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Student with F1 visa and Green card

Published Apr 16,2009 By GCforPhD
Question:
Dear Sir,
I am a PhD student on F1 visa. I am finishing my PhD in august,2009. I have some questions regarding green card application:
1) do i have to get a post-doc appointment before I can apply for a green card? and I do have to be on a H1-B visa?
2) can you give me an estimate of how much it will cost for me and my spouse(my spouse is on F2) to apply for green card?
3) I will have 2-3 publications from my PhD – does it help for me to apply under EB1 category?
I will be looking forward to your reply,
thanks
Answer:
  1. Not necessarily. You do not need to be a post-doc. Some people do file for i-140 while on an F1. We do not have experience with F1 cases to advise you on all the issues involved. Most post-docs have a H1 while they apply for GC.
  2. You can find the current fee schedule from the USCIS site. You will need to apply for i-140 (involves application fee), i485 (application fee, biometric fee, & medical examination fee) and if you need, an EAD (for employment purpose) and advanced parole (for travel). Except for the i-140 applicaiton you might want to file for all other applications twice (for your wife). You can calculate the application filng cost using the USCIS schedule.
  3. We have had people with 3 journal publications and 4 conference publication suceed in EB2-NIW. However, you will need to build a strong case. I-140 application is based on several other factors in addition to publications. For example, prizes/recognition, acting as a judge of others in the filed etc will build a strong case. You can see USCIS website (or else where on our website) for criteria for EB1A and EB2 NIW. In general EB1A is hard with just 3-4 publications unless they are top-notch in your field with lots of referrals and they represent some thing of great importance. You are the best judge to see if this is possible.

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Jiban
Jiban
13 years ago

J1 status holder can apply for EB1 and/or NIW? Please can you give me deatil information about.

admin
admin
13 years ago
Reply to  Jiban

Yes you can self-petition your i-140 in EB1A or EB2 NIW. You can find more information in the free book.

However, before you apply for change of status (i-485), you should have obtained a wavier or have satisfied your home country requirements related to J1 visa.

Best of luck

Moonjung Choi
Moonjung Choi
8 years ago

Hello.
Im first year Ph.d student on F1 visa.
I will finish my degree in 5 years.
I have 2 publication from master degree. So I don’t know how many paper I can publish during Phd degree yet.
1) Can I apply for a green card now?
2) Will it be much harder at second time if I fail to get a green card at first?

I will be looking for your reply.
Thanks,

Best

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