Visa question

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  • Visa question

    I'm reading this interview

    http://gointothestory.blcklst.com/20...ll-winner.html

    with one of last year's Nicholl winners, and he says:

    "I'm in the middle of the visa application process that I'm hoping to get out there sooner rather than later to be more immersed in that side of things."

    Now, what I had heard is that what it says in the actual laws is that to get a visa you have to be an "alien of extraordinary ability," or something like that, which is defined as having won an Oscar or some major international festival, but that in practice people get visas if they have a few credits.

    So, here's this fella saying he's applying for a visa after just winning the Nicholl. If he's doing that presumably he's been told by a lawyer or someone that that can fly, so, does anyone know anything about this?

  • #2
    Re: Visa question

    I'm no expert on this, but I did have to help with this process on a film once. The German director wanted to bring over "his" German VFX team to do work on the movie we were doing for a major studio. My boss at the time was the EP/Line Producer so it fell on our shoulders, as well as the studios legal team and I think maybe an outside lawyer or two, to pull it off.

    None of the people we brought over had won an Oscar or anything close to that. As I recall it was more about proving that they were a best fit for our situation based on their previous relationship with the director on another movie, their specific skill set of doing VFX on a more frugal budget which studios love, etc. It took some doing but we brought over like 8 or 9 people. Hired locals too, of course, but those key folks he wanted first had to all get a Visa to come work and be signed off on via proper channels without showing "out of this world" ability vs. other VFX folks in town or even up the road in Marin.

    I'm sure there have been some situations where extraordinary ability was shown but it wasn't in this case, with all due respect to them. (They did win an Oscar, so hey, it all proved to be worth it, btw.) But it *shouldn't* take an act of God along with oceans parting to pull it off, I'd tend to believe based on that particular experience. Things maybe have changed though.

    Ultimately as with the above situation, it might/probably will depend on who is in your corner, the size of the movie, the quality of the script, how badly the individual and/or the company(s) really wants to make it happen and so forth.

    Hope this can help a bit in some fashion.
    Last edited by Done Deal Pro; 04-13-2016, 06:39 AM.
    Will
    Done Deal Pro
    www.donedealpro.com

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    • #3
      Re: Visa question

      Originally posted by Dimitri001 View Post
      So, here's this fella saying he's applying for a visa after just winning the Nicholl. If he's doing that presumably he's been told by a lawyer or someone that that can fly, so, does anyone know anything about this?
      i know another Nicholl winner from several years back who moved from London to LA after the win and worked here for 3 or 4 years, presumably with a visa that resulted from being a Nicholl fellow. nice work if you can get it.

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      • #4
        Re: Visa question

        Thanks, guys!

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        • #5
          Re: Visa question

          Do you know where the guy's from? If he's from a country whose nationals need a visa just to come to the U.S. as a tourist, it's possible he's just trying to take advantage of his contest win to come over here for a months and try to network while there's still a little heat on him.

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          • #6
            Re: Visa question

            What you've heard of is called the "O Visa" that is for a sustained track record of extraordinary ability and success. It is very doubtful a single contest win, no matter how prestigious, is going to scale that bar.

            It is more likely he is applying for a "P Visa" also for entertainers and athletes but a more focused reason. You usually have to give a schedule of events of why you are coming to this country on that visa. Such as, "My team is playing a friendly match vs the LA Galaxy and we will be here for one week." Or, "I am here for a six month fellowship"

            Think of it this way. A Venezuelan major league baseball player would be here on a P-Visa for the duration of the baseball season. Cy Young Award winning Venezuelan pitcher, Felix Hernandez, gets an O-Visa and can come and go as he pleases or even live here.

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            • #7
              Re: Visa question

              Originally posted by Rantanplan View Post
              Do you know where the guy's from? If he's from a country whose nationals need a visa just to come to the U.S. as a tourist, it's possible he's just trying to take advantage of his contest win to come over here for a months and try to network while there's still a little heat on him.
              Good point! He's Australian. Would that mean he needs a tourist visa? Does anyone know?

              Originally posted by dave22 View Post
              What you've heard of is called the "O Visa" that is for a sustained track record of extraordinary ability and success. It is very doubtful a single contest win, no matter how prestigious, is going to scale that bar.

              It is more likely he is applying for a "P Visa" also for entertainers and athletes but a more focused reason. You usually have to give a schedule of events of why you are coming to this country on that visa. Such as, "My team is playing a friendly match vs the LA Galaxy and we will be here for one week." Or, "I am here for a six month fellowship"

              Think of it this way. A Venezuelan major league baseball player would be here on a P-Visa for the duration of the baseball season. Cy Young Award winning Venezuelan pitcher, Felix Hernandez, gets an O-Visa and can come and go as he pleases or even live here.
              Thanks for the info!

              What would you say is typically the threshold, if you know, for an O Visa?

              Like I say, I seem to remember reading that officially its winning a major film festival or something like that, but in practice people get in after a few credits.

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              • #8
                Re: Visa question

                Originally posted by Dimitri001 View Post
                What would you say is typically the threshold, if you know, for an O Visa?

                Like I say, I seem to remember reading that officially its winning a major film festival or something like that, but in practice people get in after a few credits.
                The main thing for these kinds of visas for "regular artists" is that you have someone sponsoring you. I used to bring a lot of foreign artists to Chicago for concerts, art shows, lectures etc., and when you do the whole thing the legit way, the host structure has to submit paperwork for each artist. So it would be unusual for this dude to come on a visa without any organization sponsoring him.

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                • #9
                  Re: Visa question

                  In case anyone is interested in terms of this discussion:

                  http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...on-game-889764
                  Will
                  Done Deal Pro
                  www.donedealpro.com

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                  • #10
                    Re: Visa question

                    Originally posted by Done Deal Pro View Post
                    In case anyone is interested in terms of this discussion:

                    http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...on-game-889764
                    Talk about timely! Great stuff, thanks DDP!

                    Originally posted by JoeBanks View Post
                    i know another Nicholl winner from several years back who moved from London to LA after the win and worked here for 3 or 4 years, presumably with a visa that resulted from being a Nicholl fellow. nice work if you can get it.
                    I neglected to ask about this; So what type of visa would this be?

                    As Dave said, it wouldn't seem to be the O visa, as the standards for that are higher, nor the P visa as it wasn't tied to an event.

                    I guess this might be it, does anyone know what the official name of this sort of visa would be, they mention 0-1B, I suppose that's it (this is from DDP's article):

                    Recently, there's been a notable shift toward what are known as "agency visas," in which agents and managers seek them for up to three years in the hope of developing a foreign client's career — and without neces*sarily having already firmed up continuous work for the period. "We've definitely seen an increase in that [agency] visa filing in the past three years," says Frida Glucoft of Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, whose firm handles about 1,000 O-1B applications annually. "With actors doing so many short-term projects, it's just what was needed."

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