Live Your American Dream

By Chris M. Ingram, LL.M., ESQ 

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As I look at our intake of new clients, I feel I have to make a special appeal on behalf of America. Quite simply we need more programmers. America is in an I.T. crisis because it cannot recruit enough programmers and bidding wars have broken out as U.S. tech companies try to poach talent from each other. It’s mad. What we need in a huge influx of talented programmers to swell our ranks.

We are in the era of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). So, what do I mean by A.I. What companies are looking to do is to get software to not just collect data and process it, but to create a virtual brain that as data is accumulated this “brain” knows what to do with that data and act on it without or as little human interaction as possible.

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For example, many investment firms hire the very best mathematicians to develop what are called tracker funds, where based on math and programming, investment fund managers let the software make the investment decision. How do I know this? Because one of our clients was one of those mathematicians who made millions for himself and the banks he worked for developing what are known algorithms (rules) that determine when investors should buy or sell given pre-determined market conditions.

Most of our top-level programmers make upwards of $200,000 and typically make up to $300,000 and have stellar track records working for multi-national enterprises working in either Big Data, Data Migration, Business Intelligence, SAP or Architecture. Nearly all of them are Indian or Middle Eastern.

Over the years we’ve developed a reputation whereby we’d win one case for a programmer in a firm and then he or she would tell their colleague and we’d handle that case and win it and then they’d tell their colleague and we handle that case and win that one too. Our clients keep recommending us because we simply keep winning. If we did not they would instantly stop, so we have a lot of motivation to just keep winning.

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Why Your Employer May Not Help you

If you are lucky enough to be working in the U.S. under a H-1B Graduate Visa, L-1A Intra-company Transfer Visa or an O-1 Visa – chances are your employer will have no interest whatsoever to help you get a green card. Why? Because they fear that if they help you get a green card you will leave them and find a better job. As an immigrant, this thinking is crazy because if employers helped their gifted employees secure their green cards, they would be more likely to stay. I remember when I worked on a H-1B and my employer refused to sponsor me it meant I could not settle so I focused on finding an employer who would help me a get a green card. As soon as I found one I left. I did not want to be in limbo, especially as I have a wife and three young children to think about and provide long-term stability for. The great news about the EB1 Green Card for talented professionals means that you do not need a U.S. employer to sponsor you, you can simply sponsor yourself. It’s amazing.

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How You Can Secure Your Green Card

What I’d like to do is give you some tips on how to prepare yourself to become our client so that we take you on as a client and we can work together as a team to win your case.

How Much Do You Make?

How much you make will often depend on which country you work in. If you work in India then you’re likely to earn far less than your American-based colleagues. However, if you work in the Middle East you’re likely to make way more than your American colleagues. USCIS Immigration is very keen to look at how much your make as your income can reflect your status or level of success. So, if you’re a programmer making $125,000, USCIS knows that the top programmers typically make over $200,000. So, if you’re not making $200,000 it does not mean you cannot apply or should not apply it may mean that you need to develop additional categories to build up your case.

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Have You Considered Peer Review Judging?

Ok, many I.T. by nature, keep a low profile, they do a great job, get paid the big bucks but no one outside their circle knows they even exist. USCIS does not like that. The EB1 green card is all about demonstrating that you have risen to the very top of your profession. So, if no one has ever heard of you then winning your case is really tough, but if you have made an effort to get known then your case gets much easier to win. So, a couple of things.  Look for opportunities to judge the work of your peers outside of your company. Look for opportunities to judge such as for tech magazines like Codeguru.com, SimpleTalk.com, and other tech journals. Tech publications are always looking for other high level programmers or I.T. experts to help them vet the quality of the articles they receive for publication. Tech publications owe a duty to their readers to make sure they do not inadvertently publish inferior work and can be de-bunked. So if you want USCIS to respect you, they will do so if others in your profession, outside work have trusted you to peer review.

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Have You Considered Writing Technical Articles?

If you want to run with the big dogs you’ve got to have the profile of the big dogs and the best way to enhance your profile is to write as many articles as you can and get them all published. Once you start do not stop, just keep going. The publications you can amass the more USCIS will see you as a player in this space.  Again, if a Tech journal is prepared to publish your work for its readers’ consumption then USCIS will accept their judgment that you’re credible in your field.

Have You Been an Innovator in Your Field?

America needs innovators and USCIS knows this and is looking for innovators. So, what have you do in your field that has been a game changer for not only the company your work for but outside too. We’ve work with many clients who in their career have pioneered disruptive technology that has shaped or shaping the market. Maybe something that you have done has given your company a significant competitive edge.

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Are You a Member of a Guild, Union or Association?

Whilst it’s easy to not be a member of any guild, union or association and still be successful at your job, USCIS pay particular attention of you are also a member of a distinguished organization whereby in order to get in you have to be recognized as being exceptional at your job. I would strenuously encourage you to go out of your way get memberships, at least two, to any professional organization that represents your area of specialty and not just get in at the ground level, but try and get a level of membership that is as high as possible, if you can get that organizations highest level of membership so much the better.

Have to Played a Leading or Critical Role for Your Company?

Anyone who gets paid $200K+ per year to do a job must be playing a leading or critical role in that organization. No company in any continent pays that kind of salary for nothing. A leading or critical role means what the words imply. Typically, we’re talking team leaders, heads of departments or divisions.

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So, let’s Recap

For my I.T. clients these are the categories I want you to focus on: –

1: Making Over $200K

2: Getting Judging Opportunities

3: Writing Peer Reviewed Articles

4: Innovation

5: Securing at Least Two Memberships

6: Critical Role

If you can satisfy three from this list of six or are committed to satisfying to three from this list then we should talk.

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Secret of Success

The secret of success is documentation, documentation and more documentation. You have to be able to prove your claims with supporting evidence. So, if you claim to make over $200+ then we want to see proof. Twelve bank statements, or an end of your employee earnings statement, a tax return and or an accountant letter of support are sufficient enough to prove this. Whatever you claim to satisfy we’re probably going to want to see proof. Letters of support by themselves will not cut it, unless they are supported with other evidence. So if you are a department head, then show us an organization chart and employment job description or annual appraisal, so documentation that proves the truth in the testimonial letters that talk about your leading or critical role.

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We are consistently successful because we comprehensively document our cases so that they are as robust as possible. Indeed, we can become incredibly annoying to our clients as we go through rounds and rounds of revisions and requests for additional evidence to make sure your case is robust as possible.

Pictures Paint Thousands of Words

USCIS loves pictures because they help tell a story. So, for example, if we’re working with an oil gas engineer, pictures of oil rigs will help show the scale and importance of the work. If we’re working with entertainers, pictures of their sold out shows and stage and crowd shots really are fantastic. For programmers it’s not easy, but by being creative, even a picture of you presenting a seminar with your power point presentation is better than no pictures at all. A picture of you receiving any certificate or award of appreciation works too.

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Appeal to Programmers

We handle a wide variety of clients every day form dancers to engineers, but what we hear the most need for by far is a need for programmers. U.S. companies are absolutely desperate for programmers. Even our law firm hired a full-time in-house programmer and three full-time outside programmers. Why? A.I. A.I. is coming for us and we cannot be left behind. Our staff needs the benefit of A.I. technology. We handle hundreds of clients at any given time, which means we’re juggling thousands of documents all at once and are team are tracking it themselves. We have an excellent online case management system, which we designed from scratch but it’s not A.I., at least not yet., we’re working aggressively on it. So, our little law firm needs programmers, you can just imagine the demand from big tech companies.

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Send us Your Résumés / C.Vs

When you complete our online questionnaire please send us your résumé so we can take a look at your potential for an EB1 green card. If you can meet at least three categories then please take the time to tell which ones and why. Back it up you can.   We get a ton of inquiries per day and we have to study each one to see if the applicant meets our requirements. So, the more you can have us review the more likely you are to be given a free consultant. We now have a strict selection process because we can only take on the most promising cases.

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Conclusion

America needs I.T. professionals and under the EB1 green card program, you do not even need a U.S. employer to sponsor you, you can sponsor yourself. Make no mistake qualifying for this green card is no walk in the park, you have to be prepared to work up three or four categories robustly, so we can win. If we ask you to work on getting more evidence than you currently have, embrace it, don’t fight it. If you give us what we need, we win will your case. Sometimes USCIS will ask for more evidence, where that is the case, if we can give that USCIS officer what he / she needs they will approve the case. If you’re prepared to do the work, you will ultimately prevail and get your green card.

I look forward to hearing from you soon. Answer the call!

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US Immigration Law Offices of Chris M. Ingram
Chris M. Ingram LL.M., ESQ – Immigration Attorney
Admitted in New York.
Practice Specializing in US Immigration Law
401 Wilshire Boulevard, 12th Floor,
[Cross Streets 4th and Wilshire]
Santa Monica,
California 90401
Tel: 310 496 4292

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