EB-1A green card

Meeting three criteria gets you read. It does not get you approved.

EB-1A is a green card you file for yourself: no employer, no job offer, no labor certification. The regulation lists ten criteria and asks for three, and almost every real disagreement with USCIS happens after those three are met, in a second review with no checklist. This page is about that second review.

For the person whose recognition came from people who had no reason to flatter them.

It is the one employment green card where nobody has to want to hire you first. That freedom is also why the bar sits where it does.

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EB-1A at a glance

You file it yourself

No employer, no job offer, no labor certification.
One major award, or three of ten

Then the officer reads the whole record.
A green card, not a visa

An approved I-140 gives you a place in line. The Visa Bulletin says when it is reached.
Sustained means recent

The acclaim has to be current, and you have to be coming to keep working in the field.

Is this you?

Four conversations worth having about EB-1A. If one sounds like yours, the category is worth a real look.

You are already on an O-1 and the record kept growing.: The evidence overlaps heavily, so this is the most natural progression there is. What changes is that EB-1A asks the acclaim to be sustained and current, not present at one point in your history.
Your citation count is strong and your independent recognition is not.: This is the most common near-miss in the category. Citations are evidence under one criterion. They do not by themselves show that a field treats you as being at the top of it, and step two asks exactly that.
You keep being told to wait one more year.: Sometimes that is right. More often it avoids the harder question: what specifically would have to be added, how you would get it, and by when it would still matter to your timeline.
Everyone describes you in numbers nobody has collected.: Rankings, purse money, box office, streaming figures, roster spots, national team selections, sold-out runs. All of it is evidence, and almost none of it is in a form an officer can read without help.

“A record that clears step one and loses step two was assembled. A record that clears both was argued.”

The test

What the government actually asks

EB-1A has a reputation for being vague. The statute is not vague. What is open is the second half, and it helps to see exactly where the open part starts.

Three of ten, and what the ten are

A one-time major internationally recognized award settles the evidence question by itself. Short of that, the petition has to meet at least three of these. Where they do not fit an occupation, comparable evidence is allowed.

Any3of the10

lesser nationally or internationally recognized prizes
memberships that require outstanding achievement
published material about you
judging the work of others
original contributions of major significance
scholarly articles
work shown at artistic exhibitions or showcases
a leading or critical role for a distinguished organization
high remuneration
commercial success in the performing arts

comparable evidence

Nothing here is ranked and nothing here is a score: reaching the count opens the second step rather than ending the review.

Three requirements, and only three

That you have extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics, shown by sustained national or international acclaim, meaning recognition your field has kept giving you rather than a single good year. That you are coming to continue working in that same area. And that your entry will substantially benefit the United States. No job offer, no labor certification; that is what self-petition means here. The second requirement is real, not a formality: letters of intent, contracts, funding or appointments speak to it, and a record silent about the future invites a question it did not need to invite.

The second step, which is the real one

Once three criteria are met, USCIS sets the counting aside and makes a final merits determination, a second review of the record as a whole, asking whether it shows sustained acclaim and a person among the small percentage at the very top of the field. That two-step structure comes from a 2010 federal appeals decision, Kazarian. A record that clears step one and loses step two was assembled. A record that clears both was argued.

Approved is not the same as in hand

An approved I-140 gives you a priority date, which is your place in line. Whether an immigrant visa is available then depends on your country of birth and on the Visa Bulletin, the monthly State Department notice that says which places in line are being reached. After that you either file adjustment of status inside the United States or finish at a consulate abroad. None of that runs on my clock or yours.

How I build the case

Every EB-1A engagement includes the same core work, quoted as one flat fee. Here is what you get.

A written case strategy and criteria map
Recommendation letters drafted for your signature
The complete petition with the legal brief, and a full copy for you
One RFE response
One re-file if one is needed. Government filing fees are yours again on a re-file.

You also get a complete copy of everything filed, every receipt notice as it arrives, and case status you can check in your client portal.

EB-1A

What it costs

Always quoted in three separate lines: the attorney fee, government filing fees, and other costs. Never one all-in number.

Attorney fee

$12,000 to $15,000

Government filing fees

I-140 petition fee: $715

Asylum Program Fee, at the rate a self-petitioner pays: $300

Premium processing on Form I-907, only if you choose it: $2,965

Other costs

Certified translations

Credential evaluation

Courier and shipping

Government fees verified: 2026-07-05

These are the firm's standard flat fees for a typical matter of this type, not an offer and not a quote for yours. Your fee is fixed in a written engagement agreement after I have looked at your facts.

See the full fee breakdown

The honest part

What is hard about it

EB-1A is the category where the gap between a good profile and an approvable filing is widest. Two places that gap sits.

The very top is a comparison, and you do not pick the comparison group

The officer decides what your field is. Draw it too narrowly and it reads as gerrymandering, so the top of it means nothing. Draw it too broadly and your evidence thins out against people you have no reason to be measured against. Getting that framing right is most of the work in the brief, and it is invisible in the exhibits.

Evidence you paid for reads as evidence you paid for

Paid placements, pay-to-publish journals, associations that admit anyone who sends a fee, awards with an entry fee and no selection. Each of these can count against you, because the second step asks whether other people recognized you, and an officer who reads these records all day can tell the difference.

EB-1A and O-1, side by side

EB-1A and O-1 compared on who files the petition, what the test is, what the record has to show, where cases turn, and the timeline.
Compare on	EB-1A Green card, employment first preference	O-1 Nonimmigrant work visa
Who files the petition	You do. It is a self-petition.	A U.S. employer or a U.S. agent. It is not self-petitioned.
Employer, job offer, labor certification	None. No job offer and no labor certification.	A U.S. petitioner is required. It does not have to be your current employer: an agent can file.
What the test is	One major internationally recognized award, or three of ten criteria, then a final merits determination.	Three of eight criteria on the O-1A track, then a final merits determination.
What the record has to show	The same standing, read more strictly, plus intent to keep working in the field and prospective benefit to the United States.	Sustained acclaim and standing at the top of the field on the O-1A track, or distinction in the arts on O-1B.
Where these cases actually turn	How the field is defined, and whether the acclaim is current.	The final merits step, and an advisory opinion that comes from an organization with its own process.
Typical timeline	Premium processing is available on the I-140 at 15 business days to act. Approval is not the finish: an immigrant visa number still has to be available, and that queue is published monthly in the Visa Bulletin.	Premium processing is available on the I-129, and USCIS states 15 business days to act. Acting means an approval, a denial or a Request for Evidence. There is no visa queue after it, so the petition is the timeline.

EB-1A

Green card, employment first preference

Who files the petition: You do. It is a self-petition.
Employer, job offer, labor certification: None. No job offer and no labor certification.
What the test is: One major internationally recognized award, or three of ten criteria, then a final merits determination.
What the record has to show: The same standing, read more strictly, plus intent to keep working in the field and prospective benefit to the United States.
Where these cases actually turn: How the field is defined, and whether the acclaim is current.
Typical timeline: Premium processing is available on the I-140 at 15 business days to act. Approval is not the finish: an immigrant visa number still has to be available, and that queue is published monthly in the Visa Bulletin.

O-1

Nonimmigrant work visa

Who files the petition: A U.S. employer or a U.S. agent. It is not self-petitioned.
Employer, job offer, labor certification: A U.S. petitioner is required. It does not have to be your current employer: an agent can file.
What the test is: Three of eight criteria on the O-1A track, then a final merits determination.
What the record has to show: Sustained acclaim and standing at the top of the field on the O-1A track, or distinction in the arts on O-1B.
Where these cases actually turn: The final merits step, and an advisory opinion that comes from an organization with its own process.
Typical timeline: Premium processing is available on the I-129, and USCIS states 15 business days to act. Acting means an approval, a denial or a Request for Evidence. There is no visa queue after it, so the petition is the timeline.

The washed column marks the page you are on rather than a recommendation, and the difference that matters most is what each category asks you to prove.

Each row is the general rule for that category. It is not a conclusion about your case.

The clock

What the timing actually depends on

EB-1A has two clocks, and people only ever ask about the first one. Here is what both are made of and where the current numbers are published.

The first clock is the petition, and USCIS publishes it

EB-1A is filed on Form I-140, and USCIS publishes processing times at egov.uscis.gov by form and service center. Read that figure as a description of cases already decided, not a date for yours.

Premium processing is a clock, not a better decision

Form I-907 is available on this petition. It buys a commitment from USCIS to act within a fixed number of days, published on its own page, and acting means an approval, a denial, a Request for Evidence or a notice of intent to deny. It does not make approval more likely and it does not repair a record that is not ready. It earns its cost when an expiring status is what the decision is racing.

The second clock is the queue, and nobody controls it

An approved I-140 gives you a priority date, your place in line, not a green card. The State Department publishes a Visa Bulletin every month at travel.state.gov showing how far the line has moved in each category, and separately for the countries of birth with the most demand. EB-1 has moved in both directions in recent years. If you were born in a country where EB-1 is backlogged, this is the number that decides your calendar.

The last step is a separate filing with its own line

When the priority date is current, the green card comes through adjustment of status inside the United States or consular processing abroad, each with its own queue. The State Department publishes consular appointment wait times by post at travel.state.gov. Which route fits has travel and work-authorization consequences, so decide it deliberately rather than by default.

Each of those pages belongs to the agency that controls that step, and each shows the date it was last updated.

The sequence

Where the time actually goes

Here is the order of a case in this category: who acts at each step, and whose clock is running. Two of those clocks are different animals, and telling them apart is most of what people are really asking. A period fixed by regulation is the same this year and next. A backlog is a fact about a queue on one particular day, so this page does not print one. It hands you the agency page where the current figure lives.

You
You and your attorney build the record: the evidence, the letters, the exhibits, the petition itself.
No published figure
This is the one stretch on the list that no agency measures. It moves with what already exists and what still has to be created.
USCIS
USCIS decides the immigrant petition.
Set by the backlogForm I-140
Same tool, same caution: what USCIS publishes describes cases it has already finished, and it is posted per form, per classification and per office.
Premium processing
Premium processing is a paid USCIS service available on this form. For I-140 in this classification, USCIS states a period of 15 business days.
That period stops and starts over from the beginning if USCIS issues a request for evidence, so it buys a faster look at the file rather than a shorter case.
Eligibility is set per form and per classification, and USCIS can change it.
USCIS processing timesCheck the current figure at egov.uscis.gov
Department of State
A visa number has to become available for your preference category and your country of birth.
Set by the backlog
Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens are not in a preference category, so this step does not apply to them. Where it does apply, nobody can shorten it, and for some countries it is the longest step by a distance. The Department of State publishes a bulletin every month.
The visa bulletinCheck the current figure at travel.state.gov
USCIS
The last step happens in one of two places: adjustment of status with USCIS inside the United States, or an immigrant visa interview at a consulate abroad.
Set by the backlogForm I-485
Which one applies depends on where you are and what status you hold, not on preference.
USCIS processing timesCheck the current figure at egov.uscis.gov

Sources and definitions

No published figure: No agency publishes a time for this step. Anyone quoting you one is guessing.
Set by the backlog: How long this step takes depends on the agency's queue that month. The current figure is on the agency's own page, which is why it is not repeated here.

USCIS processing times: Pick the form, the classification and the office. What USCIS posts there is how long it took to finish eight in ten decided cases over the previous six months, refreshed monthly.
The visa bulletin: Published monthly by the Department of State. It tells you whether a visa number is available this month for your category and country of birth.
USCIS premium processing: Which forms and classifications are eligible, what it costs, and the period USCIS states for each of them.

USCIS is U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that decides petitions.
The Department of State runs the consulates and publishes the monthly visa bulletin.

Every stage, form number and period below comes from the agency that owns that step. None of it is this firm's estimate, and none of it is a prediction about your case.

Sources last checked August 16, 2026.

The links go to live government pages, so what you find there will be newer than that.

Three things people are afraid to ask

The questions that get saved for last. None of them should cost you a consultation to find out.

Whether your employer has to be told

EB-1A is a self-petition. You are the petitioner, there is no employer signature on the form, no job offer is required, and nothing in the filing asks a current employer to agree or to know. That is what the petition requires and nothing more. Your own facts, and what you say to people, are yours to manage. On my end, what you tell me while you decide whether to hire me stays confidential either way, nobody is contacted, and nothing is verified with anyone unless you ask.

Whether you can do this while you are on an employer visa

Filing an immigrant petition does not by itself end a nonimmigrant status, and H-1B and L-1 are dual-intent statuses, meaning the law expects that someone holding one may also intend to immigrate. Some other statuses are not dual intent, and the interaction there is different. That is a general description of how the categories sit beside each other, not a read of your own record, which is what a consultation is for.

What happens to your spouse and your children

A spouse and unmarried children under twenty-one come through the same petition as derivatives at the green card stage, on their own adjustment applications inside the United States or through consular processing abroad. They do not file their own I-140. Their status in the meantime depends on the status they hold now, and that has to be planned rather than assumed. If your household runs on two incomes, work authorization in the meantime belongs in the decision at the start.

O-1, if the answer today is not yet

An O-1 is temporary status, it needs a petitioner here, and the evidence it takes is largely the evidence EB-1A will need later, read less strictly. For a lot of people the honest sequence is O-1 now, EB-1A when the record is ready, and that is a plan rather than a delay.

Read the O-1 page
EB-2 NIW, if the argument is about what comes next

NIW asks a different question: not whether you are already at the top, but whether a specific plan of yours is worth waiving the labor market test for. Some records are stronger under that framing, and the two are not mutually exclusive.

Read the EB-2 NIW page
A written read before you commit

The Case Blueprint is a written evaluation of your record and your options, including the categories I would rule out and why. It is yours to keep whether or not you hire me.

Start with a Case Blueprint

Longer reading on this

EB-1A: the criteria are only half the test
An EB-1A denial is often not a denial of the criteria at all. It comes at the second step, the final merits determination, which many filings never argue.

See everything in the Reading Room

Bring the record, not the summary.

The fastest way to get a useful answer is to put the actual material in front of me: the CV, the letters you already have, the press, the metrics, and any prior filing. I will tell you which step of the test your record is currently losing, if it is losing one.

Two ways to start, and who you sit with

The first is a free intake with my team. The second is the paid consultation, and that one is with me.

Intake

15 minutes · Free

My paralegal team, not me

A short conversation to hear what is going on and get it written down properly. My paralegals ask about your status, your dates, your employer if there is one, and what you have already tried. By the end of it you know what a consultation with me would cover and whether it is worth booking one yet.

This step is intake and scheduling. My paralegals do not give legal advice, do not tell you whether you qualify for anything, and do not recommend a visa category. That part is mine, and it happens in the attorney consultation.
Attorney consultation

60 minutes · $150

If you go on to retain the firm for the matter the consultation covered, the fee is credited toward your fee for that case. The credit does not expire.

Joe Kwon, the attorney who would handle the case

This is where the legal discussion happens. You tell me what you have and what you are trying to do, and I tell you what I think, including when I think the answer is no. Some of these end with me not taking the case. That is a real result of the call, not a failure of it. I read what you send before we sit down, so the whole session goes to your question. The consultation runs as a video call, from wherever you are.

Book a consultation

Booking does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Immigration benefits are decided by government officers who apply the law to the record in front of them, and many of them are discretionary. No attorney can promise you an approval, and anyone who does is telling you what you want to hear. What good lawyering controls is whether your case is complete, specific, and internally consistent, so that approving it is the officer's easiest path.