Navigating the EB-1 Visa: My Experience and Advice

I’ve been incredibly fortunate to receive an approval for my EB-1A visa, clearing the path for a permanent residency (Green Card) within the United States. Over the past two years, I’ve read countless blogs and received support from numerous mentors to make this dream a reality. In the spirit of giving back, I’m sharing insights from my journey and a few valuable tips I’ve gathered along the way.

For the purposes of this article, I want to touch on two key points:

1. Share my end to end journey of getting an EB-1A visa approved.
2. Share tactical tips that have proven effective for me based on the hundreds of conversations I’ve had on this topic.

For those new to the topic, the EB-1A visa is for individuals with extraordinary abilities in science, arts, education, business, or athletics. Applicants must meet at least three of the ten criteria set by USCIS. Approval of this visa leads to eligibility for a Green Card, granting permanent residency in the United States. Learn more here: EB1A — What & Why?

My EB-1A Journey

I first learned about the EB-1A visa back in November 2022 and began working on my application gradually. I worked with a lawyer to create a strong petition, demonstrating that I met 5 of the 10 criteria (details below) listed by USCIS. By the end of June 2024, I received an approval for my EB-1A visa without any Request for Evidence (RFEs). Yay!

I’ve found the timeline to put together a strong EB-1A application varies drastically. I’ve had friends complete their application in 4–6 months while others worked on theirs for 3–4 years. A lot of it depends on your professional background and how it aligns with the EB-1 criteria. I was fortunate to have substantial experience within a specific field, which made the process a tad bit easier and allowed me to file a strong petition within ~1.5 years.

Outlined below is a rough timeline of all the steps I took from start to finish:

Tactical Tips

Listed below are my top 7 pieces of advice for anyone seriously considering the EB-1 route. These tips are broad enough to apply to many different individual cases.

For in-depth guidance on how to meet specific criteria, I’d highly recommend the following resources: The Ultimate Guide to get an EB-1A, Fulfilling EB-1A Evaluation Criteria.

#1: Do a self-assessment

After reading everything I could get my hands on about the EB1 process, I conducted a rigorous self-assessment to evaluate how my application would measure up against each criteria. I rated the likelihood of approval for each criterion as low, medium, or high. For any criterion that received a low or medium score, I then assessed the level of effort needed to improve it to get a ‘high’ score.

While each lawyer has a different philosophy on this, my goal was to ensure my application had at least three criteria rated as ‘high’ and two criteria rated as ‘medium’ before filing the petition. For my specific case, the three criteria I worked towards scoring a ‘high’ were the following:

• Evidence that you command a high salary in relation to others in the field
• Evidence of your performance of a critical role in distinguished organizations
• Evidence that you have been asked to judge the work of others, either individually or on a panel

And the two criteria I worked on to grade myself a ‘medium’ were:

• Evidence of published material about you in professional or major trade publications or other major media
• Evidence of your original scientific, scholarly, artistic, athletic, or business-related contributions of major significance to the field.

I also created two versions of my self assessment:

1. Condensed version (similar to a resume) which included a high-level overview of which criteria I thought I qualified for and why. I shared this version with lawyers and folks in my professional network for feedback.
2. Detailed version (20+ pages long) which included all the evidence I could find to successfully meet each criteria. I eventually submitted all these details to my lawyer before we filed the petition.

Recommendation: Conduct a rigorous self-assessment as soon as possible and share the first draft early with lawyers and professionals in your network for feedback. You’re likely going to get a lot of your scores and assumptions wrong, so it’s early to know that sooner than later. Keep revisiting your self-assessment to tweak the scores and add more evidence as you continue to make progress on your application.

#2: It’s all about storytelling

When I first put together a self-assessment, I felt like I was far away from being an expert in anything. I created a list of activities (eg: write academic papers, books, or file patents) to establish further credibility in my chosen field of expertise. I became extremely worried about the time (multiple years?) and effort required to create a strong application.

One of the best pieces of advice I received at this time was to focus less on doing more things and focus more on crafting a well-defined story based on my past experiences. I reviewed my diverse experiences and identified a common thread linking my academic and career choices. After a few weeks, I developed a clear narrative showing how each experience contributed to my expertise. This realization boosted my confidence in having a strong EB-1 application with just a few months of effort. I chose ‘Product Management in Digital Consumer Marketplaces’ as my field of expertise, which was specific enough to highlight my skills yet broad enough to cover all my academic and professional experience.

Recommendation: I’d recommend spending ample time drafting a compelling narrative and seeking feedback from lawyers and professionals with similar backgrounds. Every piece of evidence you gather, including letters, judging roles, or speaker engagements should emphasize your expertise in your chosen field. This process will likely take months of work but it’s worth it!

#3: Analyze USCIS decisions of past EB-1A petitions

Looking back, I think this task might have provided me with the highest ROI (return on investments) for the time I spent on it. USCIS publishes their decision on all EB1 applications online dating back to 2005 on their website. They include clear rationale for why an application was denied and the criteria it failed to meet. The best way to use this database of past decisions is to filter by cases similar to your professional background. For instance, I searched for cases including the term “Product Management” and read through ~50 past applications to get a sense of what the most common reasons for application denials are.

This served as an immensely valuable resource, helping me get a:

• High-level understanding of which criteria is hard vs easy to meet
• Crafting a better story and collecting more evidence for certain criteria
• Assess the lawyer’s competence level in handling applications similar to mine by asking them to grade how well I meet each criteria.

Recommendation: Spend at least a few hours reviewing past EB-1 petition decisions by USCIS. Identify applications similar to your background and keep a log of the most common reasons for denial or requests for evidence (RFE). This will help you ensure you provide sufficient evidence for each criteria and file a comprehensive application.

#4: Speak to multiple lawyers early in the process

I connected with 4–5 law firms that were highly recommended to me through friends of friends, professional network at work, or simply googling online. I indexed heavily on whether the firm worked with candidates similar to my background before scheduling any calls with them.

In most instances, I paid for a 60 minute consultation with each lawyer once I felt confident. During these sessions, we went over the condensed version of my self-assessment in detail. They pointed out which parts of the application they thought were strong vs weak and brainstormed ways I could strengthen my application further. At the end of every call, I asked them to grade the likelihood of my application being approved on a scale of 1–10. I aimed to get to an 8 or above before filing my petition.

These calls were immensely valuable in helping me understand:

1. My application’s strengths and weaknesses
2. Competence level of the lawyer
3. Assess the rapport between the lawyer and me

Recommendation: I highly recommend doing these calls early on in the process. They really helped me get a sense of what exactly I need to work on and put together a game plan for the next 8–12 months.

#5: Pick the right lawyer to work with

I was very selective about which lawyer I chose to work with. It’s crucial to partner with a lawyer who can effectively represent your case and minimize the risk of receiving a Request for Evidence (RFE). Ideally, you want a clean approval on your first attempt and avoid the hassle to refile another application at a later point in time.

Post my consultation calls, I evaluated each lawyer based on the following criteria:

• Approval Rate — % of EB-1 approvals received
• Volume of Applications — # of EB-1 applications filed
• Similar Applications — # of EB-1 applications that are similar to my background
• Years of experience
• Cost — I was ideally seeking a lawyer who offered some sort of money back guarantee if my application was denied. This would ensure that our incentives were aligned.
• Communication skills — Based on the rapport we had during the call, I assigned a grade of low, medium, or high.
• Competence level — Based on my research and self-assessment, I wanted to see if the lawyer could provide any unique insights on my application. For example, did they notice something I missed or foresee potential issues.

Unfortunately, there is no way to cross-verify many of the stats (eg: approval rates) a lawyer shares with you. In such cases, I turned to reference checks from the following two sources:

• Friends/Professional Network — Ideally, you have someone in your network who has worked with this lawyer and vouches for them.
• Previous clients — If you can’t find anyone in your network, I’d recommend reading up reviews (google, yelp, etc) and try connecting with those individuals over LinkedIn.

At the end of my search, I went with Regev Law since Eran and his team met most of my criteria. I had an excellent experience working with them.

#6: Build a strong network

I’m indebted to the countless number of people that have helped me along the way. Having a strong network was critical in putting together a strong EB1 application.

While it took me a few months to identify the key individuals with whom I needed to build strong ties with, I eventually built my newtork within the following circles:

• Individuals with a similar background who have received an EB1 approval. I reached out to them with a range of questions every now and then.
• Individuals who are currently on the path of building their EB1 application. We exchanged notes along the way and shared tips/tricks with each other.
• Range of lawyers that I could text when in doubt.
• Leaders (VPs, executives) at my company who supported me with writing strong letters of recommendations.
• Leaders (executives, investors) within the industry who vouched for my contributions in the field with strong letters of recommendations
• Journalists who featured me in major media publications. These were the hardest to build connections with and there was a lot of luck involved.
• Students at top-tier universities. I offered to be an advisor/judge for many of the student-run initiatives (eg: hackathons, conferences)
• Hosts of top podcasts related to my field of expertise. This led to multiple invitations to speak on their show and share my insights.

I connected with most of these individuals through cold outreach on LinkedIn, networking within my company, and referrals from friends.

Recommendation: In hindsight, I wish I got started on this journey way earlier. I’d recommend intentionally starting to build a network as soon as you put together a game plan after your self-assessment. In addition, having a community of people to support you makes the process a lot more fun! :)

#7: Explain why you stand out

This tip is specific to the “Evidence of your performance of a critical role in distinguished organizations” criteria. To meet this criteria, one needs to submit multiple letters of recommendations from individuals within a company and experts within the field.

For these letters, it’s essential to highlight three things:

1. The importance of your role within the company
2. The huge impact your work has achieved for the company, and the industry at large (if applicable)
3. What makes your impact extraordinary in relation to other individuals or companies in your chosen field of expertise

It’s critical to expand on #3 to help a USCIS officer understand why you are essentially a rockstar in your field (top 1%). Some ways you could do this:

• Compare your promotion timeline vs average tenure to get promoted
• Compare impact of your projects on metrics against industry benchmarks
• Compare internal targets that were set for your projects vs what you actually accomplished
• Compare impact of your projects to other companies in the field using public data (eg: revenue, active users )

Recommendation: Ensure that every letter of recommendation reinforces the fact that you’re in the top 1% of the field.

I hope my journey and tips have been helpful. My goal with this article is to show you that an EB-1A visa is completely attainable with a few months/years of effort! Good luck! :)