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Hi [FORMATTED_FIRST_NAME GOES HERE],

Happy Wednesday ✨

Soundarya here, from Unshackled. :)

As a reminder: we're featuring a few of our newsletter's top readers on the new Unshackled website (under construction). To be featured just hit reply and share a testimonial along with your designation. Here are some questions to get you thinking:

• What’s one thing that keeps you opening this newsletter every week?
• How would you describe our newsletter to a friend or colleague who has never seen it?
• If you woke up tomorrow to discover this newsletter is being discontinued, what would you feel?

Just hit reply and share your thoughts.

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 102 new subscribers to our newsletter since last week. We're 10,365 members strong now! 🙏

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This week's TL;DR

• The H-1B domestic renewal program has launched! What you need to know about the pilot program.
• ​Changes announced for H1-B lottery to avoid fraud, application starts in March.
• Are you an aspiring founder? Check out this free webinar.

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📌 UNfold: Top stories

​H-1B Visa Renewal Without Leaving the US: Pilot Program Launches With Deadline of April 1​

It's happening! For the first time in two decades, the U.S. has initiated a pilot program, enabling H-1B visa holders to renew their visas within the country, eliminating the need to return to their home country. Launched on January 29 and accepting applications until April 1, 2024 -- or until slots are filled -- the program aims to enhance efficiency and reduce costs for tech professionals, mainly from India and China, employed by U.S. companies.

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​Major Overhaul Announced for H-1B Lottery System: Applications Start on March 6​

USCIS has announced a major overhaul of the H-1B visa lottery system for FY2025. One of the major changes is to select registrations based on unique beneficiary rather than by registration. This was a big problem last year as some people submitted more than 5 applications, trying to game the system. The new system will also allow a fully electronic H-1B process from registration to final decision. The changes also include passport information requirements for beneficiaries and a clarified employment start date policy.

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​New York Plans to Facilitate International Student Start-ups with Innovative Policy Proposals​

Last week, New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul announced 204 new policy proposals as part of her 2024 State of the State address. The agenda features a section on creating "new avenues for immigrant entrepreneurs," which will allow certain "graduate and doctoral students…to obtain university-sponsored visas that allow them to continue performing and commercializing research without leaving the state.” New York is taking inspiration from the Global Entrepreneur in Residence (GEIR) program which allows universities and research nonprofits to sponsor immigrant entrepreneurs. (This is ONLY a proposal, and not final yet)

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🎁 UNlock: Relevant resources

​Paid Masterclass: Peer-reviewing a computer science research paper by EB-1A recipient [Feb 8, 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] Dasha Kroshkina - O1-A recipient - Founder & CEO, StudyFree ​

Welcome to the next edition of the Extraordinary Visa Library -- a joint initiative between Unshackled and Schmidt Futures! In this edition, we have Dasha Kroshkina. Dasha migrated to the United States from Russia in May 2020 when her startup got accepted into a top accelerator program. After moving here, she decided to stay and build her company in the US, and as a result, came across the O-1 visa through a friend. Learn about her story in depth! (This was originally published within the Unshackled online community.)

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​Free Webinar: Top Visa Solutions for Start-Up Founders in 2024! [February 2, 2024 12:30 AM]​

Sign up for this free webinar with Jacob Sapochnick, a business immigration attorney. He has assisted local and multinational companies and has been featured in major media such as Forbes, NBC, KPBS, Reuters, Fox News, CNN, etc. During this session, he will discuss optimal visa and green card choices for startup founders, along with potential immigration changes anticipated in 2024.

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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?

I’m super proud that our little community has now grown to 336 ambitious talent visa aspirants. Our goal is (and has always been) to bring the right people together — lawyers, past recipients, experts — who can help you get your talent visa.

In the past month, we saw three members of our community get their O-1A and EB-1A visas approved! With this, we now have over 10 members who got their approvals in the past 6 months. Can't wait for more such this year. :D

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

• ​A member of the community got his EB1A I140 approved!- He talks about how the community helped him in his journey.
• ​"What are some Bay Area startup event recommendations?" was one of the discussion threads within our community last week.
• ​We're kicking off something called the "Unshackled Biweekly Lounge" starting today! This is a safe space for members to show up every other week and help each other with their immigration goals, or otherwise.
• ​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.
• [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 link to join the community as an Annual member. Once you join, get access to top lawyers, past O-1/EB-1 recipients, monthly workshops, & mainly a strategic 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

• Getting ready for the FY25 H-1B season: Things you need to note.​​
• What is a "Skills Verification" letter? Learn about its requirements in the PERM process.

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