So, went through all Eb-2 NIW on my own, without any lawyers. Have the final green card interview this month. You don't need to pay thousands of dollars to any lawyers. it's either you get it or not.
AS long as you prepare a good file to send to USCIS.

How long did you wait after being documentarily complete to receiving the inteview letter schedule? What Embassy? What is your priority date?

Good luck on the interview. Do let us know how it goes down. So it only took around 90 days from DQ to the receipt of the interview letter?

What is your consulte/embassy? there is a forum called Visajourney, and people from all around the world are posting their timelines. All you need to do is find the country of your embassy and visa category. But, if you are in Canada, it's a 2 year wait time. Especially now, with retrogression..its getting harder to get an interview. So, it's pointless to pay the lawyer even. Our priority date was Oct 2021, the date we filed I-140. Will keep posted how the interview will go.

I'd appreciate interview feedback as well. Currently waiting as my PD has retrogressed.

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Congrats on getting the approval, however, for every success story, my law firm gets contacted by 10 self-petitions that got RFEd or denied. It is a multimillion dollar career that you are trying to save a 4 day trip worth of FedEx pay by doing it yourself. As an airline pilots myself, I have flown with plenty of pilots that consider themselves financial experts, legal experts, military experts, gun experts, beer brewing experts, etc. when most are not.

That's me, happy to help!

About the recommendation letter, you have objective and subjective recommenders. Oscar the scientist 👨‍🔬, talks about recommendation letters. I can’t post links yet, but you can look up “Independent recommendation letters: minimize RFEs - EB2 NIW” on youtube.

Seems this forum is filled with objective recommenders :-)

At the moment I’m struggling with an RFE 😖

A quick question for you. How many people get the green card application rejected?

Hi Fubster, you can email me at [email protected] to discuss offline.

I don't have the stats as they don't release them without FOIAs. A lot of things done by USCIS are discretionary and this is one of them. For example, USCIS has a 50% overall approval rate on asylums, however, if adjudicated by an immigration judge, it can vary between a 5% and 97% denial rate. Within those stats, most of the denials are self-petitions. The highest statistical probability of success for anything immigration related will be with an attorney.

As a side note related to choosing attorneys, please do your due diligence. Research the attorney to make sure they can practice law in the US. You can easily go to the State BAR website and search by name. In my immigration practice, I have represented numerous victims of immigration fraud as it's very common in the US.

Thank you for the response. What I should have asked is how many of your clients have been refused?

None yet.

The process is long, expensive, excruciating and unpredictable.

Took me 8 months to compile my application and 8 days for the approval.

The wait for the PD is longer and feel that the seniority boat will be long gone by the time I get my visa.

YYZ_bound,

Any update on your interview schedule? Did you get the VISA?

Hayman Woodward is asking 25.000 USD way out of standard average market price from other firm laws.

$25k is insane

Anyone else waiting for an interview at your country"s US Embassy?

How long have you been waiting and were you affected by the retrogression in the Visa Bulletin for June?

it took only 8 days for the USCIS to approve your petition?

Hello Everyone,

I made it, I got approved, all done my myself alone after researching the internet and sharing ideas with other pilots. My profile:

- FO, Wide Body, Less than 4000 hrs, EASA ATP, EU Citizen
- Maters Degree in Aeronautical Engineering
- 6 years Work Experience as Engineer, 7 Years as FO
- Aviation Freelance Consultant
- No Papers, No publications, 4 Ref. Letters
- I used common sense and good arguments

I got a direct approval, no RFE

It took me 4 months to write, after researching the internet for a year. I got some guidance from people I met in FB groups. Lawyers asked for 18k $ non refundable paid upfront. The same lawyers ask for 5000 $ (2500 upfront and 2500$ once approved) when it is about other professions. It is for exactly this reason that I have decided to apply myself.

Good Luck everyone.

me179:

what is the next step after gettting the approval?
are you scheduled for an interview anytime soon?

What do you think 'approval' means?!

Approval means the petition has been reviewed and a Visa will be granted after more steps in the process.

An interview at a US consulate.

Affirm.
Even I was surprised. Turns out some other guy got it in 6 days. So no record broken in this case.

FalseGS, first of all, congrats. Was is with Premium processing?

probalbly with Premium Processing.

the normal processing time is around 30 to 90 days given USCIS is understaffed.

After going through and still being in this process.

a. I don’t see how anyone has a reply in any of the short times indicated here when official receipts of submission take 2-3 weeks to be sent through.

b. After seeing the level of accuracy and detail that a professional application contains, I wouldn’t even consider doing it myself.

c. After taking personal time required to submit/cost of professional services, I’d rather spend that time creating value elsewhere. Or watching some paint dry.

Well done anyone who genuinely gets approval on a personal application that hasn’t just copied someone else’s, that’s a spectacular result.

A. My I-140 was approved before receiving the actual I-797C receipt notice. My case was approved within three weeks of sending the petition to USCIS.
B. I completely agree with you. I couldn't imagine creating the NIW package myself. A good lawyer is a must in my opinion.
C. If I understand you correctly, you're still waiting for either an approval or stuck in the current retrogression? Either way, good luck to you. This process is long and tiring, but I firmly want to immigrate to the US and the career prospects are generally much more positive in the US than elsewhere in the world.

Yes it was.

Congratulations on getting your visa. Any advice or tips on what helped you submit a successful application? Happy to put in the work myself but any websites you found useful would be helpful. Cheers

I'm not sure of anyone is willing to share tips with you as most pay top dollar and/or putting their time into research which could worth equivalent top dollar. In any case here's one who didn't make it, could be of help on how not to do it.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...FErjswLaM1d24T

That's the elephant in the room. Nobody talks about the people who got rejected.

I spoke to a lawyer who claimed a 100% success rate. After some more questions he admits that he only submits the application if he is certain it will be approved.

So if 10 people contact you, what's the percentage of people you think will be approved? Oh about 2 in 10 he said.

Is it? Back when I was going through the immigration process almost 30 years ago, just a basic retainer for an immigration attorney was $9,000. Thirty years ago.

The amount of specialty and time investment required for a well formulated EB2 petition, a qualified lawyer has every right to charge accordingly. If the client is willing to pay $25k, that's up to you.

And to the previous comment, of course not every airline pilot is qualified for a NIW. To suggest otherwise would be highly unethical of a lawyer to do.

Just a quick update. As I previously stated, did EB-2 NIW on my own, no lawyers. Did not use premium processing. I-140 was filed Oct 2021/ Got my passport with EB-2 NIW visa stamped end of May. It took us a year and a half to get everything done. The question of the lawyer depends on whether you are capable of researching the internet, immigration communities.
If you don't have a Degree, lots of hours and experience, you might not get approved with lawyers/without, but you can always try to make your case stand out.

1. What questions did the VO ask you?
2. Have you paid the $220? did you pay it before departing the US or when you landed?
3. When you entered the US, was there any issues at the port of entry? any problems with CBP?

I was just about my highest degree, and if I'm planning to work as a pilot in the US.
no, we haven't landed in the US yet. But you have to pay before you go to the border.
I don't think there will be any.
Good luck!

Can you tell more about when you say you were just about your highest degree?

I have two aviation management certificates but I am still one exam to go and the dissertation before i get my master’s degree.
I was just wondering if that would be enough to apply according to your experience.

The requirement is for an ‘advanced degree’ (ie higher than Bachelor’s).

A foreign award also needs to be qualified by a recognised transcript service to be accepted by USCIS. If the degree is from a US University it should be automatically accepted.

Don’t think your other certificates would be accepted, unless a transcript service deems them equivalent number if credits.

Good luck.