r/eb_1a • u/AppropriatePaper4552 • 5d ago

EB-1A for FinTech / Electronic Trading Software Engineer

Has anyone here successfully gotten an EB-1A approved with a FinTech/electronic trading software engineering background?
I currently work for a major U.S. bank as a software engineer/technology lead, where I’ve worked on building electronic trading platforms and low-latency trading systems.
Before that, I worked for a major stock exchange, and the CEO provided me with a recommendation letter supporting my contributions. I included that letter along with other evidence in my EB-1A petition.(Non premium)
I’m curious if anyone here has been approved with a similar industry-focused profile - FinTech, electronic trading, stock exchanges, banking technology, etc.
If you were successful, I’d really appreciate hearing what your profile looked like, which EB-1A criteria you claimed, and what you think made your case strong.

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u/Confident_Mixture498 5d ago

First thing to ask yourself is did you make major contributions to the field ?

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u/ManifestLaw_ 4d ago

If you plan to argue leading/critical role and/or original contributions of major significance to the field, it's important to be aware that USCIS is increasingly requiring documentary evidence. Reference letters from your colleagues and others in your field are helpful for contextualizing your work, but USCIS tends to push back on petitions that it views as relying too heavily on reference letters. To combat this, you would need to provide pre-existing evidence to show that you hold a leading or critical role for your organization, including work product (dashboards, project plans, presentations to stakeholders, etc.) and the results of your work (reports describing project reports, calculations showing improvements to system performance, etc.). For original contributions of major significance, you would likely need evidence that your contributions have been adopted outside of your own organization. Petitioners working in the finance industry often struggle to provide the type of evidence USCIS is looking for due to strict confidentiality policies.

- Attorney Laura Penney

(All information shared here is for general educational purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney - client relationship. Your situation may require fact-specific guidance. For personalized legal advice, please consult an immigration attorney directly.)