u/One-Improvement-1

Hello again community,

After getting my I-140 approval, I thought most of the immigration headaches were finally behind me. Then the VB retrogressed, and now my brain is malfunctioning again and I can't seem to think about anything else.

My situation:

• PD: Feb 2025
• EB2-NIW (ROW)
• I-485, I-131, and I-765 filed
• Biometrics completed (Sep 2026)
• 6th-year PhD candidate
• Anticipated graduation: June 2027 (I-20 valid until Sept 2027)

I'm trying to think ahead in case my I-485 remains pending for a while, especially if my I-485-based I-765 is still not approved by the time I graduate.

Right now I have an NRT (non-resident tuition fee) exemption, but after next June I would likely lose that exemption if I remain a student. If I stay in F-1 status, I'm also not completely sure what the F-1 extension process will look like under the proposed changes, especially if extensions may need to go through USCIS rather than being handled primarily through the University.

And financially, staying enrolled longer would mean paying around $5k per quarter out of pocket. Maybe that is lunch money for someone, but it definitely isn't for me.

One of my best-case scenarios is simply getting my pending I-485-based I-765 approved before next June. But given the uncertainty, I don't really want to rely entirely on that.

My other concern is STEM OPT.

Since I already filed I-485 and clearly demonstrated immigrant intent, I'm worried that future F-1-related benefits could become complicated. ChatGPT keeps telling me that a pending I-485 should not automatically make someone ineligible for OPT/STEM OPT, but some experiences I've seen in this community seem less reassuring.

Has anyone here successfully received post-completion STEM OPT while an employment-based I-485 was already pending?

I also haven't explored H-1B deeply yet.

If I receive a postdoc/research position offer from a university/national lab, could a cap-exempt H-1B be another realistic path?

From what I understand, premium processing can result in USCIS taking action on an H-1B petition within 15 business days. So if I receive an offer and the employer is willing to sponsor a cap-exempt H-1B, this seems like a potentially good backup plan.

Another question: if the employer is hesitant because of the H-1B filing or premium processing costs, is there any portion of those fees that the employee can legally offer to pay, or do they generally have to be paid by the employer?

And separately, if I receive a postdoc offer while my I-485-based I-765 is still pending, I assume that offer could also help support an expedite request for the I-765.

Anyway, I would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has dealt with a similar combination/concerns/strategies.

If I'm misunderstanding anything, please feel free to correct me!

Hi Community!

It has been a really stressful journey, and I honestly can’t count how many times I came to Reddit looking for reassurance. During that time, some of the brightest moments were reading other people’s approval stories.

So now I finally get to share mine.

I know my account is very new, and some people may wonder whether I’m legit. I actually deleted my old account last month because the stress after submitting my RFE response was getting to me. I felt like I was seeing too much negativity on Reddit, and it was making me more anxious, so I deleted the account and tried to move on.

But now that my case is approved, I wanted to come back and share my experience in case it helps someone going through a similar period.

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Timeline:

• Oct 2023 — Chen: approval-or-refund offer received and accepted
• Oct 2023 — EP: full refund offer received and declined
• Feb 2025 — I-140 filed
• Feb 2026 — Upgraded to Premium Processing
• Apr 2026 — RFE issued
• Jul 2026 — RFE response received
• Aug 2026 — I-140 approved

You may notice that I took quite a long time to submit the I-140 after receiving the offer from Chen. This was not the attorney’s fault. I delayed the process because of my own commitments. I was actually surprised by how patient they were with me.

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My profile:

• Current PhD candidate at an R1 university in the U.S. (Chemical Engineering)
• M.S. in Chemical Engineering (non-U.S.)
• ROW
• 120+ citations at the original filing
• 180+ citations at the time of the RFE response
• 1 first-author paper
• 5 second-author papers
• Most recent publication was in 2022

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Comments on I-140

I was a little naive when I first started preparing the I-140.

I thought that since I was paying a substantial attorney fee, I wouldn’t personally have to do that much work. But I was pretty overwhelmed by the amount of writing and information I needed to provide, and I delayed the process a lot.

One excuse I can give myself is that AI tools were not nearly as useful or common when I first started preparing the case. Looking back, I can understand why my I-140 eventually received an RFE.

For the original I-140 filing, I submitted 4 recommendation letters:

• 2 dependent letters
• 2 independent letters

I was very fortunate with the independent recommenders. Both were professors in the U.S.

One was someone I had never met in person and who has 53,000+ citations in the chemical engineering field. The other was someone I had met once at a conference about seven years ago.

One thing I realized during this process is that we are not completely alone. There are people who are genuinely willing to support us.

The support I received from professors, mentors, and others really helped me keep going through this stressful process.

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Premium Processing

After the EB2 ROW visa bulletin became current for me in February 2026, I decided to pay the additional fee and upgrade the I-140 to Premium Processing.

The I-907 receipt email came from NSC two days after the I-907 was received.

After 33 business days, based on the I-907 receipt date, my attorney was notified that an RFE had been issued.

Four business days later, I emailed the NSC Premium Processing account and requested a PDF copy of the RFE.

They sent it to me 14 minutes later, which honestly shocked me.

Interestingly, although the Premium Processing communication came from NSC, the RFE itself was issued by TSC.

I asked my attorney whether this was a bad sign, but apparently this can happen under USCIS’s newer Service Center Operations, or “SCOPS,” approach.

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RFE response

For the RFE response, we added 4 more recommendation letters:

• 2 dependent letters from people with industry backgrounds
• 2 independent letters from people with national laboratory backgrounds

The industry backgrounds included companies in the semiconductor field such as Intel, ASML, ASM, Lam Research, and Applied Materials.

We also submitted 2 funding testimonial letters:

• one from my current PhD PI
• one from my previous M.S. PI

This time, I also worked much more carefully on my personal statement, with a lot of help from AI tools.

One thing I found useful was giving the AI tool the RFE letter and my personal statement and asking something like:

“If you were the USCIS officer reviewing this case, what concerns would you still have after reading this statement?”

That helped me identify places where my explanation was still weak or unclear.

One of my biggest concerns was that most of my tangible research accomplishments were from my master’s work, while my PhD research had not yet been published.

At the same time, my proposed endeavor relied heavily on my current PhD work.

From a third-person perspective, I thought an officer could reasonably ask:

“If the current work has not yet produced publications or other visible results, why should I believe this future endeavor is realistic?”

So I tried to connect the two more clearly.

In my personal statement, recommendation letters, and funding testimonial letters, I emphasized how the skills, expertise, and research experience I gained during my master’s work directly support the work I am doing now and the proposed future endeavor.

I have no idea how much this specifically helped, but I tried to make the story much more logically connected than in the original filing.

I also included one patent that was registered outside the U.S. between the original filing and the RFE response.

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Approval

About 31 business days after USCIS received the RFE response, I received an email from NSC Premium Processing informing me that the case had been approved.

And that was the end of the story.

I honestly don’t remember the last time I felt this much joy and relief.

This process was incredibly stressful, and reading other people’s approval posts helped me many times when I was struggling with uncertainty.

So I wanted to share mine too.

I truly wish the best for everyone still waiting. I hope your good news comes soon as well.

Hello Community!

I just got my I-140 approved under EB2-NIW, and I’m finally at the I-485 stage.

I’m pretty new to the adjustment-of-status process, so I wanted to ask a couple of quick questions.

I just submitted my I-485, I-765, and I-131 through online filing, and the website currently still says:

“Your form is still being processed.”

1. How long does it usually take for the status to change to “received” or for the receipt notice to appear online?
2. Will the received date usually be the same for all three applications, since they were submitted together?

Really happy to finally join this sub after getting through the I-140 stage! 😭

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All right. I will answer to myself lol

I just got an update on my account that receipt notice was sent.

And all three documents are having difference IOE! I only took 14 hours, amazing!