{"id":244518,"date":"2025-09-21T18:58:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T18:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/244518\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T18:58:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T18:58:12","slug":"how-an-ai-software-engineer-who-failed-to-land-am-h-1b-visa-got-an-o-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/244518\/","title":{"rendered":"How an AI Software Engineer Who Failed to Land Am H-1B Visa Got an O-1"},"content":{"rendered":"

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tanush Sharanarthi, a 26-year-old software engineer based in the Bay Area. It has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n

I work at IBM as a software engineer.<\/p>\n

I joined three years ago and have been applying for an H-1B visa ever since. The process was rough for me because I wasn’t picked all three times.<\/p>\n

The H-1B lottery system<\/a> isn’t merit-based. Each year, there’s one lottery where applicants are put into a pool, and around 85,000 people are picked randomly. Twenty thousand spots are also reserved for people with a master’s degree, but even though I had a master’s, the odds were still low.<\/p>\n

It felt like I was playing the slots at Las Vegas. You win a few times, but you lose most of the time, and you don’t have any control over it.<\/p>\n

After the first H-1B miss, I started looking into the O-1 visa<\/a>, which I heard about from my colleagues. The O-1 visa is reserved for individuals with “extraordinary” capabilities.<\/p>\n

There are eight categories for eligibility, and you need to satisfy at least three of them. When I went through it, I realized I already satisfied at least two of the criteria: I had published work on artificial intelligence, I used to judge hackathons, and I used to review papers for other conference journals. I had about six years of contributions to my field in AI under my belt.<\/p>\n

These were things I was already doing, but they lined up well with the O-1.<\/p>\n

Staying in the US<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m originally from Bangalore, India. I worked as a software engineer at Kimberly-Clark Corporation<\/a> <\/strong>before I came to the US to pursue my master’s degree in information systems and artificial intelligence at Johns Hopkins University.<\/p>\n

When you come for a master’s, you’re on an F-1 visa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related stories<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know<\/p>\n

After that, I was able to stay in the US through an OPT, or optional practical training, which granted me temporary work authorization in the US for three years.<\/p>\n

Those three years were spent at IBM<\/a>, and they lined up with my three H-1B chances.<\/p>\n

Missing out on an H-1B was definitely disappointing.<\/p>\n

It just felt like I was having a bad day at the casino, not winning anything. However, the feeling of disappointment was amplified in this case.<\/p>\n

I didn’t want to let it get to me. I felt like I was learning and contributing a lot here. That’s why the O-1 visa seemed like a very good option for people who want to contribute long-term in the US.<\/p>\n

Getting the O-1<\/p>\n

I wasn’t doing work solely for a visa. My focus has always been on my field, AI and software engineering<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Along the way, I’ve worked on research papers, contributed to open-source projects, reviewed papers, and judged hackathons.<\/p>\n

These were things I was already doing, but they lined up well with the O-1 requirements.<\/p>\n

I applied for the O-1 visa late in August.<\/p>\n

I would go to the website where I could track the status of the application every night. I kept reading the same thing: “Processing. Processing. Processing.”<\/p>\n

I didn’t know when that would change. All I knew was that it would happen within 15 business days since I applied for the premium processing service.<\/p>\n

Around the 12th business day, I opened my laptop around 5:30 p.m. I clicked on the status and saw it magically changed. My application was approved.<\/p>\n

I felt a bit of mixed emotions. I was so relieved that I was finally approved. It took a lot of hard work, but it felt nice.<\/p>\n

Like I said, it felt like I was playing slots in Vegas. Only this time I won.<\/p>\n

Advice to other O-1 seekers<\/p>\n

The O-1 visa is called the Einstein visa for a reason. It takes time and effort.<\/p>\n

For me, it took six years of work \u2014 from my time at Kimberly-Clark, to my master’s degree, and then my job at IBM.<\/p>\n

If you’re focused on your field and passionate about it, you’ll naturally start to meet the criteria.<\/p>\n

Networking is also important. I wouldn’t have known about the O-1 visa unless I met the right people. Being in Silicon Valley<\/a> helped, since I was able to learn from others in AI and software engineering.<\/p>\n

My advice is not to do it just for the visa. Be passionate about your field and contribute to it. The rest follows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tanush Sharanarthi, a 26-year-old software engineer based in the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":244519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[691,738,158,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-244518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-technology","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115243824575114281","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}