“I worked at top companies on an H-1B visa. Soon, I realized that I could not spend my whole life on an H-1B visa. There are just too many restrictions, limited career growth, and too much risk of being thrown out at any time,” CEO Aditya Sharma shared in a recent LinkedIn post. He chose not to end up waiting endlessly for legal permanent residence and not to join more than one million Indians, including H1B visa holders, stuck in the Green Card backlog. He chose not to let the ‘H1B visa country cap’ for India affect his future in the US, particularly during the Trump administration 2.0.
Among the ways to obtain a Green Card in the US, EB1A became a safe bet for Aditya Sharma, the founder and CEO of HiCounselor in San Francisco. In his LinkedIn post that broke out the news of his Green Card approval on 27 JAN 2025, he further shared the timeline, June 2024 – January 2025, that he created and followed from preparation to application to approval for an EB1A Green Card.
- Jun 2024: Started working to meet the EB1A eligibility criteria.
- Aug 2024: Met 5 out of 8 criteria.
- Oct 2024: Got LOR from high-profile individuals, 3 research papers published, and got media coverage.
- Nov 2024: Met 8 out of 8 criteria. Started the application prep.
- Jan 2025: 912 pages of application. It was truly a crazy activity to review and finalize this big application.
- Jan 12, 2025: Application sent to USCIS in premium processing.
- Jan 16, 2025: Application received by USCIS.
- Jan 27, 2025: Approved!
It seems that he was fortunate enough to secure a Green Card in only 8 months. In fact, his journey to obtaining lawful permanent residence that helps actualize the American Dream began years ago when he realized, “HIB is a horrible visa to spend your life in the US.” Like hundreds of thousands of Indian students in USA, Aditya got his first job at Deloitte on an H1B visa after having earned a master’s degree from Duke University, North Carolina, in 2015.
Success stories of the Silicon Valley startups fired his zeal to become an entrepreneur. But soon he found that H1B visa holders cannot do a full-time business in USA. It did not hold him back from exploring possible ways of launching a startup business on H1B visa. He started attending entrepreneurship meetups in the Bay Area. At one such event, he learned about the O1 visa and that “it allows immigrants to start a company in the US.”
What is O1 visa? Who qualifies for O1 visa in USA?
The O1 visa is one of the US employment visas for non-immigrant foreign nationals. Highly qualified individuals of extraordinary ability in sciences, business, education, arts and sports can apply for the O1 visa. Indians who are national or international achievers in the aforementioned fields may qualify for the O1 visa. Unlike H1B visa, the O1 visa has a broad application window. You can apply for it at any time of the year. Statistically, 80-95% is the approval rate for O1 visa applicants including potential entrepreneurs and startup founders.
Is it difficult to get an O1 visa? HiCounselor CEO Aditya Sharma recalls, “When I looked at the criteria, I was shocked and dejected. They seemed so demanding that I didn’t think I could meet them. Slowly, I started working on them, and after a year, I applied for the O1 Visa. And guess what, I was approved within five days of my application.” In this visa category, the applicant is required to submit a significant amount of evidence that undergoes rigorous scrutiny by USCIS, ascertaining his/her extraordinary ability or achievement.
With the O1 visa approval, he resigned from his job at Deloitte and launched HiCounselor in 2020. However, he did not stop there. After a year into business, he started educating himself on the EB-1 visa eligibility criteria and application procedure. “I wish I had done this hard work sooner,” he shared on LinkedIn as it took him 4 years to understand and fulfil the EB-1A visa requirements. EB-1 is an employment-based, first preference visa in the immigrant category.
Who is eligible for EB-1A immigrant visa?
Individuals with extraordinary abilities and outstanding achievements can be eligible for the EB-1A visa. Having some national or international acclaim, you don’t need a US-based employment offer or labor certification to apply for an EB-1A visa. Among the paths to lawful permanent residency in America, this immigrant visa gives quicker access to a Green Card. But it is a highly competitive visa entailing a complicated application process and requiring strong evidence of your achievements or recognition in arts, sciences, education, business, or athletics.
Aditya Sharma’s EB1-A application was 912-page long, and he described it as an “incredibly daunting task”. This is one of the roadblocks for most immigrants, even those in high-paying roles, not to apply for a Green Card in the EB-1 category, according to him. He hosts sessions on O1 and EB1 visas aiming to help qualified H1B visa holders navigate the otherwise tough application procedure. In his LinkedIn post, he claimed to have helped 75 people get EB-1 and O-1 visas.
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The “Approved” would be for I-140. Unless he has an old Priority date that he can port to, the guy needs to wait a few years for the India EB1 PD to be current LOL.