If you have won a major internationally recognized award in your field of work then you may be eligible for an EB1 green card, also known as a “first preference” visa. The EB-1 category includes individuals who are outstanding professors or researchers, multinational executives or managers, or aliens with extraordinary ability. Whether or not you qualify for an EB-1 visa can be complicated because USCIS has strict requirements for this type of permanent residence. Our eb1 green card lawyer can help determine your eligibility and help you collect all the necessary paperwork to prove that you meet the required criteria.
When Can Lawyers Establish EB1 Extraordinary Ability Status?
The EB-1A Extraordinary Ability category is reserved for individuals who have achieved sustained national or international acclaim in the arts, sciences, education, business, or athletics. Unlike other categories of permanent residency, a foreign national who qualifies for EB-1A can self-petition for an immigrant visa, meaning that he or she does not need to be sponsored by a U.S. employer.
There has been no binding policy guidance from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on this issue and there are no precedent decisions on the topic. In lieu of policy guidance, we can look to the unpublished decisions from the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) to see how the agency is currently viewing this issue.
In these cases, the AAO affirmed the Director’s decision and held that an alien lawyer can establish extraordinary ability classification only by showing that the practice of law is not a field of endeavor covered under the EB1 category. This is a significant departure from previous case law, which has indicated that the practice of law may qualify for an EB1 classification.