Sara Sultan self-petitioned her EB-1A green card without an attorney. Syed Muhammad Aqib built the systems that make this coaching practice run. Together, they built Coaching Alley for the PhDs who are exactly where Sara was.
Sara grew up in Haripur, Pakistan. She studied engineering at NUST — Pakistan's top technical university — and came to the United States on a USAID scholarship for a research exchange at Oregon State University. Then came the PhD.
At the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Sara earned her doctorate in Energy Science and Engineering. Her dissertation work on building energy systems led to a research appointment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where she spent five years publishing, collaborating, and building a body of work that would eventually become the foundation of her EB-1A petition.
By 2023, Sara had 16+ peer-reviewed publications, 91+ citations, invited peer reviews for international conferences, and a new role as a Senior Advisor at the California Energy Commission — where she now leads the development of California's 2028 building energy codes, affecting millions of homes and buildings.
She had built the evidence for extraordinary ability without knowing it. What she lacked was the language — and the courage — to claim it.
In 2025, Sara filed her own EB-1A petition. No immigration attorney. No employer sponsor. 55 pages organized around five USCIS criteria. She received a Request for Evidence. She responded. The petition was approved.
She put the entire petition on GitHub — because the PhDs who need this most are often the least likely to believe they qualify.
Coaching Alley is Sara's answer to the question she was never able to ask anyone: "Can someone who looks like me, who came from where I came from, actually do this?"
Read Sara's Full Petition →Syed Muhammad Aqib is the operational and strategic engine behind Coaching Alley. While Sara is the subject-matter expert who lived the EB-1A journey, Aqib is the builder who turned her story into a scalable coaching practice.
Aqib has spent years at the intersection of education, entrepreneurship, and systems thinking. He has worked across markets — building programs, processes, and products that connect experts with the people who need them.
Most PhDs know their field deeply and their options barely. Aqib's work is to change that ratio — to make the right information findable, clear, and actionable.
At Coaching Alley, Aqib leads the design of every client engagement framework, the development of coaching resources, and the strategic positioning that makes the practice coherent. He is the reason the GitHub petition became a marketing strategy, and the reason that strategy actually converts.
Work with Aqib & Sara →"We exist to give STEM PhDs the full picture — career, credentials, and immigration — from people who have lived it."
Most advisors give you a piece. An attorney handles the filing but not the career. A career coach helps with the résumé but not the visa. Coaching Alley holds the whole picture.
We do not file petitions on your behalf. We do not provide legal advice. For legal representation, you need an immigration attorney. We will point you toward vetted resources when that's the right next step.
We help you understand what your publication record, citations, awards, and career history actually mean — and how to frame them as evidence of extraordinary ability.
We don't do motivational frameworks or LinkedIn optimization for people who haven't figured out what they want yet. Our clients are accomplished. The work is specific.
We know what a national lab appointment means. We know the difference between EB-1A and NIW. We know what an RFE looks like and how to survive one. That knowledge is the product.
A 90-minute credential audit is the fastest way to get an honest picture of your EB-1A or NIW eligibility — and your career options.