O-1B High Salary/Remuneration

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Satisfy Three Categories From List Below and Claim Your O-1B Visa Today

O-1B Visa Checklist – Entertainment / Arts

O-1B Visa – Award Nomination or Win

O-1B Visa Leading or Starring Role

O-1B Visa Recognition for Achievements

O-1B Visa Organizational Critical Role

O-1B Visa Widespread Critical Acclaim

O-1B Visa Recognition from Critics

O-1B Visa High Salary or Remuneration

O-1B Visa – Other Comparable Evidence

In this presentation, we’re going to focus on the O1 visa category ‘High Salary or Other Substantial Remuneration’. Ok – let’s first go over the precise wording of this category and then break it down from there. The actual official wording of this category is: –

A high salary or other substantial remuneration for services in relation to others in the field, in the past or the future, evidenced by contracts or other reliable evidence.

Here, the O1 visa examiner is looking for some objective documentation to determine whether the applicant’s salary is indeed high or significantly high, in relationship to others in the same field.

There are a variety of ways to begin to get a feel for assessing your income. O1 visa examiners do accept an independent salary bureau statistical report on salaries. One such database is O*Net Online  in the US, but there should be something comparable in your home country. O*Net Online. I’m going to give you a working example so you know how to use this excellent resource. Ok, if you click on the top right section called ‘Career Cluster’, you can search for almost any mainstream occupation.

For O1 visa purposes, your main focus of inquiry will be to determine the Prevailing Wage (see below). However, I’ve outlined in some detail how to define your job within this database too, as this will help you determine the right pay for your job. I’d also like to point out that in many countries pay scales are much lower than they are in the US. Therefore, you can use O*Net as a guide, but also take the time to find an equivalent database for your own country and compare. This having been said, if you’re earning more than an American in the same field, then you’re going to be in great shape no matter what.

Example 1: If you go to the Career Cluster window there is a drop down window. Click on that and then select ‘Business, Management and Administration’.

Once you enter, you’ll then be given a list of jobs that come under that category. Select the first one listed ‘Computer Operators’ – (you will also notice that each job has a number. The reference number for a ‘Computer Operator’ is 43-9011.00. This number can be used on other similar websites).

If you click on the ‘Computer Operators’ option you will then be taken to a ‘Summary Report’ that basically describes in detail what ‘Computer Operators’ do.

Scroll down this page until you get to the section called ‘Job Zone’, and under that section you want to focus on the areas, the ‘Education’, ‘Job Training’ section and the ‘SVP Range’.

For the ‘Education’ section, it says in essence that only a modest amount of education is required, perhaps an Associate Degree, which is half a BA degree.  For the ‘Job Training’ section you want to see some commentary that indicates that a BA degree or extensive training/experience is usually required for this job.  In this example, for ‘Computer Operators’ only one to two years training is required.

For O1 visa applicants whether or not your particular job requires a degree is not that significant, especially in the Media and Entertainment fields where many of the jobs rely more on talent and ability rather than academic qualifications. This outline has been drafted to cater to a broad spectrum of employment, but at the end of the day, we’re looking to measure pay more than anything else for this O1 visa category. Under the ‘SVP Range’ section, this is an indicator as to the degree of skill required for the job. For BA level and above, you really want the SVP range to be 7 – 8+. In this example, the SVP range is 6-7.  Therefore, this is not a particularly skillful job.

Example 2: If you go back to the ‘Business, Management and Administration’ home page and this time select Financial Manager’ (11-3031.02). If you go to the ‘Job Zone’ section you will notice under the ‘Education’, ‘Job Training Requirements’ and ‘SVP indicators’, it’s very clear that this is a position for senior personnel with a BA or equivalent, and the job range is between 7-8. So you can research any job and see whether or not the job you’re doing now or have been offered has a high skill level requirement.

Prevailing Wage Issues: – The O*Net online site also provides you with good information about what the pay scale in the US is for each job. For O1 visa purposes you want to see whether or not your income is at or above the 90^th Percentile (top 10%). If it is, then you could be one step closer to your O1 visa goal.

Example 3: If you go back to the ‘Financial Manager’’ job (11-3031.02), but this time scroll down to the bottom of the page, you will see that the ‘Median Wage’, (average wage), is $99,330. [This may have increased by the time you reference this page]  If you scroll down a little further, you’ll see a link where you can enter a State name. If you enter ‘New York’ you’ll be taken to a page that provides you with a more detailed breakdown as to the lowest – highest pay scales. There is another website called the ‘Foreign Labor Data Certification Center’ that provides wage information on a city-by-city basis. This is an excellent resource to further narrow down pay determinations.

Conclusion: The goal of this exercise is to help you determine whether your income could be considered as being high in comparison to others. If so, you could potentially satisfy another O1 visa category.  This outline should help you determine whether your income can be considered as being high in comparison to Americans. But don’t forget if your country’s salaries are typically lower then send me evidence from a similar database how your income compares in your own country.

We hope you found this presentation not only informative but inspirational too. Our goal is to inspire our clients into action and continued success. Take some time to review our testimonials; we’re looking forward to adding many more. Maybe yours will be featured there one day, so you too can be an inspiration to others. We’ll be waiting for your call.  In the next presentation, we’re going to review the ‘Other Comparable Evidence’ category.

Immigration Law Offices of Chris M. Ingram

US Immigration Law Offices of Chris M. Ingram
Chris M. Ingram LL.M., ESQ – Immigration Attorney
Admitted in New York.
Practice Specializing in US Immigration Law
401 Wilshire Boulevard, 12th Floor,
[Cross Streets 4th and Wilshire]
Santa Monica,
California 90401
Tel: 310 496 4292

Specializing in the E2 Visa, EB1 Green Card, L-1A Visa and O1 Visa and K1 Visa Marriage-Based Immigration. Attorney Chris M. Ingram is dedicated to providing the very best in US Immigration legal representation. Enjoy our website.

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