#ovisa

You need to submit strong expert letters that make an argument for why you are extraordinary and your O-Visa should be approved, and not that the expert thinks you are a lovely person and extraordinary just because they use the word extraordinary.  These 5 Tops Tips will help you build a strong expert letter that will clearly establish to the officer how and why you are extraordinary and they should approve your application. - Establish the Expert’s Qualifications - Establish their professional familiarity with your work - Have the expert discuss a specific project or product of yours and highlight how it showcased your extraordinary abilities - Have the expert review something in your portfolio and provide an assessment based on their expertise within the industry. - Have the expert highlight what technical and specific skills make you stand out compared to others in the industry, within your age group, within your country, at your level of expertise. Use our O-Visa Checklists to complete your immigration petition with all the required documents.  It can be devastating to get a denial of your immigration petition or Request for Evidence (RFE) which can significantly delay your approval. Retaining an O-Visa lawyer with experience and knowledge of the process is absolutely necessary when handling such important immigration matters. Read the full article

1. Build up your portfolio It is never too late or too early to start. By building your brand and having a clear and established vision, it will help you stay focused and be a launchpad for your career. 2. Connect with established people in your field Networking is a key strategy. These people can become mentors, offer fruitful advice, or provide opportunities for you. They can help you navigate your career and may have been O-Visa recipients themselves. 3. Seek opportunities, don’t wait around for them Think about ways you can prove that you are extraordinary and get more attention. Enter competitions or submit work when/if applicable and reach out to others to garner publicity. 4. Start thinking about and collective evidence You will need to provide a lot of evidence in order to qualify for the visa, so start checking off the ways in which you can prove that you are extraordinary. Keep them in the back of your mind as you progress in your career.  5. Make sure you have a plan/employer in the USA  Consider if you will have one employer or multiple employers. You do not want to overwork yourself, but you also need to make sure the itinerary is complete with consistent events that you would be working.  6. Get published  Being published is a key way to show recognition whether it is in a local or international magazine.  Read the full article

There are several career moves that will give you a head start on qualifying for an O-Visa and strengthening your application! Keep in mind that the O-Visa is for individuals exceptional in their career field, so it is imperative that you are able to prove that and truly do excel. By following these moves, it will help build up the evidence you have to support your case.  Find Your Experts Who Will Write Letters of Support A critical component of the O-Visa application is the letters of support/recommendations/testimonials from industry experts. Therefore, it is imperative that you build a strong network of people who can potentially write you a letter of support. Do not be shy to put yourself out there and meet new people, no matter where you are starting in your career. You will need to meet many people before you start meeting “the” people who will be critical to your application! Remember, it is not the number of connections you have but who are your connections. You will need known experts, people with high social media following or known nationally and/or internationally, with documented achievements that can be easily verified online or with high credentials and certifications. You likely will have colleagues, clients, employers, and mentors - each of them could turn into a potential letter of support writer. Work hard, cultivate these relationships, impress them with your work ethic and background, and make sure they like you or your work. People who like you or your work will write you stronger letters of support. Publicity! And Publications! You must garner publicity for your work. Get published, have your name in the press, in writing in online or written publications. Have your face or your work in publications, and keep a record of everything. Share all your achievements on your social media networks, and publicize, publicize, publicize your work. The key is publicizing your WORK and getting recognition for your work. You want to get recognized as someone who is exceptional in their career field.  Directly and Creatively Engage With Your Audience Do features, interviews, volunteer to judge competitions, give workshops, and find other creative ways for people to learn about you. Do not be afraid to actually reach out to local news or magazines for this.  Enter a Competition You may also consider if there are any competitions or awards within your field that you can pitch yourself for. Even if you do not win a competition, if it is highly selective to become a participant or you are in the company of very talented people who are also competing, that can also be helpful for your application. If you win an award, that is even better and automatically enhances your future O-Visa application. Building Your Portfolio, Skills, and Business Building up your portfolio and continuing to work on your craft or area of expertise is crucial. Always work hard and actively engage in your field. Seek opportunities to showcase your work or talent but remember, some opportunities are better than others. If an opportunity does not enhance your reputation in the industry for your work, allow you to develop a skill, garner publicity, lead to a networking opportunity, or help you in some way critical to building your career, you may not want to pursue that option.  You can also consider ways that you may expand your work - could your work turn into lectures or presentations that you could give? Is there room for promotion or starting your own business?  Start thinking about transitioning your career in the United States. Have an idea of where you would want to be pursuing your career and if there are any potential employers that could start connecting with.  Read the full article

In order to qualify for the O-Visa, there are several requirements you must meet.  First, ask yourself three questions:  - Are you in sciences, education, business, or athletics? - Are you in the arts or the motion picture or entertainment industry? - Are you a recognized and renowned individual in your field?* * Note that you must be able to say yes to this question.  If you said yes to the first question, you qualify for the O-1A Visa. In this case, you need to prove at least 3: - Receipt of nationally or internationally recognized prizes or awards for excellence in the field of endeavor; - Membership in associations in the field for which classification is sought which require outstanding achievements of members, as judged by recognized national or international experts in the field; - Published material in professional or major trade publications, or major media about the beneficiary and the beneficiary’s work in the field; - Participation on a panel or as a judge of the work of others in the same or allied field of specialization; - Original scientific, scholarly or business related contributions of major significance in the field; - Authorship of articles in the field as shown in professional journals or other major media; - Employment in a critical or essential capacity for organizations and establishments that have a distinguished reputation; - A high salary or other remuneration for services in the past or future. If you said yes to the second question, you qualify for the O-1B Visa. In this case, you need to prove at least 3: - Evidence the beneficiary has performed and will perform services as a lead or starring participant in productions or events which have a distinguished reputation as evidenced by critical reviews, advertisements, publicity releases, publications, contracts or endorsements; - Achieved national or international recognition for achievements, as shown by critical reviews or other published materials by or about the beneficiary in major newspapers, trade journals, magazines, or other publications; - Performed and will perform in a lead, starring, or critical role for organizations and establishments that have a distinguished reputation evidenced by articles in newspapers, trade journals, publications, or testimonials; - Record of major commercial or critically acclaimed successes, as shown by title, rating, standing in the field, box office receipts, motion picture or television ratings and other occupational achievements reported in trade journals, major newspapers or other publications; - Received significant recognition for achievements from organizations, critics, government agencies or other recognized experts in the field in which the beneficiary is engaged; testimonials must clearly indicate the author’s authority, expertise and knowledge of the beneficiary’s achievements; - Evidence the beneficiary has commanded or will command a high salary or other substantial remuneration for services in relation to others in the field. Read the full article

The petitioner for your O-Visa petition can be a variety of people and is generally referred to as the U.S. Agent. Self-petitioners are not allowed for the O-Visa.  The U.S. Agent is someone who acts on your behalf and is a facilitator for the petition. The Agent can be a variety of people whether it is your employer or not. If you have multiple employers, it can be helpful to have the Agent be a third-party who is authorized by your employer to act in their place and be representative of you and your employer(s). In this case, the Agent could be an attorney, the manager of the extraordinary individual, or a presenter or organizer.  The U.S. Agent has several responsibilities when it comes to the petition. For instance, they are meant to clarify the terms and conditions of the employment and provide any required documentation like the contract(s). They are also responsible for the itineraries for all the events the employee will act in, and provide the full information regarding where these events will take place.   Read the full article

Business people shaking hands in a meeting room Having multiple employers for your O-Visa petition is by no means necessary, but can be beneficial.  Employer letters are a significant part of the petition, because they sponsor you and emphasize your extraordinary ability and how that would be beneficial to the employer in the United States. These well-drafted letters can help establish your recognition in the field, so the more letters there are that all speak to your talent can solidify that.  That said, it is not helpful to have numerous employer letters that are not very substantial. It is more important to have two to three distinguished employers than to have as many employers as possible to fill up your itinerary.  If you do decide to have multiple employers for your O-Visa petition, make sure that the employers are within the same industry. It is imperative that the job positions for the multiple employers must be the same, or very similar, so that you are qualified as having extraordinary ability in the same field.  Read the full article

This article will help you plan in showing how you are overall extraordinary by using 3 of the most underutilized criteria for establishing extraordinary ability. The criteria for O-1A Visas in the sciences, education, business, and athletics is different from the criteria for O-1B Visas in the arts, motion picture, and entertainment. However, comparable evidence can be used for both types of O-Visas, and this means that you can use the visa criteria under O-1A to establish extraordinary ability for O-1B Visas by showing comparable evidence in the following categories: 1) Judging or Panel experience, 2) Membership in a Distinguished Association, and 3) Being an Author. - Judging or Speaking on a Panel The O-Visa requirement is “participation on a panel or as a judge of the work of others in the same or allied field of specialization.” Become a judge or get yourself on a panel in either a competition, presentation, or event, in something in or related to your industry. The competition, presentation or event does not have to be distinguished and attended by 1000s of people. What is important is that you are invited to be a judge or presenter because of your qualifications. As a judge, you must show that your opinion played a role in some decision. As a presenter, you must show people came to the event and that people registered or paid to attend.  - Membership in a Distinguished Association The O-Visa requirement is “Membership in associations in the field for which classification is sought which require outstanding achievements of members, as judged by recognized national or international experts in the field.” You cannot just join any organization or association in your field. Join an organization or association where you have to submit a detailed application and there are some selection criteria you must meet before you can even apply. You have to show that not everyone can be a member of that organization or association. Additionally, have a leadership position that plays a role in some critical events or running of the association that impacts people within the industry, who are not members of the association. Alternatively, you can also show that an association reached out to you to invite you to join because of your extraordinary qualifications, and that such an invitation is very rare. You must have proof of the invitation to join, the selection criteria for membership in the association, and evidence of how the association is distinguished or plays an important role in the industry. - Being an Author The O-Visa requirement is “Authorship of articles in the field as shown in professional journals or other major media.” If you write articles that are published in journals, magazines, newspapers, or some other media, you can satisfy this criteria. You have to have written material. You don’t have to publish in the most distinguished journals, magazines, newspapers, etc, but show as many published articles as you can. What you have to show is that your work was published, your name must appear in the publication, the publication must be in your industry, and the publication must have a following - either through their number of members, circulation numbers, subscribers, social media likes, etc. Read the full article

If you have ten people you can ask to write you a Recommendation letter, it does not mean you should ask all of them. Additionally, if you only know three people who will write you recommendation letters, that can be enough. This article will help you plan and strategize for who to ask to write you a recommendation letter and how to meet the significant recognition requirement with as little as 3 recommendation letters, based on these 4 considerations: 1) the expert’s qualifications, 2) the expert’s familiarity with your work, 3) how much the expert likes you, and 4) how much the expert likes your work. - Expert’s Qualifications - Choose someone who has at least one or more of the following: distinguished education, awards, distinguished clients, and strong online search results.  Distinguished Education means the went to an Ivy League School, Top Design School, School with Distinguished Alumni, or a school name most people outside the industry are familiar with as being top for the industry. They need to have won some award; it does not have to be the most prestigious but there are some select criteria they need to have met to receive the award. They should have some household, instant recognition named clients in their portfolio - names that even someone who knows nothing about the industry might have heard about somewhere. They need to be all over the internet so that when someone Google’s their name, articles and photos of the person come up. The more photos that come up, the better because photos make the person real to the USCIS officer and helps establish the Expert’s qualifications; and within a minute, the officer is convinced that the expert is an expert. The expert does not need to have all of these qualifications but at least one. - Expert’s Familiarity With Your Work The expert has to discuss your work in the expert letter. Therefore, the expert needs to have personally worked with you, hired you for a project, or has seen a portfolio of your work and can provide an expert evaluation of your talent based on your work. They need to be able to articulate their familiarity with your work and not just state that they think you are extraordinary because you asked them to write a letter of recommendation. - How Much the Expert Likes You Get a recommendation letter from someone who really likes you as a person, even if they are not the most distinguished in your list of people to ask, over someone, who is the most distinguished but you don’t have a personal connection with. Why? Sometimes an expert has very high qualifications but they are really busy, they just are not that excited to write the letter, or want you to draft it and they just want to sign something. Someone who really likes you as a person, will make the time to write the letter, they will add in details that will make the letter stand out, and they will be open to revisions. This is really important because then the letter will not be a generic letter that acts as a recommendation letter but rather, become a form of evidence that will create an argument for why your application should be approved. - How Much the Expert Likes Your Work On the flip side, if there is an expert who you only have a professional relationship with but they really love your work, get an expert letter from that person and have the letter focus on their familiarity with your work and what they love about it, and how that makes you extraordinary. They don’t have to love you to love your work; their love for your work will motivate them to write a strong letter. 5 Top Tips for Building an Expert Letter to Get an Approval for Your O-Visa Petition You need to submit strong expert letters that make an argument for why you are extraordinary and your O-Visa should be approved, and not that the expert thinks you are a lovely person and extraordinary just because they use the word “extraordinary”.  These 5 Tops Tips will help you build a strong expert letter that will clearly establish to the officer how and why you are extraordinary and they should approve your application. - Establish the Expert’s Qualifications - Establish their professional familiarity with your work - Have the expert discuss a specific project or product of yours and highlight how it showcased your extraordinary abilities - Have the expert review something in your portfolio and provide an assessment based on their expertise within the industry. - Have the expert highlight what technical and specific skills make you stand out compared to others in the industry, within your age group, within your country, at your level of expertise.  3 Underutilized Criteria for Establishing Extraordinary Ability in the Sciences, Education, Business, and Athletics in an O-Visa Petition This article will help you plan in meeting at least 3 of the O-Visa criteria by using 3 of the most underutilized criteria for establishing extraordinary ability. You can build a successful petition that gets approved by showing the following: 1) Judging or Panel experience, 2) Membership in a Distinguished Association, and 3) Being an Author. - Judging or Speaking on a Panel The O-Visa requirement is “participation on a panel or as a judge of the work of others in the same or allied field of specialization.” Become a judge or get yourself on a panel in either a competition, presentation, or event, in something in or related to your industry. The competition, presentation or event does not have to be distinguished and attended by 1000s of people. What is important is that you are invited to be a judge or presenter because of your qualifications. As a judge, you must show that your opinion played a role in some decision. As a presenter, you must show people came to the event and that people registered or paid to attend.  - Membership in a Distinguished Association The O-Visa requirement is “Membership in associations in the field for which classification is sought which require outstanding achievements of members, as judged by recognized national or international experts in the field.” You cannot just join any organization or association in your field. Join an organization or association where you have to submit a detailed application and there are some selection criteria you must meet before you can even apply. You have to show that not everyone can be a member of that organization or association. Additionally, have a leadership position that plays a role in some critical events or running of the association that impacts people within the industry, who are not members of the association. Alternatively, you can also show that an association reached out to you to invite you to join because of your extraordinary qualifications, and that such an invitation is very rare. You must have proof of the invitation to join, the selection criteria for membership in the association, and evidence of how the association is distinguished or plays an important role in the industry. - Being an Author The O-Visa requirement is “Authorship of articles in the field as shown in professional journals or other major media.” If you write articles that are published in journals, magazines, newspapers, or some other media, you can satisfy this criteria. You have to have written material. You don’t have to publish in the most distinguished journals, magazines, newspapers, etc, but show as many published articles as you can. What you have to show is that your work was published, your name must appear in the publication, the publication must be in your industry, and the publication must have a following - either through their number of members, circulation numbers, subscribers, social media likes, etc. Read the full article