I’m considering an O-1 visa as a freelancer through an agency arrangement — where you form an LLC that hires you. Has anyone set up an LLC purely for the case and the visa? Or do immigration authorities later require the company to actually operate for about 3 years and be a real, active business?
I looked into this — I’d heard somewhere that the company has to show a profit, but the lawyer explained that for a newly formed LLC that’s not a requirement. The main thing is that the LLC has real activity — contracts, a bank account, an EIN (Employer Identification Number). None of the people who actually filed mentioned three years of operation; that’s more about the EB categories.
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Thanks, that reassured me a bit. Do the contracts have to be with real external clients, or is it enough that the LLC has a contract with me as a freelancer?
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Regarding contracts — here’s an important nuance. My lawyers explained that the requirement is exactly this: the company must have either revenue or investments in its bank account. An LLC agreement with you as an employee is the basis of the case, but it doesn’t generate income by itself. USCIS checks whether there is real business activity — so you need external clients who pay money into the LLC, and then the LLC pays your salary.
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I opened an LLC in a similar way — owner, but not CEO. An outside manager is hired who, on behalf of the LLC, signs an employment agreement with you. He is the petitioner before USCIS — then everything looks like a normal employer–employee story, not a self-petition through your own company. I opened a bank account with a Russian passport without any questions; nobody cared about my visa status.
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Regarding the formal requirements for the petitioner — two non-citizens can form an LLC and it can be the petitioner for an O-1; the citizenship of the members doesn’t matter. As for the ability to fire — that’s a real requirement: the lawyer explained there must be a genuine employer-employee relationship, and USCIS looks at whether the company has the right to terminate the contract. In the employment agreement this is stated explicitly — the “right to terminate.” Without this clause the case can be turned down.
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A board of directors for a single‑member LLC is, in effect, just the operating agreement with properly spelled‑out powers. You don’t need to appoint separate people; it’s enough that the document explicitly authorizes the manager to hire and fire employees independently of the member’s wishes. The “right to terminate” in an employment agreement, without that backing in the operating agreement, carries less weight — USCIS looks at both documents together.
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