How Many Letters Do You Need for an O-1 visa?

Applying for an O-1 visa can be daunting, especially when it comes to determining how many letters you need for your petition. While only one Advisory Opinion letter is officially required, additional testimonial letters often prove crucial for addressing complex criteria like original contributions and critical employment.

At Deel Immigration, we frequently assist professionals in navigating these challenges, leveraging our global expertise to help secure approvals for this coveted visa. In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of testimonial letters, share insights from real-life examples like Robyn’s story, and offer tips to boost your chances of success.

With Deel Immigration, you’ll gain the tools and support needed for a strong petition—because every component matters when it comes to securing your future.

How can a testimonial letter support my O-1A visa petition?

The O-1A visa is easily the most complex and nuanced nonimmigrant visa. You must submit sufficient evidence in your O-1 visa petition to show that you have made original contributions and have held critical employment in your field.

Sometimes, the types of evidence needed to prove every element of the criteria do not exist. This is where testimonial letters can come in very helpful for showing that you meet the original contributions and critical employment criteria for the O-1 visa.

Example scenario: Using testimonial letters to meet the O-1 criteria

Here's an example of how a testimonial letter helped Robyn meet the criteria for her O-1 visa petition:

Meeting the membership criteria

To meet the membership criteria. Robyn must:

• Show that she is a member of an association
• That the association exists and is in her field
• That the association requires outstanding achievements of its members
• That the outstanding achievements are judged by experts in the field

Robyn has a certificate showing that she is a member of the association, but that certificate by itself does not provide enough information to show that she meets the full criteria.

Robyn's association doesn't have any information online about how it chooses members. This means there is no way to show that great achievements are required for membership and experts are the ones who judge the outstanding achievements.

In this situation, Robyn's immigration team might suggest that she include a testimonial letter in her O-1 visa petition. The letter should be signed by someone at the association of which she is a member, describe the membership application process, and attest that she does meet the O-1 membership criteria.

Meeting the original contributions criteria

For original contributions, Robyn could include a signed letter from an expert in her field attesting that her inventions are ‘majorly significant'.

Meeting the critical employment criteria

For critical employment, Robyn could have the CEO of her former employer sign a letter attesting to your essential role at that company.

Secure your O-1 visa with Deel Immigration

The best way to determine what types of evidence you might need for your O-1 case is to talk with an experienced immigration team.

Deel Immigration has helped hundreds of immigrants get O-1 visas approved. Whether you need one or five letters for your visa, we’ll do the hard work of drafting them for you and assist you in getting them signed.

Schedule a free consultation now to get started on your O-1.