O1 Visa Hacks for founders

How to build a startup in the US as an immigrant

Hey — I’m Noemie (no-ey-me); nice to meet you! 🇫🇷 🥐

I run the On Deck Founders (ODF) program. Our mission is to help more people start the best startups.

We help you find the missing pieces to get started — what to build, how you’ll build it, who you’ll build it with, and what needs to happen for you to start.

Many founders need to figure out their immigration status before they start, so we help them navigate the process.

I got my O1 six months ago after being told I didn’t qualify. Since then, I’ve supported dozens of other founders in the ODF community to get their visas and start their companies. Let me show you how!

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a Nobel prize, to raise any money, or to have a co-founder to get an O1 visa. You can be scrappy, a solo founder, and bootstrap.

Unlike visas like the TN or the HB1, which have restrictions on the title you can have (no founder or CTO), your wages (really high salaries), and where you work, the O1 is founder-friendly and a stepping stone to the green card with the EB1. It’s the fastest, most flexible way to live in the US and build a startup with unlimited extensions.

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Debunking the O1 myths

• The bar for the O1 isn’t Nobel prize high!

  You can totally build up to it. Most lawyers see tech-adjacent fields as a risk due to their own unwillingness to understand highly complex roles. This doesn’t mean you don’t quality - it just means you need a better provider

• You don’t need to raise funding or be part of an accelerator.

  However, you need to show that you have reasonable funds to pay yourself for a few months and comply with state minimum wage laws. Wiring your savings in your startup bank account is an option here.

• You don’t need an American US co-founder, let alone any co-founder.

  The O1 is an employment-based visa, so you need to be employed and fireable. In a startup context, that doesn’t mean you need a co-founder. A way folks have done this is by having a board with at least three people, even including yourself, to demonstrate your role has some level of hire-fire authority.

Think about the O1 as a fundraising process—it’s storytelling. You’re pitching the government on why they should invest in you long-term.

Rather than “ticking boxes” with criteria, you need to think about how to structure the narrative so it’s compelling to the reader. The criteria and evidence, such as letters, support that overarching narrative.

Quality > Quantity.

Once you’ve figured out the employment part (who is hiring you → incorporating your startup & who’s paying you → do you have money in the bank), you need to get a minimum of 3 criteria out of 8.

• Use your entire career for this; it all counts!

• It doesn’t have to be US-related: doing something impressive in the motherland works too!

I’ve built up to mine, and you can do it too.

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Memberships

Exclusive memberships show that you’re at the top of your field. For founders, things like ODF, YC, and Thiel fellowship are great. You can choose more niche ones linked to your field, too. Memberships linked to prestigious organizations like the Global Shapers (World Economic Forum) are golden as well.

Here’s what matters:

• Exclusivity: Show that it’s invitation-only or a strict application process with a thorough review of your background, aka you’ve been selected because of your achievements

• Judges: Show that the folks that chose you are world-class (they have raised tons of money, they have press, are a public persona)

• Members: Name-drop people who are part of the same orgs and are really impressive. Use their LinkedIn profiles and press about them, as well as articles about their companies. Your association with world-class folks makes you world-class.

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Judging

USCIS cares about this criterion because it shows you’re recognized in your field. You’re so knowledgeable that you’re trusted to judge the work of others.

You need to show that you’ve been singled out to judge because of your expertise, have an invitation to judge (email is great), and provide confirmation you’ve judged (essential). It can’t be paid work or incident of employment: reviewing deals if you’re a VC doesn’t work.

For this, you can:

• Judge Hackathons

• Review accelerator applications

• Review deals for VCs

• Peer review journal articles

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High Remuneration

That one is great — if you’ve been paid a US salary abroad, bingo!

This works with any past, present, or future jobs.

Use government data or Glassdoor screenshots to prove that your salary is in the top 10% for your job category.

If you’re a founder who has raised capital, you can argue remuneration based on the value of your equity (a high post-money valuation cap on your latest SAFE is golden for this).

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Awards

Awards are great for second-time founders since venture capital funding is considered an internationally recognized award for entrepreneurs!

These all count:

• Venture capital funding (past, present, future)

• Forbes 30u30 (and adjacent)

• Government grants

• Grants like 1517, Fullbright…

• Major Hackathons like Microsoft Imagine Cup with a broad applicant pool

  • Don’t join hackathons to try to win, USCIS is harsher on that — it’s more effective to judge them — unless they’re word-class and everyone can apply

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Publications

Authored articles must be published in either peer-reviewed journals or major media specific to your field.

For scholarly articles, you don’t need citations (more of a nice to have); you simply need to be peer-reviewed — articles in IEEE or Springer work super well.

For major media, it needs to be highly circulated (use SimilarWeb to show it has significant readership).

Quality publications in Hackernoon work!

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Press

Apparently, some lawyers say having press is essential for an O1 (not true at all). Only go with that one if you already have a strong foundation. It’s too painful to build up and unnecessary.

• Go with legit pieces (Techcrunch, Forbes, Wired)

• Avoid paid press

• Use SimilarWeb reports to show significant readership — if the website is a bit more niche

Some folks have used podcasts. Do it only if it’s an impressive host/podcast that is available across multiple platforms (Apple podcast, Spotify).

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Original contribution

Has your work contributed to major success for a company?

You need to prove that what you were doing is (1) original and (2) of major significance to get that criteria.

You can show that it’s original using examples of what you’ve created (GitHub repos, Notion docs about processes, outline of the algorithm you’ve created, Business strategy docs, Slide Decks that name you — as well as an evidence letter signed by someone who worked with you).

To show its major significance, it needs to have widespread implementation or commentary. Press about the startup/company/product is gold, but you can also use NDAs, LOIs and user adoption dashboards.

If you published a highly circulated scholarly article in a prominent peer-reviewed journal, you may be able to angle this simply on the argument that your citations reflect widespread commentary.

The idea is to show cause & effect.

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Critical role

This isn’t always slam dunk criteria. It works if you have a prominent or essential role in the company (founder is great) and the company is prominent. It doesn't have to be Apple/Google; if it’s a smaller company with great press, it works!

Two elements for this to work:

1. You have an essential role

   This means critical oversight on projects with significant impact—this could include growth, revenue, expanding departments, or handling finance for the company.

2. The company is distinguished

   To show that the company is distinguished, you can use funding, press, LOIs, partnerships, or NDAs and elaborate on why it’s important. For instance, a letter of intent from a prominent company (VC-backed/press).

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The US is the best place to build anything ambitious. Come with a deck & a dream; scale up like it’s 1776. 🦅 🇺🇸

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Thank you for reading! Let me know what I should write about next week & help me spread the word with other immigrants. xoxo

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This is not legal advice — consult an immigration attorney to build your own case! This post was read over and fact-checked by my friend & legal professional Robby Villanueva.