Opportunities:

• EB1B offer an opportunityfor alien who is an Outstanding Researcher or Professor with international recognition for his/her outstanding achievement in a particular scientific or scholarly field and has secured a permanent position from organizations with research nature.
• The petition must be sponsored by a research related US employer, generally a university or research institution or any other private employer with a research department that has at least three full-time researchers on its workforce.
• For someone whose credentials may not be strong enough to an EB1B, EB1B can be a great option.
• Currently, the visa backlog for EB1B is slightly longer than EB2 worldwide, but still significantly better than EB2 for India born beneficiaries.
• Premium Processing is available for EB1B petition, meaning that once the petition is filed with USCIS, it can be approved within 15 calendar days if premium processing fee is paid.

Challenges:

• In addition to providing job offer and signing immigration forms, the employer must also provide documentation showing its own research accomplishments and standing in the relevant academic or research field.
• USCIS applies a two-part test to adjudicate EB1B cases:
  1. Whether the evidence provided satisfy as One-time Achievement or meets at least two criteria provided by law, including:
     • Evidence of receipt of major prizes or awards for outstanding achievement
     • Evidence of membership in associations that require their members to demonstrate outstanding achievement
     • Evidence of published material in professional publications written by others about the alien’s work in the academic field
     • Evidence of participation, either on a panel or individually, as a judge of the work of others in the same or allied academic field
     • Evidence of original scientific or scholarly research contributions in the field
     • Evidence of authorship of scholarly books or articles (in scholarly journals with international circulation) in the field
  2. Final merits determination: considering all provided evidence, whether the alien demonstrates by preponderance of evidence that he/she (i) has risen to the very top of the field of endeavor; and (ii) sustained national or international acclaim and that his or her achievements have been recognized in the field of expertise.

Therefore, merely meeting 2 out of 6 criteria does not guarantee approval of EB1B petition.  E.g., scholar who has more than 300 citations for his/her publications but stop working in that particular field may be considered as fail to sustain his/her international acclaims in the field of endeavor.