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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
