✅ EB-1A: Approval
A story of obtaining an EB-1A visa in logistics, including receiving an RFE, a successful interview, and visa approval.
Case details
Filing: 20/02/2025
Decision: 09/09/2025
Service center: not specified
Category: EB-1A
Criteria claimed: not specified
Attorney: not specified
Timing: about 7 months to approval
How it all happened
Hi everyone
I’ll share my story — maybe it will be useful to someone. I applied for EB-1A, logistics, via premium processing. The case was delivered to USCIS on 20/02/25. In mid-March I learned, through calls to USCIS, that I had an RFE. They said to wait 2 weeks and a letter would arrive at the address. In the end, after 3 weeks, nothing arrived. I called again; they said it was a security and background check and I needed to wait until the check finished. The check ended at the end of June 2025 and around 13–15/07/2025 the RFE notice arrived. Around 20/08/2025 I filed the response to the RFE and on 09/09/2025 I received the approval notice. On 24/01/2026 I received a letter from the NVC with the assigned interview date. 26/03/2026 — interview at the consulate in Sofia, Bulgaria.
D-day, how it went:
• submitted documents. The clerk receiving documents started insisting that I needed to meet at least 4 criteria, asking if I understood that, and whether I brought the original documents that I used to file the petition. She also asked what I do, which criteria I applied under, and so on. I didn’t bring original documents, only the RFE response.
• waiting for the interview with the consul (we sat for about an hour)
• the interview. For me, everything went great, no drama. We talked for about 10–12 minutes. The consul was quite positive; the conversation felt like talking with a friend I hadn’t seen in a long time.
Questions she asked:
• have I had any convictions or arrests? same question to my wife
• where have we lived, in which countries and for how long?
• who am I? what do I do and how long have I been in this field?
• have I had any academic publications? Then she named an article and paused, as if trying to read the journal title. I named it without her asking. She confirmed that it was that journal.
• she asked whether I had only one publication in an academic journal or more?
• have there been publications about me? In which outlets and are they professional?
• do I have a job offer or do I plan to develop my own business?
• what does my wife plan to do in the USA?
• she asked my wife whether she had lived in any countries for more than six months or not?
• what year did we get married?
• am I a member of any association? which one, what is it called and what does it do?
• what do I do in the association and how did I join it?
That was it for questions. Then she said seems everything is good, returned the original civil documents and gave back our passports. She said passports would be returned within about 10 days and that there might be a delay because they needed to run a name check, which can take some time.
15/04/2026 — visas were stamped into the passports and sent to the pickup point.
Also, the consul commented on the originals at the interview. She said she can see my entire case online, so originals are not necessary. Throughout the interview she was typing and warned that she checks publications, academic articles, associations, companies online — she Google-searches them.
Good luck to everyone preparing their cases or already waiting for an interview.
Main insight
“It’s important to be ready for the interview and be able to verify all claimed achievements, even if originals aren’t required.”
Evgeniy Marinov (@EM_1330)
20/02/2025
Case delivered to USCIS
13/07/2025
RFE notice received
20/08/2025
Response to RFE filed
09/09/2025
Approval notice received
24/01/2026
Letter from NVC with interview date received
26/03/2026
Interview at the consulate in Sofia, Bulgaria
15/04/2026
Visas stamped in passport and sent to pickup
Author of the story
Evgeniy Marinov (@EM_1330), from the chat @talentvisahelp. Original message in the chat.
Useful resources
All information about O-1 / EB-1A / EB-2 NIW
More success and denial stories: channel @o1eb1