRM quickly and carefully. Last, but not least, Dr. Gupta’s full trust and prompt cooperation during the application process played a pivotal role in the approval of his petition.

In addition to the EB-1 case, we have successfully obtained NIW approvals for many of our clients who did not have journal papers. For a NIW success story, please click http://hooyou.com/news/news020107story.html (NIW Approved for Engineer with M.S. & no Journal Paper).

( Updated 10/5/2012 by AG)