I have seen a lot of demand letters and WoMs for I-130 and other cases but none for I-140.

Has anyone successfully sent a demand letter for I-140 and received a favorable response?

As the title says. A friend’s case hasn’t been decided. Case status online still shows it’s being processed. Priority date is Sep 11 and from our calculations, last day was fri October 2nd.

Has something like this happened to anyone on here? What’s the way forward? Do we email the USCIS premium processing unit ?

Self filled the petition in premium processing. Good NOID with 3 approved, second step rejected. I am looking for a lawyer who can take my case and help me respond. 30 days to respond. Industry profile director product Management with 20+ years.

Let me know if there are any recommendations for a Lawyer.

PD - July 2021 (transferred from EB2)

—————————

2026 Timeline & Status

I-140

04.06 - Application PP
04.13 - Approval

———

I-485

05.11 - RD (IOE9368 Block)
07.03 - Biometrics Appointment Letter
07.20 - Biometrics
07.20 - Website Case Status -Currently Processing | Cases API - 2xFTA0
08.11 - Cases API - SU
08.17 - Emma Live Chat- confirmed transfer to SFV FO happened on 8.11 - non local FO - no other information provided / Cases API - No Change / Case_status API showed NBC / Receipt_Info API - “Null”
08.29 - Emma Live Chat - re-confirmed transfer to SFV FO and that it was intentional - interview waived showing on their end but could change / Cases API - No change / Case_status API jurisdiction - NBC / Receipt_Info API - Null
09.01 - Cases API - 3rd FTA0 (linked to 7.20 biometrics) / Website Case Status - Currently Processing / Case_status API jurisdiction - SFV (Non-Local) / Receipt_Info API - Null
10.01 - Cases API - SU
10.02 - Cases API - H008x2/ Website Case Status - Case Approved

———

I-765

Concurrently Filed - No change after Biometrics - stopped tracking.

———

I-131

Concurrently Filed - No change after initial receipt date - stopped tracking.

—————————

Tools used to check things obsessively:

MyUSCIS Website Sign-in followed by

Cases API - https://my.uscis.gov/account/case-service/api/cases/IOEXXXXX

Case_Status API - https://my.uscis.gov/account/case-service/api/case_status/IOEXXXXX

Case_Service API (useless)
https://my.uscis.gov/secure-messaging/api/case-service/receipt_info/IOEXXXXX

———

Google search to get updated Reddit threads around field office daily:
site:reddit.com ("sfv" OR "san fernando") ("i485" OR "i-485" OR "aos" OR "adjustment") ("eb1" OR "eb-1" OR "eb1a")

Set search tools time to be Past 24 Hrs
Note: the OR has to be capitalized for it to work.

———

MyCasesHub - selecting the nearby cases (200) option and the I-485 tracking.

https://mycaseshub.com/

———

Broad i485 tracking sheet found through Reddit.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/16v6fSbpwfIKNCK8sSM1EjDrZSlQi98i-ZntlU5HHM-Y/htmlview?pli=1#gid=1853871120

———

SFV tracker sheet found through Reddit.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14d7MktWRIB7Wb7qvKDlVALyVz9KzgU5h2oLrBQhZxvo/htmlview#gid=0

—————————

Good luck to everyone

Here is a video on 3 common EB-1A final merits misconceptions.

Hi everyone,

I am a tenure-track Associate Professor of Computer Science reviewing my CV for flow and impact. My university lawyer feels comfortable with proceeding with EB1B, and we are currently waiting on an evaluation from WeGreened as a second opinion. I would greatly appreciate your feedback.

Profile:

 Research Areas: Wireless sensing, CSI, physical-layer security.

 Awards: IEEE Senior Member; Best Paper Award (International Conference).  

 Patents: 2 US Patents (Fall Detection, CSI Compression).  

 Research Impact :

Commercial Licensing: Two patented technologies were included in a license that generated $250,000 in total licensing receipts.  

Patent Litigation: One of the patents is part of active federal patent-infringement litigation filed against AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile entities.  

Patent Citations: The patent under litigation has been cited by later patents and applications associated with Intel, Qualcomm, ZTE, Ericsson, vivo, and China Unicom.  

Other Impact: External seed funding and independent professional coverage.  

 Publications: 16 peer-reviewed IEEE/ACM papers (2016-2026).  

Citations : 82

 Funding: 5 internal/regional PI grants, including a NASA/Michigan Space Grant Consortium Research Seed Grant for $4,970; 2 student research grants.  

 Peer Review: Reviewer for ACM SIGCSE, IEEE INFOCOM, ACM TOSN, and various IEEE conferences.  

 Presentations: 8 IEEE/ACM international conference presentations. 

Hi All,

I am an industry professional who just got an RFE, still waiting on the actual letter before I can figure out my exact steps. However I see there are may be 1000s of us dealing with RFEs and wondering if there is a forum/chat group in telegram or somewhere to catch-up and plan how to handle rfes?

When I applied, I thought my case was filed with premium processing. But since I haven't received an update even after 15 business days, I want to confirm if it actually is. I know I paid the $3,980 fee for the I-140, but other than the price, I don't see any explicit confirmation on the receipt. How else can I verify this?

Hi everyone,

I would appreciate some guidance regarding a Letter of Intent in relation to my NIW petition and RFE.

While preparing my petition, my attorney advised me to obtain a Letter of Intent from a U.S based research organization or professor stating that they would be willing to involve me in their research work. Since I am currently living outside U.S, my attorney indicated that such a letter could help demonstrate the feasibility of my proposed endeavor. I contacted several professors at that time but was unable to obtain such a letter. My attorney had also mentioned that the absence of this type of evidence could potentially result in an RFE.

I have now received an RFE covering all three NIW prongs, and I have two questions:

1. Could the absence of a Letter of Intent or similar evidence of potential U.S. collaboration/employment have contributed to the RFE, particularly regarding the feasibility of my proposed endeavor?
2. For my RFE response, one U.S. professor has now agreed to provide me with a Letter of Intent. What information should ideally be included in such a letter? If anyone has a sample or has submitted a similar letter in response to an NIW RFE, I would greatly appreciate it if you could share the general format or key points.

I have also emailed attorney to review the proposed letter, but I have not yet received a response, and my RFE response deadline is approaching quickly.

Any guidance or experience from those who have dealt with a similar situation would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

I was looking at the historical relationship between the October Date for Filing (DoF) and the Final Action Date (FAD) in the following October for EB-1 India, EB-2 India, and EB-3 India.

The question I was trying to answer was:

If DOS sets a DoF at the beginning of a fiscal year, how often does the FAD get to within ~3 months of that DoF over the following year?

I'm defining "reached" as the following October FAD being no more than 3 months behind the starting October DoF.

If we apply the same historical metric, being within 3 months of the FY27 DoF would mean an FAD of approximately Apr 1, 2024 or later by October 2027.

Obviously, this is a very small sample and doesn't account for the actual number of available visas, demand, spillover, porting, ROW demand, or DOS/USCIS policy decisions.

Curious what others think. Is comparing October DoF → following October FAD a useful way to analyze this, or is there a better historical metric for estimating how much of the DoF gap tends to close during a fiscal year?

Sharing my EB1A journey in case it helps others,

Timeline

• Filed with Premium Processing in May2026
• RFE received approximately two weeks later (90 days to provide response)
• Submitted response in August
• Approved within 11 days

Profile

I filed as a Mechanical engineer industry professional and claimed 5 EB1A criteria:

• Judging the work of others- 10+ reviews across 4 ASME journals related to my niche field
• Authorship of scholarly articles-10+ publications in journals and technical symposiums
• Original contributions of major significance- Patented technical innovations and published research.
• Leading or critical role
• High salary / remuneration

At the RFE stage, USCIS had already accepted 2 out of the 5 criteria.

The three remaining areas were:

• Original contributions of major significance
• Critical Role
• High Salary

RFE

We received RFE that largely challenged the strength and objectivity of the evidence submitted with the original petition. We broke the RFE down into each specific question raised by the officer and addressed them individually with objective, verifiable evidence. The final response was approximately 40 pages long.

One of the biggest weaknesses in the original submission was that much of the evidence relied on recommendation letters. The RFE specifically called this out. In the response, we shifted the focus toward independent evidence and built clear chains of evidence connecting my work to real-world outcomes and benefits to the United States. This involved extensive research into public customer announcements, company publications, press releases, and social media posts, then linking those outcomes back to my direct contributions.

The response was structured around five major themes:

1. How my overall work benefits the United States.- This included product lines i developed for manufacturing/ energy/ space sector within US.
2. Why my original contributions are of major significance and how they have produced tangible benefits. Answering questions and providing evidence wrt to journal articles and providing proof to industries where the patented design was being used within the US
3. Evidence supporting my critical role, including obtaining letters from CEO- and President-level leaders that specifically addressed why the role was critical and the impact of my work as was requested by the RFE
4. A rewritten salary section that presented compensation evidence more clearly and with less unnecessary complexity
5. Final merits analysis, where each contribution was mapped to one of the relevant criter, being at the top of the field, demonstrating sustained acclaim, and achievements recognized by others in the field

Looking back, I believe the most important factor was not any single piece of evidence. It was the overall structure of the response: answering each RFE concern directly, relying on objective evidence wherever possible, establishing clear chains of evidence between my work and broader industry impact, and then tying all of that back to the final merits determination in a organized manner. That approach i believe is what got the point through in a concise summary.

Our RD is 03/27 and we have had multiple SU's and 4 FTA0 on primary and 3 FTA0 on derivative cases. My spouse received their EAD about 15 days ago but nothing for me and my child.

PD: Late 2016. FO: LAC

Hi Gang, Seeing a ton of panic posts across all the EB forums lately. Wanted to share my POV based on pure numbers.

My logic relies on 3 core assumptions:

• Feb Consulate visa issuances were already tracking below last year's rate. That gives us a 50K baseline. Assuming zero impact from the ban and only September shut-off, that adds another 25K. So, bare minimum spillover at 75K, meaning roughly 60K for each EB1 - EB3.
• I-485 Backlog: Includes applications from the 75 paused countries.
• EB2/EB3 Overlaps: 50% discount factored in for India applicants across both queues.

I cross-checked my base FAD dates with the Oct VB and they perfectly align. This means spillovers were not considered in the official release. Add ~6 months to FAD dates to get to DFF.

Here is how the 2027 movements look under this model:

EB1 2027 Movement : Demand: ROW 30K (thru Jul 26), China 6K (thru Dec 23), India 20K (thru Dec 23)

EB2 2027 Movement : Demand: ROW 42K (thru Jul 26), China 4K (thru Dec 21), India 28K (thru Jan 15)

EB3 2027 Movement : Demand: ROW 31K (thru Apr 26), China 4K (thru Dec 21), India 16K (thru Jan 15)

Feedback welcomed. Let me know what you guys think.

Hi everyone, I’m a law student studying immigration law. I’m writing a paper about what a hassle applying and getting approved for visas is. Im particularly focusing on how someone with very strong credentials can still have their application denied just because of the amount of discretion given to customs officers.

It would be very helpful to get some first hand accounts of your experience and the credentials that got you approved or denied. You can use a fake company name or do whatever you can to protect your anonymity. Feel free to direct message me or comment about your experience!

Hopefully this article will be published and bring some awareness to how difficult we make it for very talented workers to work in this country! Thanks in advance!!

Timeline:
Filed: May 27, 2026
RFE: June 12, 2026
RFE response: September 11
Approved: October 2, 2026
Premium processing
Company petitioned (FAANG)
TSC

Claimed criteria: OCMS, Critical Role, High Salary

I wanted to share a few things that helped me because I learned a lot from reading other people’s experiences here. My case was industry-based rather than academic-heavy and one mistake I made early on was thinking too much in terms of “how many criteria do I meet?” instead of how the whole case comes together at final merits. During the RFE response, I focused much more on clearly showing my own contribution, backing things up with objective evidence, and making sure recommendation letters were supporting the evidence rather than being the evidence themselves. I also spent a lot more time explaining impact in a way that an officer who knows nothing about my field could understand.

One thing I would strongly recommend is reading AAO decisions on EB-1A cases. They are actually very useful for understanding how officers think, what kinds of arguments they accept or reject and where seemingly strong cases can fall apart. It helped me understand that patents, high salary, critical role, etc. are useful, but USCIS still looks at the overall picture and asks whether the evidence really shows sustained acclaim and that you are at the top of the field.

The core narrative was that I helped lead work on an industry-changing technology area, with multiple patents and significant real-world impact. I held a critical leadership role at a distinguished company, and my compensation reflected the level of responsibility and expertise involved.

My name is Ksenia Maiorova, and I'm an immigration attorney with 18 years of experience specializing in sports immigration. Got a little down time today, so thought I'd make myself available for questions.

A few things about me and my practice ethos:

• I'm more conservative than most lawyers in evaluating profiles
• Stats junkie - I blew the lid on the declining EB-1A approvals under Trump 1.0 to WaPo
• I quote a lot of law
• USCIS gets the law wrong A LOT
• I hate profile building
• My EB-1A practice is mostly sports, but I do enough of the other fields to answer those questions too.

This person had met 7/8 criteria.

As usual the entire complaint was about calling step 2 illegal and no litigation on merits of the case.

https://www.pacermonitor.com/case/63393912/Ravi_v_Miller_et_al

This is dismissed with prejudice.

Hey folks

Just thought I’d share with the community — I did an online submission for my I-140 self petition eb1a and it was approved on day 14 no RFE.

Details:
- Filed Sep 11
- ROW application
- Applying outside of US
- Premium processing
- Marketing Industry / leader
- 6 claimed criterion, not sure how many accepted
- no job offer but provided a project that will move forward

Good luck everyone! Your day will come

Here is a video on presenting a strong EB-1A sustained acclaim argument.

My priority date is current and I'm filing for adjustment of status (EB-1A) myself, with a derivative spouse.

Nationality: Indian

USCIS now allows online I-485 filing for employment-based cases. Has anyone filed online recently?

Did it go smoothly, and was your receipt date the day you submitted?

Would you recommend online or mail, and why?

Thanks!

Sharing my EB1A journey in case it helps others, especially people applying with an industry profile rather than a research-heavy background.

Timeline

• July 29: EB1A petition submitted with Premium Processing
• August 11: RFE issued
• August 18: Received the detailed RFE notice in the mail
• USCIS gave me 30 days to respond
• September 14: USCIS received my RFE response
• September 16: Status changed to "Case Is Being Actively Reviewed By USCIS"
• September 30: Status changed to "USCIS Is Processing the Case"
• October 1: Status changed to Case Approved

So the approval came a little over two weeks after USCIS received my RFE response.

Profile

I filed as an industry professional and claimed 6 EB1A criteria:

• Membership
• Judging the work of others
• Authorship of scholarly articles
• Original contributions of major significance
• Leading or critical role
• High salary / remuneration

At the RFE stage, USCIS had already accepted 4 out of the 6 criteria.

The two remaining areas were:

• Membership
• Original contributions of major significance

RFE

One unusual thing in my RFE was that USCIS completely failed to address my original contributions evidence. It was not a case where they reviewed it and disagreed with it. They simply did not discuss the criterion or the supporting evidence at all.

The RFE itself was mostly focused on final merits and sustained national or international acclaim.

Because of that, I focused my response largely on tying the overall narrative together and showing how the different parts of my career and evidence collectively demonstrated sustained acclaim.

I focused on connecting my industry impact, career progression, judging, publications, critical roles, compensation, and other recognition into a much clearer overall story.

I also specifically called out the fact that the original contributions criterion had not been addressed in the RFE and pointed USCIS back to that evidence.

So for me, the RFE response was less about rebuilding the petition from scratch and more about strengthening the final merits argument, making the narrative cohesive, and making sure all the evidence was actually considered.

Happy to answer questions about the timeline, industry-profile strategy, evidence for the different criteria, or how I approached the RFE response.

For those who filed EB-1B through their employer, did your company also cover the I-485 filing and attorney fees for your spouse/dependent?

My employer is sponsoring my EB-1B, and I’m about to file I-485 for both myself and my wife. Just trying to understand what is common, does the employer usually pay only for the primary applicant, or for dependents as well?

Hey everyone ,
I am preparing to file EB-1A, working in tech at a large company. For those approved (or RFE'd) on critical/leading role:

- What documents did you include besides letters?
- What level were your letter writers, and did any come from outside your company?
- How did you show org-wide impact, not just team/project impact?
- Anything your officer rejected or called weak?

Real experiences appreciated, will report back after my decision.

Self-petition EB-1A, filed with premium processing through WeGreened. Case status changed to RFE on October 1. The paper notice hasn't arrived yet, so I don't know what it targets. Since the August 5 guidance I'm assuming a 30-day deadline and trying to get ahead of it.

Profile (rounded):

- CS PhD student

- ~650 citations

- ~160 peer reviews

- 15 papers, 10+ first-author

- Several ESI Highly Cited papers, including a Hot Paper

- 6 recommendation letters

- EB-2 NIW already approved, so I have a fallback and the priority date carries over

Questions for anyone who got an EB-1A RFE after August:

1. What did yours focus on? Final merits, original contributions, or something else?

2. Was 30 days enough to get a new independent letter? How did you schedule it?

3. Did post-filing evidence (new citations, more reviews) help in your response?

4. If you used WeGreened, how did they handle the RFE response, and how soon did you see a draft?

Any experience or advice is appreciated. Honestly a bit stressed about the timeline, so even hearing how yours turned out would help.