Effective EB-1A Recommendation Letters: Guidelines for Selecting Your Recommenders and What to Include

EB-1A letters of recommendation (also called reference letters or expert opinion letters) are an integral part of the EB-1A petition. However, these letters differ slightly from your standard recommendation letters that help you get a new job or into a competitive academic program. Securing an EB-1A visa requires proving your extraordinary ability and outstanding achievements in your field.  When done correctly, letters of recommendation (LORs) highlight your expertise and significant contributions, thus supporting your eligibility for the EB-1A visa.

Why are Letters of Recommendation Important? 

Getting an approval of your EB-1A visa application requires proving you are a top expert in your field with sustained national or international acclaim. However, the USCIS officer reading your petition may or may not be familiar with your field and is even less likely to be an expert in your line of work. That’s where LORs come in. As part of the support package that accompanies your petition, these letters are endorsements from respected leaders in your field of expertise to support your extraordinary ability and achievements. Effective letters serve to highlight your qualifications, explain the context of your achievements, and demonstrate your impact and influence from an outside, credible source (i.e., not just you). 

But EB-1A recommendation letters require more than a bunch of generic, nice statements about you.  Here are some tips for requesting letters from the right people and what an effective letter should include. 

Who Should Provide an EB-1A Recommendation Letter?

EB-1A recommendation letters should come from respected experts in your field who can speak with authority about your accomplishments and extraordinary ability. These individuals should have a closely familiar and strong understanding of your work, skills, and impact, and clearly explain what distinguishes you from your peers in the industry.

These individuals could include:

• Current (and former) employers–direct supervisors and higher-ups in your organization 

• Notable clients who can attest to your impact on their organization 

• Industry experts or esteemed colleagues familiar with your work 

• Leaders of professional associations you are part of 

• Professional mentors in the industry 

• Professors with expertise in your field

• Award committee members

• Researchers that have cited your academic publications 

• and more!

Make sure that every letter you include in your EB-1A petition is from a reputable and credible person in your field. They should provide key details of their background and experience to show why their opinions and evaluation of your expertise are meaningful. 

Ideally, seek letters from a diverse group of recommenders, each able to highlight different strengths and accomplishments from your career. While a letter can focus on one criterion, when a recommender can credibly speak to multiple areas, such as your original contributions and critical role and notable awards, that will be an even more helpful letter.

What Should Be Included in Your EB-1A Recommendation Letter?

Once you have great recommenders lined up, what needs to be included? The details can largely depend on the criteria you want the recommender to speak about (leading/critical role, original contributions, authorship, reviewing, etc.), but there are key elements to include in every letter: 

• Recommender’s Expertise: What makes them qualified to give an expert opinion about your work and value to the field? As mentioned above, include relevant education, years of experience, specialization, work history, high-level awards or other honors, etc.
  

• Relationship to You: How do you know one another? Give dates and specifics whether it is through your employment, collaboration within the industry, research work, having selected you from amongst others for a peer review or other judging opportunity, etc.
  

• Purpose of the Letter: Clearly state what criteria the letter is meant to support. WHY does this recommender believe you have been critical or leading at an organization, or made original contributions that impacted the field? This is where generalizing will not be enough. Get SPECIFIC with the achievements and impact. Metrics that show improvement or another measurable impact for your organization or the field is key. Use personalized, real-world examples. As the common saying goes: "Show, Don’t Tell.” 

  • For other criteria such as authorship of scholarly articles, judging, or membership, the recommender should be able to describe why you were selected for that association based on their requirements, why you were qualified to review the work of others and what it says about your expertise, or why your published research is meaningful to the field.
    

• Sustained Acclaim: The overarching theme of any great letter is that you are a top expert in your industry with recognized accomplishments and value to others in the field. Additional evidence to back up your claims should also be included in your total petition package, but a letter of recommendation from credible experts is an important part of that evidence.

A Few Last Thoughts

Letters of recommendation are powerful tools to support your EB-1A petition. Here are a few more important things to remember: 

• Develop a Strategy for Obtaining Reference Letters for Your Case

  • Each person and their qualifications are different. Before selecting and reaching out to references, you should think about the purpose of each letter and how it will benefit the overall strategy of your case.

    
    

• Professional Tone and Structure

  • Include a formal introduction (example: “To Whom It May Concern:”)

  • Clear, easy-to-follow structure (use headings if needed) 

  • Professional, respectful language

  • Signed, dated with FULL contact information 

  • Printed on official letterhead (when applicable)

  • Includes resume or C.V. (not required, but highly recommended) 

• What to Avoid

  • Vague or Generic Language. Statements like “he’s great to work with” or “she’s a hard worker” might work for getting a new job, but they aren’t impactful for demonstrating qualification for an EB-1A visa.
    

  • Too Much Technical Jargon. Remember, USCIS officers are likely not familiar with your field. Avoid using overly complex, technical, or industry-specific terms.
    

  • Assuming Quantity is Better than Quality. While there’s no specific minimum number of EB-1A recommendation letters required, aim for at least three (maximum around 10) in your immigration petition. Recommenders that can speak to more than one criteria are best. Fewer great letters are better than a higher number of weaker letters.
    

  • Using AI to Draft Letters. USCIS is familiar with AI. While a helpful tool in drafting your immigration petition, you don't want to submit letters riddled with errors or that all contain the same voice. People writing your reference letters should make sure the letter is in their voice containing their opinions. The overuse of AI can make this difficult to accomplish.

Letters of recommendation written by respected experts are an essential part of showcasing and verifying your essential abilities–don’t underestimate their importance!

Set up a consultation to discuss your reference letter strategy today! Book a Consultation | Lisonbee Immigration

This post is part 4 of a new 17-week series published every Wednesday. Each post is written by a different employee of Lisonbee Immigration Law about a immigration topic of their choosing. This post was written by immigration attorney Katy Bastow.