O-1A Case Study: Visa Approval for Aerospace Engineer & Startup Founder from Taiwan 

Our client’s work sat at the leading edge of a new industry, and the evidence reflected that stage. His patent was pending; his device was moving toward formal testing, and much of the coverage of his work appeared in major industry trade publications that serve the UAM field. Each of these represented a valuable form of evidence that demonstrated something specific about his standing. 

The case also involved a unique petitioner-beneficiary relationship: the petitioner was the U.S. company our client had recently founded. O-1 beneficiaries cannot file petitions for themselves. However, USCIS expressly clarified in January 2025 that a separate legal entity owned by a beneficiary, such as a corporation or limited liability company, may file on the beneficiary’s behalf. In this case, the client’s company served as the employer and petitioner.  

Because the company was only a few months old and was owned by the client, the petition needed to document that it was a separate, genuine U.S. business prepared to employ him as its CEO. 

After the petition was filed, USCIS issued an RFE questioning whether the published material covering his work satisfied the O-1A requirements and whether the client’s original contributions had risen to the level of major significance in the field. The response therefore needed to show not only that his work was innovative, but also why it mattered to the development of safer urban air mobility. 

Each piece of evidence served a different purpose. The patent application documented the originality of the technology. Industry coverage showed that industry publications had recognized and discussed his work. Letters from experienced professionals explained the importance and potential applications of his contributions. Company records established that a separate U.S. business was prepared to employ him in a leading role and continue developing the technology. 

Together, the evidence presented a consistent picture of an engineer whose work had received recognition within the industry and whose company was positioned to continue testing and developing it in the United States. 

To qualify for an O-1A visa, a person must meet at least three of eight criteria that USCIS uses to measure extraordinary ability. The petition presented evidence under several of these criteria, including original contributions of major significance, published material about the client’s work, and his employment in a critical or essential capacity.  

For the original-contributions criterion, the petition documented the client’s research into the powerful wind that these aircraft create when they take off and land, and he had designed a device to control it. Experienced professionals in the industry wrote letters explaining why that work mattered. Those letters showed that his contribution was both original and useful. 

A second criterion was published material about his work. That standard looks at whether others in the field have written about what the person has done. Industry publications had covered his solutions by name, which showed that people in the field were paying attention to him. 

A third criterion was serving in a critical or essential capacity for an organization with a distinguished reputation. For that standard, USCIS considers whether the person oversees important work at their organization. As the founder and CEO of the company, our client was clearly the person leading the effort. 

The petition also had to show that the company was a real employer, even though it was only a few months old. To do this, the petition provided the official record naming him CEO, an employment agreement covering the full length of the visa, the company’s start date and list of leaders, and proof of its research, testing plans, and business relationships in the United States. Together, these documents showed that the company was a genuine business built around his own technology. 

The RFE response, led by Attorney Qiu, addressed USCIS’s questions with additional documentation and detailed explanations connecting the published coverage and expert testimony to the specific O-1A criteria. 

USCIS approved our client’s O-1A petition in just over 3 months with premium processing, after the firm’s response to the RFE. The approval allows him to work in the United States as the CEO of the company he founded, leading the design and testing of technology meant to make UAM safer and more practical. 

The case illustrates how a founder-owned company may serve as the O-1A petitioner when it is established as a separate legal entity, and the record documents a genuine employer-employee relationship. It also shows how an early-stage founder can meet the O-1A standard when the record clearly connects industry recognition and a leading role to a real business need in the United States.