I’m preparing an EB-1A self-petition as a self-employed person and want to understand how to strengthen the case. Has anyone had positive results while self-employed? What helped — what types of evidence worked, and what did USCIS pay attention to?
The first one was a denial after the RFE — it felt like they hadn’t even looked at the RFE; the letter came back with the same text as before the RFE. I fixed the shortcomings, and now we’re preparing to file again. The hardest part turned out to be proving that you will bring value to the US — for self-employed people that’s a separate headache, because there’s no employer who will write that they need you. We were advised to emphasize independent recognition in the field — citations from people outside your lab, letters from experts who don’t know you personally. And separately explain in the future activity plan exactly what you will do in the US and why it’s important for the country.
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Thanks for sharing, especially about the identical second rejection — that’s really strange. How many independent letters did you end up collecting for the resubmission, and who were they from exactly — just scientists from your field, or were there people from industry as well?
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