I'm a backend developer looking into US visa options (O-1A / EB-1A route) for myself, without a firm doing everything for me, and I'm curious about first-hand experience from other engineers here.What I'd love to know:- Did going DIY vs. with a lawyer actually change your odds, in your experience?- Which parts of your portfolio did USCIS seem to care about — open-source work, conference talks, press mentions, recommendation letters, salary data?- Did anyone get an RFE, and what did you do about it?- How long did premium processing actually take in your case?Most of what I find online is law-firm marketing promising the world. Would genuinely appreciate hearing what worked (or didn't) for real people.
Alex Greene
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Software engineers who applied for an O-1A or EB-1A — what evidence actually mattered?
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Top comments (2)
A strong evidence packet is easier to build when it is treated as an ongoing record: public impact, independent recognition, measurable contributions, and clear authorship. The details vary, but contemporaneous documentation beats reconstructing a career years later.
Thanks, the "contemporaneous documentation" point is spot on, so I've started keeping a running record now.
This plain-language breakdown of the EB-1A criteria has been my checklist so far.
Follow-up for anyone who's been through it: how did you document "original contributions of major significance" so it didn't read as just claims in recommendation letters?