Employment-Based Immigration : First Preference EB-1b 

EB-1b: Outstanding professor or researcher

This category is for aliens in a specific academic area.

To be eligible, the following requirements must be met: 

  1. The alien has been recognized internationally as outstanding in a specific academic area.

      Two of the following needs to be met:

    1. receipt of major prizes or awards for outstanding achievement.
    2. Membership in an association which requires outstanding achievement.
    3. Published material in professional publications written by others about the applicant’s work.
    4. Evidence of the person’s participation as a judge of the work of others.
    5. Evidence of original scientific research.
    6. Authorship of scholarly books or articles in the field.
  1. The alien must possess at least 3 years experience in teaching or research.
  2. A permanent job offer from a university or institute of higher education or a private employer. An offer with no fixed terms would be sufficient. Post-doc normally has a fixed term, and therefore can not be qualified under this category.

To document the evidence, the applicant needs to submit more than the prize, membership certificate, media report, reviewing report, publication, and employment letter.

For the award category, in addition to the award certificate, the applicant needs to provide documentary proof of the criteria to prove the acclaim of the prize and awards. In some cases, the applicant also needs to include the organizer and the geographic location from which the awards was drawn. Also provide media coverage received by the awards if there is any.

For the membership category, in addition to the membership certificate, the applicant needs to submit clear documentary evidence of the membership criteria. A membership with only a fee requirement carries no merit. In order to satisfy this criterion, the membership should require outstanding achievement as a prerequisite. For example, some membership requires certain degree, publication record, recommendation letters which can be proven by the organizational bylaws.

For the media report category, in addition to the media report itself, the applicant needs to submit clear documentary evidence of the significance of the media itself – for example, the readership, distribution and contribution communities of the media. If the media have carried articles about nationally or internationally renowned individuals, submit those articles. Moreover, the media report about the applicant’s work must clearly indicate that the work is significant. An unevaluated listing in a subject matter index or footnote, or a reference to the work without evaluation is insufficient.

For the reviewer category, having performed as a judge, reviewer, editor or in any other capacity that requires the applicant to judge the work of others can satisfy this requirement. For example, if the applicant works for an oil and gas company, and had served on a review panel, this criterion can be established. Media articles can prove this review work as well.

For the contribution of major significance category, normally the applicant needs to submit recommendation letters to prove this. The referee has to be working in the same area as the applicant. Professors, colleagues, editors with established track record are good referee candidates. Researchers from national laboratory, or from the public office are also good referee candidates. Independent referees are very important. Independent referees are those outside of the applicant’s circle of colleagues and acquaintances. The USCIS believes that independent referees are more impartial because they are not doing the applicant a personal favor.

If the applicant’s invention has been implemented, or if others gained national or international renown in this field based on the applicant’s skills, it proves that the applicant has influence and been accepted by his/her peers in the field.

For the publication category, in addition to the publication itself, citation record is also very important. The applicant does not need to provide the full article of all the citations. Submit copies of citation indexes, showing the number of citations, and the titles of articles in which the applicant’s work were cited. Peer review presentations at major conferences are useful as well.

All documents need to be translated into English.

EB1b also avoids the labor certification procedure, which is a lengthy and complicated process. However, EB1b requires the employer’s sponsorship while EB1a and NIW do not.