Success Story: Overcoming Request for Evidence (RFE) to Secure NIW Approval for a Biomedical Scientist Combating Antimicrobial Resistance
Client’s Testimonial:
"Thank you for your email and for your assistance throughout my I-140 NIW petition process. I sincerely appreciate the support, guidance, and professionalism of your team."
On May 26th, 2026, we received another EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) approval for a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Field of Biomedical Science (Approval Notice).
General Field: Biomedical Science
Position at the Time of Case Filing: Postdoctoral Research Associate
Country of Origin: Nepal
State of Residence at the Time of Filing: Tennessee
Approval Notice Date: May 26th, 2026
Processing Time: 16 months, 13 days (Premium Processing Requested)
Case Summary:
Antimicrobial resistance has made once-treatable infections increasingly difficult to control, creating urgent pressure for better surveillance, early detection, and alternative therapeutic strategies. For this NIW case, North America Immigration Law Group (Chen Immigration Law Associates) represented a biomedical scientist from Nepal whose work directly addressed this global and U.S. public health challenge.
The client held a Ph.D. in biotechnology. At the time of filing, he was working as a postdoctoral research associate, continuing research on antimicrobial-resistant pathogens, bacteriophage-based therapeutic strategies, microbiome-related disease mechanisms, and molecular profiling approaches.
One expert stated: “All things considered, [Client] is revolutionizing treatment for multidrug-resistant infections through his research. Continuing his work is imperative to mitigating prolonged illness incidence and improving patient outcomes in the United States.”
The petition highlighted the client’s strong research record in biomedical science, including 15 peer-reviewed journal articles, 9 first-authored conference abstracts, and 373 citations at the time of the original filing. His work appeared in respected venues. The case also documented that 4 of his papers ranked among the most-cited microbiology articles for their publication years.
USCIS later issued an RFE on March 5th, 2026, questioning whether the client was well-positioned to advance the proposed endeavor. In response, our legal team prepared a detailed rebuttal that strengthened the record with updated and contextualized evidence. The RFE response showed that his citation count had increased to 517, including 446 independent instances, and that seven of his papers ranked within at least the top 20 percent most-cited papers in microbiology for their publication years.
The response also emphasized that the client’s work had been used by researchers across all six inhabited continents. Independent studies relied on his findings to advance antimicrobial resistance testing, food safety research, phage therapy pharmacokinetics, multidrug-resistant infection treatment models, fungal infection analysis, and phage stability protocols. This helped demonstrate that his research was not isolated but actively informed later scientific work across infectious disease and microbiology.