Ask Alma Anything: O-1, EB-1A, and What Changed in 2026

Overview

Employment-based immigration has become harder to navigate this year. Adjudication standards have tightened on EB-1A, a new H-1B fee and a wage-weighted H-1B lottery are now in force, and the duration of status rule has changed what F-1 students can count on. The guidance available publicly has not kept pace, which leaves people making consequential decisions about their careers on incomplete information.

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Over the past several months, Alma has received hundreds of questions from individuals navigating these pathways. We reviewed all of them, identified the patterns that came up most, and built this session around the answers.

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The first 45 minutes cover the most common questions, answered by Alma attorneys Geeta Darubra and Meghan O'Keefe. The remainder is open Q&A, where you can raise your own situation. Questions submitted through the Q&A panel are anonymous to other attendees.

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This session addresses general legal principles and is not a substitute for advice on your individual case.

What You'll Learn

• The O-1A: criteria and eligibility
  
  • The criteria, how many you need to satisfy, and what qualifies as evidence for each
  • How eligibility is assessed in practice, walked through several real profiles
• EB-1A and EB-2 NIW
  
  • What an approvable EB-1A looks like under current adjudication standards, and which criteria are most often rejected
  • Who is receiving EB-2 NIW approvals today and how USCIS weighs national importance
  • Choosing between the O-1, EB-1A, and EB-2 NIW, and whether they can run in parallel
  • Upgrading from EB-3 or EB-2 to EB-1A, how priority dates port, and what happens to a spouse's or child's derivative case
• Building a profile that qualifies
  
  • Which criteria can realistically be built in 6 to 12 months, and which take considerably longer
  • Qualifying without publications or press, including finance, design, product, athletic profiles
  • How the O-1B works for artists, designers, and creative professionals
• Students, F-1, and OPT
  
  • The new duration of status rule: who it applies to, and whether it reaches people already on OPT or CPT
  • Options after OPT and STEM OPT when the H-1B lottery does not go your way
• Founders
  
  • Sponsoring yourself through your own company, including agent-based O-1A structures
  • Transferring an existing H-1B or O-1 to an entity you founded, and what you can legally establish while on another status
  • When to begin, and what the company needs in place first
• H-1B in 2026
  
  • Who the new H-1B fee applies to, how the wage-weighted lottery works, and where the proposed prevailing wage increase stands for cases already selected
  • Your options within the 60-day grace period following a layoff
• Live Q&A
  

Who Should Attend

Founders, engineers, researchers, designers, and other professionals evaluating an O-1, EB-1A, or EB-2 NIW; students and recent graduates on F-1, OPT, or STEM OPT planning their next step; and individuals on H-1B, TN, E-2, or H-4 weighing their options.