adrs23

In the field of Engineering, does anybody know which memberships are likely to satisfy the following EB1 requirement:

Invited Membership – Documentation of the alien’s membership in associations in the field for which classification is sought, which require outstanding achievements of their members, as judge by recognized national or international experts in their disciplines or fields.

For example, would Chartered Engineer (C.Eng) status or Fellowship of one of the professional engineer societies (Royal Aeronautical Society for example) meet the requirement.

Thanks very much in advance for any advice you can offer.

GeoffM

Fellowship seems to be the minimum, and invited rather than bought. You need to be one of very few with that grade. It's a hard category to get acceptance for, apparently. What other categories are you considering?

S Folinsky

EB-1 extraordinary ability applications are extremely individualized. One needs to see the paperwork.

adrs23

Thanks very much for the replies. I am currently trying to get some idea of my chances before deciding to employee a lawyer.

I'm confident that I can meet the requirement for a national award and may be able to meet the judging and leading/critical role requirements.

GeoffM

I think you want to satisfy yourself first that you have a reasonable stab at three categories. Ideally have another possibility or two and then, with your attorney, work through what is likely and what is not. FWIW I got through on high salary, leading/critical role, and original contribution. We thought salary was easiest to prove but it was questioned. We thought the other two would be a tough sell but they passed first time. You can never tell as, like Mr. Folinskey says, each case is different and highly personalised.

Even if you get three, you still need to prove continuity in your expertise and an overall "warm feeling" for the case.

S Folinsky

You can at least consult with a lawyer.

I recall a case back before the current backlogs where I considered the case to be an excellent "national interest waiver" in EB-2 but an extremely flaky EB-1. Figured no harm in doing the EB-1 at the same time. The EB-1 was approved almost instantly and the EB-2 was denied.

A participant here had a labor cert going and given the backlogs he insisted that attorney do an EB-2 NIW. Attorney said it would crash and burn but, what the hell, no harm, no foul in trying. It was approved.

The poster here was proud that he insisted, rightfully so. But he agreed that the attorney was not off the wall in his feeling that it stood little or no chance.

Moral: if you don't bet, you can't win.

Further moral to an engineer: "belts and braces" is a good theory.

adrs23

Thanks very much for the additional advice. I have had some initial discussions with immigration lawyers found using Google but I would be grateful for any recommendations, by PM if its against the rules to post on the site. Also, I would be interested in the expected fee for a lawyer. I've had quotes of $5000 and $7500. Is that about right?

Bill_S

A colleague of mine used Margaret Wong (Cleveland OH) for a successful EB1 petition.

She is not cheap.

GeoffM

Use those figures as GBP rather than USD and you'd be in the right area. Add filing fees and the attorney fee for RFE if you get one. Oh, and immigrant visa fee for each person ($794) in your family. Premium processing $1225 if you want a response in 15 days rather than half a year or thereabouts.

GeoffM

I should add the time cost to yourself. Several hours a week preparing evidence for the attorney; some weeks more intense than others. Make sure your attorney has several successful EB1A cases. Most should give a free initial consultation - mine talked for 45 minutes! But that was most of the verbal contact I had with him. The rest was email and uploading scans of all the evidence (i sent over 200 files, some 1-page wage slips for example; others several pages).

NotCasey

My EB1 lawyer charges $6000, which is a tad more expensive than the others I was consulting with, who charge in the 5000-5750 range. I spoke with mine back and forth for several months before actually paying him the first instalment!

S Folinsky

It is against the rules for an attorney participant to post references to her own website for contents therein. It is OK to put it in the signature page.

That said, I am good friends with J Craig Fong & Eileen Chun of Fong & Chun and IMHO, they are among the best. [Disclosure: I used to rent space in their suite.]

GeoffM

Bah, I'm talking nonsense . Too many conversions back and forth! Yes, mine was towards the upper end of your scale.

Apologies.

adrs23

Thanks very much to everybody for the additional information and recommendations. Very helpful.

GeoffM, would you mind telling me which attorney you used?

BostonBrit Expat Since 03

have you considered the EB1 multinational manager category?