Cookbook editor Leyla Moushabeck challenges the readers of The Immigrant Cookbook to “imagine an America without pizza or pad Thai, humus or hot dogs, sushi or strudel.” Not an easy task. Nor do I even want to imagine that because it sounds pretty tragic.
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O-1 Visas for Chefs: A Recipe
Many foreign nationals work in the US culinary industry. Of course, this is not surprising since American cuisine has long been influenced by culinary traditions from around the world. While there are a number of visa options that may be suitable for restaurant workers, in this post we are focusing on one of the most common visas available for highly talented chefs, bakers, and front of house staff. That’s the O-1B, for artists of extraordinary ability. (Yes, chefs are artists too!) We’ve previously discussed the O-1 generally and specifically for the TV and film industry, but for those culinary talents considering visa options for the US, we have an O-1 recipe for you! (Okay, this is a little silly, but we’re always looking for new ways to explain complex visas processes.)
Read more5 Visas We Wish Existed
We are lucky here at the firm to meet so many interesting and talented people from all over the world. But nothing is more frustrating than when we meet someone with a genuine and legitimate reason to be in or come to the US, but we are unable to help them because there is no appropriate visa type that matches their qualifications or situation. This got us to thinking—what if we could invent or re-style existing visas to match some of the people we meet and cannot help. We may have to get creative with the alphabet here…
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