Mr. Z trained in business and worked in business management and marketing operations before gradually moving into brand strategy, creative marketing, and visual communication, growing into a creative director.

Forcing an O-1A petition as a business management professional would have obscured his real strengths. He was also worried that one period of activity while he was in student status might be treated as unauthorized employment.

We decided to drop the O-1A route and filed for O-1B as a creative director. Using a complete timeline and an explanation of the corporate structure, we showed that the activity he was worried about actually took place outside the United States and was led by the Chinese parent company, so it posed no status risk.

O-1B approved. Once the facts were laid out, the status risk he had worried about turned out not to exist.