Hi all, my name is Igor - I’ve just received my EB-1B Outstanding Professor / Researcher green card, wrapping up the process that took almost exactly 3 years. Below are a few takeaways from the entire process.
I-140 evidence preparation and outcome
Let me first give an overview of the core thing in such a petition - the evidence. In my case, there’s a twist - I originally applied for an O-1 visa back in 2020 from outside the US and got rejected. Then, in 2023, I applied for the EB-1B in 2023 already from inside the US - all with the same employer, and all with essentially the same evidence.
So here’s a side-by-side breakdown of the two petitions:
-
Citations on Google Scholar
[
O-1 2020] 100+ citations
[ EB-1 2024] 200+ citations
100 citations is the hard requirement for most immigration lawyers to take the case - it was like that in 2020, and it is now. USCIS accepted these numbers in both cases. Early-career researchers are generally welcome. -
Reference Letters
[
O-1 2020] Letters from my PhD supervisor and past work/internship mentors.
[ EB-1 2024] Letters from my PhD supervisor and academic faculty who cited my work but hadn’t collaborated with me.
That was the main difference between my 2020 and 2024 petitions so I’ll get a bit more specific here.
If you’re approaching reference letters from the industrial point of view (as I did in 2020) - make sure they’re written by top executives of international companies (that was literally the wording of the 2020’s RFE). It is important to show that your recognition is international and not only by the people who worked with you directly.
It all becomes much clearer if you approach it academically (as I did in 2024) - your referees should be academic faculty who cited your work but have never collaborated with you. -
Judging Peers’ Work
[ O-1 2020] Evidence of reviewing/program committee work for *CL conferences (ACL, EMNLP, NAACL - my field is Natural Language Processing / Conversational AI).
[ EB-1 2024] Exactly the same!
That might be a fluke but conference reviewing evidence was hard-rejected in 2020 (as the RFE wording goes, they expected me to be on some panels at conferences or something). In 2024, there was no such problem -
Other [random] differences:
[
O-1 2020] Last days of Trump administration
[ EB-1 2024] Last days of Biden administration.
[ O-1 2020] Premium processing from start; took under a month.
[ EB-1 2024] Regular processing for over a year; upgraded to premium later.
[ O-1 2020] Filed outside the US, not working for sponsor.
[ EB-1 2024] Filed within the US, working for sponsor.
[ O-1 2020] Processed at California Service Center (WAC).
[ EB-1 2024] Processed at Nebraska Service Center (LIN).
So as you can see, a lot of the outcome relies purely on chance, so if you’re getting something you didn’t expect - apply again or take it to court.
Adjustment of Status
Since I wrote on LinkedIn about my I-140 approved around Christmas '2024, quite a few people asked me whether life got easier with the green card.
It didn’t - because no green card came to make it easier. Only the stage of proving things to USCIS was cleared.
Then came Adjustment of Status (AOS) - which means waiting, a lot of it.
After filing AOS in March 2025 and doing biometrics in April, USCIS went full radio silence for a year - even cancelling the interview.
Not exactly a chill wait either - over the course of AOS, my status in the US changed from L-1B at the filing time (Mar 2025) → out of status (Sep 2025) → L-1B extended (Nov 2025) → H-1B (Dec 2025). Luckily, the grace period on the L-1B extension processing (~230 days) allowed me to work without interruptions.
Intermediate approvals
AOS is usually bearable because you file several petitions at once, and some get approved quickly:
- I-485 - adjustment of status itself
- I-485 Supplement J granting employer portability
- I-131 - advance parole, allowing you to leave and re-enter the US without the green card itself or any visa stamp
- I-765 - Employment Authorization Document, EAD.
In my case, none of them were approved separately - I‑131 and I‑765 never came, and I-485 + I-485J were approved on the same day.
So if you’re waiting for your green card - hope this helps set some expectations, but overall, this timeline is more typical than it looks. Best of luck in your immigration journey, and feel free to reach out to me if I can be of any help!
This post is a compilation of the LinkedIn posts covering my progress:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ishalyminov_us-greencard-greencard-activity-7453503038679461888-s5ol
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ishalyminov_us-greencard-greencard-ugcPost-7453370211644145664-1l1l
