where did that even come from?
I went full Sherlock Holmes mode with my good friend Claude, to answer this question.
The President of the United States? USCIS's Director?
I went looking for these answers. And what I found?
All this digging led me to an insight, a secret, that should be like your topmost mantra when applying for EB-1.
Ok I get it, government documents are boring. So I did you a solid. I narrated the entire report like a Gen Z govt intern dropping some piping hot tea.
- The full paper trail, traced back further than most coaches even know exists
- Clickable primary sources, straight from the Federal Register and congressional reports
- The structural insight behind why the 10 criteria are built the way they are
- Zero legal jargon, narrated so it's actually fun to read
During my PhD, my professors taught me to do one thing before anything else: ask why before how. Don't just learn the method, interrogate where it came from.
Then I went through my own EB-1. And I didn't do any of that. I looked at the 10 criteria and went full attack mode, collect evidence, hit the boxes, move. I got my green card in 2021. I never once stopped to ask: wait a minute, why is "extraordinary ability" even measured by these 10 specific things?
So years later, I did what any PhD would eventually do. I went and built the research report I should have read before my own petition. This is that report.
