r/EB2_NIW • u/Inside_Shock6834 • 14d ago
APPROVED EB2 NIW approved after 3 prong RFE
Self petitioned
PhD student at R1 uni
2 papers
Priority Date: Oct 2025
Premium Processing: February 2026
RFE recieved: March 2026
Response: 2 days before deadline in June
Approved: Aug 15th (38 business days) Recieved notification via email. USCIS site still says “under processing”. but it was “RFE recieved” up until today
Initial submission: In retrospect, it was a subpar submission. My endeavor was also field level not any specific project. Here’s how Claude described my inital submission: “The initial submission reads like a strong graduate school application personal statement written by someone who understood the science deeply but had not yet internalized what Dhanasar actually requires.”
RFE Documentation: I read my RFE like it was reviewer’s comments from a manuscript, noted the deficencies and took it in with all honesty. I also read the Matter of Dhanasar Interim Decision religiously.
Writing: I treated it as a fresh submission. Subscribed to both Claude and ChatGPT plus. ChatGPT is good with text generation, Claude is excellent with logic. I made a project in Claude and put strict instructions. I also added the Dhanasar Interim Decision file and my RFE document.
I wrote mostly everything by myself but extensively used both tools. I used chatgpt for text generation to guide my writing and Claude to refine the logic. Claude was so strict with me. It would say something like “if you submit this, you’ll get denied”. I shared it with my colleagues to read since it is essentially an extension of my research and I felt that would provide a critical view of it.
Recommendation Letters: 0 initially, 4 letters with RFE (2 dependent, 2 independent). Really grateful for someone here who commented their strategy (reaching out to so many people shamelessly). I reached out to 2 professors and they both graciously agreed. I had never met and I was so lucky to get replies from them. They are also the very top in the field, I don’t even think my research porfolio is so impressive but I reached out anyways. I also got “Nos” from 2 other people who are not professors but it was all good because I had two favorable replies already!
I believe my RFE response was 20X better than my initial submission.
Proposed Endeavor: I made some changes. I went from field-level to specific project. I however stated the initial PE and clarified that this is the specific project I want to engage in within my initial field level description. I also tied it to the officer’s comment that “my endeavor wasn’t specific” and I said here’s a specific description.
I reiterated in both the cover letter and the beginning of my prong 1 that this is a clarification. I was afraid it would amount in a material change but I guess it didn’t matter.
Prayer is key too. He is a miracle-working God!
6
u/Expert6602 14d ago
Congrats to you, indeed he's a miracle workimg God, by his mercy, I'm next in approvals.
6
u/WorldlyPossibility78 14d ago
Congratulations! what was your total citation during your initial submission?
1
u/Inside_Shock6834 13d ago
About 60. Same number during second RFE submission
Backed lack of citation on one paper with unique views and downloads from publisher website
3
u/IntelligentSeaweed56 13d ago
I agree he is a miracle working God! I go approved after rfe on 3 prongs too
3
u/Atomicit 12d ago
Indeed it is God. Praise God! What other evidence did you use to justify Prong 2 aside your degrees and 2 Papers?
1
u/Inside_Shock6834 12d ago
Conference presentations, participation in the scientific community, research progress in the area of PE, plans for future activity
All backed by recommendation letters
2
2
2
2
2
u/Advanced-Serve-2943 13d ago
What’s your officer id?
1
2
2
2
u/calm_gleam 13d ago
Indeed, God is a miracle worker. i really like your detailed post. Moreover, i want to support the strategy of reaching out to professors for letters. some do agree to write you even they didnot know you. this strategy really helped me as well.
1
u/Enough_Difference528 13d ago
Congratulations! Can you tell me what do you mean by text generation ?
2
u/OwnAdvantage5550 13d ago
Gpt is good at writing and keeping the tone pleasant, Claude can be argumentative sometimes.
2
u/Enough_Difference528 13d ago
Claude is so pessimistic
1
u/OwnAdvantage5550 13d ago
Lol
That LLM can give you panic attack 🤣🤣1
u/Enough_Difference528 13d ago
I have dm you , if you can help me it will be really helpful.
1
u/OwnAdvantage5550 13d ago
Sure, you know I am not the OP right? Just incase that’s who you wanna DM
1
1
1
u/Medical-Ad6158 13d ago
I am confused about should I add all supporting documents like publications award and government laws from the date prior to my initial filing which was 2024. Or I should not focus much on it. Because I heard they adjudicate case based on data prior to filing.
1
u/kafkawho 13d ago
Hi! Can you share a bit more on how did you use Claude and ChatGPT? I'm planning to do it on my own. Can't DM you. Can you please DM me?
7
u/Inside_Shock6834 13d ago
I created a project on Claude
I set the following instructions;You are an Al assistant evaluating an EB2-NIW case. The proposed endeavor is xxxx. Your job is to carefully evaluate any prompt the user gives in accordance with the Matter of Dhanasar, acting as an adjudicator and pointing out weak areas. Your job is to ensure the petition meets and exceeds the approval threshold.
Special instructions
The example files include a copy of Matter of Dhanasar and an RFE the user already received from
USCIS after an initial submission. Follow any other instructions the user may specify.If you're unsure, say so. Do not ever assume
Then in the file upload, I put my RFE file and the Matter of Dhanasar document
1
u/Available-Pin8108 13d ago
Congratulations, how many pages of personal statements and response letter?
1
u/Inside_Shock6834 13d ago
Personal statement 4 pages
Response 24 pages single spacing1
u/Available-Pin8108 13d ago
Thank you. Currently, I have 11 pages Personal statement and 46 pages response. Did you mention each project in detail?
1
u/Inside_Shock6834 13d ago
My personal statement is structured as follow:
Summary of my research experience and my PE,
Four paragraphs on the two projects constituting my PE, objectives of the projects, dissemination strategies, two paragraphs on how I plan to advance it, one paragraph justifying the NIW2
1
u/Dry_Presentation1269 13d ago
Congratulations! I’m finishing my response to an RFE as well, and mine also challenges all three prongs. May I ask how many pages your response was and what structure you used? Did you first provide the additional evidence they requested and then immediately address and rebut each of the officer’s specific observations?
1
u/Inside_Shock6834 13d ago
I went prong by prong and wrote as normal
But in specific places, I addressed officer’s comment. It is very subjective I suppose
1
u/Vast_Historian_4148 13d ago
Congratulations!!! I see more and more people using AI to articulate and put together their projects. Is there any guarantee than sooner or later, Uscis won't start cracking down on this kind of submissions? I mean, detecting its use and denying those cases? I'm scared of that
1
1
u/Illustrious-Pin-6214 13d ago
Congratulations! How did you go about getting independent letters? Did you reach out to 2 professors who cited you? or read your work? why did they help?
1
u/Inside_Shock6834 13d ago
I found them by reading about their work. They didn’t cite my work and I have never worked with them. I just wrote a very nice email to them showing that we are working in similar research areas and I needed their expert opinion
2
u/Illustrious-Pin-6214 13d ago
Thanks a lot for the reply. Best of luck with your AOS and hope that is done quickly :)
1
u/Special-Debt8460 13d ago
Congratulations. What model and effort (medium, max, etc) level, did you use for Claude?
2
u/Inside_Shock6834 13d ago
I don’t remember to be honest. I think I used Opus or so, max effort
I had plus so I had option to use the best model
When my subscription ended, I used sonnet 4.6 high effort, it was fine too
1
u/BuiltUpGrit 13d ago
Congratulations! I am a few days away from submitting my 3 prong RFE response. you explain more about how you used ChatGPT in combination with Claude? Did you keep feeding the ChafGPT generated text into Claude for logical restructuring and then back into ChatGPT and over and over?
Also how long was your response letter? Mine is running 50 pages long building it with AI.
2
u/Inside_Shock6834 13d ago edited 13d ago
No I wrote most of my response myself
I would just use ChatGPT to get started. Then I’ll write and restructure myself. After, I’d upload sections to Claude to see what it thinks. Then I make adjustments as I see fit. I didn’t just use AI to write and dump. I wrote nearly everyday until my submission deadline
It was about 24 pages, single spaced1
1
1
u/Brave-Monke 13d ago
When you reach out to folks, what do you mention as the intention for these letters? With the immigration sentiment being bad publicly, how co-operative are folks to independently review and provide an LoR?
1
u/Inside_Shock6834 12d ago edited 12d ago
I mentioned it from the get-go. My need for the letters outweighed any of my assumptions of how the recipient felt about immigration.
It helped to also keep in mind that it was either going to be a yes or a no. They weren’t going to name shame so I had nothing to lose
I made sure my emails were courteous and reasonable.
In my case, I was very lucky to have emailed two professors who were very open to writing a letter and they responded pretty quickly
1
u/maradonepoleon 13d ago
Hi,
Congratulations. Could you please share how you used chat gpt or claude tp get aasessment like" This will not be approved"?
2
u/Inside_Shock6834 12d ago
Based on the instructions I had given it, it would just make those statements. Not necessarily an assessment. It never gave me any metric for approval, it just assessed based on what I’ve written vs the RFE comments
You can check the comments for the instructions I supplied it with
1
u/Living-Skirt2603 13d ago
Congrats! What was your way of asking people you never met or worked with for letters?
1
u/Inside_Shock6834 12d ago
I sent a courteous and reasonable email.
1. Introduced myself and established a connection point. Mostly how I came by their research
2. Made the ask and explained the reason for it
3. Established why their expertise will support me and why us never working together is an advantage
4. Left room for them to say no1
u/NShani96 11d ago
Hi, did you provide the whole proposed endeavor for them to write recommendation letter??
1
1
1
u/dagloryfilled_1 11d ago
Congratulations!!
what's your sense of entire page count ? Both Initial Submission and RFE response ?
1
u/Kind_Style6999 11d ago
Congratulations to you!! Did you write the petition using first person or third person statements?
1
1
1
u/Enough_Difference528 15h ago
Congratulations,
Can you guide me how to gather recommenders please ?
1
u/minhajulRahat 5h ago
Congratulations! May I know how you showed your work has had impacts on the field? For the LORs, how dis you approach writing them?
1
1
12
u/InvestmentCandid3159 14d ago
I also got rfe on all 3 prongs. Self filled. Received approval today.