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Approval stories

EB-1A approval stories: 68 cases from the community chats

Updated: Author:

68 anonymized EB-1A approval stories from the community chats: 41% without an RFE, median 68 days to approval, 28% filed on their own.

The stories below are experience; the EB-1A visa requirements and criteria are on the visa page.

Based on: 129 approval stories told by their applicants · filed 2022-2026

68stories
41%without RFE
68 daysmedian duration
28%self-filed

By filing year

YearStoriesNo RFEMedian, daysPremium
2026550%130100%
20251636%5183%
20242838%17100%
20231750%149100%
202220%--

Shares are computed only over stories where the fact is known; the median runs from filing to approval over stories with dates.

What else the group shows

  • Budget, where stated: under $5k - 9, $5-10k - 2, $10-20k - 2, over $20k - 5.
  • Filed from outside the US: 37% (where known).
  • Premium processing: 97% (where known).
  • Most often: Founder / entrepreneur (20), Software engineer (9), Product manager (IT) (5), Analyst (data / business) (4), Designer (UX / graphic) (4).

IT / software (20)

Business / entrepreneurship (21)

Arts / design (14)

Science / research (6)

Marketing / PR (1)

Sport (4)

Engineering / STEM (1)

Education / psychology (1)

Stories for the other visas

The stories are anonymized community experience, not legal advice and no guarantee of an outcome: officers may decide similar cases differently. Requirements and timelines change - verify on uscis.gov.