I’m often asked why I decided to move to America. I was born in the UK to immigrant parents, studied at Oxford which is the epitome of the British ‘establishment’ and had many good job offers. Why pack up and leave to move to a country without my family, where there’s no universal healthcare and even greater political polarization? After two years, the best way I’ve found to sum up why I moved to America is this…

In America, there’s no floor and there’s no ceiling. The reason I moved to America was precisely because there’s no ceiling. You can dream of building rockets and find access to talent and capital to do so. In fact, the most famous entrepreneur of our generation, Elon Musk, left South Africa to live his American dream, famously saying on his success: “America is the land of opportunity – there is no other country where I could have done [building SpaceX, Tesla and The Boring Company] this”. 

To people around the world, America represents freedom. America is a beacon of hope – a place where ambition, relentless optimism and a thriving culture of experimentation all exist to advance progress. Living in America was, and continues to be, a great privilege. It’s easy to take for granted the opportunities afforded here, especially the flow of capital to innovation. It’s easy to forget that America is driving technology forward and is home to the greatest technology companies in the world. 

The negative side to that picture is that America is an exceptionally difficult place for the less fortunate. The lack of social safety net is viscerally apparent in my hometown of San Francisco. This requires a whole piece in it’s own right but I will say that I’ve witnessed greater poverty in the US than many other countries across the world. 

As a foreigner, choosing to live in America is a continuous fight. The immigration process is a gruelling one – financially, emotionally and intellectually. I’ve spent hundreds of hours online, from reddit forums to legal sites, trying to navigate this mind maze. After two years, it’s still not over for me. As a result, I’ve continuously ended up questioning my decision to stay. And it seems I’m not alone – “the reverse brain drain” is a growing phenomenon for immigrants, including many technically gifted Indian immigrants, choosing to leave America frustrated with uncertainty over immigration policy. 

And the increasing pessimism from inside the tech industry about America’s ability to the future is worrying. If American leaders no longer believe in America then who will? 

One of the most fascinating things about America is that it mixes people from different backgrounds and cultures all the time. Even if the process of getting here is hard, once you arrive in America, everyone is able to pursue their own flavour of the American Dream. I believe these fighting immigrants will continue to build back America. 

And if we still believe in America then so can you.

This post is intended for immigrant startup founders, employees or investors evaluating US visa options. The visa journey isn’t clear cut or straightforward. I received a lot of conflicting advice and ended up spending 100+ hours researching different options and preparing my application. I hope this helps demystify the process and saves others time.

O-1 visa applicants must demonstrate extraordinary ability in their field. This is a high standard, so O-1 visas are not usually the first option to consider. But for those with significant, documented experience or academic credentials, the O-1 is worth considering. I’ll highlight the benefits of the O-1 vs the H-1B.

After working for years in technology and startups, I believe immigrant entrepreneurs have a unique ability to surmount difficulties, bringing fresh and diverse perspectives to the startup space. This post is to help others understand what an O-1 visa is and figure out whether it’s the right or them. Disclaimer: I applied under the Trump Administration and there may be new visa options in the next few years.

About me: I’m a British citizen and I moved to the US in August 2019 from Berlin. I wanted to move to San Francisco because I thought it would be a great place to meet ambitious smart people working on hard problems (I like working intensely on important things!). I’m very happy here now (as pictured!). If you have any questions, feel free to reach out on Twitter @lisawehden. I was inspired by a friend’s guide (which is great and you should also check it out).

What’s covered:

• What is an O-1 visa?
• Advantages to the H-1B
• How to apply
• Recommendation Letters
• Logistics
• RFEs

What is an O-1 visa?

According to the Citizenship and Immigration Services agency at the US Department of Homeland Security, the O-1 visa applies to any individual:

“who possesses extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics (the O1-A)or

who has a demonstrated record of extraordinary achievement in the motion picture or television industry and has been recognized nationally or internationally for those achievements (the O1-B).”

O-1 visas are initially granted for up to three years. After that they can be extended for one year at a time and there’s no limit on the number of extensions. There are two types of O-1 visas, the O1-A and the O1-B. In this post I’ll focus on the O1-A as it’s for those applying for extraordinary ability in business which is more common for individuals working in the technology sector.

Compared to the H-1B, what are the benefits?

There’s many advantages to the O-1 over the more commonly known H-1B, but it is more difficult to qualify for. In comparison to the H-1B, the O-1 has a number of advantages:

• There is no annual quota on the number of visas that can be issued
• There is no labor certification process
• There is no ultimate limit on how long you can stay in the US — after your first visa status expires, you can keep extending your status indefinitely in one-year increments
• The processing time is typically faster than for the H-1B visa
• O-1 status is far less likely to be subject to political controversies (and adverse changes in visa rules) than H-1B status.
• The O-1 visa is considered a “dual intent” visa, which means that you can transition to permanent residency without returning home first, as long as you meet the requirements for permanent residency under whichever status you are seeking (EB-1, for example).
• O-1 portability refers to the ability of an O-1 visa holder to change employers while in the United States, without first having to return home to await the adjudication of his new O-1 application. Naturally, additional paperwork will be required to change employers (another I-129 petition, for example).

The difficulty is providing the necessary documentation to demonstrate to US immigration officials that you possess extraordinary ability.

What does “extraordinary ability” mean?

The phrase “extraordinary ability” means a level of expertise indicating that the individual is one of a small percentage of people who has risen to the very top of their field of endeavour. If you’re applying for an O-1A in business, you will have to specify which subsection of business you’re an expert in (e.g., emerging startup technologies, developer technologies etc).

One of the reasons for this is that the term “extraordinary ability” is inherently subjective, subject to the discretion of the USCIS examiner. This means you have to build a clear narrative argument around why you’re extraordinary and provide ample evidence. Think of this like a story about your career and achievements.

How do you apply?

If you want to apply for an O-1 visa, you can’t file the application yourself. Instead you need to find a sponsor (an employer) who can file the application on your behalf.

You should work with an attorney to help prepare your application. If you need to find one, I’m happy to introduce you to my attorney Wells Wakefield at https://projectlawgroup.com who I highly recommend.

• If you are in the US on other lawful status, then along with the I-129 form, you will need to file a change of status form requesting to change your status from your current temporary visa to an O status.
• For people on an OPT, F1 or J1, it is possible to change to an O-1 — there’s SO many myths that you can’t switch and that’s a not true.
• If you are outside of the US, once your I-129 visa petition is approved, the next step is to obtain an O visa from the US consulate in your country.

You’ll need:

1. A copy of your contract with your employer

• You don’t need the original copy, and USCIS (apparently!) will accept an oral contract as long as your provide them a summary of the essential terms

2. A copy of your stays in the US

3. Evidence of your extraordinary ability

To document proof of extraordinary ability, your application will need to include evidence that meet three of the following criteria:

• Nationally or internationally recognized prizes or awards in your field.
• Membership in professional or occupational associations for which membership requires outstanding achievement (something equivalent to the National Academy of Sciences, for example) as judged by experts in the field..
• Publications in professional journals or distinguished trade publications or other major media about you and your work.
• Original and significant scientific, scholarly, or commercial contributions to your field.
• Scholarly articles in your field published in professional journals.
• A high level of compensation (salary or other remuneration).
• Participation as a judge in evaluating the work of other participants in your field or a similar field.
• Employment in an essential role for organizations with distinguished reputations.

Some examples of evidence could include being accepted into a prestigious accelerator (YC or 500 startups), having articles published in major media (such as TechCrunch) or participating in panels or judging others’ work.

I spent at least 25+ hours collecting evidence — emails, videos, articles, degrees etc. This part takes the longest time so try and be organized.

The advisory opinion letter A.K.A the recommendation letter

The advisory opinion letter is a written advisory opinion on your extraordinary ability from experts in your field (like a letter of recommendation). It works something like a letter of recommendation. To put together a successful application, you will also need to get extensive references from experts in your field.

As you’re applying for expertise in business (and likely some part of the technology industry), you need to get recommendations from relevant people. US immigration officials will recognize experts in startups and technology. If you know individuals who are experts in the industry, reach out to them and ask for a letter of support. This will help bolster your application.

Forms:

1. The sponsor must complete and sign Form I-129, Petition for Non-Immigrant Worker and related I-129 O supplement (your attorney will help you with this but you’ll have to ask your employer to sign several forms)
2. Collect and organize the supporting documentation that is required (you’ll need to include copies of every piece of evidence — copies of your degree, relevant articles, prizes etc).
3. Prepare the filing fee of $460 in the form of a business or personal check, money order or cashier’s check, payable to “Department of Homeland Security.”
4. Send the application package to the appropriate USCIS Service Center.
5. The USCIS will send a Receipt Notice This notice simply confirms that the USCIS received the application.

Processing times and fees:

The processing time for an O-1 I-129 application is considerably shorter than processing times for most other types of visas. In most cases, processing is completed within two or three months if there are any issues in your application. Current processing times can be found here.

The current USCIS filing fee is $460.

You can also use the USCIS Premium Processing Service by filing Form I-907. This will shorten processing time to only 15 days, but it will cost you $2,500 in processing fees.

Attorney fees will vary — I was quoted between $8K — 10K for an application (including filing fees).

RFEs:

The USCIS may issue a Request for Evidence at some point during processing. Although the USCIS does not send out an RFE for all applications, it is not at all uncommon. If you receive an RFE don’t panic. You will need to respond with the evidence required by USCIS to process your application.

USCIS will issue a written notice of its decision (approval or denial). If the application is approved, the USCIS will send an I-797 approval notice. This is a critical document, so don’t lose it.

What happens once you’re approved?

Congratulations! After you get your approval letter, you’ll need to book an interview with the US embassy in your home country (or if you applied for a change of status, which I did, you don’t have to do anything). You’ll need to fill out the DS-160. Once you have an appointment, take your approval letter, passport and DS-160. At the consular interview they’ll ask for your passport. You’ll usually have to leave your passport at the embassy in order for them to stamp it and then you’ll pick it up or they’ll ship it to you.

What happens if there are changes in O-1 employment?

You’ll have to file an amendment if there are material changes to your employment (e.g., if you change your job, move from part-time to full-time etc).

What’s next after the O-1?

You can apply for the EB-1 (green card) which is the exact same criteria for the O-1 but the bar for evidence is harder. You can self-sponsor the EB-1 (so you don’t need an employer).

Finally GOOD LUCK. It’s a hard emotionally draining process applying for a visa and there’s a lot of uncertainty. Keep focused and feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

A special thanks to all those who supported me throughout the process: Roy Bahat, Angela Martin, Minn Kim, James Cham, Karin Klein, Katherine Boyle, Matt Clifford, Rob Reich, Mehran Sahami, Noah Smith, Misha Chellam, Andrew McAfee, Axel Ericsson, Melisa Tokmak, Madhu Karamsetty, Bre Brady, Angela Gu, Michael Basch, Sarah Drinkwater, Clayton Bryan.

Originally published in TechCrunch here.

Next month, Apple and Google will unveil features to enable contact tracing on iOS and Android to identify people who have had contact with someone who tests positive for the novel coronavirus.

Security experts have been quick to point out the possible dangers, including privacy risks like revealing identities of COVID-19-positive users, helping advertisers track them or falling prey to false positives from trolls.

These are fresh concerns in familiar debates about tech’s ethics. How should technologists think about the trade-off between the immediate need for public health surveillance and individual privacy? And misformation and free speech? Facebook and other platforms are playing a much more active role than ever in assessing the quality of information: promoting official information sources prominently and removing some posts from users defying social distancing.

As the pandemic spreads and, along with it, the race to develop new technologies accelerates, it’s more critical than ever that technology finds a way to fully examine these questions. Technologists today are ill-equipped for this challenge: striking healthy balances between competing concerns — like privacy and safety — while explaining their approach to the public.

Over the past few years, academics have worked to give students ways to address the ethical dilemmas technology raises. Last year, Stanford announced a new (and now popular) undergraduate course on “Ethics, Public Policy, and Technological Change,” taught by faculty from philosophy, as well as political and computer science. Harvard, MIT, UT Austin and others teach similar courses.

If the only students are future technologists, though, solutions will lag. If we want a more ethically knowledgeable tech industry today, we need ethical study for tech practitioners, not just university students.

To broaden this teaching to tech practitioners, our venture fund, Bloomberg Beta, agreed to host the same Stanford faculty for an experiment. Based on their undergraduate course, could we design an educational experience for senior people who work across the tech sector? We adapted the content (incorporating real-world dilemmas), structure and location of the class, creating a six-week evening course in San Francisco. A week after announcing the course, we received twice as many applications as we could accommodate.

We selected a diverse group of students in every way we could manage, who all hold responsibility in tech. They told us that when they faced an ethical dilemma at work, they lacked a community to which to turn — some confided in friends or family, others revealed they looked up answers on the internet. Many felt afraid to speak freely within their companies. Despite several company-led ethics initiatives, including worthwhile ones to appoint chief ethics officers and Microsoft and IBM’s principles for ethical AI, the students in our class told us they had no space for open and honest conversations about tech’s behavior.

If we want a more ethically knowledgeable tech industry today, we need ethical study for tech practitioners, not just university students.

Like undergraduates, our students wanted to learn from both academics and industry leaders. Each week featured experts like Marietje Schaake, former Member of the European Parliament from the Netherlands, who debated real issues, from data privacy to political advertising. The professors facilitated discussions, encouraging our students to discuss multiple, often opposing views, with our expert guests.

Over half of the class came from a STEM background and had missed much explicit education in ethical frameworks. Our class discussed principles from other fields, like medical ethics, including the physician’s guiding maxim (“first, do no harm”) in the context of designing new algorithms. Texts from the world of science fiction, like “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin, also offered ways to grapple with issues, leading students to evaluate how to collect and use data responsibly.

The answers to the values-based questions we explored (such as the trade-offs between misinformation and free speech) didn’t converge on clear “right” or “wrong” answers. Instead, participants told us that the discussions were crucial for developing skills to more effectively check their own biases and make informed decisions. One student said:

After walking through a series of questions, thought experiments or discussion topics with the professors, and thinking deeply about each of the subtending issues, I often ended up with the opposite positions to what I initially believed.

When shelter-in-place meant the class could no longer meet, participants reached out within a week to request virtual sessions — craving a forum to discuss real-time events with their peers in a structured environment. After our first virtual session examining how government, tech and individuals have responded to COVID-19, one participant remarked: “There feels like so much more good conversation to come on the questions, what can we do, what should we do, what must we do?”

Tech professionals seem to want ways to engage with ethical learning — the task now is to provide more opportunities. We plan on hosting another course this year and are looking at ways to provide an online version, publishing the materials.

COVID-19 won’t be the last crisis where we rely on technology for solutions, and need them immediately. If we want more informed discussions about tech’s behavior, and we want the people who make choices to enter these crises prepared to think ethically, we need to start training people who work in tech to think ethically.

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To allow students to explore opposing, uncomfortable viewpoints and share their personal experiences, class discussions were confidential. I’ve received explicit permission to share any insights from students here.

I live in San Francisco and work at Bloomberg Beta, a venture capital fund focused on the future of work. Previously I worked at Entrepreneur First, where I built the Berlin office from scratch. I grew up in England and studied at the University of Oxford, where I was elected President of the Oxford Union. I like reading and running.

You’ll find me:
Twitter, LinkedIn