Qualifying Criteria:
1. Applicant must be recognized internationally as outstanding in a specific academic area;
2. Applicant must possess 3 years of experience in teaching or research in the academic area. Experience in teaching or research while working on advanced degree may be counted if degree is acquired, person had full responsibility for the class taught, or the research has been recognized as outstanding in the academic field.
3. Applicant seeks entry:
a. For a tenure (or tenure track) teaching position within a university or institution of higher education;
b. For a comparable position at university or institute of higher education to conduct research; or
c. Comparable position to conduct research with private employer if it employs at least 3 full time researchers and the departmental, division or institution has achieved documented accomplishments in an academic field.
Research will not include engineering or product design because such activity is the “technological application of existing research.
d. A research position may be tenured, tenure track or a permanent offer, that is, an offer of in definite or unlimited duration in which the researcher will have an expectation of continued permanent employment unless there is good cause for termination.
In recognition that modern business practices often have year-to-year “at will” contracts, USCIS does not require the contract to have a “good cause” provision, and will accept other evidence of permanency from the employer that demonstrates “the intent to continue to seek funding and a reasonable expectation that funding will continue (such as demonstrated prior renewals for extended long-term research projects)…”
If the position is tenured or tenure track there is no requirement to demonstrate permanency.
e. Government Agencies-Government agencies at the federal, state or local level will not fit the definition of private employers and would therefore only qualify as petitioners under EB 1(2) if it is “shown to be a U.S. university or an institution of higher learning.
4. Evidence that the professor or researcher is recognized internationally as outstanding in the academic field must include at least 2 of the following:
Receipt of major prizes or awards for outstanding achievement.
Membership in an association which requires outstanding achievement.
Published material in professional publications written by others about the applicant’s work.
Evidence of the person’s participation as a judge of the work of others.
Evidence of original scientific research.
Authorship of scholarly books or articles in the field.
6. No labor certification is required although an offer of employment is required in the form of a letter from the sponsoring employer.