Criteria for Outstanding Researcher/Professor Category

ANSWER

Preliminary requirement: The applicants must be able to document at least three years of experience in teaching and/or research in the specified academic field and that they are "recognized internationally."

Generally speaking, experience in teaching or research while working on an advanced degree will not satisfy the three year requirement.
We can seek an exception if the applicant has acquired the degree, and if the teaching duties included full responsibilities for the courses taught or if the research conducted toward the degree has been recognized within the academic field as outstanding. 8 CFR
204.5(I)(3)(ii).

8 CFR 204.5(I)(3)(I) requires that the applicant must demonstrate that they are recognized internationally in their academic
field by presenting evidence that meets at least two of the following six documentation categories:

1. Receipt of major prizes or awards for outstanding achievement in the academic field;
2. Membership in associations in the academic field for which the classification is sought which require outstanding achievement
of their members;
3. Published material in professional publications written by others about the alien's work in the academic field;
4. Evidence of the alien's participation, either individually or on a panel, as the judge of the work of others in the same or
an allied academic field;
5. Evidence of the individual's original scientific or scholarly research contributions to the academic field; and
6. Evidence of the alien's authorship of scholarly books or articles in scholarly journals with international circulation in the academic field.

Note that professors who qualify for this category through job offers for tenure-track positions will not lose their green card if they fail to reach tenure