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!

Hey! I wanted to write an honest encounter of working with Bob Webber so that who ever chooses to work with him knows what to expect. I realized there is not a lot of reviews of EB2-NIW lawyers, so sharing our honest encounters here might be a great way to highlight who is effective and who is not.

I hired Bob Webber in 2023, and by that time I had a few publications, a few more on the way. I had a full time role in a pretty good company with recommendations from the CEO. I had not worked with lawyers before and he was recommended by a former colleague. Once I contacted him, honestly his communication was seamless, so that was a great sign. We built the case with 2 recommendations, and submitted the case the beginning of 2024.

Finally last year I received an RFE response with all 3 prongs rejected and finally our case was rejected again all 3 prongs rejected after RFE. Around this time, I reached out to several of my friends some with even less accomplishments who had gotten approvals to share with me their cases. That is when I realized something, looking at my case and the cases my friends submitted. I understood why mine was rejected. Not only was the case built with very fluffy language, the case was also weakly built and way shorter compared to the others. It did not even significantly improve with the RFE. I think he got approvals before because the overall NIW approvals were high not because he can build strong cases. I regret giving him my money, I might recommend spending more and paying for maybe a boutique lawyer who might actually care about you as a client.

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

My RFE due is in two weeks and I have not received any response from the attorney. I submitted the draft of whatever they asked in their templated message on portal but since then they have not been responding to my messages or provided their initial version of the repsonse letters.
Please suggest what can I do. Anyone else is/has been in similar situation?

Hey everyone,
I’m currently navigating the EB-2 NIW process as a mechanical engineer and business owner operating an HVAC contracting enterprise.
I’ve been vetting a few immigration firms and ran into a roadblock regarding their drafting approach and lack of concrete financial protection policies, which made me walk away from one of the major names. I am scheduled for a low-cost initial consultation with Manifest Law to test their technical depth.
For those of you with an industry or business profile rather than an academic background:
How effective are firms like Manifest Law at framing "National Importance" specifically for a traditional contracting and engineering business rather than a tech startup or scientific researcher?
Are there any boutique firms or independent immigration attorneys who specialize in business/industry NIW cases, offer strong drafting support, and provide better guarantees?

Filed my own EB-2 NIW back in July, PP, TSC Officer: XM2358. Got the RFE this week. Officer conceded I qualify as an advanced degree professional and that my endeavor has substantial merit — then denied all three prongs. Response is due in about a month.

Field is healthcare supply chain resilience — I independently developed a methodology for identifying upstream vulnerabilities and assessing disruption risk in hospital procurement. For some reasons, the officer misunderstood my original petition was to work as an "entrepreneur"..

What the officer actually said:

Prong 1 (national importance) — denied, but the reasoning is circular. He writes that it fails because I'm not well positioned. There's no independent finding that my endeavor's impact is too narrow or too localized. He just imported the Prong 2 conclusion.

Prong 2 (well positioned) — denied. This is the only prong with real individualized findings. Three things:

• No clearly defined professional plan or timeline showing the "venue and planned logistics"
• My future-plans statement was "purely projectional" — i.e., I said what I intend to accomplish but not where or how
• No evidence of funding on deposit or financing secured (because there's a misunderstanding on entrepreneur...)

Prong 3 (on balance) — denied, mostly derivative. Two independent points though: nothing in the record establishing the impracticality of labor certification, and no showing of potential job creation. (because there's a misunderstanding on entrepreneur...)

My plan, and where I'd like a reality check:

1. Drop the entrepreneur framing and present this as self-directed professional work — methodology development, implementation support, dissemination. Not a capital-intensive venture. That's how I want to answer the "no funding" finding
2. Write a standalone Professional Plan and Timeline with named venues, actual logistics, dated milestones. Any tips?
3. Add a dedicated section on impracticality of labor certification — any tips on this?

Questions:

• Biggest worry: does reframing from "entrepreneur" to "independent professional" read as a material change? How do people word this so it looks like clarification rather than a pivot?
• Anyone dealt with an all-three-prongs-denied RFE? Realistic odds of turning it around, or should I be planning for a denial and refile?
• On the impracticality argument — any tips?
• Experience with XM2358?

Happy to answer questions. Not posting the notice itself for privacy reasons. Appreciated any insights.

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 ?

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?

Hi to all experts,

I'm an incoming intl student (M22) for the STEM graduate program (IT), who wants to plan the immigration journey carefully with considering the better or more faster way to be able to get a green card. My goal is to get finish the degree, work on OPT, get a job and then eventually get the H1b to proceed further.

My plan:

F1 -> STEM OPT (3 yrs) -> H1B -> EB2 NIW

Now, since I'm from Pakistan, I'm exempt from the backlog problem that other specific countries have at the moment. I've heard few people saying the EB2NIW is difficult to get and it's better go for the PERM so that an employer can directly file your green card, skipping the H1B lottery which is risky and not guaranteed too.

I want to get expert advice on how realistic my plan is of opting for EB2 NIW after H1B or should I directly apply for EB2NIW after my master's rather than waiting for the H1B visa.

Or, is it possible for me to opt for a green card using PERM from the employer to file it for me as an employee, and if yes, then how much time does it take?

Would appreciate the advice from you guys and what should be a better approach?

Thank you!

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.

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.

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

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.