A self-petitioned US green card for people at the top of their field. No employer, no labour certification. You remain the petitioner; we help you organise, document and draft the materials that show your record for what it is.
In plain English. General information, not advice about your case.
EB-1A is an employment-based green card for people with extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics. The word "extraordinary" is doing real work: USCIS expects you to be among the small percentage at the very top of your field, with acclaim that is sustained — not a single good year.
What makes it unusual is that you file it yourself. No employer sponsors you, no job offer is required, and there is no labour-market test. Your evidence carries the case, which is why the writing matters as much as the record.
USCIS officers decide in two steps. First, do you meet at least three of ten listed criteria? Second — the final-merits determination — taken together, does the evidence show sustained national or international acclaim? Most strong applicants clear step one. Cases are won or lost on step two.
Omary Mzava and Adela Luswetula each prepared and submitted their own EB-1A self-petitions, and both were approved. A third approval followed for someone we worked alongside. That experience shapes how we read a record and how we help you organise yours — it is not a prediction about your outcome.
Seven steps, from an honest read of your record to a package ready to file.
A structured review of your background, credentials and existing evidence against all ten EB-1A criteria. We go item by item: which criteria you can likely satisfy today, which are within reach with more evidence, and which are not realistic for your case. The goal is an honest, defensible read on where you stand — not a checklist exercise — before you spend time or money building a case around the wrong criteria.
USCIS requires evidence meeting at least three of the ten criteria, or a one-time achievement. We help you choose which combination to pursue — not the ones that sound most impressive, but the ones you can actually prove with the evidence available to you, or can realistically obtain. This includes sequencing: some evidence, like recommendation letters, is easier to gather once other pieces, like a finalised narrative, are in place.
Once the criteria are set, we work with you to compile, sort and structure your supporting documentation — publications, citation records, press coverage, judging invitations, salary data, membership certificates and so on — so each document is clearly tied to the criterion it is meant to support. Raw evidence that is not organised around the legal standard tends to confuse adjudicators rather than persuade them.
Strong letters do not happen by accident. We help you identify who should write on your behalf — recognised experts, not just supervisors or friends — and we guide the content of each letter so it speaks to your specific contributions and their significance, in language that holds up to adjudicator scrutiny rather than generic praise. We do not write letters as the recommender's personal opinion; we help structure what needs to be said and why.
The legal brief is where everything comes together: it ties your organised evidence to each criterion you are claiming, and — critically — makes the final-merits argument that USCIS also requires, showing that you are, on the totality of the evidence, among the small percentage who have risen to the top of your field. This is a legal-writing exercise, not a resume summary.
A large EB-1A package can run to hundreds of pages. We build an exhibit list and table of contents that cross-references every document to where it is cited in the brief, so the officer reviewing your case can navigate the package efficiently instead of hunting through an unlabelled stack of exhibits.
The final step: assembling the USCIS forms, the petition brief, the indexed evidence and the recommendation letters into one coherent, submission-ready package, checked for consistency and completeness before it goes out the door.
You need three. Most applicants document three to five, never all ten. Breadth is not the goal; depth on each claimed criterion is.
For excellence in your field. Think beyond “I won an award”: how competitive was it, who recognises it, who was eligible, and why does it demonstrate excellence? Institutional or student awards rarely count; national society prizes and competitive fellowships do.
Membership judged by recognised national or international experts in the field. Membership based only on education, a fee, or an employment requirement generally does not qualify.
In professional or major trade publications or other major media, relating to your work — about you and your work, not simply something you authored. Newspapers, magazines, academic publications, and qualifying audio or video coverage can all count.
Individually or on a panel, as a judge of others' work in the same or an allied field — reviewing manuscripts, evaluating research proposals, serving on thesis committees, judging competitions. The evidence should show you were actually selected to evaluate others' work.
The distinction between “original” and “important” matters here. It is not enough to show valuable work — the evidence should establish that the contribution is original and has had major significance, through adoption, citation, licensing, commercial use, or documented influence.
In professional journals or other major media. USCIS looks at the nature of the publication, the significance of the work, the intended readership, and your authorship — work reporting original research, experimentation, or scholarly discourse, generally written for knowledgeable people in the field.
Specific to artistic fields — exhibitions, showcases, galleries, museums, festivals, or other qualifying displays of your work.
Two elements matter: was your role leading or critical, and does the organisation have a distinguished reputation? Both need to be shown, not just seniority.
This requires comparative evidence — compensation data showing how your salary compares with others in similar occupations, locations, industries or fields. The question is not whether your salary is good, but whether it is high relative to the field.
Shown through box office receipts, or record, cassette, compact disk, or video sales. Particularly relevant to performing artists and entertainment professionals.
An educational self-check, not an assessment. Tick what you could document today; the notes update as you go and carry to the NIW and Canada pages so you can see all three routes against the same record.
Solid stops are our work with you. Hollow stops are government processing, which nobody can promise or predict.
Many applicants could pursue more than one route, and USCIS permits filing EB-1A and NIW at the same time.
Flat fees, published. Government filing fees are separate and paid by you directly to USCIS.
We read your CV against the ten criteria before we meet and discuss which three your record may best support, or whether it is not there yet.
Book a profile assessmentFrom written assessment to a filing-ready package you submit yourself.
You wrote it; we read it against the published criteria and show you exactly where it is thin.
See review tiersFull read of your draft, a written list of weak points and missing evidence, and one hour to discuss it.
Everything in Draft review, plus rewriting support for up to two critical sections — typically the final-merits section and one criterion.
Rewriting support across every section and fresh guidance for your letter writers. Working sessions until you are ready to file.
Preparation support for a response to one contested criterion or the final-merits finding. Two working sessions.
Preparation support across every point in the notice: new evidence organised and indexed, letter guidance refreshed. Sessions until you submit.
Sixty minutes, your CV, and a straight conversation about whether your record is ready — and which three criteria it may best support.
