A young UX/UI designer with international design awards, media coverage, and exhibition experience. Believing he already met the requirements, he prepared and filed his own EB-1A petition using templates found online.

USCIS did not dispute his awards, coverage, or exhibitions. Instead, at the Final Merits stage (the final overall determination), it questioned whether he had truly reached the top of his field and whether his achievements were sustained. This is the hurdle DIY applicants most often overlook, and once the NOID arrived, only 10 days remained to respond.

Rather than reusing the legal documents from the DIY filing, we re-examined his entire career trajectory and reorganized the evidence of awards, coverage, exhibitions, and industry contributions to respond directly to the two core concerns: top-of-field standing and sustained achievement.

NOID overturned and petition approved (NOID received and Lingtu retained 04/30/2026 · response filed 05/11 · approved 05/25).