The global outbreak of the Corona Virus, or COVID-19, has rattled industries and business sectors globally as it grows into an uncontrollable pandemic to hit us after the Black Plague with over 119,272 cases and 4, 300 deaths having been confirmed around the world so far. So how has the snowball effect taken its course?

The sudden onset of the disease in China’s Wuhan, and the way it spread across the globe like a wildfire has forced governments to implement emergency policies. Companies, both big and small, are still trying to grapple with the scale of the disruption and the level of fear that has gripped workers. More and more tech companies like Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, and AT&T are reporting cases of employees being infected with the disease.

Needless to say, the challenges faced by workplaces have become a new front in the battle against COVID-19.

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At the O-1 Visa company, we understand the complications that can arise in such a situation which is why we have taken up emergency measures to ensure the health and safety of our team, without compromising on the services to our clients. “In the wake of recent and new cases popping up across Poland and in Warsaw, our team stationed there will have the flexibility to work either from home or from the office until the situation calms down,” says PassRight CEO, Liran Rosenfeld.

The decision made by PassRight’s leadership falls completely in line with the emergency preventive actions taken by the Polish Premier to close all schools and attractions from March 11 as a precautionary measure to stop the virus from spreading.

Like PassRight, many other companies across Warsaw, Europe and the globe are instigating home offices to ensure the safety of their employees, without having to compromise on the services they are providing.

The Impact of the COVID-19 on Immigration to the US

President Donald Trump
President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence meet Tuesday with insurance company representatives in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI

Immigration to the US, even without the spread of  COVID-19 was becoming more and more difficult. In fact, it was just the day before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned the public to prepare for the COVID-19 outbreak inside the United States that the Department of Homeland Security began enforcing its new public charge rule. This simply means that being entitled to various social benefits will be an important determining factor deciding on whether an individual is eligible to stay legally in the US or not. Just before that President Trump’s administration had extended the list of the countries that had been added to the Travel Ban.

So, we can see that it does not take a global outbreak to tighten immigration policies in the US, but the coin has actually two sides. The good news is that the White House Chief Mick Mulvaney has recently said in a statement to the press that the U.S is in desperate need of more legal immigrants. “Immigrants are critical to expanding the United States’ labor pool,” he said on February 20, 2020.

Hence even amidst all these fears of the virus and crazy immigration policy the underlying fact that the US requires immigrants to expand its labor pool just means that the changes in the immigration policies will not have too much of an effect on highly qualified immigrants wanting to move to the US on employment-based visas like the O-1 Visa.

Why the O-1 Visa is the best choice for foreign experts

o-1 extraordinary ability visa

Due to the high demand for experts and qualified immigrants in the US, the O-1 Visa is an excellent choice for anyone wanting to live and work in the country, as it is designed for ‘aliens with extraordinary abilities in their line of work.’ This is exactly the kind of immigrants that the US government is looking for, according to the statements made by Mulvaney. It is also one of the reasons why despite tough immigration policies over 90 percent of O-1 Visa applicants received their visas in 2019.

Another interesting fact about the O-1 Visa is that it is a dual intent non-immigrant employment visa for people with extraordinary talents in the field of technology, arts, sport, business, education, or the sciences. It is an employment visa, which means it has to be petitioned by an employer or a talent agency.  And, unlike other visa categories, there are no limitations to how many times an applicant can file for an O-1 Status. It may be renewed indefinitely as long as their services are required by the employer.

So, if you are planning to move to the US, we would definitely urge you to think about the O-1 Visa as it is a safe way to enter the American job market.

How Can PassRight Help you with your O-1 Visa?

How Can PassRight Help you with your O-1 Visa?

With over three years of experience and 98 percent O-1 visa success rates, we offer our clients custom-built solutions to help them as every client’s case is unique, hence the ‘one size fits all’ policy does not work when ensuring an O-1 Visa success.

Our team of highly qualified legal specialists work closely with our immigration attorney and the applicant to create a winning petition. Since we believe in quality and not quantity, our legal specialists only handle about three to five cases at a time. This gives them enough time to prepare the petition while being in constant contact with the applicant.

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