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I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

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Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#301

Hi Peter, Could you shed some light about what kind of profile could apply for (and get) an O1 visa? Specifically, if I have a tech company set up in the US that's pulling some decent revenue, is it worth applying for an O1? What other circumstances come into play against/in favor of this? I've seen a lot of advisors and "influencers" all over the web saying that it's "easy". I don't think that's the case because not…

How about a blockchain founder?

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#303

Hey Peter. Can a person whose H1B visa was approved after they left the country with employer A, transfer it to employer B assuming the visa holder hasn't entered the US yet an hasn't "activated" the visa?

Surprisingly, yes, this usually works - jsut not always.

Thank you!

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#304

For anyone considering working with Peter, our firm has been a client for 10 years, have sponsored 5-10 green cards and 20+ visas. Peter has been amazing to work with and we've gotten emphatic thank you notes from people we recommended to him.

Do you know the best way to contact Peter or his firm? Looking them up online I find broken links to the firm website. I've been looking for an immigration attorney who specializes in EB1A for an early engineer in the startup founding team with a small number of publication ( $2 million value). NIW is unfortunately not a good option due to the country backlog.

Peter's at a new firm: https://ogletree.com/people/peter-d-roberts/

Media announcement: https://ogletree.com/media-center/press-releases/2023-07-17/...

I'm a colleague of Peter's. I've sent him referrals. 100% agree he's awesome. He's now even awesomer with big-firm infrastructure backing him up.

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#305

Hi Peter, Could you shed some light about what kind of profile could apply for (and get) an O1 visa? Specifically, if I have a tech company set up in the US that's pulling some decent revenue, is it worth applying for an O1? What other circumstances come into play against/in favor of this? I've seen a lot of advisors and "influencers" all over the web saying that it's "easy". I don't think that's the case because not…

I wouldn't characterize an O-1 as easy but it's often within reach of talented professionals, particularly founders. At the end of the day, the issue is less about the quality of the evidence - although that matters - and more about the existence of evidence that checks at least 3 boxes/criteria. And now, with the recent public announcements from the Administration, O-1 petitions with an AI component have an even gre…

Hi. I'm a colleague of Peter's who specializes in O-1 / EB-1A cases. I have a special interest in tech and engineering. Peter's nailed it here as usual. The key to "extraordinary ability" is to collect and present high-quality evidence, tailored to fit within the 8 rigid, archaic categories that qualify you for O-1 / EB-1A. That's much more important than being a "genius."

This sounds painful (and it can be), but it's also liberating. Knowing that USCIS is looking for exacting compliance with the checklist, means that you can give them lots of what they want: Exacting compliance with the checklist!

Based on the information you've given here, it sounds like you could be quite close to qualifying for an O-1. It's become a fairly standard route for non-US founders. It's a great option, much better than H-1B for almost all use cases.

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#306
post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't characterize an O-1 as easy but it's often within reach of talented professionals, particularly founders. At the end of the day, the issue is less about the quality of the evidence - although that matters - and more about the existence of evidence that checks at least 3 boxes/criteria. And now, with the recent public announcements from the Administration, O-1 petitions with an AI component have an even gre…

Bonus question on O-1: what do you think are the easiest boxes to check for a talented professionals in AI? High salary and critical capacity for established organizations are a given, but what else?

Hi, yes those two, for sure. And certainly add "original contributions of major significance." AI specialties are generating "original contributions" thick and fast right now for engineers and data specialists.

"Original contributions" is the foundational category for a tech or engineering case anyway. And trending specialties like AI are well-placed to develop solid evidence in this category.

I'd also add the publications and judging categories. These are easy-win categories that are evaluated with a more lenient standard than the other 6. They're also a great way to attract "sustained acclaim" by building a reputation as a thought leader in your field.

Note that the "field of endeavor" for these 2 categories in private-industry cases is industry publications, presentations, podcasts, broadcasts, and events, NOT academic publications or citation counts. (All these industry activities "count" as publications.)

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#307
post #53

Hi Peter, Could you shed some light about what kind of profile could apply for (and get) an O1 visa? Specifically, if I have a tech company set up in the US that's pulling some decent revenue, is it worth applying for an O1? What other circumstances come into play against/in favor of this? I've seen a lot of advisors and "influencers" all over the web saying that it's "easy". I don't think that's the case because not…

I have gotten two O1's and then the greencard version (EB2). It isn't easy in the "not a lot of work" sense, it's easy in the "not random" sense. If you put in the work (that also helps your career), tick off the required boxes, and present the evidence correctly, you will get the visa. But yes an O1 takes a shitload of work.

Hi, huge Swizec fan here. I've been following your extraordinary-ability story since 2016. It's an amazing, inspirational, funny saga about the work and perseverance required to get this done. Hope it's OK to share these here:

https://swizec.com/blog/how-i-got-a-visa-normally-reserved-f...

https://swizec.com/blog/sponsored-genius-visa/swizec/8612

https://swizec.com/blog/how-i-used-indie-hacking-to-sponsor-...

Congratulations to you, sir. This is how you do it. Thanks for sharing your epic journey! I'm glad it paid off.

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#308

Hi Peter, Could you shed some light about what kind of profile could apply for (and get) an O1 visa? Specifically, if I have a tech company set up in the US that's pulling some decent revenue, is it worth applying for an O1? What other circumstances come into play against/in favor of this? I've seen a lot of advisors and "influencers" all over the web saying that it's "easy". I don't think that's the case because not…

How about a blockchain founder?

Yes, certainly. Same requirements as other industries and occupations. And the same challenges: Fitting your 2023 accomplishments into the rigid required elements of the 1991 USCIS categories.

One especially helpful force multiplier here, would be to practice writing out a simple one-page description of your industry and your job. Like a little elevator pitch, that's easily grasped in a minute or two, by a time-pressed layperson USCIS examiner. You're basically explaining blockchain at a 9th-grade reading level.

This is hard! It can take a lot of iterations and analogies. But it adds a ton of value, when the examiner can grasp right up front what you do and why you're special.

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#309

Hi Peter, I'm a solo founder of software development company in USA. I've been doing everything on B1/B2 visa until goverment told me I spending too much time in USA and they cancelled my visa with recommendations to look for other options. I tried to apply for E2 during covid and it took them almost 6 months to process my case but they declined it with a general reason that they don't see enough evidance to issue E2…

Hi, if you have enough business track record to assemble an E2 package, then it's likely you'd be a good candidate for O-1 also.

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#310
post #8

Hello Peter, Thank you for taking the time to provide insightful answers to our questions. My question concerns EB-1 visas and greencards for extraordinary ability. The usual route to prove 'extraordinary ability' seems heavily skewed towards those with scientific publications under their belt. Would it be possible to qualify for a software engineer leaning towards tangible tech contributions, for example significant…

Hi, yes, you're right, most of the info out there is for researchers and academics. It's not a template that fits well for makers and engineers in private industry, who actually build real things and sell them.

There's an EB-1A template that works much better for proving extraordinary ability for industry accomplishments. It's just not well-known or publicized.

If you have open-source commits and users for your products, then you're well on your way to a successful EB-1A portfolio.

The "academic EB-1A" template is such a universal pain point for tech founders and engineers, that I just launched an online course (my first! yay) on this topic. It explains how to structure O-1s and EB-1As for industry tech and engineering specialties, not academia. https://pro.visabuilder.com/tech-toolbox-product-page

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