What most people miss about EB-1A

So something I see a lot with EB-1A profile building is this over-focusing on the criteria and checkbox activities.

There is always this search for what will definitely count towards the criterion and what will definitely count based on what the adjudicator thinks when there really are no such activities.

And even if there were, you still have to produce sufficient evidence to show that something helps with your argument.

So in that sense, evidence is what matters for EB1A. Not just the activities you have done and what you claim, but the evidence and proof of how you have shown that you have risen to the top of your field.

That should be the focus of your profile-building.

Not on doing as many activities as possible that seem to fit the mold (but when you present them to a lawyer, they can't find any way to include that evidence to help strengthen your EB1A argument.

And that happens all the time.

A lot of people have these assumptions about how to profile build.

They think that as long as I do something that looks like peer reviewing or do something that looks like judging, I will automatically be strengthening my profile.

But that may not necessarily be the case, especially with current adjudications focusing more on final merits.

So how should you be profile-building then to build the strongest possible profile?

Two things.

The first thing is to regularly get your profile reviewed by a lawyer, especially a lawyer who is most likely going to work with you on filing your case. Now, with this kind of approach, you can get oversight over what you are doing to strengthen your profile. And the more a lawyer becomes familiar with what you are doing, the more likely they are to provide logical suggestions to strengthen your profile because they are familiar with your evidence. They are familiar with your work. So, they are most likely going to be providing suggestions that are relevant to you instead of just very generic suggestions.

So periodically get your profile reviewed by a lawyer as you build your profile so you can understand the gaps in your profile and also understand how to build for the right kind of evidence for your argument that you can get from just continually getting oversight and supervision from a lawyer.

The second thing is that you have to start thinking of profile-building in terms of evidence collection, not just doing new activities.

A lot of people I encounter have 5, 10, sometimes even 20 years of experience.

And their focus seems to still be on doing as many new activities as possible. And that may not necessarily be the full picture when it comes to profile building.

It is actually about evidence collection, about documenting and articulating and really unpacking what you did in the last 5,10, 20 years as part of your work.

That evidence seems to become an afterthought when it comes to profile-building and only kind of surfaces at the end of the process when a lot of people end up realizing that they actually have not collected any evidence from the past 5,10, 20 years.

So, something you want to focus on when building a profile that is strong is you want to also look into collecting the right evidence.

And that comes down to asking the right questions about evidence collection, working closely with a lawyer as early as possible so that you can get started with this process.

Because evidence collection is what makes for a strong leading or critical role claim and/or original contributions claim (generally considered foundational criteria for EB-1A).

It is not just doing more activities that matters.

It is more so collecting the right evidence based on what you've actually already done.

So just two things to keep in mind.

If you want to build the strongest possible EB1A profile, think about working with a lawyer as early as possible who can then oversee your profile-building if that is something they are open to.

Not all law firms are open to doing this.

And then secondly, focusing on evidence collection, not just doing as many new activities as possible.

That is how you want to be thinking about building the strongest possible EB-1A profile (also applies to EB-2 NIW and O-1 as well).

Also, here is an article on final merits: https://immigrationjason.substack.com/p/how-to-strengthen-the-final-merits

By Jason from Immigration Jason.

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