1. Fing a premium processing for an EB-1 case where you are not sure about the merits of your EB-1 case is not advised
A reader asks:
Considering that Trump’s coming to power is a high probability event, I am a little anxious about my identity issue and am hesitating whether to expedite the EB-1B. The point of hesitation is that my EB-1B case is extremely weak, and I heard that expediting will increase the possibility of rejection. Before, the NIW was approved by TSC. When applying for EB-1B, I changed jobs and moved to NSC territory. I consulted an outside lawyer, who said that the EB-1B case has a chance in TSC, but not in NSC. But since the company lawyer agreed to do it, I must give it a try. I submitted it in early May this year, but it was not expedited when I submitted it, and I did not argue. In early June, the case status was updated from received to being actively reviewed. According to the timeline of about half a year, I-140 will not receive a reply from USCIS following opinions: 1. How long is the current TSC EB-1B case timeline? Is it still half a year? 2. In my case, should the EB-1B case be expedited?
Arthur Lee, Esq. answers,
Per the USCIS website, Texas Service Center is adjudicating 80% of EB-1B cases within 10 months. It may be a good sign in terms of speed of your case that your case status changed to “active review” in June. My suggestion is to stay patient regarding your EB-1B case. I would advise against premium processing for an EB-1 case where you are not sure about the merits of your case. Premium processing service, for whatever reason in recent years, has been known to invite tougher scrutiny in many types of immigration cases—EB-1 included. Anecdotally, many immigration lawyers in recent years have encountered difficult RFEs and NOIDs when filing premium processing for EB-1 cases—even strong cases. Also, I note that your lawyer’s belief that your case has a shot at TSC but not at NSC is very speculative. This may or may not be true, and it is difficult to determine at any given moment which service center is more likely to have tougher adjudicating officers and which ones have more lenient officers. Finally, a Trump presidency would be generally bad for intending immigrants to the US. But EB-1 was not a focus of the previous Trump administration, and will not likely be a focus of scrutiny in an upcoming Trump term. The risks toward your EB-1B petition of filing premium processing, in my belief, far outweigh the risks of a Trump presidency.
2. In filing the PERM application, you will not need to submit your resume for Department of Labor review
A reader asks:
Recently, the company wants to apply for perm, and I need to provide a resume. I have 2 questions: 1. I worked in China for 6 years before and came to the US again. Is it necessary to provide domestic experience? 2. Will the domestic experience be checked? Because the company I used to work for went bankrupt, the company should be deregistered.
Arthur Lee, Esq. answers,
In filing the PERM application, you will not need to submit your resume for Department of Labor review. The resume is likely for the company or company lawyer to help formulate case strategy. There is no need to provide your 6 years working experience in your PERM ETA 9089 application unless that 6 years experience is relevant to your qualifications for your sponsoring company’s position. You only need to disclose your current employment, and other employment relevant to your qualifications for the PERM position. If your experience in China for 6 years was relevant, then you may want to list that experience on the PERM ETA 9089, and obtain an experience verification letter from your China employer. This letter can come from your former manager or human resources, or anybody else you worked with in a responsible position who can attest to your experience. If the company is deregistered and out of business, you can still verify this experience by having a former manager or colleague attest to your experience while explaining that the company is now out of business. You may supplement that letter with an affidavit of your own explaining that you had worked in that position with the China company, but could not get a verification on the company’s official stationery because they went out of business.
3. When the time for processing at the field office has passed, you may wish to speak to a USCIS contact center
A Reader asks:
I applied for EB-1A, and my I-485 has been under for nearly two years. I am anxious again this year, so I have to ask Emma. I don’t understand the reply, please help me interpret it. My I-485 has been transferred to the local FO for a year and a half, and it has been current and stuck in the fingerprint status.
Q: My priority date has arrived, why is it not approved?
Q: Even if your priority date has arrived, if there are not enough visas, your case will still be suspended according to regulations until a visa is available.
Q: So even if I am in the field office now, I don’t have an EB1A visa? Is this what you mean?
A: Your case will continue to be suspended until the officer provides you with a visa number.
Excuse me, why have you not had a visa for almost two years, and shouldn’t there be a lot of EB-1A quotas in the new fiscal year (these two years)? As I said recently, I found that Emma is indeed unreliable. A month later, I asked Emma where my case was. Emma said it was at NBC. I confirmed it again and she said it had always been there, and it had never changed. I thought I had finally been transferred back to NBC from FO. I confirmed it again. She said it had been at FO for a year and a half. Did it just get transferred back? Emma immediately changed her words. Sorry, I misread the document. It was still at FO. It had been a year and a half and it was still at FO.
Arthur Lee, Esq. answers,
for the month of September 2024, the final action date for the EB-1A category is current for most of the world except for natives of China and India whose I-485’s cannot be approved unless their priority dates are earlier than November 1, 2022 and February 1, 2022 respectively. I note that the EB-1A category has backlogged periodically with those two countries in the past, and so you may wish to check your priority date to see if it is now current if you are a native of one of these two. Assuming that the priority date is current, and assuming that the time for processing at the field office has passed, you may wish to speak to a USCIS contact center representative at 1-800-375-5283 to see whether you can obtain more accurate information on the progress of your case.