Entertainment & Sports Immigration

This page covers the visas that let artists, athletes, and entertainment groups work in the United States — O-1B and O-1A, P-1, and the EB-1A green card — and a practice area I am taking on. I have spent more than 30 years on employment-based immigration, building petitions around a person's record. That is exactly what these cases are.

A Practice Area I Am Taking On

I will be straight about this: I have not represented entertainment or sports clients before, and I am not going to write this page as if I had. What I bring is the underlying work. An O-1 or an EB-1A case is a petition built, piece by piece, on a documented record — awards, press, judging, leading roles, original contributions — and judged first on whether the evidence meets the criteria and then on whether the record as a whole puts the person at the top of the field. Building that kind of case for scientists, founders, and researchers is the work this firm has done for more than 30 years. The fields are new to me. The petitions, the criteria, and the way USCIS reads a record are not. If your case belongs in this practice area, it gets the same treatment as every case here: built around the person in it, and read honestly before anything is filed.

Who This Is For

• Actors, musicians, dancers, choreographers, directors, cinematographers, and visual artists (O-1B)
• Professional athletes and coaches, and producers and directors with a record of extraordinary achievement (O-1A)
• Internationally recognized athletes, teams, and entertainment groups coming for a season or a tour (P-1)
• Essential support staff who travel with the principal (O-2 and P-1S)
• Artists and athletes with a sustained record who are ready for a green card (EB-1A)
• Agents and managers planning a client's season, tour, or production

O-1B for Artists and Entertainers

The O-1B is the visa for extraordinary ability in the arts, or extraordinary achievement in the motion picture and television industry. For work in the arts — music, dance, theater, visual arts, design — the test is distinction: a high level of achievement and recognition well above what is ordinarily encountered in the field. For motion picture and television work, the bar is higher: extraordinary achievement, meaning a record that marks the person as outstanding, notable, or leading in the industry. Either way, the case is a major award, or evidence meeting at least three of six criteria. A U.S. employer or agent files the petition, and a written advisory opinion from a peer group or labor organization is part of it. An initial stay can be up to three years, with one-year extensions.

O-1A for Athletes, Producers, and Directors

The O-1A covers extraordinary ability in athletics, business, and education — and that includes professional athletes and the producers and directors whose record is one of extraordinary achievement. The test is a major internationally recognized award, or evidence meeting at least three of eight criteria. I look at the actual record before saying which category fits — an athlete with a strong record may be a better O-1A than a P-1, and a producer with a long list of credits may fit O-1A where a performer fits O-1B.

P-1 for Athletes and Entertainment Groups

The P-1 is the visa for a season or a tour. P-1A is for an individual athlete or a team that performs at an internationally recognized level — a contract with a major league or team, or a contract in an individual sport commensurate with international recognition, plus evidence meeting at least two of the regulatory criteria. P-1B is for members of an entertainment group that has been internationally outstanding for a sustained and substantial period; at least 75 percent of the group's members must have performed with the group for at least a year. An individual athlete's P-1 can run up to five years, extendable to ten in total; a team or group is up to one year at a time. The people who travel with the principal — a coach, a trainer, a specialist whose skills are essential to the performance — come on a separate P-1S petition, not on the principal's petition.

The People Who Come With the Performer

Almost no artist or athlete travels alone. An O-1 principal's essential support staff comes on O-2; a P-1 principal's essential support comes on P-1S. Spouses and unmarried children under 21 come as dependents — O-3 for an O-1 principal, P-4 for a P-1 principal. Each is its own petition, filed alongside the principal petition or after it, and each has to be planned as part of the same case.

EB-1A — the Green Card Path for Artists and Athletes

For an artist or an athlete whose record is already at the top of the field, the green card case is EB-1A. It is a self-petition: no employer sponsor is needed, and there is no labor certification. The test is sustained national or international acclaim — a major award, or evidence meeting at least three of ten criteria, and a record that as a whole shows the person is among the small percentage at the top of the field. I read the record and say whether it is ready, and if it is not ready yet, I say what would need to change.

If You Are an Agent or Manager

Agents and managers usually know the schedule before anyone else does — the season, the tour, the production dates — and in this area the schedule drives everything. An agent can be the petitioner for an O-1 or a P-1, filing one petition that covers an itinerary of engagements with different employers: a season, a tour, a run of productions, a series of competitions. These cases are planned six months to a year ahead: the category is chosen, the evidence is gathered, and the advisory opinions are requested long before the first date on the itinerary. Agents often work both coasts — Broadway in New York, film and television in Los Angeles, television in both — and the case works the same way wherever the agent is based, because immigration is a federal practice. One thing stays the same as everywhere else in this firm: the client is the individual artist or athlete, as a person — not a studio, a team, a league, or an agency.

New York and Los Angeles

New York and Los Angeles are the two centers of this work. New York is Broadway, theater, dance, and television. Los Angeles is film and television, music, and live performance. Professional sports run through both. A case can involve a New York production, a Los Angeles production, and dates in between, all on one itinerary — the petition has to be built for the whole schedule, not for one stop on it. I am based in Menlo Park, and I handle these cases the way I handle cases anywhere in the United States: in writing, around the record, and planned ahead of the dates that matter.

Tell me what you are working on and I will reply in writing, focusing on the issues involved.

Forms Usually Involved

General information, not legal advice. Requirements and processing change; we confirm current rules for your case.

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