3 ms·
Ask HN: Have you gotten an O-1 work visa? What was the experience like?
Hi, I'm interested in hearing stories of how people got their O-1 "extraordinary ability" work visas. (1) Did you find the O-1 option yourself, by researching it, or was it suggested to you by an immigration lawyer or a friend? (2) Did you rely on past accomplishments, or did you seek media coverage, enter contests, etc., to build your evidence portfolio? (3) What was the process like for you - easy, difficult, frustrating, confusing, scary, exciting?
I'm a (former) immigration lawyer working on doing a brain dump of all my knowledge about O-1 visas. The idea is to demystify the process, and create a public resource for individuals to build their own O-1 evidence packages.
Would love to know what has worked and not worked, for folks who have been through the O-1 process, so I can build better tools. Thanks!
- achalkley 11y ago1) Suggested by a lawyer. 2) Had enough already because have extraordinary abilities :) 3) I would say, long and arduous - even having all the evidence first. Collecting it and collecting references from basically everyone with a professional connection.
- ddorian43 11y agoI'm curious what the abilities are in your case ?
- marymkearney 11y agoThanks - I can see your halo of extraordinariness from here! :) Seriously, I looked at your stuff and I can see why you qualified. Can I ask how many categories you had? And also, how did you approach explaining "what you do" and why it's cool, in language the examiner could understand? Thanks so much.
- tlubinski 11y ago1.) found several options, discussed with lawyer, and went with O-1. 2.) According to the lawyer I already had enough proof of my "extraordinary abilities" 3.) My advice: don't try this without a lawyer specialized in O-1. It took me 4-6 weeks to gather all the data + some extra weeks to get recommendation letters. My application had several hundred pages in the end (compiled by the lawyer).
- marymkearney 11y agoHi, thanks so much for the reply and sharing your experience. Totally agree about the lawyer.