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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/20/AR2005122001748.html

Will Words Fail Her?
Immigration Officials Snub Literary Sensation Yiyun Li Despite Her Peers' Praise


Despite being compared to Hemingway, Yiyun Li lost her first bid for permanent residency because an agency says she has not "risen to the very top of the field of endeavor."

By Bob Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 21, 2005; Page C01

Five years ago, Yiyun Li had a problem: How do you persuade the literary world to take you seriously when you're a 28-year-old native Chinese speaker trying to write in English, you've published exactly nothing and your training consists of a single adult-education class?

Since then, the Beijing-born Li's career arc has been so steep it gives her peers vertigo.

She's had stories published in prestige magazines such as the New Yorker and the Paris Review. She's won the Pushcart Prize and the Plimpton Prize for New Writers. Random House has signed her to a $200,000, two-book contract, which Executive Editor Kate Medina calls -- in what qualifies as a serious understatement -- "most unusual" for a literary writer at this stage of her career. Her first book, a story collection called "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers," was published this fall to wide praise.

Now she has another problem: How do you explain to the federal immigration bureaucracy what the word "extraordinary" means?

n the summer of 2004, Li petitioned the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to become a permanent resident of the United States. To approve her application for a green card, USCIS would need to agree that she was an artist of "extraordinary ability," defined in Title 8, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 204.5(h)(2) as "a level of expertise indicating that the individual is one of that small percentage who have risen to the very top of the field of endeavor."

To the upper echelons of literary publishing, Li looks like a slam-dunk to meet this definition. Not to the USCIS, however. A year after she filed it, her petition was rejected.

She has appealed. A USCIS spokesman says she is likely to get her answer in a few weeks.

The appeal was rejected around Jan 2006 - Appu

http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/asian/Daily_News_Mar1.asp

The 33-year-old author, who plans another effort to get her green card, had applied based on "exceptional ability" in the arts. Her previous literary honors include the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and a Pushcart prize,

Let us say that i agree to what ever you say. In what way does everything you stated above make a STEM graduate eligible for GC without an Employer sponsership. Why does it have to be only STEM graduates which will not need employer sponsership. If giving GC based on completion of MS in us is bypassing the employee sponserhsip then that has to be extended to all EB categories of immigrants (EB1/EB2/EB3) and the benefit o those visas have to be passed to the badly retrogressed category first.

Yes, the provision would apply across all EB classes. And if its quota exempted, then it does not matter as every eligible candidate gets his/her turn.

It si not teh question of liek or unliking or having jealousy. It is the question of law. According to the US law employee sponsership is EB category so any new bill which has to be introduced will have to follow the EB category employee sponsership rule, othwer wise it wil not see the light of the day.

Yes, that's what this provision is targeting. Change the law, make STEM grads cap exempt

Personally i see no chance of this DV lottery STEM billpassing in any shape or form either now or in the future

Answers inline

I will also contribute for this effort.

I BOW. WELL DONE IV TEAM. YOU HAVE MADE US PROUD!!


please can you change the color of this good news?.

I will contribute $25. Did the relevant poll selection as well.

Actually, it has been mentioned several times since past few years that the RD that you see online is infact the ND. This is NOT the date the the CLAIMS3 system sorts by. Whether it takes 2 days for someone to enter the data or 2 months the RD date is fixed - it is the date they receive your application. While entering data they look at this received date stamp and enter that as RD.

Many National Customer Service (call center employees) only go by what they and you see online and hence give your ND as RD. The ND by far carries no value for sorting and priority purposes.

Majority of IIO's at service centers will mention RD as the date of relevance as they look directly into the CLAIMS system and are better informed than call center employees or Infopass IIO's !

I really hope that clears the confusion....

sdrblr,

Are you sure you were talking to a TSC IIO, because SR's are only opened by the call center employees.




On my 485 receipt, I have RD as 7/20/07, ND as 9/13/07. But when I check my case online, it has 9/12/07.

I had called TSC yesterday and the rep kept telling 9/12/07 and TSC is processing 8/30/07. I told her I have the original receipt in front of me and it says 7/20/07 and not sure where you are getting 9/12 from. She said "Oh I am sorry, I was looking at the incorrect place". She later gave me a SR # and took all the info. The funny part was she even refused to open a SR telling the date was 9/12.

Not sure whether opening a SR now will help but trying does not hurt and it is FREE !!!! Hopefully the officer looks at my file and then approves it.

Contributed my $50.00 just now.

Trying to bring 2 more members to the IV.

Check this out...

LaserCard Corporation : News & Events : Press Releases (http://www.lasercard.com/newsReleases.php?key=50&release=175&yr=2009)

Sherman_tribiani buddy,

Do you know how many rats do we need to keep around to become good leader?If you don't have answer can you go to your forefathers and check with them and get back to us?

Details of Paypal Transaction

Transaction ID: 7KC41497SM8816707
Item Price: $500.00 USD

Thank you very much.

EB3 Guys,

Take it easy... This is just for humour, to have fun at these times.

No green card for you. Just work well for 6 years, enjoy life in US, enjoy sports cars by renting, not by buying, rent a big house, have a lawn and garden in back yard, grow your own vegetables. Have nice vacations like Hawaii, Jamaican islands, Vegas, Porto Rico etc.,Have fun in life. Do not go for green card. After 6 years, get nice job in India,own apartment near to office and ask your parents to live with you. Take kids to school . Have fun with them. Try to become director, AVP,VP,SVP,CEO,CTO and President. Do not go for green card. After you become director, buy a single family home and mercedez or BMW and have fun. Retire by the time your kids become earners. Grow vegetables in back yard. Do gardening and have fun. Thats how life should be. Do not hope for green card. H A V E F U N.


Well said. Actually renting a "house" in a good place gives you a much better quality of living for a few bucks more, without the headaches and commitments (read green card) of mortgage, downpayments etc.

Hello ragz4u,

Thanks for opening this thread.I am sure there be plenty of struggling stories to inspire us fight till we reach our goals. I like the way you are giving small snippets of stories without compromising privacy of the person.
If we can get permission from the person to print these stories on IV website , that would be great read and inspire lot of members.

This person's company promoted him to IT Manager with huge hike and then he learnt from company attorney that he cannot change his role while his LPR is in process. He then got demoted to Sr.Software enginner from IT Manager and the hike was rolled back

This is truly the shocking reality of the life of legal immigrants. We need more and more such stories to pass on to our senators...please keep on sending these stories.....

I had voted "No" initially, but I have sent flowers anyway...

Contributed $20 for the first time....Via Paypal

people who already applied for GC (any EB) and are waiting, understand that you are lucky to cross that line.. in currrent economy, it doesn't matter if its EB2 or EB3, any job posting out there will get 100s of resumes and we are politely told to look for other options outside the country.. guess the below statement is true for everyone who needs to apply now..


EB Guys, ..
No green card for you. ... Do not hope for green card. H A V E F U N.

Hi,

We have already 58 count..keep going guys.

Thanks,
Chandra.

This is not a legal advice to anybody, just explaining who I did!! Risk is yours!!.

On my passport "Surname" was empty. Complete name was under "Given Name". Assuming on passport:
Given Name: �Harjinder Singh"
Surname: ......empty....

Just went to Embassy of India - Washington DC. Filled a "Miscellaneous form" and under purpose pick OTHERS and write �Name Split". Then write on form what you want.
I requested " Split my name as Given Name = Harjinder; Surname = Singh".
Attach a photo on form, pay 20$ fee and collect a corrected passport next day.

As long as you are not changing the name this should be fine otherwise what will be in advertisement " My name is Harjinder Singh and I want to declare my new name is Harjinder Singh???" unless changing a name it seem simple 2 day task via Miscellaneous form.

Rest EAD / 485 I don't know because I am not at that stage yet.

Regards

Labor substitution may be legal but it is unethical. When everything depends on when you join the queue, how can one cut the line?

Whereas EB3 to EB2 porting is both legal and ethical. When you have a EB3 applicant that is waiting in line for 8 years, he/she had already gathered that much experience based on his long wait. Also, if you look at EB2, it is one of the highly abused category. The EB3 applicant who started in 2001 has joined the line half a decade before the one with 2006 Eb2 PD. One can't really accuse him/her for cutting the line just like one can about substitutes! If the EB3 porting case deserves merit, then I strongly support it!

My intention is not to to start a fight. But we need to see the true picture. Without acknowledging the problem how can we fix it?
Bottom line, GC abuses need to stop and we should fight for it as much as we fight for our rights to get GC!

As expected,I got a red dot on my post. And as usual, it was anonymous!
Pls. come out in open to share your views!

In this country where every individual/ family feels lonely and isolated many a time, IV has always been there as our pillar of strength in times of trouble..Hats off to the IV team and its family of members!!

I have a one year old; I went through nanny shopping and finally decided to keep our baby in the daycare. I would tell you on top of my voice - go to the cops immediately, this is simply unacceptable. I can't imagine how someone can hit a 8 months old. I can't imagine how someone can hit a 8 months old. I'm sitting here, my hand is shaking with anger. If I were you, i would not worry anything about her status, you saw an advertisement and you hired, you can argue that if it comes to that. Point here is screw her up so bad so she doesn't think of doing it again.....

Hello guys,
Sorry for this non-immigration related post. We have this sudden, tragic situation that I wanted all of your advice on. Thank you for your time in reading this long post.

We had hired an Indian nanny in NJ who, we learnt after hiring her, is here on a tourist visa. We were paying her $350 per week cash, which is the standard rate around here for nannies (incl. citizens and people on GC). We had liked her when we met her in response to an ad on Sulekha, and we thought an Indian nanny would be good for our first child. She has been with us for about 3 months, and we were intermittently not getting a good feeling with her for some reason. We finally bought a small security camera and installed it yesterday. On the very first day with the camera, we came home and saw the recorded video to find that she is violently hitting the baby on two separate occasions. Needless to say, it has shocked, angered and extremely saddened us. I showed the video to a couple of friends and even they say it is unbearable to watch. This was just the first day of recording and it pains us tremendously to think what all may have happened previously.
She is of course not going to stay with the baby alone anymore, but I want to know what legal options I have to penalize her to the fullest extent, so that she does not do this to anybody else�s small babies. She it seems had come here last year and taken care of someone else�s baby in Hoboken, and I can imagine that their baby also went through this. (This woman and her husband are a ~ 35 year old couple, who have a multiple entry ten year tourist visa; both come here for 6 months every year and work odd jobs like this. They apparently got a (unsponsored) tourist visa after showing a lot of landed property in India).
I specifically want to know if I will have potential problems if I go to law enforcement about this- regarding have employed her (both of us are on H1B visas). I know we have made mistakes and should have done better due diligence in this, and there cannot be any more punishment for us than seeing our 8 month old � who cannot tell us about it when we come home- being beaten on the tapes. We saw this yesterday and have not told her yet. We want to weigh all options before we proceed, but from today onwards one of us is home all the time till Friday. Any advice or opinion is sincerely appreciated. Thanks for reading this long post. And, to all who are thinking of nannies or have one, please learn from our mistakes and closely monitor your child�s safety every day.

From the following information:

1.Grant GC to all EB 2 / 3 class pimary applicants who have completed 8 years of continuous stay in the USA without any criminal record.

Personally, I do think the above bill you requested in the #1) is extremely difficult to work. It is because there was a bill proposed to the EB-2/EB-3 applicants to occupy the annual DV-lottery of 55,000 quota but it is NOT becomed a law yet. Now is April, 2011 and the DV-lottery results of this year will be announced soon online and the coming year of DV-lottery will be drawn again later during this coming Oct, 2011 but there is still NO hope to give those EB-2/EB-3 applicants into this DV-lottery quota. If this quota is occupied by EB-2/EB-3 applicants, less applicants will be in GC line.

Also, there is a proposed bill to allow foreign US accreditated universities' advanced graduates of STEM and with a US job offer to have GC but again it is NOT becomed a law yet. Also, your proposed EB-2/EB-3 applicants who have continuous stay of 8 years in US without criminal record to have GC may not fit the requirement of US needed because some of these EB-2/EB-3 applicants are NOT graduated in US universities and some of them are NOT in Science, Medicine, Engineering and Techology academic major which US society in demand.

Last time I have read some other online news or forum, it talks about there is guy who was graduated in a US university with double Master degree---one is M.Sc in computer science and the other is MBA and he still get stuck in getting his first new H-1B visa and later he decided to back home without choice. Yesterday I have read some other online news or forum, it talks about some people who graduated in US Ph.D or doctorate degree in Science/Engineering/Medicine cannot get the GC or some of them get stuck in his or her first new H-1B visa application (due to quota was full or from other reasons) or get stuck in the H-1B visa renewed. So without H-1B visa, how can they get into the EB line for GC?----They are all US graduates and have stayed in US for more than 6-8 years to study with social security card and drivers' licenses and without criminal record !!!!!!!!!!!!!

So you can see if your requested bill in #1) is working, so how about those who graduated in US university in Advanced degree of Science/Medicine/Engineering with US job offer or without H-1B visa?------They are US STEM graduates and have stayed in US with 6-8 years either study or work without criminal record (and with social security card and drivers' licenses)

Personally, I do believe since US demand Science/Medicine/Engineering (STEM) type people and also need the inflow of money to rescue the national debt, so why don't allow those US STEM type graduates get the GC and bring the money to immigrate to start up companies to create job opportunities and to buy houses. Then the non-STEM graduates who want to stay in US can also go into the second path of immigration such as bring money to set up companies to hire 3-6 persons for better economy. The DV-lottery can open to any US STEM graduates to enrol online by " first come, first get" basis and if once annual immigration quota of 55,000 is filled, those graduates need to wait for another year to enrol online for immigration. So every STEM or non-STEM graduates bring money to start companies in US creating job opportunities, paying taxes and bring inflow of money----better economy is growing up.

Moreover, those graduates will invite friends/relatives to visit US, increasing sales of both international and dosmetic airline tickets, hotel reservations, restaurant reservations and uplift the profits all kinds of retail businesses. Tourist visa fees will also add monetary income. Overall, inflow of money and jobs creation are dual powers to uplift the economy.
With inflow of money from immigration, there is NO government shutdown and there is NO hiking taxes needed for the existing US companies.

Also, in Australia, it allows foreign graduates who have stayed in Australia for over 5 years and without criminal record to get the GC automatically