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Outstanding Professors and Researchers (EB1-2)

The Criteria 

Immigration law provides an employment-based immigrant category for outstanding faculty and professionals who meet the following three basic criteria:

  1. Possess at least three years of experience in teaching and/or research. This must be shown by a letter, or letters, from employers; such letters are required to establish three years of experience following the terminal degree in either teaching or research, or a combination of these duties, as applicable to the duties of the position on which the permanent residence process is based.
    Experience in teaching or research while working on an advanced degree will not be acceptable unless the foreign scholar has acquired the degree, and can demonstrate the teaching duties were such that he or she had full responsibility for the class taught. The research conducted while seeking the degree will be acceptable only if that research has been recognized within the academic field as outstanding. Although the individual may hold a tenure-track position, no guarantee of tenure is required for the process, and failure to achieve tenure will not revoke or affect the permanent resident status of the individual.
  2. Possess a tenure-track position with teaching duties or a non-tenure permanent research position.
    A "permanent" position has been defined as one having indefinite or unlimited duration in which there is an expectation of continued employment, unless there is good cause for termination. (See section entitled Letters of Offer)
  3. Possess reputation as an outstanding professor or researcher in a specific academic area by evidence of international recognition in at least two of the following six areas (strong evidence supporting two areas are better than minimal evidence in all six):
    1. Receipt of major prizes or awards for outstanding achievement,
    2. Membership in associations in the academic field which requires outstanding achievement in the field,
    3. Published material in professional publications written by others about the foreign scholar's work. (Peer reviewed articles in scholarly journals, articles in trade journals or in popular magazines are good evidence of this criterion),
    4. Participation, individually or on a panel, as a judge of the work of others,
    5. Original scientific or scholarly research contributions (e.g., patents or seminal articles), or
    6. Authorship of scholarly books or articles in scholarly journals with international circulation

Go to Form I-140 Petition Packets for Outstanding Professors and Researchers (EB1-2)