almost_naomi

In practice — I've heard some founders done it with 2-4. It's better to have a year.

Like all things with immigration it's always case by case

The O1 is a visa for models, actors, artists, chefs, etc...

It's, in essence, a storytelling exercise whether you're Brad Pitt or the best pizza chef in Italy. They ask you to show why you're "extraordinary"

It's essential to make the Immigration Officer understand what you're doing. If all you share is true, it's not fraud in any way.

Lawyers aren't trained to understand what is a machine learning engineer and why what you're doing is important. USCIS agents don't know anything about tech and what YC is either. This isn't a visa for founders, it covers every talent category.

So it's on you to help them understand, to share the story.

Always consult a lawyer whatever you do, just help them out.

A parallegal I work with told me he has argued that the podcasts have a wide audience because they're available across multiple platforms (vs a niche website).

So don't bother if it's someone's personal blog but if it's a regular podcast that's been running for a bit and is available widely, an interview with them is good!

Not fraud if all you share is true!

The thing most people don't understand about the O1 is that it's on your lawyer to prove that you're going to build is important and that you're legit. The large majority don't understand tech and will likely not have a clue what you're doing.

The O1 is a visa for actors and artists; it's not all about founders. So I wouldn't expect them to know what YC is, Github, or anything technical.

Always consult am immigration lawyer, just help them understand what you do.

A lot of machine learning engineers in SF are stuck at big cos on H1Bs with huge salaries, so they're able to pull their savings into the company.

Either way, just important to know that you don't need to raise 1M to get an O1.