Petition Preparation Services for Extraordinary Ability and Self-Petition Visas

O-1 visa preparation

O-1 is the work visa for founders, senior researchers, and specialists who need to start working in the U.S. fast without waiting for the green card queue. The petition has to document extraordinary ability against eight USCIS criteria (O-1A, sciences, business, education, athletics) or six criteria (O-1B, arts). You need a U.S. employer or agent as petitioner.

Where we add value: ranking which of the eight criteria your evidence actually supports, drafting the consultation letter for the relevant peer organization, structuring the exhibit list so reviewers can find each criterion quickly, and templating the agent agreement when there is no employer ready to sponsor. Evidence types we routinely organize: awards with selectivity context, judging-panel records, original-contribution documentation, high-salary peer comparisons, published material about you in major media, professional memberships requiring outstanding achievement, critical-role documentation at organizations with distinguished reputation.

EB-1A criteria checklist

EB-1A is the self-petition green card for people with extraordinary ability and sustained national or international acclaim. The legal test is the Kazarian two-step: first USCIS counts whether you meet at least 3 of 10 regulatory criteria, then it runs a final merits review on the totality of the evidence. Clearing three criteria is necessary, not sufficient. Many petitions clear step one and fail step two because the evidence checks boxes without depth.

The platform maps your existing record against each of the ten criteria, scores evidence strength, and produces a gap analysis showing where the case is strong and where it needs additional documentation before filing. We do not predict outcomes. The attorney decides whether the totality is strong enough to file.

EB-2 NIW self-petition support

EB-2 NIW is the green card category for advanced-degree professionals whose work serves the U.S. national interest. You file on your own behalf. No employer required, no PERM labor certification. The legal test is the three-prong Dhanasar standard, tightened by USCIS Policy Alert PA-2025-03 effective January 15, 2025.

After PA-2025-03, the national-importance prong is where most cases fall over. The endeavor cannot be a generic field description. It has to point to a specific impact named clearly, with evidence that the impact extends beyond a single employer or region. We help structure that framing during prep so the attorney is not redrafting the endeavor statement during RFE response.

Document collection workflow

Most case delays are evidence-side, not attorney-side. A recommender takes three weeks to send a letter. A citation tracker pulls down half the citations you remembered. A diploma needs to be translated and the original is in another country. The platform turns these into a checklist with status, reminders, and one-click attorney handoff when each item is complete.

What we collect and organize

• Reference letter drafts with prompts tailored to each recommender's relationship to you
• Publication exhibits with citation pulls from Google Scholar and Crossref
• Award certificates plus selection-pool context language
• Salary and compensation evidence benchmarked against your field
• Critical-role and leadership documentation with org-chart context
• Diploma evaluations and certified translations when needed

Attorney matchmaking

We match you with an independent immigration attorney whose recent case profile looks like yours. The match is not "whoever is least busy." It is "who has filed three similar cases in the past 18 months." You take the consult, the attorney makes the call on whether to file, and if both sides agree to proceed, you sign a retainer with the attorney directly.

The attorney is not employed by VisaNow.AI. We do not take a cut of attorney fees. We do not refer cases for kickback. The attorney can refuse your case and frequently does when the evidence will not survive the current USCIS standard.

How we work alongside the attorney

The line is simple: legal judgment is the attorney's, document infrastructure is ours. The attorney decides visa category, strategy, evidence priorities, RFE response, and timing. We move the documents, organize the exhibit list, draft templates, track deadlines, and keep the file ready when the attorney needs it.

Practical effect: the attorney spends billable hours on legal work, not on chasing missing PDFs. Most of our clients report attorney bills 30 to 50 percent below what they were quoted when they tried to hire a firm to do "everything," because the prep hours are unbundled and we charge a flat rate for them.

DIY vs full-service firm vs VisaNow + attorney

DIY (no platform, no attorney) is rarely a good idea for I-129 or I-140. Self-filed petitions get more RFEs and denials on average because the petitioner does not see the patterns USCIS flags. Saves money up front, costs more on the back end.

Full-service firm (attorney does everything) works well for high-complexity cases or when budget is not the constraint. Expect $8,000 to $20,000 for a single I-140 with all prep included, because the attorney bills hours for document organization that does not require a law degree.

Platform plus independent attorney is the unbundled version: you pay a flat platform fee for prep, and an attorney fee for legal work. For self-petitioners with moderate evidence complexity, this usually lands between $5,500 and $12,000 total, all-in including USCIS fees and premium processing.