“Yes,” those with an O-1 visa are eligible to seek a Green Card (endless occupancy) in the US. Individuals with exceptional gifts in the trades, lores, business, education, or calisthenics are eligible for the O- 1 non-immigrant visa order. While the O-1 visa is only temporary, it’s possible to apply for a Green Card to achieve endless occupant status.
How to get a Green Card after receiving an O-1 visa
The O-1 visa, in discrepancy with the maturity of short-term US work visas, provides donors with a route to a Green Card. However, you can negotiate this by submitting an operation to alter your status from an O- 1 visa holder to an endless occupant, If you meet the criteria for qualifying for a Green Card.
Why apply for a Green Card?
- The O-1 visa subventions only temporary authorization to work in the US.
- The time required by the visa holder to complete their conditioning with the soliciting employer, up to a maximum of three times, often determines the duration of the visa awarded under the O-1 journey. Extensions must be requested to stay in the US after this point. Given the aggressive nature of the visa extension request procedure, three times quickly come around.
- The three-time barrier may also restrict career opportunities in comparison to the consistency of Green Card status that companies desire or expect.
- Dropping out of the US on an O-1 visa isn’t always simple, and border agents could ask you new questions.
- A Green Card eliminates the need to endure the extension procedure to renew your O-1 visa regularly. Getting an eternal resident is similarly alluring and doable for O-1 visa holders who are thinking about a longer-term future in the US. As individuals with extraordinary chops or achievements in their professional field, it makes sense for the US to want to allow O- 1 visa holders the option to come to endless residers and continue their lives and benefactions to the US frugality and society.
- With US endless hearthstone, your legal status would be indefinite, and you would no longer need to apply to extend your visa. You can enjoy rights including access to education, home backing, and eligibility to acclimatize as a US citizen, in utmost cases, after 5 times. With citizenship, you attain the same rights as US citizens; you can bounce, and if convicted of a crime, you would not be subject to expatriation.
What does “dual intent” mean?
O-1 visa holders are not punished for pursuing a Green Card application while they are in the US on a nonimmigrant visa since the O-1 visa is classified as a dual-purpose visa. This is a significant distinction since, to qualify for a nonimmigrant visa, an applicant must often demonstrate that they intend to leave the US after the visa’s validity period, usually by maintaining a domicile in their home country.
This implies that if you have a valid O-1 visa, you may demonstrate your intention to remain in the US permanently while just temporarily residing there and petition to alter your status without jeopardizing your nonimmigrant status.
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Are they several paths through which O-1 visa holders can apply for a Green Card?
“Indeed” obviously, the following are a couple of ways through which O-1visa holders can apply for a Green Card:
- Employment-Based Green Card: O-1 visa holders can seek a business-based Green Card through their U.S. business. This commonly includes a three-step process: work certificate (if relevant), recording a migrant request (Structure I-140) with the U.S. Citizenship and Movement Administrations (USCIS), lastly, applying for change of status (Structure I-485) to turn into a Green Card holder.
- Extraordinary Capacity Green Card: O-1 visa holders can likewise apply for a Green Card in light of their exceptional capacity. This classification (EB-1A) is explicitly intended for people with exceptional capacity in technical disciplines, expressions, schooling, business, or games. The prerequisites for EB-1A are like those for the O-1 visa, yet the measures might be more rigid.
- National Interest Waiver (NIW): at times, O-1 visa holders might fit the bill for a Public Interest Waiver (NIW), which permits them to self-request for a Green Card. This choice is accessible to people who can exhibit that their work is in the public interest of the US. It requires meeting explicit standards, including demonstrating that the singular’s work has significant legitimacy and that they are strategically set up to propel their field.
Green Card requirements
To be free from any immigration restrictions and to be allowed to live and work in the US, you must get a Green Card, also known as a permanent residence card.
A Green Card can be acquired in several ways, including through employment or compensation. Varied qualifying requirements and application requirements are depending on the category you’re looking for.
The EB-1 classification has three subcategories for worker Green Card applications:
EB-1A: Outstanding talent
EB-1B: Renowned scholars and academics
EB-1C: An international manager or executive
O-1 visa holders, as the name suggests, would come under the EB-1A classification to be eligible for EB1 status.
EB-1A to O-1
Regardless of O-1A or O-1B status, the EB-1A classification has one criterion for all occupations. Candidates for EB-1A visas must provide proof of their achievements and outstanding talent in their respective professional fields of science, arts, education, business, or athletics, much as they did for O-1 visa candidates.
To be eligible under the EB-1A, you will need to show you qualify under two tests:
First ‘Objective’ Test
You must provide proof of either having received a one-time honor, such as an Olympic medal or a Nobel Prize, or meeting at least three of the criteria below, which demonstrate outstanding talent in your field:
- Proof of receiving less prestigious honors or medals that are nationally or internationally renowned for brilliance.
- Proof of your affiliation with organizations in your area that expect extraordinary performance from their members
- Proof that you have been featured in professional, important trade journals, or other significant media
- Evidence of your original contributions to the field in terms of science, scholarship, art, athletics, or business.
- Evidence that you have been asked to judge the work of others, either individually or as a panel.
- Evidence that you have written scholarly articles for major professional or trade publications or other major media.
- Proof that your work has been shown in exhibits or showcases of the arts.
- Documentation of your accomplishments in key or leadership positions in illustrious organizations.
- Proof of your commercial success in the performing arts
- Evidence that you command a high wage or other considerably high pay in comparison to others in the field
Additional Records
However, applicants should be aware that the level of proof required for the Green Card is far greater than for the O-1 visa; “extensive documentation” must be supplied. Although the eligibility requirements for the O-1 and EB-1A visas are mostly comparable, applicants should notice this.
Having an O-1 visa status does not ensure approval of an EB-1A visa. Separate from any prior successfully filed O-1 visa petition, the EB-1A petition will be evaluated and decided based on its merit.
Your Green Card application must thus be thorough and convincing to prove your case. A lot of supporting information must be gathered and provided with the application to show your eligibility. This includes documentation of your accomplishments to show that you fulfill the requirement for remarkable talent in your profession via continued recognition on a national or worldwide level and how your work benefits the US. The papers specified in the advice are not all-inclusive; therefore, it would be appreciated if you could give additional ones to “over-evidence” your outstanding expertise in your sector.
Getting expert counsel will help you modify your proposal to fit what the judges are seeking.
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The path from an O-1 visa to a Green Card
The procedure entails switching a visa’s category from nonimmigrant to immigrant.
- You have two options for submitting your Green Card application: as a self-petitioner or as an employer-sponsored petition. Due to their standing, EB-1 candidates are qualified to self-petition.
- The first step in changing an O-1 visa to an EB-1A classification is to submit Form I-140 to USCIS. The petitioner must justify in the I-140 why you (the beneficiary) are qualified and deserving of an EB-1A Green Card.
- Documentary proof that you satisfy the conditions (as stated above) must also be included with the petition.
- When the form I-140 is accepted, your priority date is updated. You would file Form I-485 with USCIS from within the US at this point in the procedure to change your status from nonimmigrant (O-1) to immigrant (EB-1A).
- If you filed your petition from within the US, USCIS will provide you with separate travel and employment authorizations while your case is being processed.
- To save time, it is also feasible to submit Forms I-140 and I-485 together.
- For the EB-1A, you are not required to be sponsored by a qualified US company, unlike the O-1 initial visa and extension process. Additionally, obtaining a PERM labor Certification is not necessary.
- If your employer is supporting your petition, they must demonstrate that they have explored all domestic labor market possibilities and that you qualify for the immigrant visa. Your employer will be required to get an acceptable labor certification from the Department of Labor. This paper confirms that the corporation was unable to find a suitable American worker for the position.
- If applying from abroad, you must first file Form DS 260 (Immigrant Visa Electronic Application) at a US consular office abroad before attending a Green Card interview at the US consulate or embassy in your country.
- You will get your visa after the USCIS approves your Form I-485 or your DS 260.
Pay Attention! This text is just for informative purposes and does not represent specific legal advice.
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