This is a very tricky one but I must say that I share a similar story. I was suppose to graduate in May 2023 but since 2022 November I have been researching on EB2 and collecting documents. Then this big question pops up about filing or should I wait since I don’t have my degree certificate but I only had one course remaining and my GPA was very good and I was actively doing research, presenting at conferences and I managed to publish one paper and had submitted some other that was pending approval for publication. With all of this I went ahead and file my paper work in April 2023, I even ended up doing concurrent filing because I didn’t know that filing concurrently was actually put on pause. But I ended up doing my I485 finger print in June then in October I got my work permit and my advanced parole approved. Therefore I’d say you can file it if you strongly believe that you can write your petition letter in such a way that you can capture the interest of those viewing your case especially if u have been very active. my i140 and my i485 is still pending but just wanted to share this with you.

submitting an I140 will not affect your ability to obtain OPT. the question here is, do you meet the first requirement of the EB2. i.e advanced degree or bs + 5 years experience or exceptional ability. if you plan on using your current program as the advanced degree requirement, you need to have completed the program at the time of submission. That being said, you might meet any of the other 2 requirements even without an advanced degree, then you can start thinking about the NIW’s 3 prongs.

thanks for the responses. my concerns are on the questions raised here on the OPT issue and the time framing for filing. I’m all set on meeting the requirements for the NIW.

while filing opt, there’s no session that asks if you have submitted a petition before. I will say, it’s safe to submit your petition

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