O-1 Visa Approval Rate: What are the chances of getting approved?

If you are someone who possesses extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, the O-1 Visa might be an option you are considering for traveling to and working in, the United States. An O-1 visa is also an option for individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary achievement in the motion picture or television industry and have been recognized nationally or internationally for those achievements. The most common question potential clients tend to have is about the O-1 visa approval rate. As detailed below, the O-1 Visa and its subcategories tend to have a very high O-1 visa approval rate.

Recent Approval Ratings

For the 3 most recent years, the O visa category had a 91.4% O-1 visa approval rate (2021), 89.7% (2020), and 90.8% for 2019. 2020 was the lowest fiscal year O-1 visa approval rate in the last 5 years, being the only year recently to fall below 90%. These figures for the O-1 visa approval rate include all O visa category application types, including the O2 visa for individuals who accompany O-1 artists or athletes as assistants in a specific event or performance, and the O3 visa for individuals who are the spouse or children of O1 and O2 visa holders.

What affects your chances of an O-1 visa approval?

Even though the O-1 visa approval rate is fairly high, there are many reasons that you may get denied at either the USCIS stage or the Department of State stage, similar to other work visas such as the H-1B Visa. Below are a few issues that can come up at the USCIS stage:

1. 1. You don’t have a petitioner. The O-1 visa cannot be self-petitioned. Not having a petitioner leads to a denial.
   2. Your contracts and itinerary aren’t detailed. USCIS will do a thorough review of your contracts and your itinerary. If you don’t provide enough information, such as lacking a specific salary on the contract or specific dates on your itinerary, USCIS will not be able to determine if the information you’ve provided is sufficient.
   3. You lack the requisite achievement. The O-1 visa is for individuals with extraordinary ability. If you haven’t yet done much in your career, the O-1 visa will not get approved. It is for people who have been working for a while and are at the top of their fields.
   4. Your achievements are not sustained. To get the O-1 visa, you must show not only that you have the requisite achievements, but also that these achievements have been sustained over a long period of time, similar to the sustained acclaim requirement under the EB-1A visa. That is to say, if you just got famous last week, you do not have a high chance of approval.
   5. Insufficient or disorganized documentation. Even if you meet numbers 3 and 4 above, you can still get denied if you leave too much work to USCIS to determine if you meet the requirements. The evidence should be easy to understand and organized, so they are not searching to find if you qualify.

Once you get an approval of the Form I-129 at the USCIS stage, there is secondary review at the Department of State. Below are a few issues that can lead to a denial, even after the I-129 approval:

1. 1. No online presence. Wherever you may have your visa interview, the officer will likely look you up on the internet. If you do not have an online presence in this day and age, it will be difficult to satisfy the O-1 visa extraordinary requirement.
   2. You have criminal or inadmissibility issues. Even if you meet all of the extraordinary ability requirements, you may still get denied if you have criminal or inadmissibility issues, such as fraud or overstaying a visa in the US.
   3. You can’t explain that you are extraordinary. If the officer asks you about the specific requirements, and you end up admitting that you are not extraordinary or you can’t explain how you meet the requirements in English, the immigration officer may deny your visa.

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My name is Michael Ashoori and I’m a U.S. immigration lawyer and the founder of Ashoori Law. As an immigration lawyer, I help families, professionals, investors, and entrepreneurs get visas, green cards, and citizenship to the United States.  If you have any questions about the O-1 visa, or any other immigration-related questions, feel free to schedule a free consultation by clicking this link.