Not Necessary to be “First Author” for EB-1 Purposes

The Administrative Appeals Office (AAO), which handles visa and green card appeals, recently ruled that an EB-1 applicant need not be the “first author” in a scientific article to be able to use that article as evidence of extraordinary ability in his/her field. 

The EB-1 category is for foreign nationals at the top of their field as evidenced by receipt of a major national or international award (such as, a Nobel Prize) or by demonstrating three of eight qualifying criteria, one of which is authorship of scholarly articles in the field.

The Texas Service Center denied an EB-1 immigrant petition after discounting scholarly articles in which the applicant was not the “first author.”  This conclusion rendered the applicant ineligible for that particular criteria and ultimately, the applicant did not meet the minimum three criteria needed for approval.  On appeal, the AAO reversed the denial and approved the petition, stating that modern scientific research endeavors routinely involve collaborative efforts.  The AAO further stated that there is no statutory, regulatory, precedential, or evidentiary basis to conclude that the USCIS should not assign weight to collaborative scientific research. 

The applicant presented hundreds of cites to his collaborative work and also statements from research collaborators attesting to the integral role he played in the research.  The AAO found the cites to be “solid evidence that other researchers have been influenced by his work and are familiar with it.”

Please contact our San Francisco immigration law firm if you’d like to discuss pursuing an EB-1 petition based on extraordinary ability in your field.

Tags: EB-1, EB1, extraordinary ability, first author, scholarly articles
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