Experience of EB1A in the United States: How to Choose the Referee of Letter of Recommendation

Tutor

refers to the instructor of the recommended person during his doctoral and master's studies. Most immigrant applicants should ask their tutors to write letters of recommendation. Mentors generally have close contact and long-term understanding of the recommended person. Therefore, as a referee, the tutor can provide a comprehensive introduction to the background, ability and achievements of the referee. According to common sense, tutors generally don't give it to their own students or referees who used to be their own students. It is also the case that the recommendation letter of the tutor is suspected of partiality or lack of justice.

boss

If you stay in the tutor's lab after graduation, the tutor and the boss will become one. If the tutor and the boss are the same person, this recommendation letter must be written, and the length should be longer than other recommendations. The tone and intonation of writing letters should also be personalized accordingly. The introduction of the background achievements of the recommended person should also be more comprehensive. It is also reasonable for bosses and tutors to appreciate and highly evaluate their students, employees and colleagues.

If the boss is not the original tutor, the boss can talk about how to select the recommended person from a large number of job applicants to undertake the main research topic, and how the recommended person has achieved great scientific research achievements, what great achievements have been made, what position he has in this field, and so on.

if the recommended person plays a mainstay role in a scientific research project, the boss has every reason to claim that if the recommended person is forced to leave, the scientific research project will be postponed, suspended or stopped, because it is difficult to find researchers with the same ability as the recommended person, or other people can't take over the scientific research project for a while, and so on.

Even if the recommendation letter from the boss is suspected to be biased or unfair, what he said in his letter may be true, and it is impossible for the immigration officer to completely ignore such a recommendation letter.

Professor

If the professor overlaps with the tutor and boss mentioned above, please refer to the introduction above.

If the professor and the above-mentioned tutor and boss are in the same school, you can try not to use them.

If the professor and the above-mentioned tutor and boss are not from the same school, they can be considered.

if you are not in the same professional field as the recommended person, try not to use it.

if you are in the same professional field but don't know the recommended person, you should be the preferred recommender unless he/she is unwilling to help.

scientists (experts)

This includes professionals engaged in scientific research in schools, research institutions and companies.

The basic requirements for selecting these people as referees are that

they have made certain or great achievements in scientific research;

having a certain professional title;

know the recommended person's major;

and willing to write/sign letters of recommendation for the recommended person.

the professional title of the referee is worth talking about here. Immigration officers also look at the titles and qualifications of referees. For example, the recommender is the president of the professional association of the recommended person and the editor-in-chief of a famous professional magazine, and their letters of recommendation may have a heavy weight.

In fact, people who write or sign letters of recommendation don't have to be people with high academic status. For example, the "master" of a certain discipline, the winner of the Nobel Prize. Of course, it is better to ask these people to write letters of recommendation if conditions permit.

if there are no conditions, don't force it. The "master" of a certain discipline is very famous in this discipline, but the immigration officer who handles the case may not know this person or buy the recommendation letter from the "master". What immigration officers value is the specific content of the recommendation letter about the achievements of the recommended person.

Therefore, when looking for references, we should see whether the person invited to write a letter of recommendation can really "affirm" the achievements or contributions of the recommended person. In contrast, the title and status of the referee are not so important to the approval of the immigration application. If you don't handle it well, it will be bad for your application.

for example, there is no actual content in the recommendation letter; The evaluation of the recommended person is not high; Too many achievements of the recommender (such as the recommender's own resume is nearly 1 pages) make the recommended person look "small" and so on.

Colleagues/collaborators

Unless you can't find enough referees, generally don't ask colleagues or thesis collaborators to write/sign professional recommendation letters for immigration applications.

government agency (federal or state) staff

If these government staff are familiar with the recommended person's professional field and can evaluate the recommended person's academic achievements from a professional perspective, their letters of recommendation will be helpful for immigration application. For the application of national interest exemption, the recommendation letter of scientific research personnel working in the federal government is more helpful.

legislators (Senate and House of Representatives)

Members are divided into federal members and state members. If you don't know the recommended person's professional field, the immigration recommendation letter from the state councilor is of little significance. However, the letter of recommendation written by federal members has a certain weight for immigration applications, especially for national interest exemption applications.

Independent referees

generally refer to those referees who don't know the recommended person. Immigration officers especially trust letters of recommendation written by independent referees, because independent referees write letters of recommendation without personal feelings or face problems.

maybe you think, if two people don't know each other at all, how can he write a letter of recommendation? ! Actually, you can. That is, the person who writes the recommendation letter is required to evaluate the professional contribution and academic status of the recommended person only from the professional level.

If a recommender clearly indicates that he has never met the recommended person and has no personal friendship, but he has heard of the recommended person's academic achievements and contributions, or read the recommended person's works, this in itself indicates the recommended person's position or reputation in the professional field.

sometimes an independent recommender can evaluate the academic contribution of the recommended person based on a paper provided by the recommended person. The recommendation letter of the independent recommender need not be long, but the content is real and reasonable.

Generally speaking, the greater the proportion of independent recommendation letters submitted in an immigration application, the better. The problem is that independent referees are hard to find. Independent referees must be real independent referees. Otherwise, the so-called "independent" recommendation letter will not help, but will affect the approval of the application.

For example, a China-born Bo Hou applied for national interest exemption, and he himself graduated from a university in Beijing. He asked a Chinese-American professor to be his independent referee. Although the Chinese-American professor graduated from another university in Beijing, he is in the same professional field as the recommended person. The "independent" recommendation letter issued by the Chinese American professor may be doubted and discounted.