Any Visa For Self-Employed LSAT Tutor?

[canadarm 0]

Hi Everyone,

I've had a look through the visa categories, and the temporary worker guide. Nothing seemed to apply, but I might be missing something. So I'm asking the board in hopes you can fill in anything I might have missed.

I teach the LSAT. I live in Canada, and I'd like to move to NYC, where rates are roughly 4x higher. I'd be self-employed, I'm skilled enough to attract students wherever I go. Apart from teaching the LSAT, I've written explanations for the test, and moderate an LSAT forum.

I don't foresee that my work would employ anyone. Nor would I need to be employed by anyone. Is there any visa for an entrepreneur that would cover this situation?

I'm not looking for a definitive answer. But if anyone can point me in a direction I could then research more thoroughly, that would be great!

Thanks,

[Anh map 2,098]

Unlikely. There are countless LSAT prep options in the US so your talent set wouldn't qualify for any of the available visas.

[Boiler 45,794]

O1?

EB5?

Sponsorship by a law firm seems much more obvious.

[aaron2020 11,651]

Hi Everyone,

I've had a look through the visa categories, and the temporary worker guide. Nothing seemed to apply, but I might be missing something. So I'm asking the board in hopes you can fill in anything I might have missed.

I teach the LSAT. I live in Canada, and I'd like to move to NYC, where rates are roughly 4x higher. I'd be self-employed, I'm skilled enough to attract students wherever I go. Apart from teaching the LSAT, I've written explanations for the test, and moderate an LSAT forum.

I don't foresee that my work would employ anyone. Nor would I need to be employed by anyone. Is there any visa for an entrepreneur that would cover this situation?

I'm not looking for a definitive answer. But if anyone can point me in a direction I could then research more thoroughly, that would be great!

Thanks,

The visa for an entrepreneur would require you to invest at least $500,000 in your endeavor. In addition, your endeavor must create US jobs.

Since you are planning to be self-employed without creating a US job (except for yourself), then you are not going to qualify for an entrepreneurial visa.

The complication with your scenario is that you teaching in the US would deprive the students going to you from going to someone who is already authorized to work in the US. Essentially, you would be taking work away from a US citizen or US resident. This will not be allowed unless you invest lots of money and create US jobs.

There is no reason (except for your $500,000) for the US government to let you into the US to be an LSAT tutor when there are capable US LSAT tutors. Every country takes care of its own workers before allowing foreign labor in. Unless you can bring more than your talents (perhaps $500,000), your chances of coming to the US to teach the LSAT is pretty close to zero.

[canadarm 0]

Ok, thanks everyone. That matches my own analysis, just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything.

Sounds like the O1 visa is the least implausible, but that I'd probably need a higher standard of notoriety to qualify. Would any of the following help?:

* Being a published author

* Being mentioned in relevant media, online or offline

* Being a forum moderator

* Having a very high score, relative to most people offering LSAT services

I don't have all of those yet, just some. Just want to know if there's any shot of achieving O1 level notoriety in such a niche area.

[Boiler 45,794]

* Being a published author

That would be a plus, how big a plus depends on how many books etc, presumably you have an Agent/Publishing House that could help.

* Being mentioned in relevant media, online or offline

Absolutely, especially if it is peer reviewed type stuff

* Being a forum moderator

Err, no.

* Having a very high score, relative to most people offering LSAT services

I guess that depends on how the score is measured.

[aaron2020 11,651]

Ok, thanks everyone. That matches my own analysis, just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything.

Sounds like the O1 visa is the least implausible, but that I'd probably need a higher standard of notoriety to qualify. Would any of the following help?:

* Being a published author

* Being mentioned in relevant media, online or offline

* Being a forum moderator

* Having a very high score, relative to most people offering LSAT services

I don't have all of those yet, just some. Just want to know if there's any shot of achieving O1 level notoriety in such a niche area.

The O-1 visa will not allow you to tutor LSAT students. That's not what the O-1 is for. The O-1 is for work that is based on the individual being internationally or nationally recognized for that work. To qualify for the O-1 to teach the LSAT, you would need to be nationally or internationally recognized for your LSAT tutoring.

Having an high LSAT score is irrelevant. There are lots of US LSAT prep tutors with high scores. The difference with someone with a 99% score teaching vs. a 95% score teaching is irrelevant. Kaplan, Powerscore, Testpreppreview, etc. hire only those with high scores to teach the LSAT (it's not a very good marketing tool to have low scoring tutors). Having a high score alone does not make a difference.

With all the available US LSAT tutors, you are looking at an improbable reach in obtaining the O-1 visa to teach the LSAT or any other visa to do so. To be blunt, it simply will not happen.

Edited June 23, 2012 by aaron2020

[canadarm 0]

Was pretty sure, just wanted to confirm. Thanks.

The O-1 visa will not allow you to tutor LSAT students. That's not what the O-1 is for. The O-1 is for work that is based on the individual being internationally or nationally recognized for that work. To qualify for the O-1 to teach the LSAT, you would need to be nationally or internationally recognized for your LSAT tutoring.

Having an high LSAT score is irrelevant. There are lots of US LSAT prep tutors with high scores. The difference with someone with a 99% score teaching vs. a 95% score teaching is irrelevant. Kaplan, Powerscore, Testpreppreview, etc. hire only those with high scores to teach the LSAT (it's not a very good marketing tool to have low scoring tutors). Having a high score alone does not make a difference.

With all the available US LSAT tutors, you are looking at an improbable reach in obtaining the O-1 visa to teach the LSAT or any other visa to do so. To be blunt, it simply will not happen.

[SapphireDreams 71]

Your living expenses would probably go up too in NYC, which I'm sure you've considered as well esp. if you'd be looking to live in Manhattan. Plus you'd have to get yourself health benefits which are not cheap. You don't realize how good you have it in that regards when you are self-employed in Canada.

Just because you'd be charging more money, might not even be worth it! Just another point of view.

[Harsh_77 718]

Your living expenses would probably go up too in NYC, which I'm sure you've considered as well esp. if you'd be looking to live in Manhattan. Plus you'd have to get yourself health benefits which are not cheap. You don't realize how good you have it in that regards when you are self-employed in Canada.

Just because you'd be charging more money, might not even be worth it! Just another point of view.

Just coz your income level is up in NY does not mean your saving would go up as well.