I went through the EB-1A process myself.
I am a solutions architect. I did not come to immigration through law. I came to it as an applicant, with a stack of documents and one question I could not answer on my own: is this evidence strong enough, and where is it weak?
I worked with an attorney, and what helped most was arriving with my case already explained clearly. I knew what I was claiming, which document supported each claim, and what I still lacked. That made the attorney’s time more useful, and it made the whole process less uncertain.
Then friends started asking.
Once people knew I had been through it, they came to me. Before Meritocrat was a product, I did this by hand for friends and colleagues, one conversation at a time.
The pattern was always the same. They were capable people with real accomplishments and no clear picture of how those accomplishments map to the criteria. Attorneys handled the legal work and USCIS made the decisions. What I helped with was the earlier step: understanding the case before counsel started.
Understanding membership evidence
Several colleagues asked what professional memberships could and could not prove. I walked them through what each association requires and how a reviewer reads it. A few later received their fellowships.
Explaining a case clearly
A friend who works at a data company was going in confused. We worked on how to describe his work and its impact in plain terms. He pursued his petition with counsel.
Choosing a route right after arriving
A friend who had just moved to the US wanted a path that did not depend on his employer. We compared the options, he filed an EB-2 National Interest Waiver petition with an attorney, and the petition was approved within a year of his arrival.
Responding to a Notice of Intent to Deny
My co-founder, Kumaresh Tanthullu, received a Notice of Intent to Deny on his EB-1A. We spent weeks working out what the officer questioned and where the evidence needed to be reframed. He responded, and he received his green card in June 2024.
Organizing evidence after a layoff
A friend who had filed on his own received a Request for Evidence and was laid off soon after. He rebuilt his evidence into one organized set and brought an attorney in for the response. He has since received his green card.
Names are left out to protect privacy, except Kumaresh, who agreed to be named. These were informal conversations, not a product or a legal service, and each person’s result was their own. We do not promise any outcome.
Kumaresh walks through his own experience in a long-form recording on our podcast. Watch Kumaresh’s story
What kept showing up.
Across those conversations the same gaps appeared again and again.
No one tells you where you stand.
Talented people often learn how strong their evidence is only after paying for a legal consultation, and by then they have already made decisions about jobs, moves and money.
Evidence is scattered, claims are loose.
Letters, publications, memberships and press sit in different folders. Few applicants can say which document supports which claim.
The early stage has no home.
Attorneys are the right people to file a case. Nobody is set up to help you understand and organize it before that first call, least of all if you are still outside the US.
So we built the stage before counsel.
Together with my co-founder, Kumaresh Tanthullu, an enterprise architect, we turned that conversation into software. Meritocrat is for self-petitioning applicants, including people who are still abroad, who want clarity at the early stage, before they pay for legal counsel. We are building software, not a consulting practice.
In Case Studio you bring your evidence into one workspace, and every claim is traced to the document that supports it. A readiness view shows how your evidence lines up with each criterion. When you want a person to talk it through, an Expert Advisor can help. When you are ready, you take an organized case to your attorney.
Why now.
Skilled-worker immigration is changing quickly, and the effects land first on people with the least room to absorb them. Here is what we are watching, as of October 2026.
Employer-sponsored routes are under scrutiny.
In October 2026 the Department of Labor was reported to have suspended Microsoft from the PERM labor certification program, and other large employers were reported as affected. How long this lasts and how far it reaches is not yet clear.
Read what applicants need to knowCosts and rules are being proposed to change.
A proposed rule would add a large fee to Optional Practical Training, and a change to H-4 work permits has appeared on the regulatory agenda. These are proposals, and details may change.
Read the OPT and H-4 explainerWhen sponsorship narrows, individual merit matters more.
Routes such as EB-1A and EB-2 NIW rest on the applicant’s own evidence and have no labor certification step. That does not make any route immune from change, but it does reward people who understand their evidence early.
Talented people need clarity before they relocate or spend on counsel, not after. That is the gap Meritocrat is built for.
What we will not do.
- We are not a law firm. Consultations are advisory and are not legal advice.
- Our advisors are consultants, not attorneys. Case strategy and legal judgment stay with your counsel.
- The readiness score is not a prediction that USCIS will approve a case, and we never promise outcomes.