Frequently Asked Questions: U.S. Visa and Green Card Preparation

A document-preparation tool for self-petitioners and small employers filing O-1, EB-1A, or EB-2 NIW. We score your evidence against the USCIS criteria, build the exhibit list, draft the reference letter templates, and hand the package to an independent immigration attorney who reviews, finalizes, and files. We do not file with USCIS, we do not give legal advice, and we are not a law firm.

No to both. We are a private software company. USCIS is a government agency we do not communicate with on your behalf. The Department of Homeland Security has nothing to do with us. Anyone who tells you otherwise is reading the marketing wrong.

Flat platform fee per visa category, paid by you. The first eligibility check is free because if you do not pass it there is no case to file and we both save time. Paid tiers start when you open a workspace. Attorney fees are billed separately by the attorney, and we do not take a cut of those.

O-1 is a work visa. It is temporary, tied to a U.S. employer or agent, and works well for founders and senior researchers who need to start working in the U.S. fast. EB-1A and EB-2 NIW are green cards. Both let you file on your own behalf without an employer sponsor. EB-1A demands "extraordinary ability" with sustained national or international acclaim, judged against ten regulatory criteria. EB-2 NIW asks whether your specific proposed work serves the U.S. national interest, judged against the three Dhanasar prongs. Many people who qualify for O-1 also qualify for EB-1A. Fewer qualify for both EB-1A and NIW because the bar and the test are different.

For EB-1A and EB-2 NIW, yes. For most other employment-based green card categories, no. The self-petition right is one of the main reasons these two categories are popular with founders, researchers, and senior technical people who do not want to be tied to an employer's sponsorship timeline.

Policy Alert PA-2025-03 sharpened the test. The endeavor has to have implications beyond a single employer, a single client, or a single region. Working in a nationally in-demand occupation by itself does not count. The endeavor has to point to a concrete national impact, named specifically, with evidence. "I advance computational biology research" fails. "I close a specific protein-folding bottleneck affecting domestic vaccine manufacturing" can pass, with the right evidence. This is the single most common reason post-2025 NIW petitions catch an RFE.

No. You file Form I-140 as a self-petitioner. You still need a U.S. employer to actually employ you when you arrive, but that employer does not file the petition and does not need to attest to anything about you on the I-140.

For O-1 (Form I-129) filed by a large employer (26 plus FTE): about $1,055 base plus $600 Asylum Program Fee. Small employer (25 or fewer FTE): about $530 base plus $300 APF. Nonprofits pay the small-employer base and are exempt from the APF. For EB-1A or EB-2 NIW self-petition (Form I-140): $715 base plus $300 APF. Premium processing (Form I-907) is $2,965 effective March 1, 2026. Always verify at uscis.gov/feecalculator before you wire money. USCIS adjusts the schedule.

The APF is a surcharge introduced in the April 2024 fee rule. It funds adjudication of asylum applications by spreading cost across employment-based petitions. It applies to I-129 filed by employers and to I-140 filed by self-petitioners. Large employers pay $600. Small employers and self-petitioners pay $300. Nonprofits are exempt. Most cost guides written before April 2024 miss it entirely, which is how people end up surprised at filing.

It guarantees that USCIS will do something in 15 business days. That something can be an approval, a Request for Evidence, a Notice of Intent to Deny, or an investigation referral. RFE response restarts the 15-day clock. Premium processing buys speed of adjudication, not outcome.

Not separate ones for these categories. Since April 1, 2024, USCIS folded biometric service costs into the base filing fee for most benefit types. No additional biometric line item for O-1, EB-1A, or EB-2 NIW.

Neither, technically. We match you with an attorney from the partner network based on your visa type and case profile. You take the consult. If both sides agree to proceed, you sign a retainer with the attorney directly. The attorney works for you, not for us. We never enter the attorney-client relationship.

No. Filing is the attorney's job, or for employer-sponsored cases the employer's designated representative. We prepare the underlying documents, build the exhibit list, and organize evidence. The attorney reviews, finalizes, files, and handles every USCIS communication after that, including any RFE.

Yes, and good attorneys do this regularly. If the evidence is not there or the framing will not survive current USCIS standards, a competent attorney will tell you to come back when something has changed. Better to hear that in a 30-minute consult than after $1,015 in government fees and three months of work.

For a well-documented O-1 or EB-2 NIW where evidence already exists and just needs organizing, four to eight weeks is realistic. Cases with evidence gaps take longer, sometimes much longer. Attorney review adds time depending on the attorney's caseload and how clean the package arrives. We do not guarantee preparation timelines because most delays are evidence-side, not platform-side.

Depends on category and on which criteria you are claiming. Common inputs: published articles plus citation counts, award certificates with selection-context language, reference letters from people USCIS will recognize as experts, evidence of leadership or critical role, salary or compensation data with peer benchmarks, professional memberships, and a written description of your proposed work. The platform generates a checklist specific to your visa and your claimed criteria so you are not guessing.

The attorney handles the response. We keep the document trail organized so the attorney does not spend billable hours hunting for the original exhibits. RFE response and appeal representation are legal services, billed separately by the attorney. USCIS makes the final call on outcome. We do not promise approval.

Yes. Annual approval rate dropped from roughly 95.7 percent in FY2022 to about 55.2 percent in FY2025. Q4 FY2025 was 35.7 percent, the first quarter on record where NIW denials outnumbered approvals (5,356 denials vs 2,968 approvals). The driver is PA-2025-03 and tighter Dhanasar application. Read the dedicated approval-rate page for the full breakdown.

For well-documented cases with a sharp endeavor framing, yes. USCIS still approved nearly 3,000 NIW petitions in Q4 FY2025 alone. For thin cases that would have been borderline in FY2022, the answer is now probably no, file something else or wait. The attorney decides which side of that line you fall on.

O-1 is temporary, employer or agent files, criteria set has eight items, allows extensions. EB-1A is permanent residence, self-petition, criteria set has ten items, no extensions because it is a green card. Many O-1 holders later self-petition for EB-1A using the evidence base they already built for O-1. The categories are related but the legal tests are not identical and one approval does not predict the other.

Kazarian v. USCIS (9th Circuit, 2010) is the test USCIS applies to EB-1A petitions. Step one counts whether you meet at least 3 of 10 criteria. Step two is a final merits review: even if you clear three criteria, USCIS then asks whether the totality of your evidence shows you are among the small percentage at the very top of your field with sustained acclaim. Many petitions clear step one and fail step two because the evidence checks boxes without depth. Strong EB-1A petitions usually exceed the minimum count and carry independent corroboration at each criterion.