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Hi [FORMATTED_FIRST_NAME GOES HERE],

Happy Wednesday ✨

Soundarya here, from Unshackled. :)

I’m THRILLED to finally share this: I’m launching a country-wide free tour to teach international students all about the immigration system, and you can nominate your university!

I thought of doing a book tour for Unshackled several times, and the stars have finally aligned. But really, this tour isn’t about Unshackled, or me. It’s about educating students on visa pathways before they enter the workforce. It’s about sharing all the things I wish I’d known before graduating. It’s about giving them more agency.

I’m limiting the tour to 10 universities for now. Want yours to be one of them? Nominate below.

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Before we jump in, I want to thank our sponsors scale.jobs and F1 Hire who made this newsletter free for all. And, I'm delighted to welcome 133 new subscribers to our newsletter since last week. We're 10,146 members strong now! 🙏

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This week's TL;DR

• ​Vivek Ramaswamy quits the Presidential race... and endorses Trump.
• Paid masterclass: Peer-reviewing a computer science research paper by EB-1A recipient
• Next edition from the extraordinary visa library: Anu Ramakrishnan (EB-1A).​

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📌 UNfold: Top stories

​Vivek Ramaswamy Exits Republican Presidential Race, Endorses Trump​

Vivek Ramaswamy, the 38-year-old entrepreneur in the Republican presidential race, withdrew after a disappointing result in the Iowa caucuses. Although Ramaswamy initially gained attention with some bold policy proposals, he eventually ended up facing more criticism. Despite early support, he struggled to maintain traction and withdrew, unable to sustain his self-funded strategy. Now, he is endorsing Donald J. Trump for the Presidential position.

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​H-1B visa online filing for FY25 begins in February now!​

USCIS announced a few "customer experience" improvements for the FY 2025 H-1B cap season. One of them is organizational accounts for non-cap filings. This allows collaboration on H-1B registrations, Form I-129, and associated Form I-907. Online filing of I-129 H-1B petitions will make the entire H-1B process electronic. If any of this is confusing, check out one of the upcoming info sessions where USCIS will walk you through this. Additionally, USCIS has reached the cap for the additional 20,716 H-2B visas under the FY 2024 TFR.

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​February 2024 Visa Bulletin: Limited Progress for China, Modest Advances for India​

So, good news first: the priority date for EB-1 has moved from January 1st, 2020 to September 1st, 2020 for Indian immigrants. However, China sees no movement, with EB-1 frozen on July 1, 2022, EB-2 on January 1, 2020, and EB-3 on September 1, 2020. Some silver lining: USCIS will accept I-485 applications based on the more favorable Dates for Filing chart, providing additional filing time for applicants based on nationality and category.

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🎁 UNlock: Relevant resources

​Paid Masterclass: Peer-reviewing a computer science research paper by EB-1A recipient [January 25, 2024, 6.30 PST]​

Want to become a master of peer-reviewing a research paper? Here's a masterclass for you! Meet Siddharth Krishnan, a faculty member at UNC Charlotte, specializing in applied artificial intelligence and machine learning. He got his EB-1A in 2020 and has since helped a lot of researchers start their peer-reviewing journey. You don't wanna miss this! (This masterclass is being conducted within the Unshackled online community & is free for members).

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​​[Extraordinary Visa Library] EB-1A recipient, Head of Product & Applied Cognition: Anu Ramakrishnan​

Welcome to the next edition of the Extraordinary Visa Library -- a joint initiative between Unshackled and Schmidt Futures! In this edition, I interview Anu Ramakrishnan for her unbelievable story of getting her EB-1A after being on the verge of getting laid off by her company. Don't miss it if you're a product leader. (This was originally published within the Unshackled online community.)

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​​[Extraordinary Visa Library] EB-1A recipient & Co-founder of Healthtech Startup: Nikin Tharan​

(Sharing this again as we made a mistake in the YouTube link last week. Sorry!)

In this edition, I interview Nikin Tharan for his unbelievable story of getting his EB-1A denied twice before finally getting it approved. It's full of persistence, grit, and determination. You won't regret watching this! (This was originally published within the Unshackled online community.)

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🪄 UNveil: This week’s sponsor

​Don't waste YOUR time applying for jobs: So... applying to jobs can get really repetitive and boring. You're copying and pasting the same information into every application while listening to The Office in the background. But, what if you can outsource all this repetitive, boring work to an AI and only focus on higher-level tasks? Enter Scale.jobs. The founder gave me a personal demo of the tool, and it's pretty awesome. Save your time in applying to jobs by using Scale.jobs!​

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​Do you want to filter jobs that offer visa sponsorship? Enter F1Hire. An easy-to-install Chrome extension that will filter jobs that offer sponsorship in one click. It doesn't stop there. It also gives you data on salaries, E-verify history, matches the job's skills with your resume, and works with LinkedIn, Indeed, Handshake, Glassdoor, & Google Jobs. As a fun perk, use this link to get one-month free access to premium features!​

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👉 Want to put yourself in front of 10,000+ high-skilled immigrants? Just hit reply to start a conversation.

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🥳 UNshackled: What's happening in the community?

It's been another exciting and busy week here in Bangalore, India, as Disha (my new head of sales & community) and I have revamped the member onboarding. Just to give you an idea, you can expect the following to happen in the coming weeks:

• A brand new landing page with clearer messaging, a lawyer directory, and a teaser into the community.
• A thoughtfully curated onboarding experience that is entirely focused on helping members make progress in their talent visa journey.
• A video course launched on the O-1/EB-1 visa within the community.
• Changing the membership model from a public one to something invite-only (don't worry, I'll give you a heads up before this happens!)

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Besides the above, here's what's been brewin' in our community the past few weeks:

• ​Paid Masterclass: Peer-reviewing a computer science research paper: Meet Siddharth Krishnan, a faculty member at UNC Charlotte and an EB-1A recipient. He'll teach you all about how to start peer-reviewing! This masterclass is being conducted within the Unshackled online community & is free for members.
• ​Launched Extraordinary Visa Library with 2 new case studies: Imagine if there was a library filled with case studies of past O-1/B-1 recipients, sharing exactly how they got to the finish line. We launched 7 of the 10 case studies so far, the rest will be launched in the coming weeks.
• A lot of our members began collaborating last week to write a book together ;) Check it out!
• ​Advantage of EB-2 NIW over EB-2? was one of the questions on our discussion forum last week!
• [Coming soon] O-1A self-assessment tool: I’m collaborating with the Schmidt Futures organization to build a tool that will give you a personalized roadmap for your O-1 journey. This will be free for all.

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Whenever you're ready to join the community, use this private link that lets you join for $539 ($60 off). Once you join, get access to top lawyers, O-1/EB-1 recipients, weekly events, & a roadmap to reach your goal.

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Until next week, stay wonderful.

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Yours truly,

Soundarya 💚

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💡 None of the information shared in this newsletter is meant to be legal advice. If you're looking for legal advice, speak to a lawyer, or hit reply and let me know so I can connect you with one.

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💫 UNcover: Picks from the internet

• STEM degrees: Are they not worth the money and effort?​​
• Maintaining permanent lawful resident status: Life after receiving the EB-1A green card.
• 2024 is a presidential election year: A primer for foreign nationals.

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