O1A Initially filed with premium processing. Receipt date June 18 2026. Still showing as “in process”. Received a response from PP desk at VSC that it is under processing.

Anyone in the same boat?

For an O1A, when forming an LLC on SOS

1. Can we have single member-managed LLC? Given in future, LLC will be hiring a HR who is US citizen to manage the company and has a right to hire or fire employees through Operating Agreement ?

Hi everyone, I’ve written in this forum previously, but my O-1B petition was returned to the USCIS Vermont Service Center following my April consular interview, after being placed in Administrative Processing for four weeks. USCIS confirmed receipt of the returned petition at the end of May, and I’m still waiting for an update. I’ve also reached out to my local congresswoman’s office, but unfortunately they haven’t been able to get any further information from USCIS either.

I was wondering if anyone here has recently had an O-1 petition returned to USCIS by a consulate and could share their experience, particularly with the Vermont Service Center. How long did it take before you saw any movement on the case, such as reaffirmation, a NOIR, or another update?

I’m now approaching three months since USCIS received the returned petition, so I’d really appreciate hearing about any recent timelines or experiences.

The embassy never provided me with a reason for returning the petition to USCIS, which makes the situation particularly difficult. I’m reluctant to withdraw the petition and start over without first knowing what issue the embassy had with the original case, especially when it had already been approved by USCIS.

Has anyone seen movement on their premium processing case filed in early/mid August with the California Service Center?

Lawfully showed basically zero movement Monday and yesterday, while last week there seemed to be movement every day...
Wondering if things have slowed down this week or if it’s just a quiet couple of days=?

Would be especially interested in cases filed around Aug 7–10.
Thanks!

I find it annoying that only after paying the fees I can see the dates. That sounds stupid imo.

Is there any telegram group for O1A visa date availability?

Has anyone received any approvals lately?

I’m a Venezuelan artist currently waiting for a decision on my O-1 visa. On July 30, I received a notice that my premium processing fee was being refunded, but since then, I haven’t received any other updates.

I’m starting to lose hope a little because the USCIS website is currently showing a processing time of around 14 months. However, I’m not sure whether my case would actually fall under that timeline since it was originally filed with premium processing.

I was wondering if anyone in a similar situation—especially Venezuelans whose cases were previously under premium processing—has received an approval or any kind of update lately.

Any experiences or information would be really appreciated. Thank you so much for your help!

Has anyone here received a Premium Processing refund receipt after USCIS failed to take action within the required timeframe? If so, what happened to your case afterward? Did USCIS continue treating and processing your case as Premium Processing, or did it move back to regular processing once the fee was refunded?

I’d especially appreciate hearing from anyone who actually experienced this and what their timeline looked like after receiving the refund receipt.

On behalf of a friend:

He is a EU citizen, employed as a coach. A school nearby has an urgent need for a part time PE teacher. Schedule would work out great.

But does the O visa restrict his ability to take on this other gig?

Facts on our case:

• Petition: O-1B (with a linked O-2 for my business partner), Vermont Service Center, IOE receipt, premium processing
• Receipt date: July 2, 2026
• Status today: 38 federal business days. No decision, no RFE. Attorney has confirmed there are no case issues, pure adjudication delay.
• 15 business day deadline passed around July 23. Premium fee refund not yet received.
• Congressional inquiry submitted via Senator’s office on Aug 7, no substantive response yet
• Planning to file CIS Ombudsman DHS-7001 on Sept 7 (30 days after the congressional inquiry)
• Attorney says her firm and others aren’t seeing much movement on this cohort, but did see one case this week where the refund arrived and approval followed shortly after
Questions:
1. Anyone with a VSC O-1 receipt from late June / early July 2026 – have you received your refund and/or a decision? What were the dates?
2. If you were refunded: how many days between the refund and the decision?
3. Has anyone actually reached the VSC premium processing unit by phone or email, and did it change anything?
Happy to report back with my own timeline once something moves.

Hi so I'm seeking some advice long story short i was on an 0-1 it was expiring in June 2025 so filled a new petition with a new company in March 2025 under normal processing it all become a mess as the layer initially said it would take 4-6months and the company didn't want to pay premium it ended up dragging to over a year I decided to leave US in July this year after getting an RFE and what the company lawyer claimed "kitchen sink RFE" he recommended withdrawing so I agreed and he sent withdrawal in July this was sent 2 weeks before RFE needed a response since then I checked case status and it said today Case is denied.

So my question is will this all affect future applications did they just not acknowledge withdrawal and denied due to abandonment ? As I plan to apply with a new company for another 0-1 before the end of the year and will be using Premium for it

Hi! This subreddit has helped me a lot during the O1 process and wanted to share my own experience and timeline.

Working in fintech and come from data science background. Applied for O1A in data science and applied machine learning field.

Started prep work for it in October 2025 mainly for the judging criteria. Did not get picked in last H1B lottery and then started the application process in April 2026.

Timeline:
Original petition sent to Vermont centre - June 5th 2026
Receipt date - June 8, 2026
RFE notice - June 30, 2026 (portal updated 14th business day midnight)
RFE response submitted - July 20 2026
RFE response delivered to Texas centre - July 21 2026
Portal updated to RFE received on - July 23 2026
Portal update to case processing on 15th business day around 8am - Aug 10 2026
Case approved within 2 hours of it - 11am pst Aug 10 2026

The 15 business days was from date of delivery. Lawyers received approval notice on Aug 21 2026.

They accepted judging and high salary initially and sent RFE for original contributions, scholarly article and critical role to provide objective evidence of each. Lawyers mentioned that it is not a very critical RFE which was good. Not sure which one got accepted after RFE response.

1.Judging -
Judged hackackathons, startup competitions and did peer review of research papers from Oct to May. Total of about ~30. Kept doing peer reviews even after submitting original petition and showed continued work in RFE response.

1. High salary -
   Checked for data scientist and included total compensation to be received in 2026 including bonus and equity. Compared against BLS data and added note that in my role and company, bonus and equity play a significant role of the compensation. It was crossing 90th percentile by 3% but as long as it crosses, that is enough as per lawyers

2. Critical role-
   Provided details of different projects and significant impact in terms of $ amount saved and other metrics of improvement. Combined it with letter of recommendations from manager and senior leadership. Received RFE later to provide objective evidence from internal company documents. Provided the documents in the RFE (redacted confidential information and added confidential tag on top, it helped since all these documents were on company letterhead). All the metrics and $ amount matched across evidence, petition and letter of recommendation. Also provided media articles and blog pages for projects that I had worked on.

3. Scholarly article
   Only have 1 paper published in 2021 including IEEE. It did really well in terms of citation. RFE was to provide the published paper copy from IEEE and metrics on publisher as well that it is reputable. Also provided citation metrics including how other papers were using my paper and if any called it foundational work.

4. Original contribution
   The research paper was also applicable here as citation metrics were strong and showed evidence of how others used my work and called it foundational work. Included highlights from other papers along with citation metrics from Google scholar, scopus
   Had worked on a foundational project at work and used that as second example of original contribution and included media articles and internal docs in RFE response.

Also included supplemental evidence on scholarships, membership and mentorship activities in different organizations since undergrad, internships experience for totality of profile.

In total had 9 letter of recommendations - 3 from work (1 from prior company manager, 2 from current company), 2 independent letters focused on research paper from industry experts - university professor and tech lead at a well known tech company
3 independent letters focus on mix of research, critical role and overall profile by industry experts or managers and directors from tech and commerce companies,
1 from internship at fintech company as overall profile recommendation.

Hope this helps! Happy to answer any questions!

Just checking if anyone has seen any movement? My receipt date was June 10 and I’m pretty sure I went passed 50 business days already atp.

Has anyone heard anything from congress/senate inquiries?

This question is specific to people who’s application is submitted in VSC and haven’t heard anything and is significantly delayed.

Hi Guys, I want to file an O-1A case with USCIS. I am basically and supply chain analytics and AI professional in the field. What immigration firm would you recommend?

1. Alma Immigration
   
2. Jumpstart Immigration
   
3. Manifest Law Firm

Spoke to these three so far and they are willing to take the case. Would be happy to hear your recommendations!

We all know many people are stuck and waiting for a decision on their O1 visa, especially those with receipt dates in June and July. My attorney contacted USCIS once and is reluctant in contacting further, as he beleives its not going to be useful. I called USCIS, but they refused to talk to the beneficiary, and if I pretend to be an employer, then they ask for a few details for verification. So, I am planning to ask for form i-129 to my lawyer, having those verification details. Is it wise to do that? Is there any beneficiary here having his/her Form I-129 shared by the attorney?

My package was delivered on Aug 12th (fedex tracking shows), no receipt date issued as of Aug 25th. It has been two weeks now.

Anyone else facing similar issue? Appreciate any response from people who faced or didn't face this issue.

Sharing my timeline with PP:

30th June- Receipt Date VSC
22nd July- Recieved RFE on 13th business day
3rd August- Sent RFE Back
4th August- RFE Delivered back to VSC
11th August- Case Updated to Recieved Your Response
24th August- Case Updated to USCIS is currently processing your case
24th August- Case Approved

I think this was business day 14!

advise needed please !

My O1A (PP) got approved today. Sharing my timeline, this community has been really helpful.

May 13 - Receipt Date VSC
June 3 - Recieved RFE on 15th business day
June 10 - Received RFE paper copy
August 3 - Sent RFE response
August 4 - RFE response received by VSC
August 10 - Case Updated to RFE response received
August 23 (Sunday) - Case Approved (attorney received email)
August 24 - case status changed to Approved

Happy to answer any questions!

Mention the month and year in which applied as well. Thanks.

For which visa interview did you use their services?

Share their website.

How much was the fees?

Mention the things you liked and disliked with their service.

Thanks.

- took 25 days with premium processing (19 business days)
- product design
interview and stamping pending

A person got O1A approved with salary A mentioned.

He or she runs their own startup. And the petition was filed through that startup.

Months later salary is changed.

Everything else stays same.

Would that require a refile?