Outstanding Professors/Researchers (OPR)

The University of Colorado Boulder will pursue this option for obtaining permanent residency for your international permanent hire if s/he is someone who is recognized internationally as outstanding in his/her field and has at least 3 years of work experience beyond their terminal degree.

Filing in this category is a 2 step process:

  1. The University files for an immigrant visa for the international hire on form I-140, and documents that the hire meets the criteria for Outstanding Professor/Researcher.
  2. Upon approval of the I-140 (step 1), the international hire files for a green card as the beneficiary of the immigrant visa that the University has filed. This step can actually be done concurrently with step 1; consult ISSS on the pros and cons of filing concurrently.

NOTE: To start this process, we ask that the Department and the international hire meet with an adviser in ISSS to go over the procedures involved with filing for permanent residency. We will also need a memo from the Chair of the Department to verify that the position offered is indeed a "permanent" position.

*A criteria for Outstanding Professor/Researcher is that there is an offer of permanent employment; a permanent position being defined as that which is tenured, tenure-track, or for research positions, those that are long term and indefinite in nature. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has been particularly picky about the issue of permanency for research positions in the recent past.

To qualify as an Outstanding Professor/Researcher, we must submit the following:

  • filing fee of $715 made payable to "USCIS" (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services)
  • copy of contract/letter of offer to the scholar. Ideally, the University hiring authority must verify that the researcher has a long term and indefinite appointment (or permanent position)
  • evidence that the professor or researcher has at least three years of experience in teaching and/or research in the academic field

Experience in teaching or research while working on an advanced degree will only be acceptable if the person has achieved the degree and if the teaching duties were such that he or she had full responsibility for the class taught or if the research conducted toward the degree has been recognized as outstanding

The international hire must also be able to provide evidence of at least two (preferably more) of the following:

  • receipt of major prizes or awards for outstanding achievements in the academic field
  • memberships in associations in the academic field which require outstanding achievements of their members
  • published material in professional publications written by others about the individual's work in the academic field
  • participation on a panel, or individually, as the judge of the work of others in the same or an allied field
  • original scientific or scholarly research contributions to the academic field. These often take the form of expert opinion letters which discuss the scholar in terms of his or her contributions to the academic field rather than those which reflect on the scholar as a stellar graduate student or postdoctoral student
  • authorship of scholarly books or articles, in scholarly journals with international circulation, in the academic field