Temporary Solutions (Non-immigrant Visas)
& Permanent Solutions (Immigrant Visas)

We handle the following non-immigrant worker visas, among others:

• O-1 Alien of Extraordinary Ability
• P-1 Internationally Recognized Athlete, Artist, or Entertainment Group
• TN NAFTA Professional (Canada/ Mexico)

The above-listed non-immigrant worker visas enable individuals to temporarily live and work in the United States, often for years, depending on the visa category. Each of these visas require the employee (“Beneficiary”) to be sponsored by a U.S. employer (“Petitioner”), with the exception of the TN visa, for which employment is sufficient without actual sponsorship.

• The O-1 visa is suitable for individuals who possess “extraordinary ability” in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, and whose ability has witnessed sustained national or international acclaim (O-1A). They are also suitable for those with a provable record of extraordinary achievement in the motion picture or television industry who have acquired national or international recognition (O-1B).
• The P-1 visa is suitable for individual foreign athletes and athletic teams, as well as artists, musicians, and/or entertainment groups of international renown. Whether one is better suited for an O visa versus a P visa is dependent on the characteristics of the applicant(s) and purpose of coming to the U.S., among other factors.

Support personnel of O-1 and P-1 visa holders may join by filing their own applications. Spouses and children under 21 years of age may apply to join O and P Beneficiaries in the United States, as their derivatives in respective O-3 and P-4 statuses. A child’s derivative status is automatically terminated once the child reaches the age of 21. While acquiring a derivative status would permit spouses and children to live and study in the U.S., they may not accept employment. Notably, the statuses of both close family members and support personnel are sustained by the O-1 or P-1 employee’s own compliance with his or her status.

• The TN visa is suitable only for Canadian and Mexican citizens who will engage in NAFTA-recognized professions and have been offered employment opportunities in the U.S. which demand their professional expertise and, usually, at least a related bachelor’s degree.

TN visas also permit the joinder of spouses and unmarried children under 21 years of age. The conditions applicable to derivatives in TD status are the same as those previously mentioned for O and P derivatives.

Overall, each category of temporary worker visa has its own complex legal eligibility requirements. Fortunately, the government’s level of scrutiny in evaluating non-immigrant visas is generally more lenient than that applied to immigrant visas. Unlike for immigrant visas, there is no limit on the number of visas that the government is authorized to issue with specific reference to the above-listed categories. Although an approval can never be 100% guaranteed, this fact lends to comparative ease in securing one of the above-mentioned non-immigrant visas as opposed to securing an immigrant visa.

No matter which type of non-immigrant visa one is seeking, two options exist for securing such a visa:

The first is to petition for the visa through the change of status (“COS”) process, if one is already in the United States in a different status. Importantly, a COS must be filed before one’s prior status expires. If approved, the individual will attain a new status in the U.S. and may remain until authorized. However, the individual will need to obtain an actual visa stamp in his or her passports if choosing to travel internationally. This would be accomplished by scheduling an interview at a consular office.

The second option applies to those who are abroad and thus ineligible to COS. In this case, a visa (following an approved petition) may be acquired through consular processing at a U.S. consular office (most often in one’s home country) where an officer will re-evaluate a petition before choosing to approve of, and thus stamp the visa, into one’s passport to permit their entry.

Whichever of these two alternative routes is chosen, one should ideally apply while having a passport bearing validity throughout one’s temporary stay (or 6 months of validity, at minimum).