The O-1 visa is a work visa with a maximum validity period of 3 years. You cannot volunteer your time or work as you need to demonstrate to the government that you will be employed.
You can either file for an employer-based petition or an agent-based petition. Filing with an employer-petitioner can be restrictive as you can only be employed by your employer r and can only have one job during the validity period of your O-1 visa, unless you file an amended petition.
Don’t let your dream of touring or working in the USA become a nightmare! Do your homework, plan well in advance and follow these essential tips to success.
People from all over the world flock to America with bright eyes and hearts full of dreams in order to pursue a career in the performing arts. You may have seen a foreign actor up on a Broadway stage, in a national TV commercial, or in the hottest new Netflix series.
In January, I packed up my many bags and said good-bye to Dubai to go back out on tour as head of automation with Cirque du Soleil’s Kurios. I was to join the tour in Tokyo, the first city of the Japan schedule. This meant that I had to do the visa run before hand. Whilst the UK Japanese embassy is located London, there is a consulate in Edinburgh so I didn’t have to do the long schlep down south to get that sorted. This is a good reminder that you should always check for both embassies and consulates and the services they provide. It was far easier and cheaper for me to take the hour-long train ride from Glasgow to Edinburgh than the five hour one to London!
This narrative that immigrants are lazy or a drain on society is so blind it’s borderline delusional. Especially because as Americans many of us believe we’re owed a good life. If I know anything about immigrants they sacrifice a good life to start from the bottom because of the promise of the American Dream! I remember reading a post in Humans of New York that said: “it’s agreed upon first generation immigrants that they are going to sacrifice their dreams so that their children can live the best life.”
There are many arguments that can be made about the likelihood of actually achieving the illustrious ‘The American Dream’, but regardless, it has not deterred the many who enter the Diversity Visa Lottery each year hoping that fate is on their side.
