✅ EB-1A: approval
A story of an EB-1A visa approval for a digital artist, including the case preparation process and the consular interview in Belgrade.
Case parameters
Filing: Nov 03, 2023
Decision: Nov 07, 2023
Processing center: NVC
Criteria claimed: 8
Attorney: Shamaev
Timeline: 1 year and 10 months from start of work to visa stamping
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✓Critical role
Worked in game marketing, promo and key art
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✓Leading role
Founder of a computer graphics school
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✓Contribution to gamedev
A course for digital artists
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✓Media
2 major, 4 professional
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✓Scholarly articles
2 articles in professional publications
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✓Awards
Prize places in 2 international competitions
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✓Exhibitions
One at the CDA in Moscow
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✓Letters
23 letters, including 4 expert letters
How it went
Hi! EB1 approval, filed outside the US, consulate interview took place in Belgrade, Serbia.
I’ll lay out the timeline; it should be useful:
Dec, 2022 Start of work on the case, attorney Shamaev.
Nov 03, 2023 Petition sent to NVC, premium.
Nov 07, 2023 Approval.
Apr 8, 2024 Submission of documents to NVC, DS-260 form. I postponed this stage for personal reasons.
May 1, 2024 DQ (documents accepted by NVC)
May 30, 2024 Letter with the embassy interview date. I have Montenegro residence permit; with immigrant visas they direct applicants to Belgrade, Serbia.
Jul 10, 2024 Medical in Belgrade. We booked by phone in English for the second address, at IOM — friendly staff and doctor. I didn’t get through immediately. Information about vaccinations arrived by email the next day. The medical exam itself is completed in one day; the X-ray is done at another location, they issue the referral and send everything immediately.
Jul 30, 2024 Interview. V-e-r-y thorough, more on that below.
Aug 8, 2024 Passports with visas could be picked up at the DHL point. 10 days from the interview.
In total, the process from the start of work to visa stamping took 1 year and 10 months.
Case
I applied as a digital artist in the games industry. For a long time I couldn’t decide who I was for the case (
), and whether to emphasize games; the attorney insisted on artist, and toward the end of the case work I narrowed the field from abstract digital art to gamedev. The criteria:
- Critical role — worked as an artist in the games marketing department and created promo and key art for top games of a large company and for titles the company published (including American ones).
- Leading role — founder of my own computer graphics school. The school is top-3 by course recommendations in the Russian-speaking gamedev segment.
- Contribution to gamedev: my course for digital artists. Almost every Russian-speaking game company has my students.
- Media: 2 major, 4 professional
- Scholarly articles: 2 in professional publications for digital artists.
- Awards: prize places in 2 international competitions.
- Exhibitions: one at the CDA in Moscow. They gathered well-known digital artists there, again mostly from gamedev. No associations, I didn’t submit increased income.
- 23 letters from different people, of which 11 were simple recommendations, 4 expert letters (i.e., independent case evaluations not from colleagues or subordinates), the rest from exhibition and competition organizers, etc. I tried to get letters from art directors and CEOs, some well-known artists, and there are foreign ones too.
I didn’t finish the case in six months, had to pay extra (Shamaev’s term is 6 months), and I still barely managed in 8–9 months, and that’s despite writing the case almost full-time. Later I added 4 of my people to write texts that were constantly being edited and needed rewriting. We translated everything ourselves. With Shamaev, if you feel the paralegal can’t explain things to you properly, you should complain immediately and change (which I, of course, didn’t do — I blamed myself for not understanding and for slowing things down). We had
Interview
In English; they asked my husband questions in Russian. A young woman with a tattoo on her arm conducted the interview. She questioned me in detail about every point of the case, except for the continuation of my career (apparently time ran out, and/or she already understood that part). The questions were aimed at dispelling doubts — that the criterion was truly met, or that you didn’t buy something or pay someone for recommendation letters, or that it actually happened. Very thorough and with gotcha-style questions, even asking me the years of the competitions (!) I’m bad with dates, I tried to memorize them specially before the interview, but I still missed the year for the second competition (apparently not critical). One was in 2013, the second in 2016–2017 — I don’t really keep such details in my head 
They also asked for the names of other artists at the exhibition, and for some reason I only had three names in mind. I joked a bit and said the third artist at that show likes to draw gigantic naked women and robots. Convincing, I’d say)) Overall it wasn’t aggressive and had a positive tone, but it’s really a tough interview and you must prepare. They also unexpectedly questioned my husband at length about the technical university he dropped out of many years ago and how he ended up becoming an artist.
Passport issuance dragged on for 10 days because they re-stamped the visas — they sent our passports and then immediately recalled them, inserted a second visa and annulled the first one. I don’t know the reason; now the dates are different in terms of “validity” — six months from stamping, not from the medical. We were pretty nervous, statuses changed in the app, and there was no information about what was happening. The same happened with the passports and visas of acquaintances who got approval at the same place that day.
Summary. Nothing was easy at any stage; I burned out hard and went through depression, the interview was its own tough challenge. There’s still the border-crossing stage left and that’s it — the quest will be completed. Wishing everyone strength and good luck! Thanks to the chat; I mostly read how others were progressing and joined calls to listen. Upd. I forgot to write that I also had 4 jury participations included in the case.
Main insight
“Preparing the case took longer than expected and required significant effort. The interview was tough and required thorough preparation.”
Lina Sidorova (@linasidorova)
Dec, 2022
Start of work on the case
Nov 03, 2023
Petition sent to NVC
Nov 07, 2023
Approval
Apr 8, 2024
Submission of documents to NVC
May 1, 2024
DQ (documents accepted by NVC)
May 30, 2024
Letter with interview date
Jul 10, 2024
Medical in Belgrade
Jul 30, 2024
Interview
Aug 8, 2024
Passports with visas ready for pickup
Story author
Lina Sidorova (@linasidorova), from the chat @talentvisahelp. Original message in the chat.
Useful on the topic
All information about O-1 / EB-1A / EB-2 NIW
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