Ask Sophie: Can I get an O-1A visa to bypass the H-1B course of?
Bestselling writer Sophie Alcorn, lawyer and founding father of Alcorn Immigration Legislation in Silicon Valley, CA, is an award-winning Licensed Specialist Legal professional in Immigration and Nationality Legislation by the State Bar Board of Authorized Specialization. Sophie is enthusiastic about transcending borders, increasing alternative, and connecting the world by practising compassionate, visionary, and professional immigration legislation. Join with Sophie on LinkedIn and Twitter.
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Expensive Sophie,
I’m a world pupil from India who might be eligible for STEM OPT beginning in January.
My plan has been to discover a method to make use of it for my tech startup, however ultimately, I have to shift to a piece visa as a result of I need to be the CEO.
Can I bypass the entire H-1B visa factor by getting an O-1A visa? If sure, can I do it with only a bachelor’s diploma? What counts as extraordinary capacity?
— Spirited STEM Scholar
Expensive Spirited,
I’m so excited to listen to you’re leaping into the function of a startup founder — and I’m so happy you’re planning forward! As all the time, I like to recommend you seek the advice of an immigration lawyer for steerage. And comply with your coronary heart as you contemplate your path to extraordinary capacity; we’ll discuss extra about this requirement under!
Sure — you may completely bypass the H-1B specialty occupation visa for the O-1A extraordinary capacity visa! No person is ever “required” to get an H-1B, and plenty of routes can result in your inexperienced card. The O-1A usually aligns higher with the talents and experiences of startup founders than the H-1B.
It has no agency necessities as to training or wage — not like the H-1B — and your startup or agent can sponsor you for an O-1A. Simply remember that the bar for qualifying for an O-1A is greater than it’s for the H-1B. That stated, since there’s a low barrier to entry for the annual H-1B lottery in March (at the moment corporations pay the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers [USCIS] $10 per registration), guarantee your H-1B eligibility together with your immigration lawyer and contemplate pursuing it in parallel as a backup.
Let’s first look at establishing your startup to qualify for F-1 STEM OPT and O-1A.
Forming a startup
In case you are on common OPT and also you need to file for an O-1A probably even earlier than STEM OPT, contemplate forming the authorized entity in your startup. Your company lawyer might help you identify one of the best ways to construction the corporate given your monetary (enterprise capital) targets and immigration necessities, which I’ll go into extra element on in a second.