H-1B visa fee hike: $100K cost pushes professionals to explore O-1 visa; What is it and here’s how to apply

US President Donald Trump’s executive order raising the H-1B visa application fee from $10,000 to $1,00,000 sent shockwaves in the tech industry. Due to the announcement last week many tech giants called back their professionals with H-1B visa back to the US. As the scrutiny around the traditional H-1B visa pathway making the process unpredictable, the skilled professionals are now planing to turn towards O-1 visa a lesser known route. The O-1 visa also known as the ‘Einstein visa’ is a specialised non-immigrant visa for individuals with ‘extraordinary ability’ in fields like STEM, arts, business, and sports.

What is the O-1 Visa

For those unaware, the O-1 Visa is introduced under the Immigration Act of 1990. The O-1 visa is a non-immigrant visa for individuals with ‘extraordinary ability’ in fields of education, science, athletics or arts. It enable the recipients to work in the US for up to three years and comes with unlimited renewals. The applicants of the O-1 visa much demonstrate sustained national or international acclaim and meet atleast three out of the eight criteria:

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• li1Winning a prestigious award or recognition in their respective field
• li1Membership of an elite professional association
• li1Published work in a major media or journal
• li1Serving as a judge to the works submitted by others
• li1Make original contributions of major significance
• li1Authoring scholarly articles
• li1Holding important roles in distinguished organisations
• li1Earning or commanding high salary

After the unpredictable nature of popular H-1B visa, the O-1 visa is gaining a lot of traction among Indians who wish to go and work in the US. As per the report by Economic Times, Indian were granted 487 O-1A visas in FY 2020, this number was increased to 1,418 in FY 2023. With this increase, India became the third largest recipient of O-1 visa after UK and Brazil.

A side door for skilled professionals

Unlike the popularly H-1B visa which is capped at 85,000 visas annually and allocated via a lottery, the O-1 visa has no cap and the applications for it are accepted around the year. The applicants can also expedite the application process by submitting additional fees.

Immigration consultant and O-1 holder Logan Ullyott told Business Insider: “The O-1 is an occupation-agnostic visa. You could get it if you’re an engineer, a researcher, an influencer, or even a cook — as long as you can prove you’re at the top of your field.”

Pros and cons of O-1B visa

The advantages of O-1B visa include:

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• li1No lottery or annual cap
• li1Faster processing available
• li1Renewable indefinitely

The drawbacks of O-1B visa are:

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• li1More subjective than H-1B, requiring proof of “extraordinary ability”
• li1Some employers hesitate due to uncertainty in approval
• li1Application costs can be higher than pre-hike H-1B fees

Some real world examples of O-1B visa

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• li1Entrepreneurs like Soundarya Balasubramani, who launched an educational venture in the U.S., are among the new wave of Indian applicants using the O-1 to bypass the H-1B bottleneck. “I got my O-1A approved as the solo founder and 100% owner of an educational venture,” she told ET.
• li1Karan Vaidya, cofounder of AI startup Composio, said his O-1 visa cost less than $10,000 including legal fees, and praised its flexibility: “It’s a three-year visa that can be renewed indefinitely. I’m on my fifth O-1 now.”