Disclaimer: The contents in this web site are only for your information and are not intended to be legal advice. While many of our applicants successfully obtain their I-140 approvals, the information here should not be considered as a guarantee of your green card application outcome.
Membership Proof
Published Mar 17,2019
By Bio PhD
Hello, I recently purchased your NIW DIY package and went through all the exhibits and rec letters. I noticed that the exhibit for proof of membership in professional organizations simply listed a few organizations that the example candidate was a part of. I am curious about what actual documents I will need to show membership in professional organizations, and also if the time of membership matters in the application. The professional organizations I am currently in, only allow annual memberships and I have only been a member for 2 years. Does this look bad in the application for EB-2 NIW?
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Tigran Kalaydzhyan
5 years ago
Any reasonable evidence of your membership should work, like, e.g., a certificate (the USCIS officer will request more if needed). Generally, the memberships that require you to be above average (or exceptional) professional in your field is what matters, not how long you have been the member. Memberships that only require regular payments are not generally considered as an evidence.
Bio PhD
5 years ago
Hello, thanks for replying very quickly. Let me be sure I understand what you are saying. For a chemistry PhD, does membership in an organization like ACS (American Chemical Society) count? It seems the only requirement to join is to pay the regular membership fees.
I also looked back at the EB2 NIW package I purchased from your website and the example candidate was a member of three organizations: Optical Society of America, SPIE and IEEE LEOS. After doing brief research on these organizations, I see that they only require annual membership fees as well. If these sort of organizations do not qualify as “membership in professional organizations”, I am curious about what organizations will. Perhaps you can provide some examples.
If the only requirement to join is to pay the regular membership fees, then it carries little weight. It still doesn’t hurt to include it in the petition, but one shouldn’t use it as leverage. The first good example that comes to mind is the NSF National Science Board – requirements are even listed on their webpage (link below). Of course, it can be something much less restricted, but the description should still be present, either in the public domain or in the provided testimony of one of the current/past members.
I agree that the membership provided in our petition example are not what is typically required. Please keep in mind that this is a real petition and the person, who wrote it back in the days, did not know all the details and peculiarities we learned about over years. It is still not a bad thing to mention any professional memberships, but it should be done very briefly, if the evidence does not carry much weight.
Disclaimer: The contents in this web site are only for your information and are not intended to be legal advice. While many of our applicants successfully obtain their I-140 approvals, the information here should not be considered as a guarantee of your green card application outcome.
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Any reasonable evidence of your membership should work, like, e.g., a certificate (the USCIS officer will request more if needed). Generally, the memberships that require you to be above average (or exceptional) professional in your field is what matters, not how long you have been the member. Memberships that only require regular payments are not generally considered as an evidence.
Hello, thanks for replying very quickly. Let me be sure I understand what you are saying. For a chemistry PhD, does membership in an organization like ACS (American Chemical Society) count? It seems the only requirement to join is to pay the regular membership fees.
I also looked back at the EB2 NIW package I purchased from your website and the example candidate was a member of three organizations: Optical Society of America, SPIE and IEEE LEOS. After doing brief research on these organizations, I see that they only require annual membership fees as well. If these sort of organizations do not qualify as “membership in professional organizations”, I am curious about what organizations will. Perhaps you can provide some examples.
Thanks.
If the only requirement to join is to pay the regular membership fees, then it carries little weight. It still doesn’t hurt to include it in the petition, but one shouldn’t use it as leverage. The first good example that comes to mind is the NSF National Science Board – requirements are even listed on their webpage (link below). Of course, it can be something much less restricted, but the description should still be present, either in the public domain or in the provided testimony of one of the current/past members.
I agree that the membership provided in our petition example are not what is typically required. Please keep in mind that this is a real petition and the person, who wrote it back in the days, did not know all the details and peculiarities we learned about over years. It is still not a bad thing to mention any professional memberships, but it should be done very briefly, if the evidence does not carry much weight.
https://www.nsf.gov/nsb/about/index.jsp