Ms. J was formerly a senior executive at a major tech company and later became a self-employed entrepreneur, running several successful projects independently. Her first filing drew an RFE because links to early news coverage no longer worked.

Her executive experience and high salary were well recognized, but older news materials had become unavailable over time, and USCIS questioned their validity. She was also in J-1 status, which usually requires a waiver before changing status.

We uncovered her past role as secretary-general of an industry association, where she was responsible for reviewing membership qualifications and signing off on research projects, and used it as new core evidence to strengthen the RFE response. Under new USCIS policy, we also removed the need for a J-1 waiver in her case.

O-1A approved after the RFE response; her self-employed company structure posed no obstacle.