First things first, it can still be worthwhile speaking with our team even if you’ve been told that you don’t qualify for the O-1. When it turns out that they do, many business owners who have already been informed they don’t qualify for the O-1 come to us!
You’ve come to the right site if you’re wondering how to become eligible for an O-1 visa. We’ll go over each O-1 criterion and how business founders should interpret it below.
General Advice
You must satisfy three out of eight requirements in order to be granted an O-1 visa. In case the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officer examining your visa petition is not persuaded of some of the requirements, the more criteria you are able to demonstrate that you meet, the better.
Making sure you have adequate documentation of all of your accomplishments is possibly the most crucial thing to do going forward. We will need to provide documentation to support each of your qualifications in your O-1 petition.
If you’re going to be judging a hackathon in the future, make sure you get any fliers with your name on them, take photos there, and make sure you can find any emails, posts, or other proof that you actually judged at the event. To prove you meet each requirement, our team will present a variety of supporting documentation.
Also, keep in mind that we can look at both your earlier and more recent successes. Remember any prior businesses you may have started or worked for. Unfortunately, the O-1 usually does not accept achievements relating to students.
How to improve your O-1 application depending on each need
Judging
Evaluating the work of colleagues in your profession, either one at a time or in a panel
The judging standard is most likely the one that company owners can most easily meet. It is highly likely that you can get in touch with your contacts at these businesses and express your desire to serve on a judging panel for an upcoming event, such as a hackathon, if you went through an accelerator or incubator or are sponsored by VC firms.
Emails from the group inviting you to serve as a judge, fliers stating your name as a judge, images from the event, or a website with details about the event naming you as a judge could all be used as proof.
Publications
Magazines about you in reputable publications, significant trade publications, or other significant media
Numerous press stories about you in widely read publications like the New York Times, CNN, Forbes, Times of India, Nasdaq, or TechCrunch would satisfy a strong published materials requirement.
Smaller news organizations can also be effective; just make sure they are widely distributed. You can use SimilarWeb to determine circulation. USCIS will find it more impressive the higher the circulation. We frequently incorporate smaller news sources in founder O-1s, including Ventrue Burn, Mobile World Live, Crunchbase News, and FinSMEs. A monthly circulation of at least tens of thousands, but ideally hundreds of thousands or millions, is what you should be looking for. the event calendar you as a judge.
There are undoubtedly media professionals in your field who would want to write about your efforts. Ask them whether they would be open to an interview with you by reaching out to them. The more articles, so long as they have a strong circulation, the better.
Choose stories about you, such as an interview, over ones that are more broad about your business. Make sure that at the very least your name is mentioned in the piece if you can only gain press about your business. Press must be translated into English even if it is not written in English. Additionally, remember that press releases do not count against this requirement.
Membership Associations
Membership in organizations that demand exceptional performance as determined by foreign experts
Even if you don’t currently have a membership, getting one soon might not be that difficult. The ideal elite organization would have a selection rate of 5% or less.
There are probably groups for people in your specialized field of expertise in addition to general startup, business, and technology organizations. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, IEEE, On Deck, and the Association for Computing Machinery are a few examples.
We might also contend that memberships are what business incubators and accelerators like Y Combinator, Techstars, and 500 Startups are.
Scholarly Articles
Publication of scholarly studies in prestigious trade periodicals, professional journals, or other influential media
Peer-reviewed journal papers are one type of scholarly publication, while pieces from business media websites like Forbes, TechCrunch, or Harvard Business Review are more frequently used by startup founders. You can compose articles for smaller news outlets, but bigger names will carry more weight, much like with the published material criteria.
Consider contacting news organizations like the ones stated above or smaller news publications that are relevant to the industries you work in if you haven’t written any articles yet or if you’ve only written a few. Send them a prewritten article or pitch them an article idea.
The articles ought to have some connection to your line of work. If you are the founder of a startup in the cryptocurrency market, pitch pieces about current trends in the sector, advice for up-and-coming cryptocurrency businesses, or even your own journey to success. Send these suggestions to broad startup news sources like TechCrunch and Forbes as well as to financial news sources like the Financial Times, Cointelegraph, or CryptoSlate for coverage of the cryptocurrency industry.
Reputable Employment
Being employed at a reputable organization in a crucial or necessary position
You most definitely fit the requirement for a vital employee if you are a company founder. We must concentrate our attention on the second portion. With the expansion of your business, a distinguished reputation ought to come naturally, but if you are just getting started, there are still a few things you can do.
Getting press about your business is the first. This will assist you in fulfilling both the published materials requirement and the critical employment criterion (just make sure the press at least mentions your name). Additionally, you can work on securing your business venture capital funding as well as acceptance into accelerators or receiving grants or accolades. The requirements for membership and prizes should benefit from these accomplishments as well.
Other achievements that boost your company’s enviable reputation include forming new alliances, expanding your user base, boosting the number of app downloads and reviews, and doing anything else that might point to the success and expansion of your business. Make sure you have proof of everything in writing.
You may also mention any prior positions you held with other organizations. Showing that you were a significant employee at a larger company is difficult, and demonstrating a distinguishing reputation for the company at a smaller one is difficult.
Original Contributions
Significant original contributions to your field
We will need to provide evidence that you have produced something unique and profoundly important to the field in order to meet this requirement. This is frequently the technology or perhaps the business strategy that your startup developed.
The most efficient approach to fulfill this requirement is to obtain a patent in your name for a technology that is in widespread use, but as we all know, patents are laborious and time-consuming! We can utilize additional data to demonstrate that you meet this requirement even if you don’t presently have plans to patent your innovation.
Patents, white papers, business plans, or even letters of testimonial from industry experts outlining what makes your startup technology or business strategy novel and original could serve as proof. Similar to the examples of proof described above for the important employment requirements developing a distinguished reputation, evidence of its major relevance may be available.
Technology or business models that you have previously developed at other companies are also acceptable.
High Renumeration
You were paid a large salary or other notably high compensation.
We need proof that you were paid much more than other people in your position in the same city if you want substantial compensation. This might be the pay you received in India five years ago, the salary, bonuses, and equity you received from a recent employer, or the salary and equity you will have after you obtain a visa for your new startup.
Equity can help your criterion overall, but a high income will always carry more weight than a low salary with large equity. Look at Salary.com, Indeed, Glassdoor, and other salary comparison websites. You might need to do this if you received your salary from another country.
You want high pay that is comparable to or more than the top earners in your role and city, not merely compensation that is slightly above average.
Even though it might not be achievable for everyone, it has been known to happen! Perhaps you recently closed a new round of funding and are now able to increase your pay. It is important to give it some thought because it could improve your petition, but you shouldn’t temporarily increase your pay and then decrease it once your visa is granted. This might adversely affect requests for O-1 extensions in the future.
Awards
Prizes or distinctions for achievement in your field that are regionally or internationally renowned
It could be difficult to improve your rewards criteria rapidly, but if you have the time, there are a few things to bear in mind.
The best accolades are those that have been extended to you specifically. Additionally, we must demonstrate that these honors were given to you for “excellence in the field” and that they are “nationally or internationally recognized.” Awards of this type can include the Stevie Award or the Forbes 30 Under 30 honor.
Since you are the creator of a startup, we can also argue that any honors or other recognition that your business has gotten is your recognition. This can involve raising capital or more traditional awards or grants such as a World Economic Forum New Champions award or Africa Tech Awards.