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Comment by mertleee | Hacker News Reader

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

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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.

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