O1B VISA ORGANIZATIONS

I. Break of The Law

This criteria is met if applicant has performed and will perform as a lead participant for organizations which have a distinguished reputation. This law has (2) main parts.

Part One

1. Applicant has performed
2. As a lead
3. For an organization
4. With a distinguished reputation

Part Two

1. Applicant will perform
2. As a lead
3. For an organization
4. With a distinguished reputation

II. Meeting the Criteria

When deciding whether an applicant meets this criteria, it’s important to consider the following information for any organizations or companies they have worked for in their field.

1. Dates of Employment
2. Job Title
3. Company

Match Ups

This tangible information matches up with the actual law in the following way.

Part One

1. Applicant has performed = = >Dates of Employment
2. As a lead = = > Job Title
3. For an organization = = > Company
4. With a distinguished reputation = = > Company

Part Two

1. Applicant will perform = = > Dates of Employment
2. As a lead = = > Job Title
3. For an organization = = > Company
4. With a distinguished reputation = = > Company

III. Proving it to USCIS

1. Date of Employment

[See Criteria 1 Events]

Law

This category proves match-up (1), applicant has performed and will perform as a lead participant for organizations which have a distinguished reputation. This category also goes to the overall criteria of “being at the top of your field”.

What USCIS Is Looking For

In terms of match-up (1), USCIS is looking to see that there are performances in the past, and performances events in the future.

What is meant by “performances” can be helped by considering the similar category for O-1A Visas. In O-1A Visas, instead of “performed” the word “employed” is used. USCIS has shown a willingness in cases of O-1B Visas to accept non-performance work for this criteria. So instead of “performed”, think of the criteria as “applicant has worked and will work as a lead…”

In terms of “being at the top of your field”, USCIS officers are looking for people who have a long but steady incline of success, and are applying while at the very top. Ideally, you would have several instances of employment at organizations, steadily getting more and more “distinguished”, with the most recent being in the past six months. In reality, that’s quite rare, and USCIS will usually take what they can get. How to Prove It Just put the dates of the events in the application.

Example

Working for Google is impressive, but if you worked there 15 years ago and haven’t worked for a company of note since, then that’s not going to be looked upon positively by USCIS.

2. Job Title

[See Criteria 1 Events]

Law

This category proves match-up (2), applicant has performed and will perform as a lead participant for organizations which have a distinguished reputation.

What USCIS Is Looking For

Being a lead in a performance on stage is fairly simple, but for other professions it becomes more complicated.

It’s helpful to look at a similar category in O-1A Visas, which says “critical capacity” instead of “lead”. While lead is a very specific terms that are hard to broaden, critical capacity applies to a lot of job fields. USCIS (in a rare move) seems to somewhat understand that “lead” is a short-sighted criteria, and they do accept critical capacity for both O-1A and O-1B. A good way to test for critical capacity is to think- if your job title/ role was eliminated, would the project still work? Another way would be- are there people in the project who do the same thing as you, but aren’t as senior? This would show what USCIS is ultimately looking for, that you have “risen to the top”.

Unfortunately there are some job fields that just don’t fit into this fields that just don’t fit into this criteria. USCIS knows and has acknowledged this, and their answer is that, if your job doesn’t fit into a specific criteria, then you should probably try to fit in all the others. Not very helpful.

How to Prove It

Sometimes a title will in and of itself show that a person is the lead. Other times, you have to dig a little bit further.

Any time that someone has your job, but is less senior, that’s a great thing to show USCIS.

Otherwise an explanation of your duties, and how they are critical to the organization will suffice.

Examples

[See Criteria 1 Events]

Using the tests we outlined above, let’s go through some examples.

Test 1: If your job title/ role was eliminated, would it work?

Romeo (in Romeo and Juliet) is a lead.

Nun #3 (in Romeo and Juliet) is not a lead.

Guitarist (in Band) is a lead.

Guitarist (# 124 in a large marching band) is not a lead.

Test 2: Are there people in the project who do the same thing as you, but aren’t as senior?

Trumpet Player (1st chair) is a lead.

Trumpet Player (4th chair) is not a lead.

3. Organization Hosting Event

Law

This category proves match-up (3), applicant has performed and will perform as a lead participant for organizations which have a distinguished reputation.

What USCIS Is Looking For

[See Criteria 1 Events]

Distinguished Reputation appears to be a phrase that USCIS has invented, and isn’t interested in explaining. It’s very vague, even for USCIS standards, and the way it’s applied to many different categories for different purposes makes it’s meaning even more confusing. All we know is, they consider organizations that are mentioned in major media and/ or make a lot of money to have “distinguished reputations”.

How to Prove It

[See Criteria 1 Events]

Proving that an organization has a lot of press is the easiest check box you’ll get in terms of O-1B Visa applications. I use Lexis Nexis Media searches, but there are many comparable search engines that one could use. Once you pull up all the media on the organization, you want to focus on “major media”. Newspapers > Blogs, the higher the circulation the better.

Proving that an organization has made money is a little bit trickier. One thing is showing how old it is. If an organization isn’t successful/ profitable, it’s not going to last very long.

The longer the organization has been in business, the better. There are sometimes also reports that show the profit of an organization.

Examples

Coca Cola is a very famous organization with a lot of press.

IV. Difficulty

Level of Difficulty

This criteria is a level 3 difficulty. Only about half of applicants meet this criteria. Hardest part is proving not just that you were in an event, but that you were an actual “lead”.

Related Categories

Organizations criteria is tied closely to Events criteria. There is also a matching “Organizations” criteria for O-1A Visas.