My student is applying for permanent residency

[foralurker]

One of my doc students is in the process of applying for jobs and she is also applying for permanent residency in the US. I have no idea how any of this works, and I'm likely to get some of this wrong. She reached out to me for help. How can I help her?

In her email, she asked me to help her identify colleagues from outside of our university. She should not have a previous working relationship with these colleagues. (I'm new here, so she's likely approaching me as someone with recent connections from my own grad program)

If I'm understanding this correctly, she has an "advocate" composing a letter that speaks to her qualifications and research. She needs me to help her connect with people she hasn't previously met, from our field, to serve as a "recommender". The recommender I help her find will read her research, and the letter written by the advocate, and sign... something?... that says my doc student is... doing good work?...

Does anyone have experience serving as a recommender? Or applying for their own green card?

I'd like to have some more information before I approach classmates from my grad program or my own advisor.

I'm also interested in hearing if this is common. I came from a VERY international doc program. The doc program at my present uni is very small with few international students.

[mamselle]

Your school, even a small one, must have an International Students department.

I'd start with them to see what they offer in terms of support, guidance, and suggestions for a successful application.

It's in the school's interest as well, so I'd keep poking around until you find something.

You and the student both also want to be in touch with them at the outset, so there are no surprises on any side, later.

M.

[research_prof]

Yes, this is typical. Most likely the student is applying for what is called a national interest waiver. Look it up. They need to prove to USCIS that it is in the best interest of the US that they stay and work in the US. In this context, you will pretty much provide something like a recommendation letter to USCIS speaking about the qualifications of the student. Most probably the letter will be put together by an immigration lawyer unless the student is doing the process on their own.

That's all.

[mamselle]

Correct, and the school probably has the immigration lawyer on retainer, which is why you need to contact the school's own International office, so it can be coordinated with them and the lawyer.

M.

[spork]

The student should be working with an immigration lawyer, which I assume you are not. Use whatever documentation the lawyer has provided to the student for guidance.

[zyzzx]

I have done two of these recommendations. As others have said, the letters should be drafted by a lawyer, so that all the key words and points are hit. With the ones that I did, I suggested some additional points that could be added and minor tweaks, but basically just ok'ed and signed them. Both were definitely good scientists with international reputations and multiple excellent publications, and the US would have been stupid to lose them.

The recommenders have to be someone with no working relationship with the student (no co-authored work, no proposals, no same institutions, etc), but it doesn't have to be someone that the student has never met. For example, if the student has ever been invited to give a talk, the person that invited them would be a good person to approach. Or someone who has cited her papers multiple times, etc. It should be someone established in the field - for mine there was a paragraph about my qualifications in order to give legitimacy to my evaluation of the applicant's work.

To be honest though, if the student can't come up with anyone outside the university that she knows things highly of her work and would be a good recommender, then I would wonder if they have the standing for a national interest waiver? Or maybe the cases that I did have given me an inaccurate view of where the bar is?

[foralurker]

Thanks, everyone, for filling in the blanks for me. I so appreciate this community!

The info on National Interest Waivers was very helpful. It seems this "advocate" is an attorney who will be responsible for composing the letters.

I ended up pointing the student to a searchable directory in our professional association. She is also going to consider people she's met in the association from some committee projects she's served on.

I feel content that I've done what I can by getting her involved in the association (plus it's had this unexpected networking benefit) and I'm going to call it a day. I don't think I'm going to spend any favors from my alma mater on this one.

[mamselle]

You still need to connect with your school's international students office.

You may end up leading the student into a situation where their application is null because it doesn't have the school's thumbprint on it.

They will also be very unhappy if this starts up without their oversight, and they may be able to provide a cost-free lawyer to the student, since most places keep one on retainer.

Reach out to the International Student's office first.

Then you'll be done.

M.

[foralurker]

Reach out to the International Student's office first.

Then you'll be done.

M.

I initiated this conversation. Thank you!

[mamselle]

Great!

M.

[Kron3007]

I am in Canada, but have served as a recommender for a couple researchers applying for US PR (apparently this is allowed).  They just contacted me bacause I have cited their work, asking me to write a letter attesting to the quality/relevance of the research.  In both cases they drafted the letter, which definitely increased the odds of me agreeing.

So, I think this is likely a good approach. If they have publications, they should reach out to people who have cited their work.  Likewise, if they have been invited to speak somewhere, the invite would be a good start I think.

[foralurker]

In both cases they drafted the letter, which definitely increased the odds of me agreeing.

That's one of the parts that tripped me up about the whole thing. It seemed unnatural for a lawyer to compose the letter and ask a scholar to agree to sign it. But, now that I've learned a bit more, it sounds very standard. Thanks for sharing!

[fizzycist]

If you want to help them, then I would just suggest to them friends of yours from conferences or back in grad school/postdoc or whatever who are now faculty at R1 universities.

The "letter writers" you recommend will have to do some work (the lawyers are always overzealous in their drafting of the letters and put in crap that I can't sign off on), but not *that* much. Usually at the level of scanning a CV, browsing paper abstracts, and pushing back on a handful of BS phrases.

[Kron3007]

If you want to help them, then I would just suggest to them friends of yours from conferences or back in grad school/postdoc or whatever who are now faculty at R1 universities.

The "letter writers" you recommend will have to do some work (the lawyers are always overzealous in their drafting of the letters and put in crap that I can't sign off on), but not *that* much. Usually at the level of scanning a CV, browsing paper abstracts, and pushing back on a handful of BS phrases.

I respectfully disagree.  From my experience with government beaurocrats, they have very specific criteria they are looking for and don't care about any extras that you may think are important.  Your connections may write a fantastic LOR for them, but if it misses the key points that the evaluator has on their pre-populated score card, they could be denied.  I could be wrong, but my suspicion on this particular one is that there is a list of acceptable demonstrable examples, such as researchers who have cited their work,.and a letter just supporting them in more general terms would not meet these criteria. 

Regarding the letters I have received, they were actually quite reserved and I had no issue signing them pretty much as they were sent.  More importantly, the letters were from different applicants, but we're very similar, leading me to believe the lawyers are either using a template or addressing a very specific list of assessment criteria.  For this reason, I would recommend your student sticks to the script.

[mamselle]

Yes.

If you mess up the keyword match, the machine reader throws the whole thing out.

Follow the templates given.

M.