From not getting selected in the H-1B lottery to O-1

A post from a while back (source):

My client was not selected in the H-1B lottery.

He was on OPT (non-stem) and only had one shot at the lottery. When he found out he had not been selected, he decided to look for another way to stay in the U.S. and decided to pursue an O-1 visa.

When he spoke to his company’s immigration counsel, he was told that he had a slim chance of qualifying and that they wouldn’t be filing for an O-1 visa for him on his behalf.

He looked for a second opinion (as you should) and that’s how we ended up working together.

When I first took a look at his case, I felt like it had potential. It wasn’t an extremely strong case but my client did have a few publications and a few citations. It was also clear that he was in the top 10% of his field and had extremely strong references, so I gave his case a shot.

We put together a strong case - we had detailed reference letters, well-researched claims, supplementary evidence, and work-product to showcase his ability. We also opted for premium processing to speed things up.

In a matter of weeks, the case got approved.

No RFE.

-

This post is by Amber G. Davis. She started her career working at a boutique immigration firm before moving on to two different large immigration firms (one of which is one of the largest immigration firms in the world). She’s advised numerous high-tech companies of all shapes and sizes, from startups to top ten Fortune 500 companies, and from nonprofits to companies in the IPO process. She now runs Waypoint Immigration USA, representing only individual employees for EB-1A, EB-2 NIW, O-1, etc. and is well-known on LinkedIn with 7.7K+ followers.

Want to get in touch with Amber? You can reach her at amber.davis@waypointimmigration.org or through a LinkedIn connection note (Amber’s LinkedIn profile).