Ms. L previously held a senior management position at a major tech company in China and came to the United States to start a business focused on AI-powered marketing. She had no U.S. education, no major international awards, and no academic publications or peer review experience.

At a time when USCIS was issuing RFEs on a large scale, business-background applicants lacking all three of these credentials usually faced a high risk of scrutiny.

Instead of taking the academic route, we built the argument around how AI-driven marketing technology advances market innovation, improves advertising efficiency, and creates jobs, and used recommendation letters from industry experts and successful business cases to prove her actual contributions.

Approved with no RFE. Her two business partners, who filed at the same time, were also approved without RFE, so all three founders succeeded.