OpenNIW — NIW · EB-1A · O-1

Free, open-source agent skills that help you organize and speed up your own U.S. immigration petition — the EB-2 NIW and EB-1A self-petitions, and the O-1A petition kit. Your coding agent does the organizing, a local folder is the case file, and a browser wizard appears exactly when a GUI beats chat.

Website: openniw.com — project intro, install guide, and a free no-signup statistical evaluation against 7,458 approved cases (fully static; source in webpage/).

OpenNIW ships three Agent Skills — niw-petition, eb1a-petition, and o1-petition. Install them into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or any Agent-Skills tool, and your existing AI subscription runs the entire preparation workflow — evaluation, evidence, drafting, official forms, filing package — with zero configuration:

• No account. Nothing to sign up for.
• No database. Your case lives in a local case folder you own.
• No API key. Your agent's subscription is the AI.
• No server. A localhost companion opens only when you reach a form-heavy step, and only talks to your case folder.

OpenNIW is a document-preparation and self-help tool, not a law firm, and does not provide legal advice. Immigration outcomes depend on individual facts and adjudicator discretion. Review everything before filing; consider consulting a licensed attorney.

# cross-agent installer (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, 70+ agents) —
# offers all three skills; install what you need:
npx skills add HHHHHejia/openniw

# or manually — Claude Code (swap in eb1a-petition / o1-petition as needed):
git clone https://github.com/HHHHHejia/openniw
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r openniw/.agents/skills/niw-petition ~/.claude/skills/

# or manually — Codex and other Agent-Skills tools:
mkdir -p ~/.agents/skills && cp -r openniw/.agents/skills/niw-petition ~/.agents/skills/

Then say "帮我准备 NIW 申请" or "evaluate my NIW case" in your agent — or "evaluate my EB-1A case" / "prepare my O-1 petition" for the sibling skills.

The beta skills were built from primary sources (USCIS Policy Manual, 8 CFR, current fee schedules — all cited inline with as-of dates), open-source MIT materials, and our 7,458-case approved-case dataset. They follow the same frozen-frame doctrine, exhibit-bound drafting, and RFE red-team pass as the NIW flagship. If you have been through an EB-1A or O-1 filing — applicant or practitioner — we would love your review.

        ┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
        │   Your agent + a petition skill      │   the BRAIN — conversation,
        │   (niw / eb1a / o1 · any agent)      │   judgment, drafting, prefill
        └──────┬─────────────────────┬─────────┘
   reads/writes│                     │ launches at interaction-heavy steps
               ▼                     ▼
        ┌────────────┐   ┌───────────────────────────┐
        │ your case/ │◄──┤ openniw (pip companion)   │  the ORGAN — browser
        │ STATE.md   │   │ localhost form wizard +   │  wizard & deterministic
        │ case.json  │   │ citation review + PDF     │  compute; zero LLM,
        │ forms/ …   │   │ fill / package / harvest  │  zero keys, zero DB
        └────────────┘   └───────────────────────────┘

• Each skill drives all six stages and survives weeks of short sessions: STATE.md in the case folder is read at every session start and updated after every step, so any session resumes exactly where the last one ended.

• The companion (pip install openniw, installed by your agent when first needed) serves a localhost-only, token-protected browser UI over your case folder for the steps where a GUI beats chat — reviewing 60+ form fields, or picking your best ~10 citations from scored quote cards — plus headless deterministic commands the agent uses directly:

  openniw ui forms|citations   # browser session over the case folder
  openniw fill all             # fill I-140 / ETA-9089 App. A / Final Det. / G-1145
  openniw package              # filing-package ZIP in lockbox order
  openniw harvest "Title" …    # OpenAlex citing-paper harvest + screening
  openniw fetch-forms          # download official blank PDFs
  openniw docx / highlight     # DOCX export · exhibit highlighting
  

  The browser session outlives your terminal: close everything, come back tomorrow, and the agent reconciles what you did from the session file. If the companion can't be installed (offline/sandboxed), the skill falls back to pure-stdlib scripts bundled with it — the GUI is an accelerator, never a requirement. Intake, benchmark, and citation pages work for all three categories; the forms wizard, PDF fill, and package ZIP are NIW-only today (EB-1A / O-1A run Stages IV–V as guided chat + field guides — wizard support is on the roadmap).

All three skills follow the same shape; each stage adapts to its law:

Every skill starts each stage with an RFE-prevention mindset and includes a full RFE module: paste an RFE letter and get a structured response plan and supplemental-statement outline.

The templates and heuristics are distilled from the structure of real, professionally-prepared NIW filings and a real RFE cycle (fully de-identified — see docs/analysis/):

• The petition letter follows the exact section architecture strong filings use (advanced degree → Prong 1 policy-anchored modules → Prong 2 quantitative modules → Prong 3 balancing factors → 3-group exhibit index).
• The endeavor sentence is treated as frozen — USCIS treats rewording as a potential material change.
• RFE-prevention rules are built in: no uncorroborated third-party claims, no diminishing denominators, citation depth over citer prestige, legal authorities in footnotes, and a pre-filing mock-officer pass.
• The EB-1A and O-1A letters follow their categories' expected architectures — the Kazarian two-step brief with an explicit Final Merits section, and the criterion-by-criterion petitioner support letter with consultation package — built from cited primary sources and MIT-licensed open materials (see References & acknowledgments).
• The AI never invents facts — anything missing becomes an explicit [TODO] or a question to you.

• NIW package: I-140 + ETA-9089 Appendix A + signed Final Determination + petition letter + evidence. Fees: I-140 $715 + Asylum Program Fee $300 (self-petitioner) = $1,015; optional premium processing (I-907) $2,965, 45 business days.
• EB-1A package: same I-140 fees ($715 + $300 self-petitioner), but no ETA-9089 pages and no ability-to-pay evidence; premium is 15 business days (vs NIW's 45) — and the premium lockbox state split differs from the standard split.
• O-1A package: Form I-129 + O supplement, filed by the employer or agent (never self-petitioned). I-129 (O) $1,055 ($530 small employer/nonprofit) + Asylum Program Fee by employer size; premium $2,965, 15 business days; consultation letter required.
• The package README and the wizard pick the correct USCIS lockbox automatically (standard: Dallas/Chicago; premium: Phoenix/Elgin — premium filings use a different lockbox) and follow the USCIS-recommended assembly order (payment form on top, then G-1145, then the forms).
• Primary sources baked into the templates: USCIS EB-2 page & NIW filing tips, I-140 initial-evidence checklist, tips for filing by mail, and I-140 direct filing addresses.

• Everything runs on your machine. The case folder is the entire system of record — zip it, move it, or open it in any editor.
• The companion binds 127.0.0.1 only, requires a per-session random token, and does no AI: the only network calls in the whole system are your agent's own, plus the public OpenAlex API (citation metadata) and uscis.gov/dol.gov (blank form downloads).
• The repo contains no personal data; analyses in docs/analysis/ are structural, with all identifiers replaced by placeholders.

openniw/
├── .agents/skills/niw-petition/  # the flagship skill (EB-2 NIW)
│              └── eb1a-petition/ # EB-1A skill (beta)
│              └── o1-petition/   # O-1A skill (beta)
├── src/openniw/                  # the pip companion: FastAPI folder-mode
│   │                             #   server + CLI + committed UI bundle
│   └── ui/                       # built Next.js static export (make ui)
├── frontend/                     # UI source (Node needed by maintainers only)
├── forms/                        # vendored official PDFs + field inventories
├── tests/                        # pytest: contract, formfill, API, sentinel
└── docs/                         # design docs + de-identified analyses

• make test — full suite. make ui — rebuild the UI bundle from frontend/ and vendor it into the package. make check — tests + skill script sync + UI-bundle freshness. make release — checked wheel build.
• The 61-key answers.json contract is enforced three ways by tests/test_contract.py: formfill.py (what PDFs consume) ≡ the wizard spec (what the UI edits) ≡ references/forms.md (what the agent writes).
• Skill fallback scripts mirror package services between # --- BEGIN/END SYNC --- markers; scripts/sync_skill.py regenerates them and make check fails on drift.

OpenNIW is a fully open-source, free, public-interest project (开源利益众生). It gets better through three kinds of contribution:

1. Code — issues and PRs welcome. High-value directions: more form mappings (I-907, I-485 family), more browser pages (evidence ledger, document review), consular-processing variants, UI translations.
2. Data points — open an issue with your (anonymized) numbers and outcome: category, field, citations/papers at filing, premium choice, timeline, RFE or not, result. Every real data point sharpens the benchmark that helps the next applicant calibrate honestly.
3. Attorneys & practitioners — if you prepare NIW cases professionally, your frontier knowledge (what draws RFEs this quarter, what wording holds up, what evidence moves adjudicators) can be folded into the skill's playbooks. Open an issue or reach out directly — credited or anonymous, your choice.

• WeChat: LittleGeng
• X: x.com/hejia0530
• GitHub issues: the preferred channel for anything public

EB-1A and O-1A are now here (beta) — built from USCIS primary sources, MIT-licensed open materials, and our approved-case dataset, not from firsthand filings. That is exactly why they need you: if you have actually been through an EB-1A or O-1 case — as applicant, or as practitioner — your review of the playbooks is the single highest-value contribution right now. OpenH1B · Open-anything-immigration — still on the wish list; the whole framework is reusable (agent skill + local companion + approved-case benchmark). Reach out and let's build the next one together.

The skills' legal and procedural content is distilled from these sources (each skill's reference files carry inline citations with as-of dates):

Primary sources

• USCIS Policy Manual — Vol. 6 Part F Ch. 2 (EB-1A) & Ch. 5 (NIW), Vol. 2 Part M (O-1)
• 8 CFR 204.5 and 8 CFR 214.2(o) via eCFR; INA via uscode.house.gov
• uscis.gov form pages, filing checklists, direct-filing-address pages, and the G-1055 fee schedule; federalregister.gov (fee rules); travel.state.gov Visa Bulletin
• Case law: Matter of Dhanasar, 26 I&N Dec. 884 (AAO 2016); Kazarian v. USCIS, 596 F.3d 1115 (9th Cir. 2010); Matter of Price, 20 I&N Dec. 953

Open-source projects

• juntoku9/claude_immigration_attorney (MIT) — evidence-hierarchy, expert-letter assignment matrix, RFE root-cause taxonomy, and national-importance research-method patterns were adapted with gratitude
• razvanmarinescu/EB1A and Ryan-Rhys/EB1A — public approved self-petitions studied for structure (no text reused)

Data & practitioner knowledge

• wegreened.com public approval notices (2012–2026) — the de-identified benchmark dataset
• Structure of real, professionally prepared NIW filings and a real RFE cycle (fully de-identified, see docs/analysis/), plus published analyses by immigration practitioners and university international offices consulted during research

MIT.

OpenNIW is free software that helps you organize and prepare your own immigration paperwork. It is a completely open-source, free, public-interest project — no paid tier, no service, no upsell, ever. To be explicit:

• Your data never reaches us. Your entire case is processed by YOUR own local AI agent in a folder on YOUR computer. Nothing is sent to us — we run no server that could even receive it. (The public website's evaluation page is fully static too: what you type stays in your browser.)

• We are not attorneys and OpenNIW is not a law firm. Nothing here is legal advice, and using OpenNIW creates no attorney–client relationship.

• We charge nothing and provide no service. There is no engagement, no representation, and no promise of any outcome. Immigration results depend on your individual facts and on adjudicator discretion.

• You are the petitioner and remain fully responsible for everything you sign and file. Review every document and form yourself before filing, and consider having a licensed immigration attorney review your case.

• The software is provided "AS IS", without warranty of any kind; the authors and contributors accept no liability arising from its use (see the MIT license).

• Benchmark data reflects publicly posted, self-reported approval notices (successful cases only) and describes distributions of approved profiles — it does not predict any individual outcome.