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Approval stories

O-1 approval stories: 53 cases from the community chats

Updated: Author:

53 anonymized O-1 approval stories from the community chats: 44% without an RFE, median 40 days to approval, 6% filed on their own.

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

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

53stories
44%without RFE
40 daysmedian duration
6%self-filed

By filing year

YearStoriesNo RFEMedian, daysPremium
202620%110100%
202530%105100%
2024833%4625%
20233358%4087%
202270%9360%

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 - 8, $5-10k - 6, $10-20k - 1, over $20k - 2.
  • Filed from outside the US: 73% (where known).
  • Premium processing: 77% (where known).
  • Most often: Founder / CTO (11), Product manager (IT) (11), Founder / entrepreneur (6), Photographer (4), Software engineer (4).

IT / software (23)

Business / entrepreneurship (9)

Arts / design (12)

Science / research (1)

Marketing / PR (4)

Beauty industry (3)

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.