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Comment by throw345hn | Hacker News Reader

If they have a number or publications as you say, they may be eligible to apply for O-1 visa. I know a couple of people who received it and (in my opinion) got it for less than what you may think of as good technical merit

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My understanding is that O-1 visas require very specifically tailored applications to qualify. (I too have heard stories of how moderate achievements are twisted/massaged to be pitched for the O-1 application, and worked.)

I know several brilliant new/junior professors who are nevertheless on the H-1B track. My point is that H-1B is far and beyond the default and most common visa for introducing foreign working talent, and others like O-1 and EB-1 are the rare, rare exceptions.

> My point is that H-1B is far and beyond the default and most common visa for introducing foreign working talent, and others like O-1 and EB-1 are the rare, rare exceptions.

EB-1 is an immigrant visa and, aside from being smaller in number than H-1B, was already halted along with immigration generally on April 22, and this order extends the immigration halt through December as well as adding a few nobimmigrant visa categories to the halt.

EB1 is not a visa, but a category to get green card. It stands for employment based, priority 1. Irrespective of how your green card application will be prioritized, you still need a visa. Typically, people under L1A (intra company managers), O1 visa get to apply for green card under EB1 and rest under EB2 or EB3.

> EB1 is not a visa, but a category to get green card. It stands for employment based, priority 1.

No, it stands for “Employment Based, First Preference”, and you can go tell U.S. Citizenship.and Immigration Services that it's not a visa, because they think it is.

https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/permanent-worker...

Employment-Based Immigration: First Preference EB-1 […] You may be eligible for an employment-based, first-preference visa if you are an alien of extraordinary ability, are an outstanding professor or researcher, or are a certain multinational executive or manager.

Well O 1 visas not dual intent though. In order to actually obtain permanent residency, you would still need to move to a h1b.

There are several valid reasons to seek permanent residency - which I don't want to dive into here or moralize.

Just wanted to call out again that O 1 is a dead end.

Good point about dual intent. One thing though I think it’s bit easier to renew and you can also keep renewing it without any time limit.

Not true. To my knowledge no visa is dual intent in theory but it never end up mattering in practice.

H-1B is dual intent.

H1-B and L-1 are dual intent and it matters to travel with a pending Adjustment of Status.

Thanks for the correction. But again it rarely matters in practice.

In practice it means that if you file for a green card while on O-1 status there will be 4-8 months during which you absolutely can't travel.

Ah, maybe I'm missing some subtleties. I was referring to "you're not supposed to have intent to immigrate on a X visa", which never seemed to matter as I personally applied for H1-B and a greencard while on a J1

You can still apply for an EB-1/2/3 Green Card while on O-1 status and apply for Adjustment of Status. The consequence of it not being dual intent is that you can't travel with the pending I-485 until you obtain an Advance Parole document.

Only ~20,000 O-1 visas were issued in 2019, compared to 190,000 H1B visas.

The reason for this is because the O-1 visa is significantly harder to qualify for. The same people who would expect would be in the running for an O-1 (master's and postdoctoral students) apply for an H1B, in large part because the bar for the O-1 is just that high.

It’s less than what you may think it is. It also highly depends on your lawyer, I know a couple of people who you may think may not qualify but their lawyers ended up writing a lot of stuff (not made up obviously, just lawyer like language that drags on) and they ended up getting the visa. Out of those one of them got an rfe but they still pursued on and qualified. EB1 on the other hand is far harder.

Thinking about it as an immigrant, just the same way as the H1B: why punt on it if it is this variable? And why even depend of this? The entire problem is that immigration isn't working as it is supposed to. If even this can be gamed, what's the point?

Agree with you completely. I don’t understand why it’s so hard to come up with a Canadian or UK like points based system.

Because it is a feature, not a bug.

Masters don't apply for EB1. Many PhDs also can't. FAANG hire everyone for S/W engineer. Most of them apply EB2. EB1 have to be exceptional PhD.

> If they have a number or publications as you say, they may be eligible to apply for O-1 visa.

This is only if you have a research-based job. If you graduate with a PhD and get a job on the software engineering ladder, you're SOL.

I suppose you're getting downvoted because people don't like the answer. O-1 visas are absolutely attainable. Look at the evidentiary criteria for O-1A visas: "Authorship of scholarly articles in professional journals or other major media," "Published material in professional or major trade publications or major media," "Authorship of scholarly articles in professional journals," and "Original scientific, scholarly, or business-related contributions" are among the qualifiers, and are natural parts of a career in these fields.

In fact, enumerating the criteria here is useless, because almost all of them pertain directly.

O-1 is hard as heck. Not only do you need a very strong publication record but you also need a history of doing things like serving on program committees for conferences.

False. All you need is to prove your “exceptional qualifications” and that you would improve the country by working here. There are a number of ways to do that and conferences is just one possible way

I'm a hiring manager at a FAANG company and exclusively hire PhDs. The very first question that I try to answer when looking at a candidate who can't get OPT is "can this person feasible get an O-1". Then I bring a resume to the lawyers. I have a lot of experience evaluating whether somebody can feasibly get an O-1.

Just having a publication record is not enough. It needs to be a strong record and you need to have strong ties to the academic community through things like program committees. I've sadly had to turn down a lot of people who would easily improve the country by working here because their publication record isn't enough to get an O-1 visa.

I know faculty at MIT who aren't on O-1s.

It's not easy.

I know three people who got it and one of them I wrote reference for. If my recommendation (among other things ofc) is sufficient I assume it’s not impossible =) Also you need good lawyer as with many such things

"I know some cases that worked...so all must be easy"

It is certainly possible. The point is that it isn’t easy. “This person has published novel research in a top conference and has a PhD from an internationally recognized university” is not a guarantee.

Again neither had been accepted at top conferences. I think one had phd in unrelated field

I think the people that get the jobs as tenure track assistant professor at good research universities can usually qualify. At least the young professors I knew didn't have any issues. Graduate students and post docs are usually already doing those types of services now also.

I’m good friends with an assistant professor at mit who ended up not going the O-1 route.

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