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The Genius Visa
Filed in archive Americas by Greg Cruey on May 26, 2009
Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki is in the US on an O-1 visa.
© Keith Allison
You've probably never heard of the genius visa. Les than 10,000 people a year are allowed into the U.S. on it. People who are at the absolute top tier of their field in the arts, athletics, sciences, education, or business. Its formal name is the O-1 visa, and BusinessWeek took a look at it this month.
The program, for what are officially called O-1 visas, began in 1990 as lawmakers sought to separate these applicants from the pool of those seeking H-1B visas, the visa program for skilled immigrants used by many technology companies. While H-1B applicants must hold at least a bachelor's degree and possess some specialized skill, O-1 visas are allotted to a more elite crowd: those who can prove to U.S. immigration officials that they are the very top in their fields. Peter F. Asaad, an immigration attorney and adjunct professor of law at American University, calls the recipients "Nobel prize quality or equivalent."
Some current O-1 visa holders include Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki, Canadian author Jennifer Gould Keil, and Israeli concert pianist Inon Barnatan.

If you're completely unfamiliar with the visa, the BusinessWeek piece is interesting.



Permalink: The Genius Visa
Tags: immigration  Dirk  Nowitzki  visa  more  genius+visa  hedge+fund  immigration+reform 
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