Which professions and fields file for EB-1A most often?

Key answer

Business, sciences and the arts dominate our set of real cases. But the profession itself decides nothing: the criteria are identical for everyone, and refusals turn on missing external evidence, not on the field.

Breakdown from the data

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

Field split in our sample: business - 87, sciences - 67, arts - 53, education - 16, athletics - 14, not specified - 2. That is the make-up of challenged cases, not of all filings.
A more useful question than the list of professions is which criteria your field can actually evidence externally. A researcher naturally has articles and peer review; a founder has a leading role and press; an athlete has awards and judging.
An unusual profession is not an obstacle. The obstacle is the absence of independent corroboration: material about you, recognition beyond your employer, traces of assessing others' work.

This breakdown is built on real USCIS notices and public sources, linked below. It is reference material, not legal advice: officers decide similar cases differently.

Why the profession decides nothing by itself

The criteria are identical for everyone: a scientist, a beauty professional and an athlete all face the same list of ten and the same second stage. The regulation contains neither a list of suitable professions nor any industry allowance.

What differs is not the winnability of a profession but what evidence exists in it at all. A researcher naturally accumulates publications and peer review. An entrepreneur, press coverage and a leading role. An athlete, awards and judging. The question is not 'is my profession the right one' but 'do I hold external corroboration on at least three of the points'.

What the composition of our set shows

Across the 253 cases business, sciences and arts predominate, with noticeably less education and sport. But that is the composition of CHALLENGED cases - those that drew a request or a refusal - not of all petitions filed.

You cannot conclude from that distribution that business is refused more often. It more likely reflects who files at all in this audience. Use it differently: as a hint that your field already has adjudicated cases whose wording you can learn from.

A rare profession is not an obstacle

Refusals come not from the exoticism of an occupation but from the absence of independent corroboration. A petitioner from a rare field faces a different difficulty: the officer does not know what counts as significant there, and that has to be spelled out.

The practical technique: do not assume the scale of an award, a conference or a publication is obvious. Attach evidence about the institution itself - who selects and how, how many participants, what level of recognition. For a narrow field this matters more than for an academic one, where the officer sees similar cases constantly.

Sources

USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 6, Part F, Chapter 2
How the agency describes criterion analysis and the second stage.
8 CFR 204.5 - the I-140 regulation
USCIS: the EB-1 category
Overview of EB-1A, EB-1B and EB-1C.

All questions on: EB-1A All questions on: General questions All questions on: The petition and formatting