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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 22, 2025

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A nation's olympic representative would qualify for an O1 with an instant EB-1 green card.

No, the US is much harsher than that -- you need an Olympic MEDAL to automatically qualify, though I believe even bronze is accepted. Without that, an olympic athlete needs 3 of 10 criteria. Though two should be easy:

  • Evidence of receipt of lesser nationally or internationally recognized prizes or awards for excellence (anyone who gets on a national olympic team should have this)

  • Evidence of your membership in associations in the field which demand outstanding achievement of their members (the Olympic team itself should qualify)

Given those, he'd need to have one of

  • Evidence of published material about you in professional or major trade publications or other major media

  • Evidence that you have been asked to judge the work of others, either individually or on a panel

  • Evidence of your original scientific, scholarly, artistic, athletic, or business-related contributions of major significance to the field

  • Evidence of your performance of a leading or critical role in distinguished organizations

  • Evidence that you command a high salary or other significantly high remuneration in relation to others in the field

Without any of them, no EB-1 for you.

I mean he was in the Olympics, it shouldn't be hard to dig up some "evidence of published material about [him] in ... other major media"?

Evidence that you have been asked to judge the work of others, either individually or on a panel

This one's basically a free space. Reviewed coworker's code? Check. Gave your teammate feedback on their performance? Check. Etc.

No, you need evidence that you've been asked to do it. Informal stuff that doesn't generate such evidence won't work.

Code review has a paper trail. It's easy to make a paper trail for reviewing your teammate's performance too.

You're not thinking outside the box.