After earning a PhD in mechanical engineering, Mr. W went straight into industry R&D. He is now a senior engineer at a new-energy vehicle parts company, focused on battery thermal management.

• He had published few papers and his citations were modest, so by academic standards his record did not stand out.
• Most of his projects were internal and confidential, so design documents could not be used as evidence.

• We built the case around original contributions of major significance, centered on several of his granted patents: which production vehicle battery packs use these designs and what problems they solve. The evidence was public patent texts, industry media coverage and a non-confidential letter from his company. No internal documents were used.
• For the other two criteria we chose his peer review work and his critical role on the R&D team. Most recommendation letters came from independent experts who did not know him, assessing from outside the company how his patents have affected the industry.

Date	Milestone
Late July 2026	I-140 filed with premium processing
Mid-August 2026	Approved, no RFE

An engineer without many papers can still prove his contributions through patents that made it into real products. Mr. W's EB-1A was approved the first time, with no RFE.

EB-1A approved the first time with no RFE (approved mid-August 2026).