Success Stories

EB-1A Approval for an Attorney

Our office represented a client who is an attorney, with expertise in the field of science, in his application for the employment-based EB-1 category for extraordinary ability. Although USCIS normally categorizes attorneys as professionals and state that they do not qualify for EB-1 immigrant visas and rather, qualify only for EB-2 category, we were able to get this client’s EB-1 application approved. This is because being an attorney does not immediately disqualify an applicant for the EB-1, as long as it can be proven that the applicant also qualifies as a person of extraordinary ability in business, science, or another EB-1 endeavor. In our client’s case, we argued that though he is an attorney, he has extraordinary ability in the field of science. Our office argued that an attorney who works in the field of science does involve the accepted EB-1 field of expertise – science. We were able to show this by mentioning that these kinds of attorneys are required to have a scientific background, a science degree(s), and scientific experience due to the fact that their work involves scientific products and the underlying science behind them. We discussed the kind of work he does and gave examples of cases he has worked on, which heavily focus on science. This applicant included his published scholarly articles in the field of science and his articles in the field of law, which are aimed at a knowledgeable audience in these fields. This applicant included evidence of his critical role at firms he has worked at and currently works at: in the form of reference letters from the client’s employers. The applicant also included proof of his high salary for attorneys in the area in which he worked. Lastly, the applicant included evidence of media mentions about him and his work. The last criteria was a challenge as media mentions of an attorney’s work is highly confidential so none of the mentions specified the applicant’s exact work and only mentioned that the applicant worked on high-profile cases. However, even with this challenge, our office was able to get this EB-1A application for an attorney approved. As such, this success story demonstrates that attorneys may qualify for the EB-1A and attorneys are not immediately barred from the EB-1 category just by nature of being an attorney.

If you have any questions about the EB-1A category and your eligibility for it, please contact Verma Law Firm to speak to a team of immigration attorneys with a proven track record of success at handling these petitions.