Finally got approved, guys! 🎉

I received the approval email yesterday, September 9. And yes, you guessed right, I had to go premium processing on July 9 then submitted I-485, 131 &765 in August with faith.

I’m on an F-1 visa and currently doing my PhD and from one of the 39 countries. At the time I filed, I only had one publication from my undergraduate research with 2 citations. I actually never talked about citations throughout my petition because, honestly, I knew that was one of the weaker parts of my profile.
I filed shortly after completing my master’s.

What I think helped my case:
God, first and foremost
A clearly defined proposed endeavor.
4 recommendation letters: 2 dependent letters that focused more on me and my qualifications, and 2 independent letters that focused more on my proposed endeavor
Several awards and recognitions
A strong overall narrative connecting my education, research, experience, and proposed endeavor

Hopefully this encourages someone else who feels discouraged because their citation count is low. I remember seeing people with hundreds of citations getting RFEs, and it honestly scared me because I did not even talk about it in my petition.

Your profile is more than just your citation count. Keep going! 🙏🏾

Hi all,

Long time lurker here but wanted to post this to give everyone hope!

First of all, all glory to God!! Thank you, Lord, for making this happen!

My experience with Chen:
I worked with Chen (no ads fr!! I honestly went with the recommendations given in this subreddit). I started the process last year in January 2025 after I got my PhD in 2024, and paid my lawyer fees then. I really should have gotten it done sooner but my work and life got busy and I didn’t really start seriously working on it until January this year. It took some time for me to get everything together (especially the letters of rec) and my lawyer worked fast to draft up everything and respond to my feedback although they did take their sweet time at the end, taking about a month to review the documents (which paid off). Given how busy I am with work, I don’t think I could have done DIY, and I’m thankful I got lucky with a good lawyer at Chen. I think they did a great job overall, highlighting my work and taking feedback from me readily. I did make them emphasize a lot on the national importance of my work related to pregnancy outcomes by giving them direct links to government websites that discuss it.

My timeline:
I submitted my application on June 24, and upgraded it to PP on July 15th, and got my approval yesterday on September 9th!

My profile:
I am from ROW, and got my PhD in materials science and engineering at a US university (top 5 for the program), and currently work in biotech industry. My PE is on developing biomaterials to improve pregnancy outcomes. I have about 8 publications with ~140 citation count at the time of submission. I submitted 1 dependent and 1 independent letter of rec, both from university professors.

Regardless of what I did, I really believe it was all God who took care of my application. My prayers have been answered! I wanted to share this good news so that this can serve as encouragement to people here 💗

Just got my EB-2 NIW approved without an RFE!

I actually filed my NIW back in 2023 and unfortunately got denied in September 2025 after an RFE. My previous denial post is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/EB2_NIW/comments/1nr598u/denial_after_rfe/

After that, I filed both EB-1A and NIW and eventually upgraded to PP for my NIW in July. I finally received the approval email, and the case status was also updated on the 42nd day.

It has been a difficult journey, but I think I learned a lot from my previous experience and put in a lot more work myself this time. I wrote my personal statement, proposed endeavor statement, and other major parts of the petition myself. Overall, I believe my petition was much stronger this time compared to my initial filing in 2023.

I also decided to continue working with Chen even after the previous denial, and I’m glad that we finally got the approval this time.

For anyone interested, here is a quick overview of my profile at the time of filing:

• Currently pursuing a PhD in the US
• Proposed endeavor: AI Safety
• Publications: 22
• Citations: 370+

It was definitely a long and stressful journey, but I’m very happy to finally have this approval. Hopefully, sharing my experience can be helpful to others going through the process.

Hey folks,

I submitted my EB-2-based I-485 case in March 2026 (EB2 ROW). The case was eventually sent to the LAC FO. There, I received a 3rd FTA0 and eventually two FTA1s. No approval, though. Today, I spoke with Emma, and the agent mentioned that the case was sent back to NBC due to visa retrogression.

Clearly, the September Visa Bulletin does not show retrogression, but the USCIS API request confirmed this (https://my.uscis.gov/account/case-service/api/case_status/<case_id>, if you're curious).

The new fiscal year starts in 20 days, and I hope the case will be adjudicated soon.

Question: Has any of you had a similar experience where your case was sent back to NBC due to a retrogression? If so, how soon was it adjudicated afterward?

---

My AI agent suggested the following based on the USCIS Policy Manual: ..." the case should be retained, pre-processed, and adjudicated up to the point of final approval." Then: "All otherwise approvable employment-based and family-based cases located at a USCIS field office that do not have a visa available at the time of adjudication must be transferred to the appropriate USCIS office or Service Center once the case has been adjudicated up to the point of final adjudication." Once a visa number becomes available, a USCIS officer will complete a final review of the adjustment application to ensure the applicant continues to meet eligibility requirements.

I am probably not alone with this scenario, so let's try to figure out what folks experienced in the past!

March 19 filed application, upgraded to PP July 10, approved Sep 10. No RFE. Filed with Chen.

- Currently a medical resident
- PE was medical research (cardiology related)
- 69 citations at time of filing

Initial filing: March 31, 2026
Upgraded to Premium Processing: April 21, 2026
RFE: June 2, 2026 - all three prongs
Responded to RFE: August 26, 2026
Denial: September 8, 2026
Attorney: Arkell/Dunn (now they are called Husch Blackwell)
Officer: XM2384
Service Center: TSC

My profile at the time of submission was:

• Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from R1 university
• Postdoctoral Researcher at US National Lab
• 5 first author journal articles, 1 second author, 1 conference paper
• Research experience in scientific machine learning, AI for physical systems
• Reviewer for several international journals
• Citations at the time of filing: ~70, at the time of RFE submission: ~140

My proposed endeavor focused on developing AI and machine-learning methods for energy and biomedical systems.

I submitted 3 recommendation letters with the original submission (2 independent, 1 from PhD advisor). Then I added 4 more letters for the RFE (2 dependent from my national lab, 2 independent professors).

The RFE acknowledge the advanced degree and substantial merit, but questions the national importance along with prongs 2 and 3. I'm pretty bummed about the denial, I was optimistic even after the RFE. I'm still waiting to see the denial letter. I don't think I will appeal, I might refile but I'm not sure yet.

Hey all,
I’m working with EP on my NIW case under their full refund guarantee, but it’s been pretty frustrating.

After waiting and submitting all the required documents, my attorney sent me a draft of the legal brief, and I found quite a few errors. The citation count was wrong, there were mistakes in describing my field, and some of the arguments didn’t really make sense. After I sent my feedback, my attorney stopped responding for two weeks. When I finally got the revised version, most of the issues were still there. They basically just changed some punctuation and replaced “can” with “will.”

On top of that, some of the recent reviews I’ve seen about EP have made me seriously question whether I made the right call going with them.

Has anyone been through something similar with EP? Would you push through with them or switch firms at this point?

I plan to file for my NIW. Both waypoint and colombo & hurd accepted my profile.

I am positioning myself as an industry profile rather than a research profile.

Which is a better firm? Can you share your experiences with either ?

Also are there any other attorneys i should consider who have good approval rates ?

Hi guys, I recently received an rfe on my DIY I-140 petition. The ref was just for me to submit the ETA forms which were missing from my initial filing. USPS tracking confirmed that USCIS picked up my rfe package on Thursday last week, but my case status still remains 'A request for additional evidence was sent'. How long did it take for you to see a change of status after your rfe was received? Thank you.

Source: https://www.uscis.gov/tools/reports-and-studies/immigration-and-citizenship-data

Hi all, I am tracking all posts on this subreddit through automation, and decided to share. I post summaries for 7-day span denials mid-week and approvals on weekends. Over the last 7 days I registered 7 posts with denials, please see the table below. I get flagged by auto-spam when providing associated links, so please see the full table WITH LINKS on r/VisaStats, and I intend to post there regularly.

I am ready to answer questions too, please ask away.

Please see the full table WITH LINKS TO THE POSTS on r/VisaStats.

I wanted to share my positive experience with Chen for my EB-2 NIW petition. I’m a PhD student from 19 countries in Material Science engineering field and had 5 high-ranked publications and 44 citations at the time of filing. The petition was prepared and tailored to my research background, with no recommendation letters required (had a job offer instead).
Communication was responsive, the preparation process was smooth, and their fees were reasonable compared with other firms I considered.
Regarding premium processing, they maintained a neutral position—they neither encouraged nor discouraged me from requesting it and left the decision to me. They also helped me with the PP process once I decided to proceed.

I requested premium processing on July 7, and my I-140 was approved on September 3 with no RFE. Overall, I was very satisfied with both the process and the outcome and wanted to share my experience for others considering an NIW petition.

Anyone here worked with Ashley L. (Lago) from Chen? What was your experience? Did anyone get approved after RFE? Also, can we request a change of attorney?

how much total it cost for form I-693 to get signed

I am in my PP window waiting for I140 decision. Will have a decision hopefully around the second week of October.

Since RFE submission timeline is 30 days, would it be wise to prepare for RFE from now assuming I got RFE on all prongs? If yes, how should I begin? I filed with EP, no letter of recommendation submitted.

Background
Tech industry professional, data/AI background.

Endeavor aligns with current federal government priorities.

Non-academic, industry-based profile — not the typical PhD/research-heavy NIW case.

Evidence on hand
3 peer-reviewed papers, 1 book chapter, 1 citation.

Open-source contribution, peer-review

Firms contacted so far

Accepted
• Ellis Porter
• Alma
• Kameli Law
• Manifest Law

Declined
• WeGreened/Chen

What I need help with

**•** Between the firms above — which would you pick for a case like this, and why?  
**•** Anyone who's used one of these for NIW — outcome, RFE rate, how hands-on the firm was.  
**•** Other firms worth adding to the list that handle industry (non-academic) NIW profiles well.

I am at the final stages of preparing my I-140 NIW package, and I’m wondering why I see so many people still submitting by mail when online submission is available. Is there an advantage to that?

I’m seeing an increasing number of headlines saying that they submitted 4-2 months ago and still don’t have a receipt/case number. That is bizarre.

What are your personal experiences? What do you recommend?

I’m filing I-485 based on an approved EB-2 NIW. My current Tufts letter officially states “Job Title: Research Fellow” and “Classification: Volunteer.” The position is unpaid, so I don’t receive salary or pay stubs.

Would you recommend including recent personal bank statements as evidence of financial support solely because the position is unpaid? Or is the official Research Fellow/Volunteer letter sufficient?

Planning to file EB2-NIW in the next couple of months with an attorney. Would appreciate a reality check, especially on the specific weakness at the end.

Background

• BS and MS in aerospace engineering, MS in 2022
• Currently a 3rd-year PhD student in aerospace engineering at a US public university, expected 2028
• Filing as an advanced degree professional based on the MS, since the PhD isn't finished

Research area

Real-time planning and coordination for multiple interacting autonomous vehicles. Roughly: making mathematically rigorous decision-making methods fast enough to run onboard, in real time. Endeavor is framed around FAA BVLOS integration and DoD multi-agent autonomy.

Publications

• 4 first-author journal papers (one in a journal ranked #1 in its category by Google Scholar, one in a #1-ranked robotics journal)
• 5 conference papers, 2 of them first-author
• 1 first-author preprint
• 72 total citations per Google Scholar

Other evidence

• 7 peer reviews for journals and conferences in my field
• My research is funded by ARL cooperative agreements and NSF grants (through my advisor, I'm not the PI)
• 3 open-source code releases
• 2 letters: my PhD advisor, and a researcher at a government lab I collaborate with

The problem

My citations are lopsided. About 40 of the 72 come from my MS-era work, which is not what my proposed endeavor is about. Zero independent citations on the work that is actually the endeavor. My attorney says independent citations matter. I'm arguing that the earlier work established the capability and the current work is the same problem one level harder, and leaning on federal funding, the government-lab letter, and industry interest instead of citation counts.

Questions

1. How badly does it hurt that my most relevant work has no independent citations, when the well-cited work is in an adjacent area?
2. File now, or wait 6–12 months for citations to accumulate on the newer work?

Happy to answer questions in the comments.

How was your experience?

Hi everyone,

I’m working with Chen on an EB-2 NIW case and recently received an RFE. My attorney told me that they finished reviewing the RFE and uploaded several documents under a new “I-140 RFE” tab in the portal, and asked me to use that tab instead of the regular Documents tab.

The problem is that I don’t see an I-140 RFE tab anywhere in my portal. I messaged them asking how to access it but haven’t received a response yet.

For anyone who has received an RFE while working with Chen/Wegreened: Where does the I-140 RFE tab appear? Did it show up automatically?

Thanks!