Case Studies
Real journeys. Real decisions.
Immigration advice becomes useful when it's relatable. Every case study walks through the pathway, the risks, the timeline, and the decisions that shaped the outcome.
I did not get selected in the H-1B lottery. Here is what I did next.
A non-selection is a scheduling problem, not a verdict. This walkthrough shows how one engineer mapped every remaining option in 10 days and chose the one that preserved employment.
5 months from lottery result to new petition approval
Read case studyHow I moved from STEM OPT to O-1.
The O-1 rarely gets won in the filing month. It gets won in the year before, when ordinary professional work is deliberately turned into documentable evidence.
11 months of evidence building, 3 weeks premium processing
Read case studyHow I built my EB-1A profile as a founder.
The first petition treated fundraising as achievement. The second treated it as evidence of something else - and that reframing is the entire case study.
18 months, including a rebuild after denial
Read case studyHow I used Day-1 CPT while staying compliant.
Day-1 CPT works when the academic program is real and the paper trail is complete. Here is the compliance checklist that survived a school transfer and an H-1B filing.
24 months of enrollment alongside full-time work
Read case studyHow I found a cap-exempt H-1B employer.
Most people search for cap-exempt jobs by title. This search started from the institution type and worked toward the role, which is why it took weeks rather than months.
7 weeks of search, 4 weeks to approval
Read case studyHow my family explored EB-5.
EB-5 was evaluated as a timing instrument, not a shortcut. The deciding factor was a dependent child approaching 21, not the investment itself.
9 months from decision to filed I-526E
Read case studyHow I planned my green card strategy early.
The most valuable move was the cheapest one: establishing a priority date years before it felt necessary, because a queue position cannot be bought back later.
14 months from first plan to filed I-140
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