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Comment by lazzurs | Hacker News Reader

What sort of people get O-1 visas? I assume it is people with multiple degrees and have decades of experience in a specific field?

I am good at what I do, have done public speaking at major conferences on what I do but no degree and so assume that i've no chance of ever getting into the USA. Currently a UK citizen living in Ireland.

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The O-1 is a high standard but it's less about overall achievement or standing (like the EB1A green card category) and more about meeting specific criteria, which many talented professionals and founders do. I would recommend reviewing the O-1 criteria (they're listed on USCIS's website, www.uscis.gov) and then having an immigration attorney evaluate your background. People are often surprised that they meet the O-1 criteria or with a bit of work will qualify.

One of the qualifications is "Evidence that the beneficiary has either commanded a high salary or will command a high salary or other remuneration for services as evidenced by contracts or other reliable evidence" How does a startup founder go about proving this? They don't have quite the "high salary" and get paid in equity. What have you seen here? How do founders quialify for this part?

The clue is "other remuneration". USCIS will accept stock based compensation for founders under comparable evidence if you have raised money, i.e. your equity has a fair market value set by a professional investor in an arms-length transaction. Your total compensation will still need to objectively high compared to peers in your geographical area (supported by data).

It's open to things like sport and entertainment, so definitely not everyone has many (or any) degrees. Assuming your field is somewhat science based I don't know how realistic it would be with no degree, but you can search some blogs about it, people have covered what they did to rack up publications and stuff to check all the boxes (if their work/field wouldn't have otherwise needed them).

If you are starting your own business, the treaty investor visa could also be a good route. It doesn't require as much investment as the investor green card; it is a nonimmigrant visa similar to the O-1.

There's a list of qualifying criteria on the USCIS website. You have to satisfy at least three out of the eight or so.

The issue is it's a bit subjective, a lawyer writes down how you qualify and some random government employee has to believe what the lawyer wrote.

If you receive a RFE or rejection, all your dealings with USCIS will face extra scrutiny in future. So it's a bit of a gamble.

The evidentiary standard is preponderance of evidence, i.e. there is a greater than 50% chance what is claimed clears the statutory bar.

RFE's and rejections don't cause problems by themselves. A denial can cause problems if the reason for denial is fraud or misrepresentation.

My dance instructor, who has won an international championship, is here on an O-1B. However, his 3 year initial eligibility is coming due, and the processing times for the 1-year extension is looking like it's going to take longer than 1-year! According to Wikipedia, Justin Beiber is here on an O visa, I wonder how his gets processed.

You can request premium processing for the O-1s, which is roughly $3k and guarantees a response within 15 business days. [0]

[0] https://www.uscis.gov/forms/all-forms/how-do-i-request-premi...

You can ask for 3 years again on the renewal and sometimes USCIS make the mistake of giving it to you even though they are not allowed (unless it's a new engagement) according to the statutory text

It's beyond a joke. Recently spent some time at an accelerator and the partners of the VC firm were very open about purchasing "fake" research or presenting investments as if they were from more than one "investor".

I still fail to understand how Dwarkesh Patel managed to "self-sponsor" an O-1 with a... tech podcast...

Podcasts are a very significant medium, and Dwarkesh is probably comfortably in the top 1% of podcasts. Isn't that exactly what O-1 is for?

At the time he barely had 10k subscribers. The merits of the "genius" VISA should be for research and engineering endeavors.

In practice they want people of high ability who will contribute positively to the US, not necessarily geniuses. My friend who was supporting actress in some Netflix thing got in on that basis.

O-1 isn't a genius visa, it is for [1] Individuals with Extraordinary Ability or Achievement, the government website specifically calls out categories that are not research or engineering.

[1] https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/temporary...

The jokes really do write themselves "Extraordinary Podcasting Ability".

Would much rather that visa had gone to a researcher or engineer who's motto wasn't "not wanting to push pixels around at a FAANG".

Why not both? I can see the argument for not having millions of unskilled immigrants crossing from Mexico but both Dwarkesh and the researcher/engineer would benefit the US. I don't think it's that hard to get O1 as a researcher/engineer - you basically have to get to the level where you present at conferences and are seen as an expert in whatever.

Do you honestly think it's a good idea to make it harder to get a visa in this country? Particularly one that's based on merit/markets?

Melania Trump got an EB-1 visa as a model. That’s the permanent resident version of the O-1, which is temporary.

I don't think so, personally, because I see that podcast as entertainment rather than education, and I don't think entertainers should ever receive O-1 visas.

Legislators thought otherwise, when they explicitly created two subcategories of O-1 visas:

* O-1A: Individuals with an extraordinary ability in the sciences, education, business, or athletics (not including the arts, motion pictures or television industry).

* O-1B: Individuals with an extraordinary ability in the arts or extraordinary achievement in motion picture or television industry.

The reason is pretty simple. Entertainment industry depends more on specific individuals than most other industries. If you have cast a foreign actor for a role, you can't easily replace them with generic interchangeable talent. But that foreign actor is not magically allowed to work in the US. They need a visa that allows it. Hence O-1B.

i did o1 twice and then eb1. it’s not a joke if you set expectations too high in your mind.

all visas are just about fulfilling the legal criteria. if you do that, you get the visa. same is true for extraordinary alien ones.

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