EB-12 Outstanding Professors and Researchers

The EB-12 category allows outstanding researchers and professors to obtain permanent residency (green card) if they have a qualifying offer of employment at a university or private research institution. This category does not require a PERM / Labor Certification application. There are also no backlogs in priority dates for all nationalities including citizens of India and China.

The basic eligibility requirements for the EB-12 Outstanding Researcher or Professor category are as follows:

• An offer of employment for a tenured or tenure-track position or a comparable permanent research position
• Three years of teaching and / or research experience in the academic field, generally beyond the Ph.D
• National and international recognition as being outstanding in the academic field

These petitions require evidence that the researcher or professor is recognized internationally as outstanding in a specific academic area. The evidence must consist of two of the following:

• Evidence of receipt of major prizes or awards for outstanding achievement in the academic field
• Documents of membership in associations in the academic field which require outstanding achievements of their members
• Evidence of published material in professional publications written by others about the scholar’s work in the academic field
• Evidence of participation, either individually or in a panel, as the judge of the work of others in the same or similar academic field
• Evidence of original scientific or scholarly research contributions to the academic field
• Evidence of the alien’s authorship of scholarly books or articles in scholarly journals with an international circulation

The EB-12 category allows outstanding researchers and professors to obtain permanent residency (green card) if they have a qualifying offer of employment at a university or private research institution. This category does not require a PERM / Labor Certification application. There are also no backlogs in priority dates for all nationalities including citizens of India and China.

The basic eligibility requirements for the EB-12 Outstanding Researcher or Professor category are as follows:

• An offer of employment for a tenured or tenure-track position or a comparable permanent research position
• Three years of teaching and / or research experience in the academic field, generally beyond the Ph.D
• National and international recognition as being outstanding in the academic field

These petitions require evidence that the researcher or professor is recognized internationally as outstanding in a specific academic area. The evidence must consist of two of the following:

• Evidence of receipt of major prizes or awards for outstanding achievement in the academic field
• Documents of membership in associations in the academic field which require outstanding achievements of their members
• Evidence of published material in professional publications written by others about the scholar’s work in the academic field
• Evidence of participation, either individually or in a panel, as the judge of the work of others in the same or similar academic field
• Evidence of original scientific or scholarly research contributions to the academic field
• Evidence of the alien’s authorship of scholarly books or articles in scholarly journals with an international circulation