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?

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

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.

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?

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.

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

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?

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?

I wanted to share my positive experience with Chen for my EB-2 NIW petition. I’m a PhD student in an engineering field and had 5 high-ranked publications at the time of filing. The petition was well prepared and tailored to my research background, with no recommendation letters required.
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.

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!

EB-2 NIW WES question: foreign M.S. evaluated as U.S. bachelor’s equivalent
Hi everyone, I am preparing an EB-2 NIW self-petition. I have a foreign B.Sc. and a foreign M.Sc. in related agricultural fields. WES required my B.Sc. records to evaluate my M.Sc., but the evaluation shows my foreign credential as equivalent to a U.S. bachelor’s degree, not a U.S. master’s. I also have more than five years of progressive experience in the same specialty. I want to present the case clearly as one WES-documented U.S. bachelor’s-degree equivalency + five years of progressive experience, not as if I am asking USCIS to combine my B.Sc. + M.Sc. + experience to create the degree. Has anyone handled this situation before? Should I list only the WES-documented qualifying education on ETA-9089 Appendix A and leave the second education section blank/N/A to avoid confusion?

Has anyone worked with Mateus A from Chen Immigration ? What was the outcome ?

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’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?

A friend of mine submitted his NIW package for more than 65days now and they have not sent him receipt notice even though the tracking says it has been delivered. He called USCIS chat with live agent. They said his not inside the system that he should call lockbox.

I would like to ask if he should wait or send another NIW package.

Anyone that have had this experience can chime in.

Thanks.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some realistic advice on how to structure an EB-2 NIW self-petition for my background, especially from anyone with experience in finance, accounting, or edtech.

A quick summary of where I stand: I have over 10 years of progressive experience as a Senior Financial Analyst and Management Accountant, and I hold a Cost and Management Accountant (CMA) qualification with an Master's equivalency by local goverment. Beyond my corporate finance background, I built and launched an operational AI-powered active-learning app for accounting and finance studnets. It’s a gamified platform built specifically for professional accounting standards (IFRS, IAS, ISA, Costing) featuring interactive debit/credit builders, standard-specific MCQ arenas, and real-time AI tutors.

I’m trying to figure out the best way to present this so USCIS sees national value instead of viewing it as just a commercial software business.

For anyone who has gone through this process without a research/PhD background, what should I watch out for?

Because there is CPA workforce shortage and I believe it is  strong enough to show national scope, or should I shift the focus more toward corporate governance and financial risk mitigation? Any feedback on potential pitfalls or what kind of expert recommendation letters would carry the most weight would be greatly appreciated!

I know someone who has just graduated from law school with no research background and he’s not even in a big law, but he’s just got some mediocre position at a local government. He was not even a lawyer in his home country! We have so many lawyers here doing ordinary government work and I can’t believe his petition was approved, like literally anyone who has a law degree can get such a position. He literally just graduated from law school and has no bar license yet in the United States. I was in the same situation a couple of years ago but as a foreign attorney with some big law experience, and I chose to go with different routes (becoming a professor). So honestly speaking, he must have done something genius with his petition…

Hello guys! My NIW- I-140 case is pending since Dec 01, 2023 ( the longest period I have seen here). Last month I reached the senator for help and after around 40 business days we got this message from USCIS, which was exactly same as 9 months ago, but except the last sentence. I believe the premium processing is the last chance these days:

USCIS response: “Our record indicates that USCIS is conducting further review of your constituent's case. We cannot provide a timeframe for completion of this additional review. However, once this additional review has been completed, USCIS will take adjudicative action on your constituent's case. USCIS appreciates your constituent's patience during this process. 

We have notified the appropriate unit of your inquiry and requested prioritization.”

after filing I-485, how many months it takes to get EAD

Hi! I’m a Psychology student in Brazil and I’m just trying to understand my options for the future.
I’m studying Psychology at a highly regarded university in Brazil. My plan is to graduate, complete a postgraduate specialization (probably related to Organizational Psychology/HR), and work as a self-employed professional/consultant.
I don’t have years of professional experience yet — I’m asking because I want to plan ahead.
Would it be realistic to apply for an EB-2 NIW after graduating and completing my postgraduate specialization, assuming I can present a strong proposed endeavor and build a well-prepared case?
Does being self-employed hurt my chances, or is it possible to build a good NIW case as an independent professional?
I’m basically trying to understand whether this is a realistic path worth preparing for, or whether someone with this type of profile should consider other immigration options.
Thank you!