Do grants and finalist status count as awards?

Community answers

The answers below are translated from the original Russian - the language of the community chats.

• Questions about grants come up constantly in chats, and the answer is always the same: a grant by itself is financing, but a COMPETITIVE grant with strict selection can be framed as recognition. Include the regulations, application statistics, and committee composition.

• Being a finalist is not the same as winning, and officers see this. Advice from chats: a couple of significant wins form the basis of the criterion, while finalists and honorable mentions from prestigious competitions are an addition to the list, not its backbone.

• A real mix from an approved marketing case: gold and silver from industry awards, plus a Webby, plus a finalist from another award - the finalist there was listed last, not as the main evidence.

• A life hack for visual professions: a catalog of competition finalists with printed works can be used not for awards, but for exhibition criteria - it works better there.

The answers are anonymized community experience from the public chats, not legal advice. Officers may decide similar cases differently.

Sources

• USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 6, Part F, Chapter 2

  How the agency describes each criterion.

• 8 CFR 204.5 - the I-140 regulation

Related on this site

• Awards criterion
• Proving an award's prestige
• An online contest as an award
• Awards catalog

Similar questions

• Does a team or company award count?
• Do I need a letter from the contest organizer?
• Does winning an online contest count as an award?
• Do grants and scholarships count as awards?
• Hackathons: do wins and judging count?
• How do I prove an award is prestigious?
• How do I print and mail the petition from outside the US?