USCIS.loveAnalysis of Real EB-1A Decisions and Decision Database
How to learn from 3000+ real AAO appellate decisions on EB-1A: a personalized review of your situation and an open searchable database of real denial reasons.
Author: Alina Kanametova- updated
The tool itself
Open the tool: /tools/decisions. This page is the guide to it.
Key answer
The project has collected 3000+ real AAO appellate decisions for EB-1A (2020-2025) in an anonymized database. Two tools work with it: a personalized analysis and an open searchable database.
When to use it
Analysis of real decisions - when you want to benchmark your own situation: choose your field and the criteria you plan to claim, then see how similar cases were evaluated and where they ran into problems. Appeals database - when you want to search the text of real denial reasons and filter by field, criteria, year, and outcome.
How to use it
In the analysis, select your field and the criteria you plan to claim - the tool will show how often they were credited in similar cases, where applicants most often ran into problems, and where you may be able to stand out. In the database, use filters and search by denial reasons.
Why it matters
These are appellate decisions - mostly denials. They are not approval odds, but real patterns worth learning from. Not legal advice.
Community members emphasize that you should learn from a body of cases, not from someone else's single success - what was forgiven in one case may not be forgiven by another officer.
That is why you need to build your case based on the experience of people from here or from somewhere else, but not on one case that was a survivorship-bias mistake.
Frequently asked questions
Related materials
Related materials - Helpers and calculators
- Readiness check: how many criteria do you meet
- EB-2 NIW Check by Dhanasar Test
- Visa match: EB-1A, O-1 or EB-2 NIW, which fits you
- Community Cases: Anonymous Talent Visa Case Board
- Media check: is this a major publication (Major Media)
- Directory: journals, awards, associations, conferences
- Recommendation Letter Builder + Quality Assessment
- Translation Tracker: Get Documents to Certified Translation
- Degree Evaluation Readiness (WES): Checklist
- Printable petition packet assembly
- Which USCIS forms do you need by visa and stage
- Cost and timeline: estimated O-1 budget and schedule
- RFE Response Builder: Structure with Real USCIS Wording
- Interview Simulator: Consular Interview Practice
- Petition and RFE analysis against the criteria rules
From community discussions
«You can own 100% of the company, but you can't be its sole employee - you can't hire yourself. The company must have at least one more employee. The short answer is, you can own and incorporate a business on O1 visa, but you cannot work for it as the sole employee. According to U.S. immigration law, there must be a bona fide employee and employer relationship.»
community member · from public community chats
«The NOID I got was reasonable in my view, I added everything they asked for (except one patent), including percentiles, comparisons with others, national scales. In the denial they ignored it all. TSC, anonymous officer.»
Aleksey · from public community chats
«Petition structure: table of contents; an autobiography with references to the attachments (mine is 90 pages); a table of which criteria I'm satisfying (all except my own exhibition and box office receipts); and then all the attachments in order with translations.»
community member · from public community chats
Personal opinions of community members from public discussions, not legal advice.
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