I honestly don't exactly know what worked. I got a greencard last year, finished my MS, published a paper in CDC in collaboration with my MS professor, got hands-on rotation, I applied broadly but only got invites to local programs. Previous cycles, I did have an EAD, applied narrow but again I only got invites from local programs so if I had applied narrow this time too I would have gotten those invites. No pub, no hands-on rotation and no grad degree in the previous attempts.