The Federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas has overturned the denial of an I-140 petition filed under the EB-1 Extraordinary Ability category. The Court’s reasoning also applies to the I-140s filed under the EB-1(2) Outstanding Professors and Researchers. Although the case, Eguchi v. Kelly (N.D. Tex. 3:16-CV-1286-D) involves a professional bull rider under the Extraordinary Ability category, the Court’s reasoning applies to any type of work or profession under either category. Tidwell, Swaim was and is very proud to represent Mr. Eguchi in this important victory in Federal Court.
The Federal Court has made it very clear that the two step analysis required in EB-1 cases cannot be conflated into one step. The petitioner is required to meet at least three types of ten regulatory criteria. If the petitioner does that, then the question is whether the petitioner has “reached the very top of his field of endeavor.” In the Eguchi case, the Immigration Service applied the “very top of his field” standard to each of the ten regulatory criteria which the Petitioner claimed to meet. Mr. Eguchi claimed to reach four of the ten, and the Court ruled USCIS cannot make him prove each of the four proves he is in the top of his field. That final “top of the field” criteria is only applied at the second step of the analysis.