Nobody warns you how exposed you feel the second you hit submit on a Chen immigration free evaluation. Fifteen years of building something real- a company, a team, a name people say with respect in rooms you are not in- and all of it now fits inside a web form and a two-page CV. Then you wait. Twenty-four hours. Then forty-eight. Then a short paragraph from a stranger that either lifts you or flattens you, with nothing in between. That is why a Chen immigration free evaluation stops feeling like a service somewhere around hour thirty and starts feeling like a verdict on your life.
It is not a verdict. It is one firm answering one narrow question about one set of visa categories, and the answer tells you far more about how well your record is organized than about how far you can actually go.
This article shows you what happens on the other side of that form. Who reads it, what the reply really means, what to do if it comes back strong, and what to do if it does not. No law firm can write this about its own service, which is exactly why you are reading it somewhere else.
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What the evaluation actually is
North America Immigration Law Group, also known as Chen Immigration Law Associates and marketed as WeGreened, runs a free screening service for people considering employment-based US petitions. You send your CV and some basic details through their free evaluation page, and an attorney tells you which category fits you and how strong your odds look.
The categories they screen for are EB-2 NIW, EB-1A, EB-1B, and the O-1A nonimmigrant visa. Three of those four let you petition for yourself with no employer sponsoring you. That is the reason so many founders and senior professionals end up on their site in the first place.
The firm asks for eight things. Your CV, your field, your current position and worksite, your visa status if you are inside the US, your country of birth, your citation counts, your publishing plans, and your peer review record. Turnaround is 24 hours on business days.
Who is actually reading it?
Victoria Chen is the founding attorney. Her practice focuses on the arguments, structure, and format of petitions for NIW, EB-1A, and other employment-based classifications, and she is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the American Bar Association. The firm runs offices in Ann Arbor, Dallas and Fort Worth, New York, and Research Triangle Park, and works with clients in all 50 states on I-140 petitions.
The firm reports more than 64,000 approved employment-based petitions and states that its attorneys hold law degrees from top US schools and handle cases personally. That matters, because plenty of free evaluation forms across the industry route straight to a sales team. Take the figures as the firm’s own representation rather than an independent finding.
What comes back, and what it is not
Expect a short written reply. Not a report. A few paragraphs telling you which category suits your profile and how the firm rates your chances.
Two things it is not.
- It is not legal advice you can act on alone. The firm says plainly that no attorney-client relationship forms from a free evaluation.
- It is not a prediction of your green card date. It rates your petition, and your petition is only half the process.
That second point trips up almost everyone, and it deserves its own section.
The country of birth question they ask and never explain
The form asks for your country of birth. It does not tell you why.
Here is why. An approved petition gives you a priority date, which is your place in a queue. How long you wait in that queue depends on where you were born. The State Department publishes the Visa Bulletin every month showing the cutoffs.
In the August 2026 bulletin, EB-1 stayed current for every country except China and India. China advanced to 1 July 2023, and India held at 15 October 2022. EB-2 for China sat at 1 September 2021, while EB-2 for India was marked unavailable because India’s prorated limit for the fiscal year ran out. The State Department expects India EB-2 to reopen around 15 July 2014 or earlier once the new fiscal year starts on 1 October 2026.
For applicants born in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and most of the rest of the continent, EB-1 and EB-2 are current. An approved petition converts to a green card without a decade of queueing. If you were born in India or China, a glowing evaluation and a green card in hand are separated by years. Any evaluation that skips this is telling you half the story.
One more thing on timing. The August bulletin warned that demand may force EB-2 backward, or close it, to keep issuance within the annual limit. Categories that read current today can shut. The cost of waiting another two years to prepare is higher than most people assume.
Why the evaluation is free
Free evaluations exist to find cases worth taking. The firm has offered an Approval or Refund arrangement since 2011, refunding attorney fees on eligible cases that get denied, and it states that it offers that guarantee only when its evaluation confirms a high probability of success.
A promise like that only works if you screen hard at the front and decline the cases you might lose. So understand what a negative reply is. It is a commercial decision about risk, not a verdict on your career. Plenty of qualified people get turned away because their evidence is not organized yet, and no firm can see a case through a two-page CV.
The gap if you are a founder rather than a researcher
Read the eight questions again. Citations. Publications. Papers reviewed. Google Scholar link. Year of your most recent article.
Now imagine you run a payments company with 40 staff and eight figures of processed volume. You have never published a paper. Your Google Scholar profile does not exist. You type zero into three fields in a row and feel the case dissolve.
It has not dissolved. USCIS does not require publications for EB-1A or O-1A. The regulations list ten criteria, and you need three, followed by a final merits review. Several have nothing to do with academia.
- Awards and prizes in your field
- Membership in associations that require outstanding achievement to join
- Published material about you in major media or trade press
- Judging the work of others
- Original contributions of major significance
- Authorship of scholarly articles
- Display of your work at exhibitions
- A leading or critical role for a distinguished organization
- High salary relative to your peers
- Commercial success in the performing arts
A founder or executive can build a real case from awards, press coverage, a leading role at a company with standing, salary evidence, and judging work such as sitting on accelerator panels or startup competition juries. Original contributions of major significance can rest on a product, a patent, or an approach the industry adopted.
EB-2 NIW works differently. It runs on the three-prong test from Matter of Dhanasar. Your proposed endeavor needs substantial merit and national importance, you need to be well positioned to advance it, and waiving the job offer needs to benefit the United States. Officers want concrete effects at national scale. Saying your work sits in a valuable field does not carry a petition on its own.
The evaluation form has no field for any of this. Which means the strength of your reply depends heavily on how well your CV already tells that story.
What to do before you request any evaluation
Most people submit too early, get a lukewarm reply, and conclude they do not qualify. Do these first.
- Rewrite your CV for an adjudicator, not a recruiter. Lead with measurable outcomes. Revenue moved, users served, systems adopted, teams built, capital raised. Numbers beat titles.
- Collect your press. Every article, podcast, panel, and interview that names you. Note the publication and its reach. Aim for three to five pieces where you are the subject rather than the author.
- List every judging role. Hackathon judge, grant reviewer, award panel, conference committee, accelerator selection. Founders forget these constantly, and they satisfy a criterion on their own. Save the invitation email and the thank-you email.
- Document your leading role. Get an org chart, a board resolution, or a contract showing your seniority and the organization’s standing.
- Pull salary evidence. Your compensation against national or industry benchmarks for your role.
- Line up independent letters. Senior figures in your field who do not work for you carry far more weight than your co-founder. Six to eight is a reasonable target.
- Name your endeavor in one sentence. Not your job title. The specific work you intend to continue in the US and the problem it addresses at national scale.
- Fix your online footprint. An adjudicator will search you. A dead website or an abandoned LinkedIn works against a claim of national importance.
- Check your country’s queue on the current Visa Bulletin before you plan any timeline.
Do all nine and your evaluation reply changes tone. You are no longer a CV. You are a case.
What this costs once you file
Nobody puts numbers on the evaluation page, so here they are.
The base filing fee for Form I-140 is $715, and USCIS requires a separate Asylum Program Fee alongside it, at a reduced rate for self-petitioners in EB-1A and EB-2 NIW. Premium processing rose to $2,965 for requests postmarked on or after 1 March 2026, though EB-1C and EB-2 NIW run on a longer clock than the standard categories. Attorney fees sit on top and vary by firm. Confirm every figure on the USCIS filing fees page before you send anything, and get the attorney number in writing before you retain anyone.
If the answer comes back no
Almost nobody writes about this part, so here it is.
A no today is a timeline, not a wall. Give yourself twelve to eighteen months and work the criteria you can move fastest.
Judging roles are the quickest win, and they cost nothing. Review for a journal in your field, join a startup competition jury, or volunteer as a grant reviewer. Press is second fastest. Pitch a trade publication a piece on a problem you solved, with real numbers in it. Membership follows if your field has an association with selective admission. Salary evidence and leading role documents take one afternoon.
Then reapply with a rebuilt file. Firms reassess. Your profile is not fixed.
If the US is not your only option
Plenty of people running this search should be looking at two or three countries at once.
The UK Global Talent visa needs an endorsement from a designated body before you apply for the visa itself. Tech Nation covers digital technology including AI, cybersecurity and software engineering. The Royal Society, British Academy, Royal Academy of Engineering and UKRI cover science and research, and Arts Council England covers arts and culture. The total fee is £766, split into £561 at the endorsement stage and £205 at the visa stage. There is no job offer requirement, no minimum salary, and no English test at entry. The Tech Nation portal closed on 4 August 2025, so digital tech applicants now use the standard Stage 1 form on gov.uk. Exceptional Talent endorsements carry a three-year route to settlement, and Exceptional Promise takes five. The most common refusal reason is generic recommendation letters that could describe anyone.
Australia’s National Innovation visa, subclass 858, replaced the Global Talent visa on 7 December 2024 and grants permanent residence directly. The department must invite you before you apply, so you submit an expression of interest showing your achievements, then lodge within 60 days of an invitation. You also need an Australian nominator with a national reputation in your field to complete Form 1000.
Your evidence file serves all three programs. Build it once.
Where Veripass fits
A free evaluation from a US law firm answers one question. Will this firm take your case for the categories it files? That is the firm’s question rather than yours. Yours is broader. Which country, which route, and what should you build before anyone assesses you?
Veripass sits ahead of that decision rather than inside it. We work with founders, executives, and skilled professionals across US EB-1A, EB-2 NIW and O-1 routes, the UK Global Talent visa, and Australia’s National Innovation visa, and we start with your profile rather than the paperwork. That changes four things.
We assess you across countries, not one. Your record may be marginal for EB-1A and strong for a Tech Nation endorsement, or the reverse. A firm that only files US petitions cannot tell you that.
We build the evidence before the filing. Most rejections trace back to a thin file rather than a weak person. We map your record against the ten EB-1A criteria, the three Dhanasar prongs, the UK endorsement standards and the 858 nomination test, name the gaps, and give you a plan with dates. Judging roles, press placements, membership applications, salary documentation, letters that say something an officer can act on.
We translate business outcomes into evidence. Revenue, adoption, jobs created, and market traction are strong facts stated in the wrong language. We turn them into the specific proof each system accepts.
We tell you when to wait. If your country’s queue makes a category pointless right now, or your evidence needs another six months, we say so. That advice costs us a filing and saves you a denial.
Start with the Saturday masterclass
If you are somewhere between “I might qualify” and “I have no idea where to start”, spend an hour with us this Saturday.
Our free masterclass walks through the real criteria for EB-1A, EB-2 NIW, O-1, UK Global Talent and Australia’s National Innovation visa, how founders and executives build cases without publications, and how to read your own profile the way an officer will.
Save your seat for Saturday’s masterclass
Bring your questions. Bring your CV. Leave with a plan.
Is the Chen immigration free evaluation genuinely free?
Yes. The firm charges nothing for the evaluation and nothing for answering questions about your case. It is free because it works as a screening filter. The firm runs an Approval or Refund arrangement on eligible cases, which means it refunds attorney fees if a petition it accepted gets denied. A promise like that only survives if the firm declines cases it might lose, so the evaluation exists to sort strong files from weak ones before anyone signs anything.
How long does the reply take?
The firm targets 24 hours on business days, counted from the point it receives complete information rather than from your first email. Incomplete submissions restart the clock. If nothing arrives, check your spam folder and add their address to your safe sender list before you send a follow-up.
What do I need to send?
Eight items. Your current CV, your field of specialization, your current position with employer name and worksite state, your visa status and its expiry if you are inside the US, your country of birth and your spouse’s country of birth, your citation counts with a public Google Scholar link if you have one, your plans to keep publishing, and your record of judging or reviewing the work of others. The last item carries more weight than most people expect, since judging is a standalone criterion for EB-1A and O-1A.
Does a free evaluation make them my lawyer?
No. The firm states directly that no attorney-client relationship arises from the free evaluation. That relationship starts only when you retain the firm and sign an agreement. Until then you hold no protected relationship, and the opinion you receive is a screening view rather than legal advice you can rely on.
⚠️ This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a licensed immigration attorney before filing any visa petition.
