✅ EB-1A: approval
Approval story of an EB-1A petition for a model from the fashion industry after receiving an RFE. The author prepared the case independently, relying on prior O-1 visa experience and examples from other petitions.
Case details
Filing: January 20
Decision: March 21
Service Center: Nebraska
Category: EB-1A
Criteria claimed: 5
Attorney: none
Timeline: 2 months
-
✓Publications
Met
-
✓Exhibitions
Met
-
✓Contribution
Met
-
✓Critical role
Met
-
✓High salary
Met
How it all went
EB1A Approved. Nebraska, Premium Processing.
The case was accepted on January 20 (filed specifically before the 21st, after the news about the 75 countries).
Fashion model, covered 5 criteria (Publications, exhibitions, contribution, critical role, high salary). Since they did their O-1 in 2024 with an attorney (you can find a review via search), they decided to do the EB-1 themselves. They had planned to file in February–March, but after the news about the 75 countries decided to rush and submit before January 21. They immediately expected an RFE or NOID, but still built the case reasonably, keeping the likely RFE in mind. On the 15th business day, February 9, the status changed to RFE. After 5–6 days they received the RFE letter itself, in which two criteria were acknowledged (exhibitions and critical role); for the other three criteria there was only a formal, general statement that they were not met, but without specific details. Also, the final merits were not credited — similarly only a general statement. There was no officer number, by the way. They responded to the RFE, thoroughly solidifying all three missing criteria and the final merits, sent the response in early March; it was accepted on March 5. On March 21 (a Saturday, which is very strange) an approval email arrived, even though the tracker still showed “case is being actively reviewed”. Then on Monday the tracker status updated to approved. For drafting, they relied on petitions by Razvan Marinescu and Andrey Markelov; special thanks for help to @rinatshahmetov
Key insight
“Even when expecting an RFE it’s important to thoroughly prepare the case and respond to all comments to secure approval.”
Dmitry Kastalsky (@kastalsky)
2026-01-20
Petition filed
2026-02-09
RFE received
2026-03-05
RFE response sent
2026-03-21
Petition approved
Author of the story
Dmitry Kastalsky (@kastalsky), from the @talentvisahelp chat. Original message in the chat.
Useful resources
All information about O-1 / EB-1A / EB-2 NIW
More success and denial stories: channel @o1eb1