from Hacker News

How I got an O-1 visa as a software engineer

by ahussain on 1/26/24, 3:45 PM with 198 comments

• by hn_throwaway_99 on 1/26/24, 9:44 PM

  Congrats OP! I'm trying to choose my words carefully, because I don't want to give the wrong impression:

  1. I think it's great that OP got the visa, and it's clear (at least to me) that we should be attracting entrepreneurial types like OP to start businesses in the US. I also understand that our immigration system is hopelessly broken, and oftentimes the best one can hope to do is "hack" the system. So I commend you for not just hacking the system, but posting this to Hacker News!

  2. It seems pretty apparent that while OP may be able to "check some of these boxes", he, at least to me, doesn't meet the "Extraordinary Ability" intent of this visa. I worry that with more spotlight on these types of applications that various political movements would try to tighten the loopholes for this visa.

  To expand on number 2, raising 98K from family, friends and seed investors really does not strike me as a "nationally or internationally recognized award". Again, clearly it is by the letter of the law (at least the rules of the USCIS), but that surprised me as a layperson. The section on "Being employed in a ‘critical capacity’ at an organization with a distinguished reputation" seemed even more dubious. Path, OP's startup that is nothing more than a pitch deck and 100k in funding, is "an organization with a distinguished reputation"???

  Again, to be 100% clear, I don't fault OP at all for going this route, and on the contrary, I commend him for "playing the game" correctly. I just worry about the downstream consequences of "pulling back the curtain" and showing how the game works to a larger audience.

• by drtournier on 1/26/24, 6:42 PM

  Glad you made it OP, congrats! As an immigrant in the US I went through the "Extraordinary Ability" path and the process was a journey of pain and anxiety. Many roundabouts with a lawyer that promised me expertise in the process and it ended up with a NOID (Notice of Intention to Deny - something like that) from USCIS. My wife and I had to study the USCIS manual page by page and re-wrote almost all documentation from the lawyer. It wasn't easy but we made it.

• by tlb on 1/26/24, 11:41 PM

  Thanks for talking publicly about this. Thousands of interesting people take this route (also, me) but not many blog about it.

  My lawyers originally described this category as "for internationally recognized people such as Nobel prize winners". That seemed a bit out of my league. But they issue 13k O-1 visas per year, so it's really the top (in some sense) 13k people who want to immigrate to the US each year. So I applied and got it.

  The annoying part is that it demands legible recognitions: awards the immigration officers have heard of, and recommendation letters from people with Titles in Organizations they've heard of. But they seem to know something about the STEM world. They know about the International Math/Physics/Chemistry Olympiads, and the ACM Programming Contest, good universities, and reputable tech investors.

  If I can offer a tip, it's the following. You know what's impressive in the STEM field. The immigration officer also has some experience of what's impressive. Your lawyer has the least idea of the 3 of you. So don't be diffident or self-deprecating with your lawyer! You have to tell them what you've accomplished and how notable each thing is.

• by elevatedastalt on 1/26/24, 11:30 PM

  I find it insane that people think it's a good idea to flaunt how they got these things.

  Good for OP that he gamed the system, I have no ill-will for him. But the smart thing to do would be to keep quiet and enjoy the legal status, not write a blogpost showing how flimsily it was obtained.

  If I were the USCIS I'd see this as a sign that this whole visa application was made in bad faith.

• by RustyRussell on 1/27/24, 5:14 AM

  For those who don't know the jargon: an O(1) Visa gives you constant-time access to the US.

• by beaeglebeached on 1/26/24, 5:32 PM

  I have a dumb question but how often do tourist visa overstayers get deported while running their own business under an incorporated ITIN? There's not even an I-9 check for non-employee income. There's got to be millions of people doing something like this or as 'independent contractors' considering how trivial it is and the obvious completely broken immigration system that demands these kinds of hacks.

• by kulor on 1/26/24, 5:17 PM

  Thank you for sharing. It's useful to know that an O-1 is a theoretically viable route.

  Some serious creativity in using fundraising under the category of "Nationally or internationally recognized awards"

• by angarg12 on 1/26/24, 8:59 PM

  > May 2022 - Left my SWE job at Wave and incorporated my own startup called Path (a Delaware C corp) I was permitted to remain in the USA, since I was not employed by Path yet. My understanding is that it is permissible to do exploratory work on a new startup as long as you are not employed by that startup, and your previous visa has not expired. It was during this time that my cofounder and I raised money for Path. Note: If I had left the USA during this time, I would not have been permitted to re-enter on my old L1-B visa.

  This sounds iffy. I'm in the US on a L1-B visa as well, and my company went through rounds of layoffs, which concerned me. All information I've read, including the immigration team from my company (Big Tech), points out that if I lost my job, I would have had a short time to leave the country with no chance to find other jobs.

  Unless I'm reading too much into it, it sounds like OP spent some time in the US in an illegal status, until that gap was bridged with the new visa.

• by otoburb on 1/26/24, 5:15 PM

  Appreciate sharing this specific immigration journey so far. The biggest positive factor seems to be that the poster was already in the US on an L-1B which also counted towards one out of four of the O-1 eligibility criteria (specialized knowledge).

• by Agingcoder on 1/26/24, 6:24 PM

  Unless I’ve misunderstood something, a phd holder who has published papers and worked in tech/banking/etc with a high salary can get that kind of visa ?

• by scottydog51834 on 1/26/24, 5:41 PM

  Slightly off-topic, but I am curious how difficult it is in general to receive an entrepreneurial visa to the US? I chatted with a potential co-founder, here now for a masters, who would seek out this visa if we were to start a company together.

• by dannyw on 1/26/24, 6:28 PM

  O1 isn’t that hard with a good immigration lawyer. It’s about checking boxes, not extraordinary talent.

• by Solvency on 1/26/24, 8:20 PM

  When I worked at a digital agency in 2007-2012 they hired MANY Brazilian art directors all who obtained O-1 visas. Literally just designers/creatives with portfolios online. I remember thinking how great they must be. Flash forward to 2024 I can't think of a single person in my network with one.

  Did the criteria change? Is it easier in certain fields? Easier from certain origin countries?

• by j7ake on 1/26/24, 5:17 PM

  Does O-1 bypass the country by birth quota for green cards? Or is this just a visa not permanent residency?

• by codeisawesome on 1/26/24, 6:33 PM

  Thank you for sharing this openly, the content is personally useful for me.

• by pedalpete on 1/27/24, 1:11 AM

  I was going down a similar route in Australia but we were able to get my permanent residency without having to use the Distinguished Talent Visa.

  I'm surprised the US requirements would be so low as to accept a $100k investment as an award.

  For most people, this is probably not the way to go, we were using it as a potential last resort.

• by nikshepsvn on 1/26/24, 6:31 PM

  If you don't mind sharing, how much funding did you raise? I can't find any information online

• by quasarj on 1/27/24, 3:35 AM

  Top 10th percentile of software engineer salaries.. well this is definitely not something easily repeatable haha

• by hasty_pudding on 1/26/24, 6:44 PM

  There should be a series on hacking the American immigration system to work around all of its draconian rules.

• by aiauthoritydev on 1/27/24, 5:18 AM

  Friendly advice: You got it ? Good. please keep quiet and don't tom tom it. There are indeed America First types out there who will report you to USCIS. These people are vicious and will DOXX you. I know this has happened in past.

• by jacknews on 1/26/24, 9:05 PM

  I mean well done to the OP for getting their visa, but the whole thing reads like they gamed the system, which is clearly intended for people at the top of their fields, talented researchers, innovators, etc. And the 'outstanding ability' in this case is being put towards an 'immigration software' startup, ie helping others game, uh, navigate, the system, so the whole thing seems quite ironic.