In May 2007, we helped a client, Dr. Gupta, get his EB-1(a) I-140 petition approved within one day of USCIS receiving his case.

When Dr. Gupta contacted us, he had a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering but no journal publications. Dr. Gupta did not think his background was sufficient for an EB-1 or NIW application; his company attorney had informed him that his qualifications were not strong enough.

An alien of extraordinary ability or EB-1(a) immigration classification applies to aliens who can demonstrate that they “have risen to the very top of their field of endeavor.” An applicant can establish him or herself as an alien of extraordinary ability by providing documentation of any three out of the ten criteria specified by USCIS. (To read about the qualifications required for EB-1(a) petitions, please refer to our introduction to EB-1(a) applications on our website (http://www.hooyou.com/eb-1/requirementaea.html). EB-1(a) petitions have three notable advantages: (1) they don’t require a labor certification (PERM); (2) they don’t require a permanent job offer; (3) the visa numbers are immediately available.

Despite what Dr. Gupta’s company attorney had told him, our attorney noticed that Dr. Gupta had impressive academic achievements that made him suitable for an EB-1(a) application. Dr. Gupta had published and presented many conference papers. He had regularly reviewed the work of others, and he was a member of associations in his field that require outstanding achievements of their members.

Our attorneys and assistants carefully prepared Dr. Gupta’s petition materials, including a customized and well-drafted petition letter. USCIS approved his case within one day of receiving the petition. All together, only one month passed from the first time Dr. Gupta contacted us by email to the approval of his I-140 petition (for the details of his case, please go to http://www.hooyou.com/news/news052107story.html).

Given the quick approval of his case and his pleasant experience with our firm, Dr. Gupta referred his friend Dr. Park to our office for an EB-1(a) petition.

Dr. Park had obtained his Ph.D. and M.S. in Electronic Engineering from an American university on the West Coast. When he was referred to us, he was working as a research scientist for a Fortune 500 company in New York City. He had several publications and two patents.

Here is a timeline of Dr. Park’s application process.

Wednesday, May 16

8:00 AM: Dr. Gupta emailed Attorney Zhang to tell him that he had referred our firm to his colleague Dr. Park, and that Dr. Park would contact Attorney Zhang for a free evaluation of his I-140 application.

8:59 AM: Attorney Zhang (info@hooyou.com) received Dr. Park’s CV by email. Dr. Park was then in OPT status. His OPT would expire on September 30, 2007.

Attorney Zhang carefully reviewed Dr. Park’s CV. Based on his more than 11 years of experience handling EB-1 and NIW immigration petitions, Attorney Zhang believed that Dr. Park might meet the EB-1(a) criteria:
• Dr. Park had made original scientific contributions of major significance: he had created innovative solutions to a challenging problem in his field.
• Dr. Park had authored several peer-reviewed scholarly articles in his field.
• Dr. Park had reviewed the work of others in his field.

9:25 AM: Attorney Zhang replied to Dr. Park’s message stating the following:
1. Dr. Park could apply for an EB-1(a) petition.
2. Dr. Park needed six recommendation letters to support his petition;
3. The premium processing service was a good option for Dr. Park. (Note: USCIS suspended the I-140 premium processing service on July 2, 2007; it has not yet been resumed.)
4. If Dr. Park retained our firm, we would file his case within one week of having all the documents ready.

10:27 AM: Dr. Park replied to Attorney Zhang’s message. Dr. Park said that he could get as many as eight recommendation letters; however, the letters had already been written for his O-1 petition, which his company attorney was currently preparing. Dr. Park wondered whether he could use those recommendation letters in his EB-1(a) petition.

10:30 AM: Attorney Zhang replied that he would review the O-1 recommendation letters and call Dr. Park as soon as Attorney Zhang returned to Houston from New York City, where he was currently on a business trip.

12:35 PM: Dr. Park sent Attorney Zhang the eight recommendation letters via email. He thanked Attorney Zhang for his quick response.

1:30 PM: While waiting for his flight at New York’s JFK Airport, Attorney Zhang called Dr. Park and discussed the case with him. Attorney Zhang confirmed that the O-1 recommendation letters were OK for Dr. Park’s EB-1(a) petition.

2:00 PM: Attorney Zhang followed the phone conversation with an email message. He listed all the services our firm offers and included a link to our client-attorney EB-1(a) petition contract.

8:12 PM: Dr. Park raised another concern via email. He wondered whether he could file his EB-1(a) petition if his employer filed the O-1 for him.

9:13 PM: Attorney Zhang replied that it was OK.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

7:48 AM: Dr. Park informed Attorney Zhang that he had signed the contract and the check; all the documents had been mailed out and would be delivered to our Houston office within one day.

Dr. Park also asked that whether he should file his I-140 and I-485 petitions concurrently or separately.

7:58 AM: Attorney Zhang suggested that Dr. Park file his I-140 petition first through premium processing. USCIS processes petitions with premium service requests within 15 days, so Dr. Park could file the I-485 petition soon after that.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

9:00 AM: Our Houston office received Dr Park’s check and contract.

10:00 AM: Hongmin Zhang, the administrator of our customer relationship management system, converted Dr. Park’s case from “potential case” to “case” in the system.

10:03 AM: Assistant Nosheen emailed Dr. Park our I-140 questionnaire.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

9:00 AM: Dr. Park emailed his completed questionnaire back to Nosheen.
09:05AM: Nosheen forwarded the questionnaire to a legal assistant to prepare the I-140 form.
4:30 PM: Nosheen sent the I-140 forms to Dr. Park for review and signature.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

10:16 AM: Dr. Park mailed Nosheen all of his supporting documents, including the recommendation letters, the forms, his degree certifications, and other materials.

4:30 PM: Nosheen finished preparing the documents.

Friday, June 1, 2007

Attorney Jeannette Liu began to write Dr. Park’s petition letter based on the supporting materials.

Monday, June 4, 2007

Attorney Jeannette Liu finished the petition letter.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

9:30 AM: After double-checking everything, our firm mailed Dr. Park’s petition to USCIS via FedEx.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

8:35 AM: USCIS received Dr. Park’s petition.

Thursday, June 7, 2007

8:31 AM: Attorney Zhang received an e-notice from USCIS indicating that Dr. Park’s I-140 petition had been approved. Attorney Zhang called USCIS, and they confirmed this approval. Attorney Zhang told Dr. Park the good news. Surprisingly, we did not receive a formal approval notice in the next a few days. We speculate that the e-mail approval might be generated by a computer system error.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

We received a fax from the USCIS Premium Processing Department requesting more evidence—an RFE—to support the claim that Dr. Park was one of the few scientists who had risen to the very top of his field. The deadline to respond to the RFE was September 20, 2007. For the premium processing, when USCIS issues a RFE on a case, the clock of 15 days for USCIS to process the case stops and resumes after USCIS receives the RFE.

Nosheen Nawab emailed Dr. Park informing him of this new development.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

7:02 AM: Dr. Park replied to the email saying that this was an unpleasant surprise; he was just getting ready to mail all of his I-485 documents to our office.

7:05 AM: Attorney Zhang replied, “It is indeed a surprise. You may need to get your mind ready for the RFE and other options like filing your NIW or your wife’s EB-1.”

8:59 PM: Dr. Park informed Attorney Zhang that they had stopped preparing his wife’s EB-1 case, so they had to focus on this RFE.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

8:55 AM: Attorney Zhang emailed Dr. Park and made a telephone appointment for 9:30 that morning.

9:30 AM: Attorney Zhang and Dr. Park discussed their strategy for dealing with the RFE.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

10:27 AM: Attorney Zhang told Dr. Park via email that Nosheen would contact him about preparing the RFE. Attorney Zhang explained that Dr. Park needed more expert opinions to prove the significance of his publications. More recommendation letters could be very helpful.

Monday, June 25, 2007

4:36 AM: Dr. Park replied to Attorney Zhang thanking him for his work over the weekend. Dr. Park told Attorney Zhang he would prepare two more recommendation letters.

Monday, September 17, 2007

11:05 AM: Dr. Park emailed Attorney Zhang and Nosheen and informed them that all the supporting materials would arrive at our office that Wednesday, September 19. Dr. Park said he would send two more recommendation letters to our office the next day.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

By coincidence, Attorney Zhang met Dr. Park at a legal immigration rally in Washington, D.C. They discussed Dr. Park’s case over lunch.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

9:02 AM: Our firm received Dr. Park’s last recommendation letter.

10:05 AM: We mailed out Dr. Park’s package to USCIS via FedEx overnight.

In addition to the two additional recommendation letters and other supporting documents, Dr. Park’s package included a response letter drafted by Attorney Jeannette Liu. This letter provided further evidence demonstrating that Dr. Park had risen to the very top of his field. It specifically addressed the importance and influence of the journals where Dr. Park’s publications had appeared. It also emphasized that Dr. Park had been a peer reviewer for top-notch journals—affirmative proof that he was recognized by his peers as one of the best scientists in his field.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

USCIS approved Dr. Park’s I-140 petition.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Our Houston office received Dr. Park’s formal approval notice from USCIS and forwarded it to him.

Dr. Park was very glad to see the final approval notice. He wrote to Attorney Zhang, “Thank you all for this great job which has been done by your team. Thank Attorney Liu very much for this excellent drafting. It is my pleasure to recommend my friends. I believe that all my colleagues will know your firm very soon, probably in the lunch time today. Again, thank you all very much!”

Dr. Gupta, who referred Dr. Park to our firm, was also very happy to that Dr. Park’s case had been approved. He wrote to Attorney Zhang, “Great job! Many thanks for taking up Dr. Park’s case on an urgent basis and helping him out. Now I can send more references to you from my university and my company knowing that my friends will be in good hands since you are very professional, efficient, and diligent with all your clients.”

Our attorneys and supporting professionals were also very happy with the result of Dr. Park’s case. We attribute the success of Dr. Park’s application to his cooperation and our firm’s teamwork. In addition, we appreciate Dr. Gupta’s trust and his referral of Dr. Park’s case.

In order to protect our clients’ privacy, all of their identifying information has been changed.