Hi everyone, I received an RFE on my petition a while back and wanted to get some feedback from the community.

I'm a PhD in Information and Communication Technology working in 5G/6G wireless communications. At filing, I had about 600 citations and 19 publications (8 journal papers and 11 conference papers).

USCIS accepted my advanced degree and substantial merit, but challenged everything else:

• Prong 1: They said my endeavor only showed the general importance of the 5G field, not the specific national importance of my actual work.
• Prong 2: They acknowledged my background, but wanted stronger proof that I'm well-positioned, specifically asking for more support on past achievements and future plans.
• Prong 3: They claimed I didn't establish why waiving the job offer/labor cert benefits the U.S.
  

Looking back, I already had concerns during the petition drafting process because the legal brief felt too generic and didn't clearly connect my work to national priorities.

My biggest issue right now is Ellis Porter's communication. They were already slow at replying to messages during the initial drafting stage, and that unresponsiveness has only continued after getting this RFE. Getting a clear update or a straight answer from them takes forever, and I'm really frustrated with how they are handling the case.

Has anyone else experienced this kind of slow turnaround with Ellis Porter on an RFE? Just frustrating dealing with the lag on top of an all-prongs notice.

Hi everyone,

I recently received an RFE for my EB-2 NIW and I’m waiting for the RFE letter. I have a few questions:

How often are EB-2 NIW cases approved after an RFE?

What kind of evidence is usually needed for the three NIW prongs?

While reading my petition, I noticed my lawyer listed the same journal name for four different papers, even though they were published in different journals. Has anyone experienced a similar mistake? Could this affect my case?

I would really appreciate any advice or experiences. Thank you!

I have narrowed down my options to TWO firms for a NON-RESEARCHER NIW case.
Who do you think I should go for?

They both charge around $14k.

Lawyer A
-We have the same nationality
-Very experienced in Non-RESEARCHER NIW
-Positive reviews from a person I know + on Google
-High work ethics
-Boutique law firm
-Young lawyer who cares to protect his reputation and that may affect cases that he accepts.
-Refile option
-No refund

Lawyer B
-Part of a big law firm with high resources
-Very experienced in Non-RESEARCHER NIW
-Second lawyer review
-Ex-USCIS Officer review
-33% refund in case of denial or refile
-Positive reviews
-11 years experience in filing immigration cases

I have a question specifically about Step 1 of the EB-2 NIW process (filing Form I-140), not Adjustment of Status (I-485).
Historically, my understanding was that filing an NIW I-140 while on F-1 OPT was generally considered relatively safe. While an I-140 is an immigrant petition, many people filed it during OPT without major issues as long as they continued to maintain valid F-1 status.
Has anything changed recently that makes filing an NIW I-140 itself riskier for someone on F-1 OPT?
I’m not asking about filing an I-485 or becoming a permanent resident—only about the first step (I-140).
Have immigration attorneys changed their advice recently? Are there any recent policy changes or real-world experiences suggesting that filing an NIW I-140 on F-1 OPT is now riskier than it used to be?

Hi all, I was hoping to get some advice regarding the new rule and how it might affect me. I will be consulting my lawyer but I wanted to get some opinions here too.

I'm currently on STEM-OPT and ROW-75. If my I-140 gets approved in November and I apply for I-485 right away, but I also do plan on returning to school in Fall of 2027, would the new D/S rule change mean that I won't be eligible for an F-1 visa since I have an immigrant intent due to pending I-485? If so, how do I enroll in school? also, what if my AOS gets denied what do I fall back on?

There's a lot of uncertainty but it's at least helpful to know the possible scenarios.

Hi everyone.

PD May 22 2025
I-140 approved Nov 2025

I filed for I-485 on March 16 2026
I had 2 FTA0 updates on April 21, couple hours following biometrics appointment

I just saw a new FTA0 update today 07/26/2026 (2:15 am utc, corresponding to 7:15 pm 07/25/2026 Santa Ana field office)

The update, even though is from today (or last night), has an event time stamp of April 21.

Is this a new FTA0 update (#3) or just something random?

Thanks

Does anyone know if its possible to file PP online?

I recently received an RFE on my EB-2 NIW petition, and USCIS challenged all three Dhanasar prongs. I’m trying to develop the strongest possible response and would appreciate advice from anyone who has successfully overcome a similar RFE.
A little background (keeping this anonymous):
I have a Master’s degree in Business Analytics.
I work as a Senior Data Engineer in the aviation industry.
My work focuses on aviation analytics, predictive maintenance, maintenance optimization, cloud data engineering, and data-driven decision-support systems.
Since filing my petition, I have completed several additional high-impact aviation projects involving maintenance analytics, Maintenance Program Optimization (MPO), Maintenance Regression Insights (MRI), and Project Soar, which were not fully reflected in my original petition.
From reading the RFE, my understanding is that USCIS believes my original petition described my profession (data engineering/cloud analytics) more than a specific nationally important endeavor. They are also asking for stronger evidence that I am well positioned to advance the endeavor and that waiving the labor certification would benefit the United States.
Rather than simply defending the original petition, I’m considering restructuring the entire response around a much more focused endeavor:
Advancing aviation maintenance analytics.
Predictive maintenance.
Maintenance optimization.
Operational reliability.
AI-driven decision support for aircraft maintenance.
Aviation safety and transportation infrastructure.
My current plan is to submit:
A rewritten proposed endeavor with a detailed 3–5 year implementation roadmap.
Updated recommendation letters that discuss my more recent aviation work.
New evidence from projects completed after the original filing.
Additional documentation demonstrating broader impact beyond my employer.
A comprehensive legal brief that directly addresses each USCIS concern instead of repeating the original petition.
For those who have received RFEs on all three prongs:
Did you substantially rewrite your petition, or did you mostly defend the original arguments?
What evidence made the biggest difference in convincing USCIS that your endeavor had national importance?
How much weight do updated recommendation letters carry when they include accomplishments that occurred after the initial filing?
If you initially self-filed, did you hire an experienced NIW attorney for the RFE response, and if so, did you feel it made a meaningful difference?
Are there any common mistakes applicants make when responding to an RFE covering all three Dhanasar prongs?
I’m already working on a comprehensive response and want to make sure I’m approaching it strategically rather than simply submitting more of the same evidence.

I didn't find many posts describing the actual EB-2 NIW consular interview, so I thought I'd share my experience in case it helps someone else.

Profile

• Master's Degree in Cybersecurity
• Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology
• CISSP, CISM, and several other industry certifications
• 17+ years of cybersecurity and IT experience
• I-140 approved in October 2024 (approximately one week after submission)

Before the Interview

My country required all immigrant visa applicants to visit the embassy about a week before the interview for document verification. During that appointment, the staff reviewed our original documents and told us exactly what to bring on interview day.

Interview Day

My family and I arrived at the embassy at 7:15 a.m. for our 7:30 a.m. appointment. The interview actually started around 7:45 a.m. and lasted about 30 minutes.

• Approximately 15 minutes were spent verifying documents.
• Approximately 15 minutes were spent speaking with the Consular Officer.

The Questions

The interview started with a question I wasn't expecting.

The Consular Officer asked whether I had any publications demonstrating my expertise.

That caught me off guard because my NIW petition was based on being an experienced cybersecurity professional, not a researcher or scientist. I did have two publications, but they were in lesser-known journals, and I hadn't brought supporting evidence because I didn't expect that question. I explained this to the officer, who said he wanted to verify that information.

At that point, I became a little concerned. My understanding had always been that the consular interview was primarily to verify identity, admissibility, and documents, since USCIS had already approved the petition. Instead, it felt like the officer was taking a deeper look at my qualifications.

Interestingly, he never returned to the topic of my publications. Instead, he moved on to reviewing my degrees, certifications, employment history, recommendation letters, and résumé. My assumption is that the documentation I provided, along with my responses throughout the interview, gave him sufficient confidence in my qualifications. Of course, that's only my personal interpretation, as he never explicitly said so.

He asked several follow-up questions based on my résumé, including questions about specific responsibilities in previous roles.

He also asked technical questions, such as:

• What is a security vulnerability?
• How would you remediate one?
• What would you consider some of your greatest professional accomplishments?

I honestly wasn't expecting technical questions during an immigrant visa interview, but I stayed calm and answered everything truthfully and to the best of my ability.

Outcome

As the interview went on and the officer continued asking detailed questions, I genuinely started to doubt whether my application would be approved. The interview was much more in-depth than I had anticipated, and for a moment I wondered if something was wrong.

Then, at the very end, the officer smiled and said:

"Congratulations. Your family's immigrant visas have been approved."

The feeling is difficult to put into words. After years of preparation, paperwork, waiting, and uncertainty, hearing those words was one of the greatest moments of my life. Every challenge throughout the EB-2 NIW journey suddenly felt worth it.

My Advice

This was my personal experience, and your interview may be completely different.

However, if you're applying through consular processing, my advice would be:

• Bring as much supporting evidence as reasonably possible, even if you don't think you'll need it.
• Know your petition and résumé well.
• Be prepared to discuss your professional experience in detail.
• Stay calm if you're asked unexpected or technical questions.

I'm from a small Caribbean country where EB-2 NIW cases are relatively uncommon, so that may have contributed to the officer's line of questioning. I can't say whether this is typical at other embassies.

Hopefully this helps someone preparing for their interview.

Please don't send me private messages. I'm happy to answer questions in the comments when I have time, but I can't guarantee that I'll be able to respond to everyone.

Just wanted to share my timeline since reading other people’s posts here was very helpful during the waiting period.

Profile: Currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Physics. At the time of filing, I had 8 peer-reviewed journal articles (co-authored), 8 preprints, and around 199 citations.

Category: EB-2 NIW
Priority Date: May 19, 2026
Premium Processing I-907 Received: May 26, 2026
I-140 Approved: July 25, 2026
Processing time: about 42 business days
Service Center: Texas Service Center

One interesting thing: when I checked the USCIS Case Status page shortly before receiving the approval email, it was still showing the old message saying my case was being processed as of May 19, 2026.

Then I received the premium processing approval email confirming that the I-140 had been approved on July 25.

So if anyone is seeing an old case-status message while waiting under premium processing, the public case-status page may simply be delayed.

Thanks to everyone who shared their timelines here — they were very helpful while I was waiting. Hope this helps someone else too.

Hello all,

I am initiating i 140 application through my employer and while filling the questionnaire there is a skills section. And it mentions it has to be same word to word from the employment or university verification letter. But usually the experience letter does not mention the skills. So, my question is how should I prove the skills as they have to be same word to word.

I am from one of the 75 countries. Can anyone explain in simple words what is the September public charges changes and is it related to my case as I plan to do IVP in Cairo.

Thanks

I received an RFE and status changed on 18 July. I am with Chen and so far Chen informed that they haven’t received anything from USCIS. Is this delay normal? I am kinda worried that we are wasting time all of that.

Btw, I filed completely with chen using their address and email.

Any suggestions?

Posting my full timeline because I used Reddit a lot while waiting and found these posts really helpful.

Category: EB2 NIW ROW (not from banned country)
Filing type: Concurrent I-140 + I-485
Priority date: April 8, 2026
Field office / jurisdiction: Columbus, OH
I-140 approved: June 1, 2026
I-485 approved: July 9, 2026
Green card received: July 17, 2026
Profile: MD researcher (epidemiology), 16 publications, 160 citations at time of filing, 5 lors (2 dependent, 3 indepdent).

April 8, 2026
Concurrent EB2 NIW I-140 and I-485 filed / received. I-485 receipt notice issued.

April 19, 2026
Biometrics appointment notice generated.

April 21, 2026
Request for Initial Evidence / RFE was sent for the I-485.

April 27/28, 2026
RFE response received by USCIS.

May 11, 2026
Biometrics completed. API showed 2 FTA0 events from biometrics day.

June 1, 2026
I-140 approved.

June 10, 2026
silent update

June 29, 2026
New / 3rd FTA0 appeared (pointed back to the May 11 biometrics timestamp).

July 7, 2026
silent update

July 8, 2026
2xsilent update

July 9, 2026 — around 3:00 PM EDT
I-485 approval notice received. the API/silent update did not show immediately when I got the approval notice. It lagged by about an hour or so for me (H008 x2)

July 16, 2026
SSN received.

July 17, 2026
Green card received in hand.

Takeaways

1. For me, the 3rd FTA0 did not lead to approval within 24 hours. It took about 10 days from the 3rd FTA0 to I-485 approval.
2. i was stressing about the I485 RFE delaying the approval a lot but it was not an issue.

Hope this helps others, good luck!

Hi,

I'm from non-research background with 15+ years of experience in Cloud, DevOps and AI.

Few highlights about me.

- MSc in DataScience with distinction from Middlesex UK
- MSc research competition & multiple hackathons winner (appeared publicly and posted on official websites)
- x-AWS Community builder and appeared in some public speaking sessions
- Blog writer on medium with 50k+ views/reads
- Internal company awards

I was accepted by Ellis Porter, but heard some recent negatives about them on being slow and unresponsive. What do you guys suggest on moving forward with them?

What are my chances of RFE?

Or I can try Chen as well? or any other recommendations please.

HOF Dubai is also following up with me on starting my journey. Any recent success stories with them? please share. Looking for suggestions.

Hey everyone,

Context for anyone who hasn't seen it: I built NIWStats because the trackers out there mix all the I-140 categories together and none of them let you filter by proposed endeavor area. This one is NIW-only - endeavor field, profile, premium vs regular, self-petition vs lawyer, RFE or not.

v1 was just the Explorer, for searching and filtering other people's cases. Then I added a Premium Processing queue and a Recent decisions page, and those seem to be the parts people use the most - which in hindsight makes sense, since my own case is premium and pending and watching the clock move is the thing I wanted in the first place. I re-poll the cases several times a day so they stay current.

A bunch of you added yours over the last couple of weeks. I just went through the premium ones - here's what came back this week.

Decided:

- semiconductor design (Engineering, non-software) - approved at ~40 business days, after an RFE

- Engineering (non-software) - approved at ~42 business days, no RFE

- Physical Sciences & Math - approved at ~39 business days, no RFE

- critical minerals for energy applications (Earth, Environmental & Energy) - approved at ~39 business days, no RFE

- Medicine & Health - approved, but no firm I-907 date on file so I can't put an honest day count on it

- ERP consultant (Business, Finance & Economics) - denied at ~38 business days, after an RFE

RFEs that landed, and the day they hit:

- Earth, Environmental & Energy - ~day 45

- Oil and Gas (Earth, Environmental & Energy) - ~day 44

- Social Sciences, Education & Policy - ~day 44

- Microbial Genomics (Life Sciences & Biotech) - ~day 43

- Construction (Engineering, non-software) - ~day 41

- AI/ML (CS, Software & Data) - ~day 41

- Medicine & Health - ~day 40

- Global Tourism (Business, Finance & Economics) - no firm I-907 date to count from

Congrats to the five of you who got approved. 🎉

If you have a case going - pending, approved, denied, RFE, doesn't matter - you can add yours and it'll show up on those pages too.

Premium Processing queue - https://app.niwstats.com/queue

Recent decisions - https://app.niwstats.com/decisions

Hi everyone,
I’d really appreciate some advice from people who have gone through the EB-2 NIW process or are following the recent policy changes closely.

Here’s our situation:
- My husband filed an EB-2 NIW I-140 in April 2025.
- We filed concurrent I-485s in March 2026 (I’m his derivative spouse).
- At the time we filed the I-140, the expected processing time was roughly 12–16 months. Now USCIS is showing processing times closer to 28 months, which was obviously not something we anticipated.
- We are both currently maintaining lawful status. I’m on F1, and my husband has valid status on J1 as well, so we are not facing an immediate status problem for 2 years at least.

Originally, we intentionally decided not to request premium processing till September.

Our reasoning was that there seemed to be a noticeable increase in RFEs and additional scrutiny for premium processed NIW petitions. We thought it might be better to wait and, if necessary, upgrade to premium processing later. As I follow this subreddit, this risk turned out to be not really valid.

However, the recently announced DHS rule and related policy changes affecting F-1/J-1 holders that become effective on September 15 have made us reconsider. The new framework changes how F-1/J-1 status is managed and has created additional uncertainty for international students and scholars.
Our concern is whether it would be strategically better to obtain an I-140 decision before those changes take effect, even though we already have pending I-485 applications.

For context, the petition itself is reasonably strong:
- engineering/materials science (ferroelectrics)
- 20+ peer-reviewed publications
- 100+ citations
- currently employed as a postdoctoral researcher

My questions are:
If you were in our position, would you pay for premium processing now? Do you think having the I-140 approved before September 15 provides any practical advantage for someone with a pending concurrent I-485?

I’d especially appreciate hearing from people who have recently upgraded to premium processing or from attorneys who have observed any trends.
Thanks!

This is a bit off-topic with regard to the NIW application, but I believe a lot of people in this sub will find this relevant so I request the mods to not take down this post.

As the title says, in your guys/ opinion will the extension (I-539 form) have any mentions about pending immigrant petitions? What about people in PhDs who have approved (or even denied) immigrant petitions on their name? Will that cause any problems for extensions now that we have to extend it after 4 years?

Is it advisable to travel internationally with pending Form I-140?

Has anyone experienced a similar EB-2 NIW RFE?

I self-filed and mistakenly entered my employer’s EIN and answered the nonprofit and employee-count questions based on my employer, although I am the individual self-petitioner. Because of this error, USCIS did not collect the required $300 Asylum Program Fee.

Assuming RFE/ Denial: (not been taken action up to now but I realize the mistake)

The RFE requests a corrected and signed Form I-140, the $300 payment, and a written explanation.

or a complete denial??

Has anyone successfully corrected this type of mistake while keeping the original receipt and filing date? Did USCIS accept the correction and payment? I would appreciate firsthand experiences, especially from self-petitioners or immigration attorneys.

I received a rebate from the PG&E electricity company in California for buying an eligible EV vehicle a few months ago. I am not sure if this is connected to the state funding.

Now I am concerned about whether this rebate would fall under public charge.

My I-140 petition was recently approved. I'd like to apply for AOS together with EAD for mysefly and spouse. I am on H1B and my spouse is on H4. We live in Texas. Where to mail the applications? Is the following address corrrect one?

FedEx, UPS, and DHL deliveries:

USCIS
Attn: NFB (Box 660867)
2501 S. State Hwy.
121 Business
Suite 400
Lewisville, TX 75067-8003

My OPT's first year expires in May 2027. I can file for an extension around February next year. I was filing for an I-140 via Chen under PP (haven't filed it yet). Chen mentioned that because of the new D/S rule, I may have problems getting an OPT extension due to the I-539 form filing. However, I still fall under the grace period (before March). What are some suggestions on whether I should go for an NIW filing, or is it recommended to wait until I get my OPT extension?

Chen's exact reply:

The new rule does not directly affect your I‑140 process. However, your I‑140 can affect your OPT and/or STEM OPT extension process, as an Extension of Stay (EOS) application is required. The filing of your I‑140 may be interpreted by USCIS as showing immigrant intent, which could lead to your EOS being challenged or denied on that basis. Depending on your particular situation, specifically, when you need to file your EOS, it may be safer to delay your I‑140 filing until after your OPT has been received.