✅ EB-1A: approval
A success story of obtaining an EB-1A visa for a digital marketer working in the medical devices field, with employer sponsorship.
Case details
Filing: July 18, 2024
Decision: July 23, 2024
Attorney: Aronova
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✓Critical role
Employment at a large medical device company
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✓Contribution to digital marketing of medical devices
Interviews and articles in top media
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✓Awards
Projects placed in prize positions
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✓Associations
ROMI, ECDMA, Guild of Marketers, GrowthHackers
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✓Judging
The Growth Hacking Awards
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✓Articles about me
Interviews and comments in the media
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✓Articles authored by me
Publications on MSN, Lenta.ru and others
How it all went
I submitted the EB-1A case while in the US on O-1 status, as a digital marketer.
I work here for a large medical device manufacturer, and they were the ones who sponsored my EB-1A case.
Before I knew the company would help me with the green card, I consulted Aronova, and she advised tailoring my case to digital marketing with a focus on medical devices. At my previous company I also worked with medical devices, and that was also an international corporation headquartered in the US.
For the new case I did 3 interviews in top media (Techtimes.com, Elle.kz, Esquire.kz) and several articles I authored (MSN, Lenta.ru, Marketing Communications magazine, London Insider).
Also new were a couple of articles on Lenta.ru where I provided comments.
Communities/associations were added (I hadn’t done these for O-1), though I was worried about that criterion: ROMI (a letter was provided by them as a favor), ECDMA (a letter was provided by Evgeny — many thanks), Guild of Marketers, GrowthHackers.
From judging: one contest — The Growth Hacking Awards.
Additional recommendation letters were also added.
Since the visa sponsor is my employer, their contractor filed the case. But! They didn’t discuss the case strategy with me — what to add, remove, etc. — they only evaluated my evidence and concluded I was suitable for the green card. However, I had already been working on the additions that Anna recommended, and I also shared with them her idea to niche the case toward medical devices. They liked the approach.
In general, many suggestions about what to add came from me. For the letters too. Fortunately, they provided me with a lot of templates, although Chat GPT helped me a lot as well. For O-1 I didn’t use GPT; I wrote everything entirely myself.
Summing up, the criteria were as follows:
- Critical role
- Contribution to digital marketing of medical devices
- Awards (projects at the companies I worked for placed in prize positions)
- Associations
- Judging
- Articles about me (many interviews + many places where I gave comments)
- Articles authored by me
I asked them to send the memorandum to me for approval before filing; my company approved it. During review I found serious errors, and they corrected them.
Timing:
- 07/18/2024 petition was received
- 07/23/2024 petition approved + on the same day the approval came through, but the website status hadn’t updated yet
Those days were very nerve-wracking; I couldn’t really work. 
And now I also can’t work because I’m so happy. 
Key insight
“It’s important to actively participate in preparing the case, even if it’s employer-sponsored, and to keep track of all details, including the memorandum.”
Daria Vasileva (@vasilevadigital)
2024-07-18
Petition filed
2024-07-23
Petition approved
Author of the story
Daria Vasileva (@vasilevadigital), from the chat @talentvisahelp. Original message in the chat.
Useful resources on the topic
All information about O-1 / EB-1A / EB-2 NIW
More success stories and denials: channel @o1eb1