The surge in immigration to the United States has attracted many "laymen" to follow the trend and enter the immigration law market. They have carried out propaganda out of context, submitting many applicants that do not meet the requirements for Extraordinary Ability visa’s criteria, resulting in failure to obtain approval. Of course, it is not the case that only the top experts in the industry can meet the requirements of Eb-1A. Applicants in many more ordinary professions such as doctors, engineers, university professors, associate professors, and enterprise executives can also be approved successfully. The key to a successful EB1A petition is to fully understand the Eligibility Criteria, find the right lawyer and make a good evaluation.
As the immigration team of MPLG Law Firm, which has successfully applied for various work visas and green cards for thousands of Chinese customers (enterprises and individuals), including hundreds of successful cases of Extraordinary Ability, we found that there is a lot of disinformation about the eligibility criteria, which led the applicant to think that he or she easily qualified and then found that he or she could not continue in the petitioning process or was denied after paying the fees to the firm or agency that was responsible for the petition.
In this article, we will share the application requirements for membership in associations, i.e., item #2 of the 10 criteria for "Extraordinary Ability" visa in the United States.
There are two points to note: first, there must be "membership in associations in the field ", and second, that association must "demand outstanding achievement of their members". For the membership in association criterion, many agencies will mislead the applicant to believe that as long as they are members of the association, they can satisfy the criterion. There are several common misunderstandings about this criterion.
First, we should pay attention to the "field", which must match the applicant's main research field, occupation or major. To take an extreme example, if a doctor serves as the president of the photography association, he will certainly not meet the criteria, unless he applies as an extraordinary photographer.
Second, it is required that trade associations or professional associations should be national organizations, so provincial and municipal associations do not meet the requirements;
Third, "extraordinary ability" visa has requirements for the criteria and procedures for selecting members of the association. Those who become members of the Association by simply paying the membership fee are unqualified "association members". There needs to be an admission process-because the applicant has outstanding reputation, contributions and achievements in the industry and is recommended by experts, and after review and evaluation, the applicant is invited to join the association;
Fourth, from our practical experience, it is necessary to prove that the association that the applicant joined has a strong influence within the industry, and the applicant can continue to promote the progress of the whole industry within the association. Therefore, even if some applicants are directors and secretaries general, they may not meet the criteria of Eb-1A for "membership in associations".
Therefore, when we see a criterion, we should not just look at its literal meaning, we should have a deep understanding of the meaning of the requirements within the actual application process. In recent years, USCIS has set increasingly high requirements for the criterion of "membership in associations". If you want to check whether you meet this criterion, you need to find a professional lawyer to evaluate.
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