Possible NOID on EB-1B despite prior approval
Hi there! I recently filed an updated I-140 application in the EB-1B category after joining Big Tech Company A earlier this year. I previously had an approved I-140 EB1-B application from Big Tech Company B, with a Priority Date of September 2023.
A bit about my qualifying criteria in the application:
- Senior Researcher at a Big Tech company with 7+ years of experience.
- Authored 14 research papers in AI, most of which were accepted to Tier 1 conferences and journals. Citation count upwards of 1k.
- 1 granted US patent valid from 2019-39.
- Reviewed 20+ papers at 6 different AI conferences in the last 5 years.
- 25+ articles with media coverage of my work (including a few where I have been quoted).
Since my first approval in September 2023, I have:
- 5x-ed my citation count.
- Published 3 more papers.
- Shipped models on a scale of billions of users around the world.
I see the status on the USCIS site is ‘Notice Explaining USCIS' Actions Was Mailed’. The evidence on what this actually means is very ambiguous – some accounts suggest it could be an RFE/NOID while others suggest it could be an approval too. A NOID seems statistically most likely based on other cases.
I wonder if anybody else has seen such a notice on their EB-1B applications before, and what the follow-up steps were? I’ll know better in a week with the official notice, but I’m looking to be prepared for the worst case scenario with contingency plans regardless (including potentially filing a EB1-A through a different legal agency).
Any insights from experience would be much appreciated.
Thanks!