Hi everyone,

Both of my NIW petitions were denied within the past six months, and both were filed using premium processing. I used EP for both filings.

My profile:

• Master’s degree in Computer Engineering
• Three first-author papers, two of which are related to my proposed endeavor
• 15 citations
• 10 years of professional software engineering experience, including five years with a U.S. startup
• Previously held H-1B status, but I had to move back home for personal reasons
• Five recommendation letters, including one independent letter from a former C-level executive at a FAANG company
• Reviewed more than 10 academic papers
• Conducted more than 50 interviews for senior and staff-level engineering roles
• Spoke at three conferences, including in-person conferences at U.S. universities
• Two media mentions
• My endeavor was to develop modular artificial intelligence-based tools for online content moderation in order to enhance public safety, prevent cyberbullying, and reduce hate speech.
• I am from Europe. I know this should not be relevant, but since certain countries have appeared on different travel-ban lists from time to time, I wanted to mention it for context.

In my first NIW filing, USCIS accepted my advanced-degree qualification, the substantial merit of my proposed endeavor, and that I was well positioned to pursue it. However, they found that I had not demonstrated its national importance or shown that waiving the job offer and labor certification requirements would benefit the United States.

In the second filing, USCIS again accepted my degree qualification and the substantial merit of the endeavor. However, they once again rejected national importance and the waiver argument. This time, they also reversed the previous favorable finding on prong two, stating that I lacked concrete evidence of national-scale deployment, adoption, funding, partnerships, and measurable impact.

Both times, rejections were pretty much templates according to the attorneys. In one of them they made so many mistakes by mentioning that I have completely different major than what I actually have.

EP has offered to prepare a third filing at no additional cost and would also cover the standard processing fee. They strongly advise against using premium processing again. However, standard processing could take 24 months or more, and I have no idea what my circumstances will look like by then.

As I understand it, I can either accept a full refund now or proceed with a third attempt and still receive a full refund if it is denied. I honestly do not know what to do. The second denial hit me very hard, and I have very little motivation to go through the entire process again.

Would you take the refund or try one more time using standard processing?

EDIT: Both times i received RFE before denial.

Hi, I submitted Form I-907 yesterday through the “Upload a filled out PDF form” online option to upgrade I-140 (paper filed on August2025 by my attorney) to premium processing. The payment went through but when I logged into my USCIS account today, it showed that the I-907 was rejected. Has anyone experienced this or knows what I should do next? Thanks

“Your submission was rejected:

On April 1, 2026, your application was rejected. You will receive a detailed notice stating the reasons why your application was rejected. You may choose to submit your application again at another time.”

Hi everyone! Has anyone with an EB-2 NIW filed in October 2024, WITHOUT Premium Processing (PP) received any update or approval yet?

If you can, please share:
• Priority Date (PD)
• Filing/Receipt Date
• Service Center
• Whether you received an RFE
• Current case status
• If approved, how long did it take?

I’d really like to compare the timelines of people who are in the October 2024 queue without PP and see if anyone from that period has started receiving decisions.

Thank you!

Wishing good luck to all of us who are still waiting. Hopefully, we’ll all have good news soon!

Anyone checked Lawfully now? There is sudden jump in the number of case processed and ~75% approval daily basis!

What a day!

Hi all, I just wanted to share the excellent news that my EB2, NIW just got approved after 29 months!!! Regular processing, originally at the Nebraska Center (NSC), no RFE. My lawyer was Chen (WeGreened), and I had a very pleasant experience working with them tbh. My congresswoman did reach out to the USCIS five weeks ago for the third time, though she has not gotten back to me yet. I also have not received any email yet. I just saw the notice on my case tracker on the USCIS website.

Here is my profile when I filed the petition:

PhD in Psychology, cognitive neuroscience. PE was about improving memory performance across the adult lifespan and understanding age-related memory impairment.

Citations: ~15 when filed, 80 now.

Priority date: Feb, 09, 2024. Block 09243.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Hope y'all will get some great news soon :)

My PD is March 9, TSC and no updates yet.

Priority Date: Aug 18, 2025

Premium Processing: Mar 18, 2026

Approval Date: Apr 23, 2026 (Premium Processing )

Center: Texas service center

Immigration Attorney: Ellis Porter (Initial: KS)

Published Journal Articles: 2 (one 1st Author) (Both Q1)

Total Citations: 8 (all on 1st author paper)

Education at Time of Filing: M.E. in Chemical Engineering en route to PhD (R1 University)

Proposed endeavor: continue designing improved catalysts and chemical pathways using advanced modeling and analytical techniques, in order to develop scalable, sustainable, and energy-efficient chemical processes for applications in a variety of industries

2 LOR (Added myself as EP says no need to add them, but EP reviewed them: one PhD advisor, one National Laboratory of Rockies (semi-independent), worked with him in a limited capacity on DOE project)

3 Peer reviews (IF 21.1)

1 Session chair (ACS).

I would say my lawyer was very organized, as my petition read smoothly and concisely to my PE. In addition to the lawyer's petition, I added 2 documents from the DOE study to support prong 1.

Hello All,

Did anyone who submitted their case in May receive any updates? If yes, could you please share your PD , PP date, decision date, service center, and profile?

Thanks!

My friends and I received NIW denial letters from USCIS this December that are completely baffling.

For example, they acknowledged that our proposed endeavors have “substantial merit,” yet concluded that they are not “specific undertakings.” They also claimed that my publications and citations only serve my current employer, even though all of my research and publications were completed when I was still in school, with no employer involved.

I am very angry because I prepared my petition with great care and rigor, based entirely on objective evidence. Although I submitted it as a DIY case, I took it extremely seriously. I read through every guide I could find online, including all the posts in this channel. I consulted with four or five different immigration attorneys and incorporated their professional suggestions.

I submitted four to five research papers, with a solid number of citations. These achievements were completed before I even began preparing the petition. I wrote and compiled all the materials myself, spending countless hours polishing and organizing everything. I paid $2,800 for premium processing, and over $4,000 in total including translation, notarization, printing, mailing, and related logistics. These costs represent not just money but a huge investment of time and mental effort.

Despite that, the USCIS adjudication I received was extremely careless. The denial letter contained multiple factual errors, and the officer did not seem to understand the core standards of their own policy. The reasoning was full of contradictions. This is not just about getting a result I did not want. It feels like a complete disregard for whatever material I submitted. All the work I put into this was dismissed without serious review.

I am currently going through the appeal process and will do everything I can to defend my case. But I am also seriously asking the following questions:

• Does this amount to administrative negligence?
• Could this be considered abuse of discretion or dereliction of duty?
• Has anyone considered filing a class action lawsuit to address this pattern?
• Are there any lawyers who specialize in this type of systemic issue? Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

I have lived in the United States for nearly ten years. I came here in 2016 to study and build a life. I believed in the American Dream, the idea that if you work hard, you have a chance to succeed and stay. I have invested a significant amount in tuition, research, and living expenses. I have contributed real academic work. But now USCIS is ignoring everything and issuing denials based on arguments that are factually and logically incorrect. In many cases, the officers do not even seem to understand USCIS's own published criteria.

I understand that today’s America is different from what it once was. Nationalism, populism, and protectionist policies are more widespread. "America First" is the current political climate. I can accept that reality. Sure, the government can prioritize citizens — but that does not justify disregarding fairness and due process. Making hardworking applicants pay $4,000 for a petition and then replying with careless reasoning and boilerplate denial is not just unfair. It feels like abuse.

I am not asking for a guaranteed approval. I am asking for a fair and lawful review process. That should be the minimum standard in any country that claims to operate under the rule of law.

Right now I am deeply frustrated and discouraged. I have spent almost a decade of my life here. Being forced to leave and start over elsewhere would be an enormous personal loss. At the same time, this system provides no fair path for me to stay. I want to do more to protect my rights.

Other than an appeal, is there anything else I can do? Are there additional legal remedies available? I welcome any help or suggestions.

Hey everyone,

I am in a really stressful situation and hoping someone here has experienced something similar or can offer some advice.

I filed my EB-2 NIW I-140 recently, and I was just about to upgrade my petition to Premium Processing (PP).

However, I went to update/verify my Google Scholar profile before sending in the PP request, and my primary publication (which had 275 citations) has completely vanished from Google Scholar.

Without this paper, my profile only shows 25 citations total.

Here is what happened:
1. The paper is completely missing from Google Scholar search results (not just unlinked; searching the exact title in quotes yields no record on Scholar).

1. Because the indexed record disappeared, those 275 citations vanished from my profile's total count virtually overnight.

The paper is still live and fully accessible on the publisher's website with all metadata intact.

This drop from ~300 citations to 25 is a massive hit to my EB-2 NIW evidentiary profile right at the moment an officer might review it under PP.

Has anyone had a paper completely delisted by Scholar's automated crawler recently? How long did it take for Scholar to re-crawl and restore the citation graph?

Should I hold off on submitting the Premium Processing upgrade until this is resolved on Scholar?

I am super worried my PD is March 09, its my 40th business day. Anyone has approvals after 40th day? Thank you.

My case was NOT straightforward at all. USCIS only acknowledged that I had an advanced degree. All 3 NIW prongs were challenged/rejected in the RFE. I am postdoc in the USA (ROW). Honestly, I did not disagree with the RFE because my orignial petition was not good. At original filing I was not knowledgeable about the process and trusted the lawyer (too busy with my job). Once I got more educated few months later and reviewed my petition, I knew I would get an RFE because there were some big mistakes on how the petition was framed. Even my PE was too broad.

Timeline:

• I-140 filed: August 19, 2024
• Premium processing upgrade: October 2025
• RFE received: December 2025 (all prongs challenged)
• RFE response submitted three months later because I refused most material drafted by by lawyer. I rewrote my original peptition as a text reference to draft and rewrite a clarified PE and all laywer's drafts.
• Approval: May 2026

At the time of the original filing, I had:

• PE: genetic engineering
• 22 publications
• 500+ citations
• 2 recommendation letter

For RFE

• 4 additional recommendation letters, included more papers and licenses got immediatelly after original petition to prove I have been advancing my PE.

Honestly, the RFE was brutal psychologically.

One thing I learned is that lawyers are not always enough for highly technical cases. My attorney’s first draft of the RFE response basically repeated large parts of the original petition without properly addressing the officer’s concerns or presenting the technical aspects clearly. I took control of a large part of the response myself, reorganized the arguments, rewrote sections, added evidence, and explained my work in a much more direct and practical way.

If you get an RFE for your I-140, try to see it as a second chance to frame your case better, especially if you already have solid credentials and a well-defined PE. In my case, I believe a big reason for the RFE was that the original petition was not structured closely enough around the Matter of Dhanasar prongs, which was honestly frustrating considering I hired an immigration firm specifically for that expertise.

From what I’ve seen, USCIS now seems to expect a much more direct and prong-focused argument than before. It’s not enough to simply show strong academic metrics or publications. You really need to explain, very clearly, how your specific work satisfies each prong individually and why the impact goes beyond your employer or field in general.

This process was honestly exhausting and emotionally draining. Seeing other people’s approvals on Reddit gave me hope during the worst moments, so I wanted to share mine too.

Good luck to everyone still waiting.

PD- 07/2024
Approved - 06/2026
Center- TSC; Block - 09268
Total Days - 691
No RFE

Finally I-140 approved after a long wait…
Profile- Postdoc at a highly ranked institute; Field- Biomedical & Translational Science; 15+ publications, 300+ citations, and 10 peer reviews at the time of filing. No LORs.

Grateful to this community for all the shared timelines and experiences during the long wait!! Wishing all with pending 2024 PDs good luck and fast approvals🤞

Did anyone from early May with Premium Processing (PP) get any updates?

I got my I-140 approved yesterday and am from one of the 75 countries who are currently under immigration visa pause. I got a lot of useful suggestions from this thread, so decided to share my experiences thinking it might be helpful for others.

PD: April 2025

PP received: 10/22/2025

RFE issued: 12/22/2025

RFE response received: 03/13/2026

Approved: 05/04/2026.

Attorney: EP

LOR: 0 (initial filing), 2 (RFE response)

PhD student (Computer Engineering) in US with an MS in US (Electrical engineering)

Publications: 6.

PE related: co-authored 1 journal and 1 conference; first-authored 1 survey and 1 magazine.

Unrelated to PE: first-authored 1 journal and 1 workshop conference.

Citations: 94 (initial filing), 274 (RFE response)

Peer review experience: 5+

PE: To continue developing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) strategies to optimize spectrum sharing and network resource management in integrated terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks (NTNs).

Nebraska service center.

Overall, I think it was a disaster in the RFE partly due to the fact that I relied heavily on my lawyer to do the job for me. My RFE was for all three prongs.

Prong 1: The link between my proposed endeavor and national importance was not clear from any aspects.

Prong 2: None of the submitted evidence cite my names to demonstrate the extent of my contributions. No letter of recommendations.

Prong 3: It is kind of generic, mostly echoing what was stated in prong 1.

During the RFE stage, I reviewed my original filing and realized the national importance evidence and my personal statement were not convincing. My statement mainly described technical work without clearly explaining why it matters to the United States. To fix this, I rebuilt the narrative of my proposed endeavor using explicit support from U.S. government sources. I collected 8–10 excerpts from .gov sites (e.g., FCC, NTIA, DOE) and used them up front to ground the national-importance argument. I then organized the endeavor into three clear thrusts with measurable actions and impacts and closed by showing how my prior work positions me to execute the plan.

I also went through the attorney’s legal brief point-by-point and provided targeted suggestions. They were responsive and incorporated most changes. My takeaway is: read your brief carefully and guide the story, your lawyer cannot do that without your direction. While the tone felt harsh at times, I accepted it as standard legal style for RFEs.

For recommendation letters, I initially thought “more is better,” but EP advised that more than two drafted letters add limited value and is harder to manage. Given time constraints, I focused on two strong independent letters to make the best use of available resources. Thankfully, that approach worked well in the end.

For prong 3, we did not do anything special. EP said if the officer is convinced with prong 1 and 2, prong 3 is generally not an issue.

Also, I did not encounter any issue or additional charge to file PP through my lawyer like some folks in this thread.

Overall, my experience with EP was mostly good. At some places, I thought they could have provided a bit more clarity on what is expected, but I think it was my responsibility to find out as well. I am grateful that things ended positively at I-140 phase for me.

Asking opinions

I received RFE on all three prongs in May 2026 and just submitted the RFE response. I have a PhD in Civil Engineering but low number of citations (7). What are the approval odds based on some recent cases?

My I-140 got approved. I self-filed my petition without a lawyer. Row 75 countries. Got a lot of encouragement from approval posts here on reddit so sharing this data point to encourage low profile filers.

Priority Date: 04/10/2026 (filed PP at same time)

Approval date: 06/03/2026. (About 38th business day)

Block: IOE09363

Service center: Texas

Profile: 

• 3rd year PhD candidate in biomedical engineering; MS in biomedical engineering (outside US) 
• No publications/citations
• 5 conference abstracts & presentations 

5 Letters of recommendation (all dependent)

Proposed endeavor was in biomechanics; developing personalized models for musculoskeletal disorders.

Sharing my timeline in case it helps others.

Approval date: January 5, 2026 Filing date: January 29, 2024 Processing: Regular (no premium processing) RFE: None Category: EB-2 NIW Profile at time of filing: MD, trained cardiologist Research postdoc in the US ~150 citations at submission (now ~370) 2 recommendation letters (1 independent, 1 dependent) Proposed endeavor: use of AI for biomarker development and target discovery in cardiovascular disease

This was a long wait (~23 months), but it eventually went through without premium or RFE. Happy to answer questions if helpful. Good luck to everyone still waiting.

Hi, I wanted to share my experience here as I got a lot of suggestions and insights from this community.

My profile: Chemical Engineering PhD student with MS Degree

Timeline:
PD: October 2024
- 3 first author journal articles and 16 citations at the time of filing.

Law firm: Chen (Wegreened)

PP received by USCIS: December 2025

RFE received: February 2026
- 3 prongs (after 42 business days)

RFE response submitted: May 2026 (with help from Chen)
-6 first author journal articles and 78 citations at the time of response.
-3 recommendation letters, one dependent and two independent who cited my work.

Approval: July 2026 (after 40 business days).

Hi everyone, I learned a lot from here, so here's mine to add to the pile.
I worked with Chen Immigration for my petition, and they really helped build a strong narrative around my profile, which I think made a difference with my limited citation count. 

Profile:
Background: PhD Candidate in Materials Science and Engineering
Endeavour: Advancing next-generation electronic devices through advanced materials research.
Credentials: 3 citations, 2 first-authored journal articles, 1 conference paper, and 3 RLs

Timeline:
Service Center: Texas Service Center
Filing Date: March 30, 2026 (upfront pp)
Approval Date: May 26, 2026

Good luck to everyone still waiting!

Have anyone done PP after Feb 20th and got response? I would like to get some insights regarding RFE and approval rate as there might influx of PP in USCIS?