Maria is an Oscar’s Green Card course member who started her green card journey considering the National Interest Waiver route. After understanding the Do-It-Yourself approach and familiarizing herself if the two categories that allow self-sponsorship, she decided to go for the Extraordinary Ability green card instead. Her work towards an EB1A petition started in April 2024. This is a summary of her profile of qualifications and tips to others. If you want to hear her full story, we have an interview with Maria in our YouTube channel.
Maria’s field of endeavor
Maria is an expert in Business, Project/Program and Product Management, specializing in the very trendy AI-drive business digital transformation field. She has worked for top companies in her field, such as Adobe and Google. Hers s not the typical academic EB-1A profile, but she was able to target and meet the high bar for Extraordinary ability anyway.
The Extraordinary Ability criteria Maria targeted
The EB-1A green card category requires the applicant to prove they wither have a significant one-time achievement (such as an Olympic Medal, Oscar award or Pulitzer), or to meet at least 3 out of 10 criteria published by USCIS. Typically, it is a good idea for petitioners to argue for more than those three, just in case the officer does not agree with one or more. Maria decided to cover seven of these eligibility criteria, among which we highlight the following:
- Receipt of lesser nationally or internationally recognized prizes or awards for excellence: Maria led important projects in top multinational companies. One of her commercial real estate investment projects won the “Best Business Center Under Construction” award, effectively earning her a nationwide industry award.
- Performance of a leading or critical role in distinguished organizations. She has worked in high-impact leadership positions for Google and Adobe, contributing to groundbreaking AI and GenAI-related projects that significantly impacted the B2B Enterprise segment.
- Original scientific, scholarly, artistic, athletic, or business-related contributions of major significance to the field. Her work has directly influenced Machine Learning-based AI technologies for Adobe’s Enterprise AI initiatives, contributing to innovations adopted by global clients.
- Published material about you in professional or major trade publications or other major media. She has authored multiple AI-related publications and delivered multiple presentations per quarter on AI applications in Project/Program, Portfolio, and Product Management.
Maria’s timeline: An expedited approval through Premium Processing
Maria opted for Premium Processing, a modality that allows the applicant to get their case adjudicated in 15 business days. Premium Processing costs an additional $2,805 (as of early 2025) but it allows for the petitioner to get a faster answer to their I-140 case.
Unfortunately, Maria received a Request for Evidence, or RFE, first. This means that the USCIS officer is not convinced that the evidence and arguments provided substantiate the fulfillment of the requirements for this category. In her case, the officer only accepted one of the seven criteria discussed earlier: leading or critical role. Maria went back to her petition and crafted a response for this RFE, which was eventually successful.
Below is the timeline for Maria’s case:
- April 2024: Joined Oscar’s Green Card online course for EB-1A
- September 2024: I-140 submitted with Premium Processing (I-907)
- October 2024: Request for Evidence received
- January 2025: RFE response submitted to USCIS
- January 2025: I-140 approved
Maria’s advice to others
This DIY applicant mentioned that each petiton should be treated like a project plan, including timelines, metrics, risks and resolutions. Also, USCIS should be able to follow it!
Maria insisted on attaching high quality evidence to the petition. Even though recommendation letters are a powerful type evidence, they can’t be the only type of evidence in a petition. When describing achievements, the applicant should focus on the outcomes (what USCIS calls “broader impacts”).
Finally, Maria was very keen on communicating that an RFE is not the end of the world: it is you opportunity to submit a better explanation and better evidence. For her, the RFE gave her the opportunity to dig deeper and tell her story more clearly. And it worked!
