Within a short span of time, I.S. Law Firm secured approvals of O-1 visa for 5 professional fencing coaches, including a professional fencing coaches (maestro) from Italy, Ukraine, UK, China, and Republic of Georgia. Our clients, local US fencing clubs, invited these professional fencing coaches from around the world to train the young US fencers for participation in national and international competitions. We are delighted to secure approval of O-1 petitioner for every fencing coach whose case we handled.

O-1 is nonimmigrant visa for individuals with extraordinary abilities or achievements in the sciences, arts, education, business, sports, or other fields.

In the process proving extraordinary abilities, we obtained opinion letters from multiple experts, including distinguished members of the US Fencing Association Hall of Fame, Olympic coaches, and other national and international experts in fencing sport.

To qualify for O-1 visa, the beneficiary must submit documentation of at least three of the qualifying criteria demonstrating that the beneficiary has sustained national and international acclaim and she is one of a small percentage of individuals who has risen to the very top of the field of endeavor. The criteria for satisfying the O-1 evidentiary requirements is as follows:

• Awards and Prizes. Documentation of the beneficiary’s receipt of nationally or internationally recognized prizes or awards for excellence in the field of endeavor. This includes awards from well-known associations, institutions, or organizations. In the O-1 petition, we must break down and demonstrate how the candidates and laureates are chosen for the award, what is the significance of the award received, number of other recipients of the similar award in the competition or organization, and the significance of the organization giving the award.
• Membership in Organizations. Documentation of the beneficiary’s membership in associations in the field requiring outstanding achievements of their members, as judged by recognized national or international experts in the field of endeavor. Here we must demonstrate that the beneficiary is a member of organization/s or association/s which require certain level of achievements or expertise before one can join it.
• Publications About the Beneficiary. Published materials about the beneficiary or beneficiary’s achievements. This requires providing excerpts from news, journals, online publications etc., about the achievements of the O-1 candidate. For example, it can be an article about the success of this coach’s students in national or international competitions; or it can be a publication about the unique of innovative methods the beneficiary uses in his or her field of work. The higher reputation of the journal, the better it is.
• Publications By the Beneficiary. This requires demonstrating that the beneficiary has made scholarly articles or other publications in the field. It can be in the form of a research publication which was cited by others; or it can be a manual or instructions created by the beneficiary which has been utilized by other professionals in that field. There are many other creative ways to satisfy this requirement. For example, in one case of a fencing coach, we demonstrated that this fencing coach came up with his own unique training manual for young fencers, which he publishes, and that the same training manual became popular and was used by multiple Olympic fencing coaches. In other words, a “publication” does not necessarily mean a formal article in a scientific journal, it can be in many different forms.
• Contributions to the field. This requires demonstrating the beneficiary’s original contributions to the field of his endeavor. It can be a patented technology, published material, research results, etc. It can be development and publication of a certain program which helps other in the field. In one of the successful extraordinary ability (EB-1) cases involving a financial analyst, we demonstrated that she came up with a module for budgeting and financial forecasting for nonprofit organizations. We obtained letters from other financial specialists who confirmed that the methodology created by the applicant has significantly eased their work and improved the results.
• Judging works of others. This prong requires to demonstrate that the beneficiary of O-1 visa has one way or another been selected or invited to judge the works of others. For example, the beneficiary could have been selected as a judge for some kind of competition or was a member of a selection committee within the field of her expertise; or that the beneficiary was invited and did a peer review of the works of others.
• Important Jobs. One of the ways to demonstrate achievements is to show that the beneficiary has been employed in critical or essential jobs for organizations with distinguished reputation. For example, if the beneficiary is a musician with extraordinary abilities, she may have been selected to head the national team in an international musical competition; or an architect or designer can be assigned to design an important piece of infostructure; or a businessman with extraordinary abilities can be sought after to lead a major department or function of a prominent organization.
• High Salary. Similar to the criterion above, the petitioner can show that the beneficiary commanded a high salary or compensation in the field compared to others in the same level jobs. This can be done by obtaining letters from experts, and/or using surveys or statistical information about the wages in the country of the beneficiary versus the compensation he or she was being paid for a job, performance, work or a gig.

Over the years of our practice, we secured numerous O-1 nonimmigrant visas and EB-1 extraordinary category green cards for many professionals in various fields of profession around the world. The beauty of O-1 and EB-1 is that it is not limited to a certain field of endeavor, it can be presented in many creative ways, and it can be very fast and effective way to come, live and work in the US.

If you have significant achievements and talents in the field of your profession or if you would like to sponsor a talented foreign worker, please click this link to Schedule a Consultation or call us at +1-703-527-1779 or via e-mail: [email protected].