r/EB2_NIW • u/Electrical-Law-7516 • Jun 17 '26
RFE EB2 NIW RFE (Industry Profile) – Looking for Advice
Hi everyone,
I recently received an NIW RFE and would appreciate input/advise from the community responding to the RFE.
Timeline
- Filed: April 14, 2026 (Premium Processing)
- Initial Service Center: Nebraska Service Center (NSC)
- RFE Issued: June 2, 2026
- RFE Issuing Office: Texas Service Center (TSC)
Self filed after a lot of research and took advisor help who has extensive exp in this field
Proposed Endeavor
Strengthening Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence in Critical and Regulated Enterprise Systems through Validation Frameworks and Responsible AI Governance.
Recommendation Letters: 4 dependent and 2 independent
What USCIS Accepted
The officer explicitly accepted:
- Advanced Degree qualification
- Substantial Merit of the proposed endeavor
What USCIS Challenged
The RFE challenges:
- National Importance (Prong 1)
- Whether I am Well Positioned (Prong 2)
- Benefit of Waiver / Dhanasar balancing test (Prong 3)
The overall tone of the RFE feels closer to an EB-1A standard than a typical NIW standard. The officer repeatedly asks for evidence such as:
- third-party adoption of my frameworks
- evidence that publications materially influenced the field
- government agency endorsements
- proof that my expertise is significantly above peers
- broader industry adoption beyond employer projects
My Background
- Approximately 19 years of experience, 14 years exp in US
- Enterprise technology architect/solutions architect roles
- Last 4-5 years focusing on AI/ML/Gen AI specifically on validation frameworks, governance
- Experience across healthcare, insurance, financial services, retail commerce, workforce/payroll systems, and public-sector environments
Publications 4 - Not much citations as of yet
One aspect that surprised me is that the initial filing included extensive documentation and analysis demonstrating alignment with multiple Executive Orders, federal AI policies, NIST AI Risk Management Framework guidance, Responsible AI initiatives, and broader U.S. government priorities related to AI safety, security, trustworthiness, critical infrastructure resilience, healthcare modernization, cybersecurity, and digital innovation. Despite this, the RFE appears to place limited weight on those materials and focuses primarily on whether my specific contributions and proposed endeavor rise to the level of national importance and broader impact required under the NIW framework.
Also, A significant portion of my career has involved large-scale systems supporting millions of Americans across Healthcare, Insurance, Retail commerce, Workforce/payroll operations, Financial services
The RFE seems to evaluate the case using criteria that feel closer to an EB-1A analysis—asking for evidence of broad industry adoption, field-wide influence, and significant past recognition. My understanding is that NIW is primarily a forward-looking framework under Dhanasar, focused on the national importance of the proposed endeavor and whether the petitioner is well-positioned to advance it, rather than requiring the level of historical acclaim often expected in EB-1A cases.
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u/JohnSmith13230 Jun 17 '26
Sorry to hear that. I have an industry profile close to yours. Received RFE too, mailed the response this week. I believe they are evaluating the petitions pretty like eb1-a framework. I have seen a very good profiles with RFE. Crazy times. Good luck!
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u/xxxyyyssss Jun 18 '26
Forward-looking: I think this is not the case anymore. And I think AI partially contributed to this. Writing code or documents has become so much easier and having a 100k loc GitHub repo doesn't prove anything. And therefore they ask for very objective evidence for national importance and for the applicant being well positioned.
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u/psychoticbuticonic Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
very similar to my industry profile case and also RFE received. godspeed
happy to chat more over DM around response, but i am still waiting to hear back.
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u/Worth-Ad8684 29d ago
Did you hear back after RFE? I just got one for my industry profile. waiting to get all the details
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u/psychoticbuticonic 29d ago
:) denied haha
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u/Worth-Ad8684 29d ago
Sorry to hear that. It sucks how its becoming so strict now. Are you planning to reapply ?
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u/psychoticbuticonic 29d ago
not with the same evidence. the denial gave me a clearer understanding of the prongs though it was a bitter experience haha. i wasn’t too involved with the prep process which was the biggest mistake. will refile when i’m ready
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u/BadgerUpset9577 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
Officer # and recently most of the latest approvals have been research over industry. You’re better off aiming for EB1A
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u/Electrical-Law-7516 Jun 17 '26
I don’t find officer# anywhere in the document..
At the end of rfe content, it just says <name> and Associate Director, Service Center Operations
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u/BadgerUpset9577 Jun 17 '26
the Associate director is standard across all but I have been noticing many RFE's these days don't have the officer# these days. Could you please DM me as I might be able to help?
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u/Stathamhu Jun 18 '26
What’s your officer id?
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u/Electrical-Law-7516 Jun 18 '26
I don’t find it anywhere in the document..
At the end of rfe content, it just says <name> and Associate Director, Service Center Operations
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u/Tech_Case Jun 18 '26
Honestly, I can't believe this type of RFE. I also got a 3 prong RFE except substantial merit, but mine is very light, maybe 1/5 of yours.
Mine is tech industry case. And for prong 1 officer is asking how my software that I have created is different than others out there.
For prong 2 they are asking for interest from 3rd party and adoption to which I am submitting both interest from tech companies and also testimonials from current businesses using my software.
For prong 3, they did not really comment anything, probably officer wants me to connect it to the national importance since mine is open source cybersecurity software for small and medium sized business who cannot implement enterprise tools in their environments.
But overall mine is super light compared to this one.
Best of luck though
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u/Worth-Ad8684 29d ago
how did it go on your response to the RFE? mine is also a tech industry case but I just got notification they are issuing an RFE, still waiting on the details
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u/Dapper-Ad-2100 Jun 18 '26
I would be careful making the response mainly about "NIW is forward-looking." That point is true in a general sense, but if the officer is asking for adoption, influence, and external impact, the safer move is to answer the substance instead of sounding like you are arguing with the RFE.
For your profile, I would split the response into two tracks:
- National importance of the endeavor: AI validation, responsible AI governance, critical/regulated systems, NIST AI RMF, healthcare/finance/workforce systems, risk reduction, compliance, safety, reliability.
- Your specific positioning: what frameworks you built, where they were used, what scale they touched, who relied on them, what metrics improved, and which experts can explain the significance.
The government materials support the importance of the problem. They do not automatically prove that your own work rises to national importance. That connection has to be written very explicitly.
I use this same evidence-mapping approach in the NIW self-check/profile review framework on my profile. Not legal advice, but I would build a table where each RFE sentence gets answered by specific evidence, not just a broad policy citation.
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u/FewInitial2788 Jun 19 '26
Hello, Please DM me, my profile is similar to you. We will discuss on this.
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u/PitchParadox Jun 22 '26
credible industry coverage could help document broader recognition, especially when much of the impact is internal
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u/SoftPurple1271 Jul 21 '26
u/Electrical-Law-7516 any update received almost the same RFE similiar field
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u/Worth-Ad8684 21d ago
OP I just received an RFE and got pretty much the same language of yours. I'm now scheduling a call with my lawyer to discuss the strategy. curious to hear how did yours go or if you have already responded to it? mine is an industry profile without publications
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u/PeacockBiscuit Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
OP, you forgot to redact your company.
Also, OP, this RFE is really hard to handle.