Familiar does not mean weak evidence
Some of the work in my EB-1A petition had been part of my life for years. That familiarity made it easy to undervalue.
More issues
I tested my petition by reading only the headings
My EB-1A cover letter was long enough that I could not judge its structure by reading one polished paragraph at a time. A paragraph could sound clear on its own while sitting in the wrong section. Two adjacent sections could make the same argument with different words. A missing step could stay hidd
A list with my name was only the start of the award evidence
My petition included two recognitions: the Financial Times Top 100 BAME Leaders in Technology and L'Etudiant's 100 Young People Making Headlines. The pages with my name established that I appeared on those lists.
The judging invitation was not the whole record
My EB-1A petition included two judging roles. I judged the Soyoye Pitch Competition at King's College London in February 2018. I also judged the pitch session at UCL HackMed on February 23, 2020.
Redaction should remove identity, not evidence logic
The public version of my petition protects private identities. Names and contact details can be removed. A recommender can become **the co-founder of the organization**. A judging inviter can become **the event organizer**.
My future-work section started with work already in motion
Most of my EB-1A petition looked backward. It described roles I had held, initiatives I had built, media coverage I had received, judging I had done, and recognition already in the record.
An award can recognize you without proving what your work changed
My petition included recognition such as the Financial Times Top 100 BAME Leaders in Technology and L'Etudiant 100 Young People. Those records could establish that recognition happened.
My longest sentences were hiding the weakest evidence
Some of the most convincing sentences in my early petition drafts were also the hardest to prove. They sounded efficient because they compressed a role, an organization, a result, and a conclusion into one line.
An approved petition is a source, not a template
I published my full EB-1A petition because public examples helped me understand what I was trying to build. They did not give me a career to copy.
I treated every critical-role claim as two separate cases
The leading or critical role section of my EB-1A petition looked like one argument. While drafting it, I found it more useful to treat it as two.