众所周知推荐信是NIW申请的重中之重，而准备推荐信又是很头疼。准备期间，第一件事就是寻找合适的推荐人。找到合适的推荐人并不容易。这项工作其实在真正申请NIW之前就已经开始 (包括物色推荐人和与potential的推荐人陶瓷并建立联系)，最好不要到最后一刻再去做。
学术会议是和potential 推荐人结交的好地方，可话又说回来，大牛一般不屑和我们初出茅庐的小字辈们交往。我在这方面其实没什么切身经验，我去学术会议主要时间主要花在游山玩水上了。虽说比较难，大家不要轻易放弃机会。No harm to try!
另一个好途径就是通过你的boss来寻找合适的推荐人。相比之下你的boss人脉广，地位高。有些potential推荐人乐于利用这个机会还你boss 人情 。我有一个strong的推荐人就是boss引见的。
还要保持和以前老师，同事的良好关系。我的两封来自industry 的推荐信就是我以前的同事写的。
找推荐人，不要盲目图多，junior的scholars不要找太多。我的五封来自学校的推荐人三个是full professor，两个是associate professor.
当你物色好了推荐人，给他们发送措辞恰当的request email. 以下是我用得email, 供参考：
Dear Dr.XXX,
How are you?
This is XXX from XXX University. (Briefly describe your background).
The purpose of writing this email to you is to ask for your recommendation letter for my permanent residency application.
My work at XXX is XXX. (Briefly describe what you do now) My next step is to apply for green card since my working visa is only temporary. As my work at XXX is the application of *** to ###, I plan to apply for my permanent residency through national interest waiver (NIW). National interest waiver is a very stringent criterion. I need to convince the immigration officers why my work is directly related to the benefit of the nation. In addition to my own strong petition letter, I need to get 8-10 recommendation letters from people in the related field to support my application. I thought you will be a strong recommender for me since you are an expert in *** and ###.
If you agree to write this letter for me, I will email you my CV, sample recommendation letter and my research deion for your reference in one or two weeks.
Meanwhile, since permanent residency is so important to me. I have to prepare 8-10 recommendation letters. I will appreciate if you can help me find some people you may know who are willing to write such letters for me. I will provide documents for them too.
Thank you very much!
同时你要着手写推荐信了。前面说过我在找人之前已收集了大量的sample及素材。这里我要再强调一下有足够多sample的重要性，否则写到最后几篇时就会感觉黔驴技穷，just repeat yourself and all the letters sound like they are from the same person。
你的推荐信一定要要点得当，反映出你的工作及成果与national interests 紧密相关。我同时还找人帮我修改和润色。推荐人是不可能帮你做太多修改和加工的。我很高兴我有一位英语写作功底很强的朋友帮我。My recommendation letters are well-written and right on-the-target.
下一贴我将着重讲petition letter。
如果大家有什么问题，可以给我发信至：skipperus@hotmail.com