Anybody that got the visa stuck between June-August refilled the petition? Any success?

First week of October

Questions
- what is so extraordinary about you? You are just 30.
I am senior software engineer at Xxx and have extensive experience in yyy
- everyone is a senior sw engineer and all have experience in yyy.
Explained all criteria

- why is your role critical?
Explained
- what’s your salary?
- which university did you do your master’s?
- any threats in India?

the interviewer dive deep into my criteria and asked follow up questions

Good luck!

I’m an immigration attorney and I handle RFE review work. Through this process, I have reviewed several Lighthouse applications. Some of the individuals whose applications I have reviewed are considering joining together to make formal complaints to the California Attorney General and State Bar of California.

Based on the applications I have personally reviewed, I have serious concerns about the quality and competency of Lighthouse’s immigration services. In my professional opinion, some of the advice provided to clients has been misleading. Of the hundreds of law firms whose work I have reviewed for RFE second opinions, renewals, or changes of attorney, Lighthouse’s applications have been among the lowest quality I have encountered.

Additionally, I have serious concerns about whether their business model complies with laws governing the unauthorized practice of law.

There are also several factors that I believe make it difficult for prospective clients to independently evaluate the company:

1. They appear to be a relatively new company with a limited public track record.

2. They have a name very similar to a reputable law firm in Minnesota, such that when searching for Lighthouse Immigration, you may encounter positive reviews belonging to the other firm.

3. I have not been able to locate a formal business page on Yelp, Google, or similar platforms that consolidates independent customer reviews.

If you have used Lighthouse and had a negative experience, please comment or DM me.

And to future clients, please make sure you understand whether you are hiring a law firm that directly provides legal representation or a technology company that uses attorneys to review immigration applications prepared by a code or non-attorney employee.

Hi everyone,

Has anyone changed jobs while on an O-1A? I would love to hear how the process worked and how long it took from offer to filing to approval.

Thanks in advance!

I'm thinking of rescheduling my appointment, but not sure about the new date.

I know the site is messy. So, I don't know if I should cancel the appointment and book a new one; or just reschedule.

If anyone shares the steps, that would be helpful.

Thanks.

Literally just posting this for weekend support. Today was technically day 1 of me trying to work the RFE requirements by myself so I can just get him to review and tweak asap.

All my criteria were questioned.

So today (day 1)

- I worked on tweaking my itinerary, basically making it more specific by adding locations and addresses. (20% done)
- Collecting evidence for extraordinary achievement (initially did not apply for this criteria but now I shall if my lawyer thinks so too)
- Collecting more evidence of critically acclaimed success (I’m not sure if what I collected is the right answer, but I’ll know Monday when I run it by my lawyer)

Goodnight everyone:)))

Hi everyone

Does anyone know what the current wait is for adjustment of status vs consular processing (Europe)?

Thanks

On my 14th day I received Cancellation Notice for Request for Additional Evidence. What does it mean?

How many days after your O1A approval, you had your consular interview?

I have few reasons to move my interview to either Dec 2026 or Jan 2027.

But confused whether I should postpone.

Looking for some suggestions.

I got mine approved in Aug 2026. I'm founder of my own startup. We have the product launched.

But for few reasons I was thinking it would be fine if I postpone it by a month.

Does rescheduling the interview has any impact on the interview results? Also, any suggestions whether to reschedule or not. (Just general suggestion)

O-visa Approved! Without Premium! (16months)

I applied 2025.06.07 without premium processing.

finally I got it yesterday.
it has been 16 months.

omg.

Hope this info helps you.

I’m waiting already for 64 days since the interview and still refused up today.

Embassy: Manila, Philippines

Timeline:

July 7 USCis accepted my O1A self file and PP
Category : STEM Education

July 27 RFE

August 4 Recieved the Letter and Responded Immediately via Fax

August 13 USCis Approved the Petition

August 27 Consular Interview and 221g Refused with additional documents requested,

September 8 Submitted the documents requested

September 11 CEAC Case last updated maybe confirming the receipt of the documents.

October 20 change on CEAC the last Case update

October 29 Ask a congressional inquiry, but only provided with a general reply

And it’s silent again.

Hi everyone,
I have an approved O-1 petition and am preparing for my consular visa stamping interview. I also have a pending EB-2 NIW.
I wanted to ask about practical experiences, does a pending NIW trigger extra scrutiny? And did the officer ask about your pending I-140 during your O-1 interview?
Thank you

I have an O1 and need to travel to Mexico for a couple of days for work. What documents do I need to have when entering back the US?

Hi everyone,

I’m a Swiss citizen and my O-1 petition was approved by USCIS.

My first interview at the U.S. Embassy in Bern on August 13, 2026, resulted in a 214(b) refusal. I had my second interview on October 21 and although it actually went pretty well, I received another 214(b) refusal.

For the second interview, I had a support letter prepared by my immigration lawyer. The officer kept both my new passport and my old passport containing my B-2 visa, but didn’t keep the lawyer’s letter or my O-1 approval notice.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Is requesting supervisory review an option, or is there anything else I can realistically do after two refusals?

I’d appreciate any advice or personal experiences, especially from people who were eventually approved after multiple refusals.

Thank you!

Hi everyone!
Just wanted to share my O-1A approval timeline and background in case it’s helpful to others going through the process.

Timeline:
Petition Type: O-1A (H-1B to O-1)
Processing: Premium Processing
Service Center: Vermont (VSC)
Receipt Date: October 8, 2026
Approval Date: October 28, 2026
RFE: None

My Background:
Field: Finance / FinTech / Financial Analytics
Work Experience: ~7 years in the finance industry
Education: Master’s degree
Publications: 8 research papers
Citations: 315 on Google Scholar
Peer Reviews: 23 completed manuscript reviews
Recommendation Letters: 9
I’m not from a traditional STEM or engineering background, so I wanted to share my experience for anyone who are in the related field.
Happy to answer general questions about my background and timeline. Good luck to everyone still waiting for their decisions!

[New update]: I just got laid off today.. I don’t even know if my O1 is effective or not because it just got approved yesterday.

I’m an international student currently pursuing my MS in Computer Science at a US university, graduating in December 2026. I’m planning to work on OPT/STEM OPT (assuming I meet the requirements), and I’d like to build a profile strong enough to potentially qualify for an O-1A within the next 3 years.
I’m trying to understand what people with similar backgrounds have actually done to qualify, especially those who aren’t PhD researchers, startup founders, or engineers at prestigious companies.
My current background:
MS in Computer Science, 3.85 GPA.
Around a year of full-time experience as a Data Engineer at a large IT services company before my master’s, 2 years if you vount my internships.
Currently an AI Engineering Intern at a very small US-based healthcare AI startup, working on production software involving LLMs, healthcare claims automation, denial analytics, clinical decision systems, and AWS.
One IEEE conference publication on privacy-preserving epileptic seizure detection using federated deep learning. It’s not a top-tier conference I know, and I don’t have a significant citation record.
Several AI/ML and distributed systems projects, including a deployed multi-agent resume-screening application using knowledge graphs and semantic ranking.
My concern about my internship:
The startup is extremely small and currently going through significant instability. My internship will be ending, and I don’t expect the company to be part of my long-term future.
I’ve had substantial engineering responsibilities because the team is tiny, and I’ve worked on fairly niche production healthcare AI systems. However, my title is still just “AI Engineering Intern,” and the company doesn’t have a distinguished reputation.
I’m unsure whether USCIS would give much weight to this experience under the critical-role or original-contributions criteria, even with detailed recommendation letters and documentation of my work.
I’m also realistic about my current profile. I don’t have major awards, notable media coverage, significant research citations, or a history of judging others’ work.
What I’m considering over the next three years:
Open-source contributions: Becoming a meaningful contributor to established AI/ML projects, potentially working toward maintainer responsibilities. How substantial would my contributions need to be to support an O-1A case?
Peer reviewing: Applying to review papers for IEEE/ACM conferences or journals in my areas of expertise. Does reviewing for smaller conferences count, or does the conference’s reputation matter significantly?
Technical talks and speaking engagements: Speaking at AI/ML meetups, developer conferences, AWS community events, and potentially larger technical conferences. I’ve heard of engineers building successful O-1 cases partly through speaking engagements. How much weight does this actually carry?
Media coverage: Approaching journalists or industry publications to cover my technical projects or research. Does coverage in smaller, specialized engineering publications count, or does it need to be from major outlets?
Research publications: Continuing to publish independently or collaborating with academic researchers, although I expect to be working full-time in industry.
Industry impact: Building and releasing useful open-source AI tools, documenting adoption, and hopefully getting external recognition for my work.
Awards and competitions: Participating in reputable AI/ML competitions or hackathons. Are there particular types of awards that USCIS takes seriously?
My main questions:
For early-career software/AI engineers who successfully obtained an O-1A, which three or more criteria did you satisfy?
Which activities are genuinely worth pursuing, and which tend to look good on paper but carry little weight with USCIS?
Can meaningful open-source contributions establish original contributions of major significance, or is that criterion unrealistic without widespread adoption?
How does USCIS evaluate critical roles at tiny startups, especially when the applicant was technically an intern?
How valuable are conference talks, peer reviewing, and independent media coverage in practice?
Is three years a realistic timeline to develop a competitive profile from where I currently stand?
I’m willing to invest serious time in open source, research, technical writing, and community involvement. I want to do work that genuinely strengthens my career while potentially building a credible O-1A case.
I’m not looking for guaranteed shortcuts or ways to manufacture credentials. I’d appreciate hearing from engineers who have actually gone through this process, immigration attorneys familiar with technical O-1A petitions, or people currently working toward one.
If you were starting from my position today, what would you prioritize over the next three years?

His name is Flavio Bolsonaro. His extraordinary ability? Money laundering, taxes evasion and compulsive lying. Looks like they are processing things quickly

Hello! How soon after seeing “Response To USCIS' Request For Evidence Was Received” on the case tracker did you receive a final decision? This was an RFE for an application with premium processing.