I got an EB1 after switching from an H1B to an O1 since academic H1Bs are not transferable. I am good at what I do but am nothing like a Nobel prize winner. It requires fulfilling the requirements in a way the makes sense for a software engineer. For me that was working on projects at organizations of high repute; reviewing others work in open source projects; being a member of various open source organizations based on the merit of my contributions; the job I was switching paying well (more than 2-3x the prevailing wage, which most large tech companies pay); speaking at conferences; having letters of recommendation from people in my field.

That's great to hear!!

Did you finish your MS from US? Asking coz your said academic H1B.

May I ask for your LinkedIn profile? Asking so that I may get a fair gist of how things work to go towards EB-1.

Thanks for detailed reply :)

I don’t have a higher degree. I moved here to work on a high profile academic project as a software engineer. It was their policy not to sponsor permanent visas (lost an amazing colleague over this) so to stay here required finding a company willing to sponsor a complex visa. My linkedin is the same as my user name.

To add: this was just pre-Trump so don’t know if my experience is still typical.

It seems I need to thank you for reasons more than one today.

As far as Trump is concerned, I am not aware if he has started cracking down on extraordinary ability folks too.

Thanks again :P)

My father got EB1->citizenship.

It went pretty fast ( a couple of years until citizenship)

EB-1 Requirements: a couple of patents, and a whole bunch of endorsements from notable companies(Apple,Dell and some others) that his company was a vendor to.

Then again I knew a bunch of chessplayers on EB-1 too in 1990s, IMs/GMs.

May I ask in which field had your father been awarded his patents in? Electronics? Software?

Consumer / Professional Electronics

He is definitely qualified as within his niche his company was among the leaders(before it was sold to VCs but that is another story).

The main thing were not the patents (although those helped) but the endorsements from higher management in PUBLICLY known companies.

This is what the lawyer stressed: immigration officials are people too and name dropping works as silly as it sounds.

Literally, win a Nobel prize, or you have to "tick" several boxes for "extraordinary ability." I don't think a good professor in an American university will even qualify. It's pretty legit.

Note that that "extraordinary ability" green card is not employer-sponsored. You don't have to have anyone sponsoring you to get it - that means you can be unemployed and Uncle Sam will be happy to pick you up as a permanent resident.

Hmmm. There's an article here by someone who claims to have got an EB-1 by being a leading SEO blogger: https://www.google.ie/amp/s/thenextweb.com/contributors/2017...

I remember a few months ago reading on some criteria for EB-1, which if met, was considered to be a good thing by USCIS.

One of them was having higher remuneration than your peers from the same field, a lot higher. Gave me an impression of being 10X more or something.

My Co-founder got his EB1 while in PostDoc. Not a Nobel laureate but he has 50 peer-reviewed publications. Went on to become a Faculty Research Professor in Physics Department. He has PhD and MBA when applied for EB1. He actually has helped other great researchers get their EB1 as well, part of it has to do with the petition and how genuine and how strong of a case you make for making an impact on USA. Also, things like being an Editor or reviewer for academic journals, establishing a track record for guiding MS students on way to PhD, strong publication record, etc.

How can I do this while I am working in an IT company? Peer reviewing and similar work? I work in Enterprise Software (BMC Software)

Please guide.

Unless you're in a researchy department, working and publishing papers, this is very very hard.

I remember a few months ago reading on some criteria for EB-1, which if met, was considered to be a good thing by USCIS.

One of them was having higher remuneration than your peers from the same field, a lot higher. Gave me an impression of being 10X more or something.