📄 Other: RFE
The author received an RFE on her self-filed petition and shares her experience and the reasons why the criteria were not credited.
Case parameters
Filing: 25 March 2024
Service center: Texas
Criteria claimed: 5
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✓Media
Not credited, since the newspapers are not major media
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✓Judging
Credited; served as a judge at competitions
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✓Scholarly articles
Not credited; the link failed to open
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✓Contributions
Not credited; courses and students' victories were not recognized
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✓Salary
Not credited; no official statistics
How it all went
rfe specialization - powerlifting coach. I wrote the petition myself. Filing 25 March 2024. RFE 3 November 2025 (after 600 days or one and a half years) from Texas. Officer HM1747. I claimed five criteria: media, judging, scholarly articles, contributions, salary. One criterion was credited. The entire text is basically copy/pasted from their criteria guide. It feels like the petition was skimmed superficially and an RFE was quickly slapped together. Media was not credited. The newspapers are not major media and the piece is allegedly not about me, even though it is about me 
. Judging was credited. I’ll post that criterion from the petition below. I judged athletes, not my peers, as the guide wants. So coaches, you can judge competitions. For contributions I submitted my courses, the guidebook, and my students’ wins at international tournaments. He listed all of this and credited none of it; he only went into detail for recommendation letters for some reason, saying those don’t fit either. Nothing proved contribution, go away. In one place he wrote that I didn’t demonstrate contribution to the field of music 
— clearly copy/paste and he didn’t check what he wrote. Scholarly articles in journals were not credited because he tried to open the link to APNI, it didn’t work, and he failed that entire criterion. He even wrote that since your link doesn’t work, the whole petition is now in question, maybe it’s all fraud 
. Salary was not credited because there are no official statistics for powerlifting coaches in existence, and he didn’t want to compare to a fitness trainer because THAT’S DIFFERENT 
. He didn’t even look at work plans, three criteria not credited, so long. I don’t think my petition was super strong, but it wasn’t the weakest either. Probably. The impression is blurred: it seems everything was written properly, but handled sloppily and very superficially. Like, I couldn’t open one link, so the criterion is not credited. Rec letters are not great, contribution not credited. Articles aren’t about you because I didn’t read them, not credited. If I were answering the RFE, I could probably fight it — lay everything out in more detail — but I’ll be filing a case-closing letter since I already have a green card through the DV lottery.
Main insight
“It’s important to carefully verify all links and documents, because even a small error can lead to denial. Also keep in mind that officers may review petitions superficially.”
Yuliya Melnikova (@Juliya_Melnikova)
25 March 2024
Petition filed
3 November 2025
RFE received
Author of the story
Yuliya Melnikova (@Juliya_Melnikova), from the @talentvisahelp chat. Original message in the chat.
Useful resources on the topic
All information about O-1 / EB-1A / EB-2 NIW
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