Chapter 2: O1 Criteria
In this chapter, we will discuss the 8 criteria of the O1 visa, explain the requirements in simple terms, and provide examples of the evidence needed for each requirement.
To qualify for an O1 visa, you need to meet at least 3 out of the 8 criteria. The good news is that with a little effort, you can easily fulfill these criteria and qualify for your O1 visa.
While only 3 criteria are required, most lawyers recommend submitting with at least 5 or more criteria in case some are not approved.
Before we dive into the criteria, let me give you some hope: the acceptance rate for an O1 visa is 91% (2023) once you have a lawyer representing you. Lawyers don't want to disappoint their clients, so if you find a lawyer who believes in your chances of success, you will likely obtain your O1 visa.
There are very few publicly available examples of completed O1 visa petitions online, but you can find some examples for EB-1 petitions, which are similar to O1 but more challenging.
1. Awards
Criteria 1: Documentation of the beneficiary's receipt of nationally or internationally recognized prizes or awards for excellence in the field of endeavor;
USCIS is looking for a nationally or internationally renowned prize that you have won in your field of endeavor.
Now, let's explore some potential qualifying prizes. While many of these are exceptional and uncommon, there are also some more achievable options. It is important for you to think creatively and consider an award that is widely recognized on a national or international level within your field.
Science and Technology
Nobel Prize
Turing Award
Lasker Award
Grants or Scholarships
Business + Entrepreneurship
Raising a lot of money for your startup from venture capitalists
Forbes 30 under 30
Edison Awards
The point I want to emphasize is that if you specialize in entrepreneurship, receiving funding from venture capitalists is indeed an award. Typically, a substantial amount, such as $100,000, is considered meaningful and falls under the category of an award for fundraising. It is important to note that the funding raised does not have to be specifically for your current company; as long as itis within the same sector, it demonstrates your ability to successfully raise money as an entrepreneur. This achievement can contribute to fulfilling the criteria for the award.
See Appendix A for more information on how to make the case to USCIS that venture capital is an award.
Evidence to Submit
Evidence of fundraising. Term sheets and SAFEs from investors.
Evidence of the award given to you
2. Memberships
Documentation of the beneficiary’s membership in associations in the field for which classification is sought, which require outstanding achievements of their members, as judged by recognized national or international experts in their disciplines or fields
In this criteria, you must demonstrate that you are a member of an exclusive association with limited access. You gained entry to this association due to your exceptional achievements in your field.
It is important to consider that any organization requiring payment may not meet the criteria to showcase prestige. The Young Entrepreneurs Council is a borderline case, as it has a minimum requirement of $1M in revenue or $1M in funding, but it also involves membership fees. Although it seeks exceptional individuals for entry, its eligibility may vary in practice.
Here are a few examples of memberships that could potentially meet the criteria:
Here are some examples of memberships that might work:
Science and Technology
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM)
Business + Entrepreneurship
Product Managers
If you have been accepted into a startup accelerator like Y Combinator or Techstars, you can use this as evidence of your membership in an association. However, you will need to prove that you were accepted because of your individual merits, not just because of your company. I have personally witnessed O1 visa rejections based on this criterion, as the USCIS argued that it was the company that was accepted, not the individual. For more information on how to argue this case, please refer to Appendix B.
It is worth noting that there are national organizations that may be easier for you to gain acceptance into. Keep in mind that the wording specifies "as judged by recognized national or international experts in their disciplines or fields." For example, if you are an AI expert and your country has an association of AI thought leaders from academia and business, joining that association could be a perfect fit. One such example in Germany is KI Verband, but there are many others in different countries. You will need to conduct your own research based on your specific field.
There are also specific disqualifications for associations that will not meet the standards set by USCIS.
If the association only requires a PhD or x years of employment in the field to become a member.
If the sole requirement is payment of a fee. This is a gray area for associations like YEC, where in addition to meeting minimum requirements, membership dues may be necessary.
Memberships in occupational unions that are mandated for employment purposes.
These are all reasons unrelated to outstanding achievements. Remember, the O1 visa is focused on exceptional accomplishments, and being a member of an organization for other reasons will not be sufficient.
Evidence to Submit
Evidence of membership (e.g certificates, letters of confirmation of membership)
Documents highlighting the exclusivity of the organization
CVs or profiles of other notable members of the club
Information of the selection process of the club (this could be inside the letter of confirmation itself)
Any evidence that shows how that membership is well known within your field
3. Press
Published material in professional or major trade publications or major media about the beneficiary, relating to the beneficiary's work in the field for which classification is sought. This evidence must include the title, date, and author of such published material and any necessary translation
To qualify for this criteria, it is generally recommended to have approximately three articles published by you or about you. These articles should focus on either portraying you as an exceptional individual or highlighting your exceptional work.
The relevance of the media outlet is subjective and determined by the immigration officer. However, larger publications such as Forbes, TechCrunch, and other well-known names are considered more favorable. Regardless, you should emphasize the monthly readership of the publication and explain to the officer why this publication is significant either generally or within your specific field.
If you have been published in a smaller, less well-known publication, potentially from your home country, you will need to help the officer understand the distribution of the media compared to the population of the country as a whole. For example, if Newspaper Y has a monthly readership that reaches 20% of the population of Country Z, it can be considered highly important, as evidenced by X, Y, and Z.
Any publications that are in another language will need to be translated by an official translator
Any document containing foreign language submitted to the Service shall be accompanied by a full English language translation which the translator has certified as complete and accurate, and by the translator's certification that he or she is competent to translate from the foreign language into English
Blog posts and articles published on platforms like Medium can be considered as unreliable sources. To strengthen your case, it is important to demonstrate that your article received significant viewership within your field. For instance, if a well-known figure like Andrej Karpathy referenced your AI article in another piece he wrote, or in a tweet or video, it would greatly contribute to building your case.
Press coverage is definitely something that can be gamed if you’re willing to pay. You could engage PR agencies and pay them $500-1000+ to help you have your work featured in publications such as Forbes.
If you choose this approach, it is advisable to stagger the publication dates over time. Having three articles published in the same month would appear suspicious. Additionally, ensure that the content of each article differs somewhat from the others. Aim for a collection of articles that demonstrate a consistent presence in the media over a period of time.
Evidence to Submit
The articles and their translations if needed
Videos of you from news outlets
Evidence of each publications importance and reach
4. High Salary
Evidence that the beneficiary has either commanded a high salary or will command a high salary or other remuneration for services as evidenced by contracts or other reliable evidence.
This is often one of the easiest criteria to satisfy, especially in the field of technology.
To meet the criteria for a High Salary, you must demonstrate that your earning falls within the 95th percentile of all earners in your specific role and location.
Some individuals may mistakenly believe that they need to be in the 95th percentile of earners in the United States for their particular role, but that is not the case. For example, if you are a senior software engineer in France earning 200k euros per year, which corresponds to the 99th percentile of all senior software engineers in France, then you would meet the criteria.
To support this criterion, your lawyer will likely refer to data from job platforms such as Indeed, Glassdoor, or Salary.com. It is important for them to clearly indicate if the salary is in a different currency, in cases where your earnings are from outside the United States.
One important thing to note for startup founders is that if you have received equity and raised money from outside investors, you can use this equity as evidence of a high salary
> "If the petitioner demonstrates that receipt of a high salary is not readily applicable to the beneficiary's position as an entrepreneur, the petitioner might present evidence that the beneficiary's highly valued equity holdings in the startup are of comparable significance to the high salary criterion."
You need to calculate the estimated valuation of your equity in the company based on your last funding round if you have completed a priced round.
For example, let's say PersonX owns 4,000,000 common shares in Corp. In our last fundraising round, the shares were sold at $1.50 per share. This puts the valuation of PersonX's equity at $Y. PersonX is on a 4-year vesting schedule with 1-year cliffs. Thus, the value of their salary and equity for each calendar year would be equal to $120,000 (salary) + $Y (equity), resulting in a total compensation of $Z per year.
Additionally, you will need to provide supporting documents such as 83(b) tax filings and term sheets from your latest funding round, which show the post-money valuation.
It's important to note that you can include a high salary from any period of time during your career. If you have had multiple years with a high salary, you can include all of them in your petition.
Evidence to Submit
Invoices or Payslips
Tax Returns
83(b) tax filings (for equity)
Term Sheets (for equity)
Confirmation of employment letter from your petitioning company
Salary comparisons from Indeed, Glassdoor, or Salary.com
5. Critical Employment
Evidence that the beneficiary has been employed in a critical or essential capacity for organizations and establishments that have a distinguished reputation
There are two things we need here to convince USCIS. 1) that you served in a critical role; and 2) that it was at an organization with a distinguished reputation.
Critical Role
Now how do you prove you had a critical role? There are two paths:either you were a leader at a company or you held a supporting role.
If you held a c-suite position at a company in the past, this is usually the easiest way to demonstrate that you served in a critical role. Such leadership positions are inherently critical to the company.
Other leadership positions can also be considered here. For instance, if you were the Head of Engineering or held another "Head of" position, this would suffice.
However, if you only ever had a supporting role, it can be more challenging. You will need to show that your performance in that role was crucial to the company's goals. In my own case, when I petitioned, I successfully argued that I served as the sole Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) at a startup that later became a unicorn. I reported directly to the CTO in a supporting capacity. In this role, being the only SRE at the company, I played an indispensable part in helping the business meet the goals set by high-profile enterprise clients, who required exceptional uptime for their services. To support this argument, we presented Master Service Agreements (MSAs) that outlined specific Service Level Agreement requirements, such as 99.99% uptime, as evidence of the enterprise customers' expectations. The exact approach will vary depending on your specific role and the company you worked for.
Other examples of critical roles include being a member of an important committee within an organization.
You can submit multiple examples of holding a critical role at an organization. For example, if your current startup, which is sponsoring your O1 petition, has raised over $1 million from venture capitalists and has been featured in TechCrunch, and you hold the position of CEO, you should definitely include this information in the petition. Additionally, if you have previously held a critical position at another company, you can also submit that information.
Distinguished Organization
How can you demonstrate that the organization was distinguished?
This is a subjective matter that depends on various factors such as the organization's longevity, number of customers, and media coverage.
In my case, the company I previously worked for had a valuation of one billion dollars, raised over 200 million dollars in funding, and was featured in Gartner reports within its industry. Additionally, the company had received press coverage alongside other important companies such as AT&T, YETI, and AirAsia.
If the immigration officer is unfamiliar with the company due to it being a lesser-known startup, you will need to provide additional context to highlight the significance of the business in its field. On the other hand, if the company is a household name like Apple or IBM, minimal evidence will suffice, and you will only need to prove that you held a critical role.
Evidence to Submit
Press articles that mention you and the company and your contributions to it
Your original offer of employment from the organization
Recommendation letters from your previous manager or executives at the company that highlight how critical you were to the organization
Press articles announcing fundraising rounds for the organization, or the Crunchbase profile for the company. This can be helpful even if the funding was before your time at the company.
Mentions of the company in Gartner or Forrester reports
GitHub statistics for the company such as stars or forks of important repositories
Information about high-profile partnerships with well known companies
Performance reviews or emails praising your contributions to the company
6. Judging
Evidence of the beneficiary's participation on a panel, or individually, as a judge of the work of others in the same or in an allied field of specialization for which classification is sought
To qualify for the judging criteria, you need to have evaluated the work of your peers in the same field in which you are applying. If you are an entrepreneur with a startup in the AI industry, judging AI hackathons or serving as a judge in a pitch competition are two excellent ways to meet this requirement.
It is important to be cautious about the types of hackathons that are included here. I have seen many people recommend judging hackathons on platforms like Major League Hacking, but I highly doubt that these would be considered acceptable.
The reason for this is that you must have been invited to judge based on your exceptional qualities. Supporting documentation, such as an invitation letter from the hackathon organizer, stating something like "Person X was selected as a judge for our hackathon due to their extensive experience in cutting-edge AI technologies like neural networks," can be extremely valuable to include as evidence.If you can get onto hackathons from well known corporations this is even better, because it makes it simpler for the immigration officer. If they see you judged a hackathon that was hosted by Microsoft, they’re much more likely to deem that exceptional than a hackathon put on by a local meetup group.
It's important to ensure that you are evaluating your peers rather than students. If you have only assessed hackathons with student participants, you will not meet this criterion.
If you have experience peer-reviewing journal articles, this can also fulfill the requirement. Just make sure you have supporting evidence such as letters or other proof that demonstrate your role as a reviewer.
How to judge hackathons
If you want to judge a hackathon to meet this requirement, here are some tips to help you get started.
The first method is to visit websites like lu.ma, meetup.com, lablab.ai, or LinkedIn, and search for hackathons in your city or nearby cities. Identify hackathons that you think would meet this requirement (not hackathons with students!). Then, look up the organizer for the event and send them a compelling email about how you would like to help judge the event and what skills you bring to the table. Keep in mind that you may need to send quite a few emails before landing a spot.
The second, easier method is if you already have a strong network or are part of an accelerator like Y Combinator or TechStars. You can post on LinkedIn or message people you know who hold leadership positions, letting them know that you're looking for judging opportunities and asking them to keep you in mind when they host a hackathon.
In both cases, be transparent about your O1 and why it would help you, but also outline the value you bring to the table. There is no scenario in which judging opportunities are magically given to you.Here’s a list of places to look for hackathons:
Here’s a list of places to look for hackathons:
lu.ma
meetup.com
lablab.ai
LinkedIn
Evidence to Submit
News coverage of the hackathon or the event
Invitation letter to judge at the hackathon
CVs of fellow judges from the hackathon
Impressive CVs from judges that have judged the hackathon in past years
Pictures of you at the hackathon with other judges
7. Published Materials
Evidence of the beneficiary's authorship of scholarly articles in the field, in professional journals, or other major media
In order to meet this criteria, you will need to have 1) be listed as an author on a published paper that has been cited at least once; or 2) have given a conference presentation at a nationally or internationally recognized conference; or 3) published an article in your field of endeavour in a major media outlet.
For the sciences where scholarly articles are the norm, you will need these or a conference talk. For fields that don’t really centre their progression around scholarly articles, such as Business or Software Engineering, you can attempt to prove that articles in major publications or even lesser known publications are important.
Here’s one example that’s less conventional. tl;dr secis the newsletter for cybersecurity professionals. There are more than 50,000 people subscribed to the newsletter. If you wrote a blog article on your personal or company blog and it made it onto the tl;dr secnewsletter, you should be able to count this as evidence. You will need to put into perspective how big a deal tl;dr sec is in the security community by framing how large 50,000 people is in proportion to the number of cybersecurity professionals around the world. Since this is the primary method by which cybersecurity professionals share the latest important information, you can consider it a major media for the cybersecurity industry.
Evidence to Submit
Screenshots of articles you’ve written
Links to the articles
Monthly visitor counts of the publications
Translations of the articles (if in another language)
Screenshots from events videos of you speaking at an event
Invitations to speak at events
Screenshots from the event website
8. Original Contributions
Evidence of the beneficiary's original scientific, scholarly, or business-related contributions of major significance in the field.
The original contributions criteria is open-ended. You might think you need patents to meet this criteria but that’s not the case.
If you built something on GitHub that has a lot of stars, or you built a product that’s being used by large corporations this could also satisfy the criteria. At my startup, I built a product that was open-core, had around 300 stars on GitHub and was sold to just one public company and we successfully argued this criteria.
If you have something open-source with a lot of stars, you could attempt to get some letters from individuals using the project, or you could use the forks of to determine usage. You could say for example “People from distinguished organizations X, Y, Z have forked and are using our original open-source contribution”.
Any data that you can use to support your original contribution and it’s success need to be used here. GitHub Stars, Revenue, Press about your product.
Evidence to Submit
Patents in your name
GitHub repositories showing your product
Architectural diagrams of closed-source work
User testimonials or reviews
Pitch decks that you used to raise money with your original contribution
User analytics, metrics, or data highlighting the adoption of your original contribution
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