Do old awards from years ago still count?

Community answers

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

• An award older than ten years can be a strong plus, but only if it is part of a chain of your achievements—it showed early potential and led to more significant events, and you have many recent wins over the last 3-5 years.

• I studied a case where a person included a significant number of certificates and awards received in childhood in their petition. The result was an RFE and denial.

• You need to show a development process from past achievements to recent ones, not just old ones.

• I studied a case where a person included a significant number of certificates and awards received in sports during childhood in their petition—RFE and denial. However, the RFE text did not mention that the certificates were received in childhood.

• A batch of recent achievements may be perceived as an attempt to rush the case for submission. They want to see not five publications in a month but steady progress—conditionally, 5-8 publications over three years.

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
• 8 CFR 204.5 - the I-140 regulation

Related on this site

• Awards criterion
• Sustained acclaim

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