EB-1: Outstanding Professors and Researchers

You may be able to qualify for U.S. Permanent Residency based on the EB-1 category for "Outstanding Professors and Researchers": if you are a professor who is being offered a tenured or tenure-track position, by a university or other institution of higher education, as a teacher or in a permanent position as a researcher in your academic field; or if you are a researcher being offered a permanent research position in your academic field by a qualifying private employer.

 

The key advantage of this category is that you are not required to go through the Labor Certification (PERM) process. You do, however, require a qualifying U.S. employer to file a petition on your behalf. To qualify for this position, you must meet the following three qualifications.

FIRST, you must possess at least 2 of the following criteria:

• receipt of major prizes or awards for outstanding achievement in the academic field;
• membership in associations in the academic field, which require outstanding achievements of their members;
• published material in professional publications written by others about your work in the academic field;
• participation on a panel, or individually, as the judge of the work of others in the same or an allied academic field;
• original scientific or scholarly research contributions to the academic field; or
• authorship of scholarly books or articles, in scholarly journals with international circulation, in the academic field.

SECOND, you must have at least 3 years of experience in teaching and/or research in the academic field.

THIRD:

• If you will be employed by a university or other institution of higher education, you must be offered a tenured or tenure-track position as a teacher or in a permanent position as a researcher in the academic field.
• If you will be employed by a private employer, you must be offered a permanent research position in the academic field, and the employer must employ at least 3 full-time researchers and have achieved documented accomplishments in the field.