“I am thrilled with the I-140 NIW approval. Thanks for all the support and hard work dedicated to my case.”

General Field: Petroleum Engineering

Position at the Time of Case Filing: Research Associate

Country of Origin: Brazil

Approval Notice Date: August 21^st, 2021

Processing Time: 10 months, 9 days

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“The attorney at WeGreened is very professional and knowledgeable on all the aspects of NIW petition. I appreciated their help through the process and detailed answers to my questions. I am glad that our efforts made this case successfully approved.”

Case Summary:

With a Ph.D. in petroleum engineering, our client displays the knowledge and experience to advance his research in petroleum engineering. When he communicated with North America Immigration Law Group for supporting him to log an I-140 NIW (National Interest Waiver) petition on his account, we started evaluating his academic and research practice background. We discovered that his research is to develop advanced rock and fluid simulation models and tools using petroleum engineering techniques and numerical methods to enhance oil recovery and maximize production in oil and gas fields.

Our goal was to prove to the USCIS that our client’s research has great importance because it provides efficient means to extract oil and gas from underground. His research in this area is key to driving economic growth in the United States’ oil and gas industries, which are currently the world’s most important sources of energy. Therefore, we highlighted the required information, strengthening our client’s case:

• We emphasized his publications including 8 peer-reviewed journal articles, and 11 conference proceedings (5 of them first-authored), and these had altogether gathered 266 citations, symbolizing that his publications are well-acknowledged in the field of petroleum engineering.
• Further, our client is an effective peer reviewer for distinguished journals, and he has conducted 60 reviews. Only notable experts in their field are requested to perform extensive review work, demonstrating his significant standing in the field.
• To impel the petition forward, we added recommendation letters collected by our client from two well-recognized experts in the field, providing further acumen into the merit of his attempt.

We were successful in persuading the USCIS that our client’s research work has a great involvement for the United States as the nation’s most prevalent energy source, oil is vital to securing the United States’ economic and security interests. Our client got this approval after thorough consideration, and we congratulate him as he continues advancing in this field.

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“Glad to hear the approval! I appreciate the great work.”

Case Summary:

With 6 peer-reviewed journal articles (4 of them first-authored), 4 peer-reviewed conference publications (3 of them first-authored), and 1 first-authored book chapter (accepted) under his belt, there is no denying that our client has made a name for himself in the field of energy system optimization. Furthermore, his doctoral degree has armed him with the skills and knowledge needed to continue conducting impactful fieldwork.

When he decided to become an American permanent resident, our client (a research associate from China) hired North America Immigration Law Group (NALG) to help him accomplish this goal. One of the first things we did was ask him questions related to his research and evaluate his credentials. Only once we confirmed that we could help him obtain EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) approval did we countersign the retainer agreement. In preparing our client’s NIW petition, these are some of the points we focused on:

• We listed the 73 citations collected from his 11 publications.
• We highlighted his work on developing cutting edge energy modeling and optimization frameworks to better deploy renewable energy and energy efficient technologies.
• We proved to the USCIS that his research in his area is of great importance because it focuses on reducing the energy consumption associated with heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration.
• We demonstrated that our client is contributing to the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration industry by introducing environmentally friendly technologies to reduce energy consumption and promote sustainability.

To back up the points mentioned above, we included recommendation letters signed by other well-known researchers in the field of energy system optimization. This is what one of them said about our client and his work: “In the face of such statistics, the urgency for scientists and researchers to develop new strategies and methods to reduce the production of greenhouse gas has never been higher. [Client’s] work in building more environmentally friendly systems is of the greatest importance to humanity as a whole, as any and all developments related to climate change signifies progress.”

We congratulate our client for obtaining petition approval, and we thank him for retaining our firm for his EB-1A application too. We extend our client our best wishes as he continues to progress the field of energy system optimization with his dedicated work.

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“Thank you very much for your support preparing and filing the I140 application. Your diligence and quality of work were outstanding.”

Case Summary:

This EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) case involved a talented senior petroleum engineer from Venezuela working in the field of petroleum engineering. He hired North America Immigration Law Group (WeGreened.com) to put together a strong NIW case on his behalf.

Support from other experts:

To strengthen our NIW petition, we assisted our client in narrowing down a list of potential recommenders working in the field of petroleum engineering. We selected six experts, all of whom gladly lent their support through recommendation letters. One of these experts wrote, “Given the rising importance of shale production for American energy consumption, the work of [client] is particularly valuable. [Client] provided new insight into the production mechanisms for reservoir rocks with tiny pores. ” These letters served as proof that our client’s insights are essential to the field.

Demonstration of capabilities:

Our legal team amassed a wealth of information on our client’s many professional accomplishments and included them in our well-worded NIW petition packet. We documented our client’s Ph.D. in petroleum engineering, the 48 citations gathered from his 2 peer-reviewed journal articles (1 of them first-authored) and 8 conference papers evaluated and ranked by experts for acceptance in the program (4 of them first-authored), and carefully detailed his research on reservoir simulation and modeling with focus on enhanced oil recovery and integrated production networks. We then used this information to prove to the USCIS that our client’s research in his area is of great importance because it lessens the burden of oil extraction and fossil fuel consumption on the natural environment.

In conclusion:

Thanks to our client’s strong credentials and our legal team’s diligent efforts, the immigration officers at TSC spent about 10 months adjudicating this case. Our client recently retained our I-485 services to propel him to the green card finish line. We look forward to helping him and his spouse attain permanent residency.

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“Thank you for your excellent work during this application… Honestly, it is rare that somebody is not aware of your quality work in our community.”

Case Summary:

It took almost 11 months for a reservoir engineer working in the field of petroleum engineering to receive an approval notification for his NIW (National Interest Waiver) petition. Despite the long timeline, we were confident that our strong presentation of our client’s skills and research would lead to an approval notice. Our client had suitable qualifications to file his I-140 petition under this visa category.

Obtaining petition approval:

As the attorney-on-record, we were tasked with building a strong case for our client. To prove that our client qualified for the national interest waiver, North America Immigration Law Group had to compile a wealth of information pertaining to his research efforts on reservoir modeling, simulation and characterization through history-matching. His work in this area is of great importance as petroleum continues to be one of the world’s most common sources of energy.

Padding the petition with evidence:

To bolster our client’s EB-2 NIW petition, we urged him to contact other influential members in the field who had either worked with him or were familiar with his work. We needed them to sign recommendation letters that confirmed the value of our client’s work. The six experts whom our client contacted all verified that his investigations contribute to the domestic economy. According to one of them: “[Client’s] work is of general importance due to the major role petroleum plays in the global economy. In 2017, exploration, production, and trade in the oil and gas industry made up between 2-3% of all global trade, grossing between $75 and $87.5 US dollars. This industry holds great sway over the health of the global economy and is, therefore, a highly analyzed industry.”

Citations, Publications and Peer-review Experience:

Our client’s publications have been cited a total of 29 times according to Google Scholar, thereby demonstrating that these publications are widely recognized and relied upon in the field of petroleum engineering. Throughout his time working in the field, our client has also built an impressive record of publication. As evidence of his contributions, his work has resulted in 6 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference articles (2 of them first-authored). Our client is also active in the scientific community as a peer reviewer for highly acclaimed journals and has already conducted 33 reviews which further demonstrates his important standing in the field.

Filing an I-485 application while the I-140 petition is pending approval:

Our client retained our services to file I-485 applications for himself and his spouse (this is the final step in the green card process). Instead of waiting for his I-140 EB-2 NIW petition to be approved first, he chose to file his I-485 while the latter was pending approval. The team at North America Immigration Law Group (WeGreened.com) would like to thank our client for working with us, and we congratulate him as he celebrates the fact that his I-485 was recently approved and he is now a US permanent resident.

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“Great news! Thank you so much for your help in preparing the petition and RFE response.”

Case Summary:

15 months and 24 days after we filed an EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) on our client’s behalf, Texas Service Center approved his petition. Our client, a petroleum engineer from Iran has years of experience working in the field of petroleum engineering and is currently focused on improving oil and gas recovery from hydrocarbon reservoirs.

Client’s Credentials:

To support our argument that our client merits a national interest waiver, we submitted evidence of his impressive publication. At the time we filed his case, our client has published 13 peer-reviewed journal articles (10 of them first-authored) and 9 conference papers (7 of them first-authored) that collected 233 citations; thereby demonstrating that these publications are widely recognized and relied upon in the field. He has also conducted 14 reviews for distinguished journals and conferences. We incorporated the related material into his petition letter, and provided in-depth analysis to show the merit of our client’s endeavor. Additionally, we summarized that our client’s investigation in his area is of great importance because of the rising global demand for oil. Our client has developed new methods for increasing the production yield of oil from subterranean hydrocarbon reservoirs, easing the burden of satisfying the global demand for crude oil.

Third-party Support:

To increase our chances of attaining a petition approval from the USCIS, we encouraged our client to obtain recommendation letters from other experts in the field. We needed these letters to fortify our claim that our client’s work is of utmost importance to the United States and that his findings benefit other researchers. Our client managed to get 5 signed letters, one of which stated that: “Thus, research that provides techniques for improving the efficiency of oil production is of great significance to the United States economy. Moreover, [client’s] research has been central to this effort, as he has developed experimental frameworks for studying the effects of ultrasonic radiation on oil recovery efficiency.”

Although our client had a strong case, the USCIS issued an RFE to which we responded promptly and successfully dealt with the hurdles. Overall, the USCIS took 15 months and 24 days to approve our client’s case. We truly appreciate our client for trusting us with the preparation of his NIW case and wish him the best as he continues to work in the United States.
We thank him for retaining our services to help him adjust his status for permanent residence by filing an I-485 application.

“Thank you again for your help.”

Case Summary:

With a PhD in Petroleum Engineering and many years of experience researching the specialized area of petroleum engineering, our client had gained sufficient recognition for her work to qualify for EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver). Once we were sure that we could put together a strong presentation for our client, we initiated the attorney-client relationship and got to work compiling all the relevant information pertaining to her case.

Research Summary:

An important aspect of the case was our client’s research projects. We needed to prove to the USCIS that she is working in an area that is important to the U.S. and that her findings are benefiting the nation. Thanks to the thorough research summary that our client provided us, we were able to determine her research focuses on automated algorithms to optimize field development and production and minimize environmental damage. Once we established that, we were able to pinpoint their numerous advantages. For instance, we proved that our client’s findings contribute to the United States and her research in the area is of great importance because it improves the amount of oil that is able to be extracted from a single well.

Testimonials from Peers:

Although we managed to establish the value of our client’s work, we needed other experts in the field to concur. We did this by urging our client to obtain recommendation letters from her peers, and to our delight, she returned with 5 signed letters. According to one of her recommenders: “As such, the United States is approaching its long-term objective of energy independence. This is due to the work of researchers in the field of petroleum engineering. [Client] belongs to the select group whose efforts to characterize hydraulic fracturing of reservoirs has contributed to the ability of the United States to achieve total energy independence.”

Impressive Numbers:

At the time of filing, our client’s work had collected 47 citations. Additionally, her many years in the field of petroleum engineering had led to the publication of 2 peer-reviewed journal articles and 4 conference papers (all of them first-authored), all of which appeared in important scientific journals. We also noted the 5 times our client judged the work of her peers. Using these numbers, we convinced the USCIS that our client’s research is of the utmost importance to the research community.

Petition Approval:

Overall, it took the USCIS 6 months and 4 days to approve our client’s case. We congratulate our client on this milestone and wish her well as she continues to advance the field of petroleum engineering. We thank our client for trusting our services to represent her NIW and I-485 cases.

“I highly recommend them for anyone who is going to apply for NIW. Their professionalism and expertise, their valuable experience in variety of cases also and their dedication to their clients is exceptional. I found it extremely helpful to have their support and valuable advice in every single stage of the entire process. Particularly, I believe I on my own could not provide such a comprehensive RFE response in a short period of time.”

“Thank you for your great service.”

“Thank you for your excellent support throughout this process. I truly appreciate your teams responsiveness and patience as I learned the application process. I will recommend your team to my colleagues. My advice to anyone who is thinking about working with your team is to trust your teams judgement and advice. I think your team is always attuned to the current trends in the EB1 and EB2 application and approval process and knows what is needed for an approval. 5 stars…second to none!!!!!”