FAQs about the EB-1A Green Card

These FAQs are taken from one of our recent Reddit AMAs, where Manifest Law’s senior immigration attorney Henry Lindpere answered several questions from social media users. Below are some curated responses to give you more clarity on the EB-1A Green Card. 

Can I build up my EB-1A profile with published media coverage about me?

Media coverage is great, but USCIS is now more strict about it because they are trying to crack down on “PR firms” that sell evidence to people. Working with freelance journalists or some genuine PR companies can be great. But it looks even better if you take your time and not rush to get everything out in a short amount of time. It looks more organic and sustained if you have coverage over a year or more.

How important are recommendation letters in comparison to the rest of the EB-1A criteria? Recommendation letters seem to carry more weight compared to other criteria. 

Recommendation letters are critical to a good case, but you don’t win a case unless you also have independent evidence confirming the information that is in the letters.

Do you see many young applicants (in their 20s) getting approved for the EB-1A outside of sports achievements?

As a general rule, it takes a long time to become the best at something, which is why EB-1A cases are more common for people who have been in their careers for 10+ years. There are exceptions, of course, but you will be fighting an uphill battle for sure. If the officer sees your age, then they will assume you are just getting started. You have to then convince them that you have done something remarkable.

How important is the high salary criterion for the overall review of an EB-1A case? Would a very high salary compensate for weak criteria in other aspects of the application?

If the salary or total compensation is extremely high, it will be very helpful in the final merits analysis and can compensate for some weaknesses. That’s because it is a very objective criterion that shows independent market recognition. For example, if you own 20% of a startup that gets valued at $1B, that is a very big deal, regardless of whether you have judged two peer reviews or 25.

What exactly is considered a “high salary” for an EB-1A? How is it calculated? And is it usually adjusted for the cost of living in the city where the applicant works?

Generally, I use DOL data for the SOC code that most closely matches your role, but some jobs are so unique or specific that USCIS may reject that or ask for more specific data. Some jobs are so specific, or your case may be focused on a particular industry, in which case you should try to find industry-specific data. The USCIS policy manual mentions location-specific data, so you can take into consideration where you live and work. But your case will be more convincing if you can show that on a national level, you earn more than 90% of people in similar roles.

Can I use a startup stock option for the high numeration EB-1A eligibility criteria?

Yes, you can use it, but nuance is very important. USCIS does not give anyone credit for compensation they have not earned yet. For example, if you use 2024 income, you can show how much you made on a W-2. If you want to use the income you are earning in 2025, maybe you just started a new job, and that has a much higher salary, then USCIS will not accept any discretionary or performance-based bonus component of the salary. Their argument would be that you have not earned it yet, and it is possible you will not hit the KPIs and will not get the bonus. 

With stock options, you have the same issue, and it gets even more complicated. You cannot just attach your contract and expect USCIS to understand it. You have to break it down. How much has vested? Over how many years? How much is it all worth (and if the company is not public yet, it is difficult to determine the market value of the options? And how does it compare to others in the field? In my experience, options can boost an already good compensation package, but if the base salary is bad, you need really good data to show how you rank among others, which is very hard to find.

How does EB-1 work with people in technical or leadership roles? I am leading AI initiatives at a large bank – would EB-1 be a good route for me? 

The legal framework for EB1A is very much in favor of academics, but industry roles like that are great for it as well. You just need to look further than the 10 listed criteria of evidence. Ask yourself, how good are you at what you do? And how do you compare to others in your field?

If you are just grinding away at work and nobody in the industry knows you exist, you likely don’t have the evidence USCIS is expecting. They expect an EB-1A applicant to have some level of “fame” in their field. A case like this will hinge on industry impact and recognition. If your initiative is successful and you can go out and talk about it as much as possible, that will help your case. But if everything is still a work in progress and hidden under NDAs, then you are probably not ready.

Do contributions or being a committer for open source projects count towards a stronger EB-1A profile?

Yes, but the value of it depends on the scale and quality of your data. I see a lot of people coming with random tiny projects where they just uploaded something to GitHub and nobody has used their contributions. That is much weaker than saying that you were the top contributor to a recent UBoot upgrade or that you are a maintainer of some Linux kernel repositories. I worked on a case for someone who upstreamed code into Linux that supported millions of SOCs in different devices all over the world. That is impact at a scale that USCIS cannot ignore.

What is the timeline trend you are seeing for the regular processing of EB-1A in 2025? 

Based on data from USCIS for all I-140s, they have received 178,000 I-140s in FY 2025, completed 120,000, and have 170,000 pending cases remaining in total. The majority of that backlog comes from EB-2/EB-3 petitions, but it is also growing in EB-1. They just receive more cases every quarter than what they are able to process. That just means the processing times will keep growing. 

Whatever you see in the processing times tool is outdated and does not tell you what it will be in a few months or a year. However, I think you can expect 12-18 months without premium processing.

Do entrepreneurs have a good chance of getting the EB-1A?

I love entrepreneur cases. The fundamental challenge with all EB-1A cases is that you have to provide the USCIS officers with a frame of reference. What is your specialty, and how do you compare with others? Never take anything for granted that you just assume the officer will know about you or any particular industry. With more established and more traditional professions, it is easier to offer this frame of reference. But if you are an entrepreneur doing something that nobody has ever done before, you have to think more carefully about how to compare yourself to others.

Do you think it’s better to file for EB1-A with three strong criteria or aim for more, even if less strong?

In the past, the general advice was to aim for 4-5 criteria. This year (2025), USCIS seems to have shifted its focus away from the criteria and is very heavily scrutinizing cases in the final merits. With this adjudication strategy, I prefer to only argue the strong criteria and leave everything else to the final merits.

Have you noticed any trends in slowed/lowered approval rates of EB-based adjustment of status for your clients? More so for EB-1A cases. Most approvals on Reddit seem to be for family-based adjustments.

We have not seen any drop in approvals, but we see a slowing of the AOS process. This is likely due to the return to interviews combined with a hiring freeze at USCIS. So they have the same amount of officers as last year, but now they have to squeeze in a lot of interviews too, so they will take longer per case to finish the process. 

Another issue was the last government shutdown. Although USCIS stayed open, they need confirmation from the FBI to finish background checks. Those seem to be taking longer, which delays EADs and interview scheduling.