I’m an international student in my final year of a STEM master’s, on the job search now. H-1B lottery odds make me nervous, so I’m looking at self-petitioning an EB-2 NIW instead of waiting on an employer. For those who did both: did you file the I-140 while still on OPT, and did premium processing make the timeline manageable? Curious how much runway people actually had.
@MYOS1634 any ideas?
Have you met with the International Student Office at your university yet? Start there.
Managing I-140 applications for my company was part of my previous job. The applications are extensive and even in a different political climate, they were not easy to get.
We had only one successful filing (about 25 years ago) for someone without a PhD (and a pretty specialsituation).. The PhD holders not only had to have very high level and rare expertise, they had to demonstrate that they were being managed by someone who could use that expertise. Iow, a brilliant person flipping burgers at McDonald’s would not get the visa because their extraordinary talent would not be used.
Talking to your school is probably the best path because even if you apply on your own, you will need someone to vouch for your “extraordinariness”. We often had profs’ recommendations included in our application (as well as citations of work, speaking engagements at international conferences, etc.
It may be worth a gamble, but as a back door, it’s not an easy one.
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I agree you should start with the international office at your school.
EB2 processing times are here, and are very long for citizens of China (6-10 years) and India (decades): EB-2 NIW Processing Time: Full Timeline Guide
You can pay $ to process your I-140 faster, but that doesn’t change your priority backdate or bypass the visa backlog.