Peter Thiel came from Frankfurt, Germany. His family moved to the U.S. when he was one year old. He studied philosophy at Stanford, then law, then decided neither was the point. In 1998, he co-founded PayPal. In 2004, he became the first outside investor in Facebook. Then he built Palantir, the AI data analytics company now used by governments and intelligence agencies worldwide. His net worth today is over $28.4 billion, according to Forbes.
Thiel’s story fits a pattern common among immigrant founders of his generation: for most of their careers, the O-1A either didn’t exist in its current form or wasn’t something they knew to pursue. What they eventually needed, once their temporary status ran its course, was a permanent path. That’s where EB-1A green card requirements come in, and where founders today have an advantage many of them didn’t have early in their careers: a clear, documented framework for what “extraordinary ability” needs to look like on paper.
What EB-1A Green Card Requirements Actually Ask For
The EB-1A category grants permanent residency to individuals with extraordinary ability in business, science, education, athletics, or the arts, without requiring a labor certification or an employer sponsor. To qualify, a petitioner must show sustained national or international acclaim, generally demonstrated by meeting at least three of the following criteria:
- Receipt of nationally or internationally recognized awards for excellence
- Membership in associations that require outstanding achievement of their members
- Published material about you in professional or major trade publications
- Judging the work of others in your field
- Original contributions of major significance to your field
- Authorship of scholarly articles
- Display of your work at exhibitions or showcases
- A leading or critical role for a distinguished organization
- High salary or remuneration relative to others in the field
- Commercial success in the performing arts, where applicable
A founder profile like Thiel’s tends to accumulate several of these criteria naturally over the course of building a company: press coverage, leadership of a high-growth organization, and often high compensation once the company matures.
Why the O-1A to EB-1A Sequence Makes Sense
The O-1A and EB-1A share a similar evidentiary backbone, which is precisely why founders increasingly treat the O-1A as the first step and the EB-1A as the natural second one. Evidence built for an O-1A petition, press coverage, original contributions, high compensation, leadership roles, largely transfers directly into an EB-1A filing later, rather than requiring a founder to start from zero when they’re ready to pursue permanent residency.
Thiel’s own career, spanning three category-defining companies, is an extreme case of what a modest version of this pattern looks like for founders building one company today: each stage of growth generates evidence that, tracked consistently, builds toward both a temporary and a permanent immigration case.
The pathway from O-1A to EB-1A existed, in some form, for founders like Thiel the whole time. Most simply didn’t know to use it, or didn’t have it available yet in its current shape. Founders building a case today don’t have that excuse.
