✅ EB-1A: Approval
An educator and psychologist working with people who are deafblind received approval for an EB-1A visa. The case was prepared independently and approved within two weeks under premium processing.
Case details
Filing: January 2026
Decision: February 6, 2026
Category: EB-1A
Attorney: none
Timeline: 2 weeks
How it went
Hello, I’m sharing my experience in case it’s useful to someone. I applied in January for an EB-1A visa. On 01/22 it was accepted for premium processing; on 02/06 I received the approval notice. I am an educator and psychologist, and I have worked for more than 10 years with people who are deafblind (more broadly I work with complex forms of disability, but my main interest and experience in both teaching and research is deafblindness, so I emphasized it in the case). I prepared the case entirely myself (of course referring to examples on the internet to understand the structure, but I based the content only on information from official sources). The case ended up being 1,200 pages. From the moment I first thought about applying for the talent visa to approval exactly 3 years passed.
Key insight
“Self-preparing a case is possible if you carefully study examples and use official sources. Premium processing can significantly speed up the process.”
Mariia Zhikhareva (@Coffeewoman)
January 22, 2026
Filed for premium processing
February 6, 2026
Approval received
Author of the story
Mariia Zhikhareva (@Coffeewoman), from the chat @talentvisahelp. Original message in the chat.
Helpful resources
All information about O-1 / EB-1A / EB-2 NIW
More success and denial stories: channel @o1eb1