A January 2025 USCIS policy update confirmed that a founder-owned company can petition for an O-1 visa on behalf of its own owner, and the O-1A (extraordinary ability) has ~94% approval with no annual cap or lottery. For the International Entrepreneur Rule (parole), the qualifying-investment threshold rose to $311,071 (as of October 2024), and a new $1,000 parole fee took effect October 16, 2025 with annual inflation adjustments starting FY 2026. Parole runs up to 2.5 years, renewable once (5 years max).
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O-1A stays the top founder visa; Entrepreneur Parole thresholds and fees rise
Why this matters for founders
As a founder you may be able to self-sponsor via O-1A through your own startup — a cap-free, lottery-free route worth exploring before betting on H-1B. The same O-1 logic helps when you recruit exceptional international talent (researchers, senior engineers) without the lottery. Entrepreneur Parole remains a fallback but stays rarely granted and gives no green-card path, so treat it as a bridge, not a destination.
Source: Alma (tryalma.com)
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