Managing Partner Michael Wildes is pleased to announce that Wildes & Weinberg P.C. has secured O-1 visa classification on behalf of Ms. Renee McDonald, famed choreographer/setter.
Ms. Renee McDonald who will come to the US to set and rehearse a ballet with the famed Alvin Ailey American Dance Foundation on behalf of the Ailey II company. Alvin Ailey has sought out Ms. McDonald based on her demonstrated extraordinary ability and acclaim she has received. For more than forty years, Ailey II has merged the spirit and energy of the country’s best young dance talent with the passion and creative vision of today’s most outstanding emerging choreographers. Started in 1974 as the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble, Ailey II embodies Alvin Ailey’s pioneering mission to establish an extended cultural community that provides dance performances, training and community programs for all people. The critically-acclaimed Ailey II has a distinctive repertory that has included works by dance masters Alvin Ailey, Talley Beatty, Donald Byrd, Ulysses Dove, George W. Faison, Lar Lubovitch, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Artistic Director Robert Battle and Artistic Director Emerita Judith Jamison. Renee McDonald has a demonstrated record of extraordinary achievement, as seen by Ms. McDonald’s voluminous critical reviews which have appeared in some of the most widely-circulated, highly respected publications in Jamaica including The Gleaner, The Jamaica Observer, Tallawah Magazine, Susumba, and The New York Times. Further, she has worked as a choreographer for many of the Caribbean’s most coveted dance companies The National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC), The Company Dance Theater (CDT), L’Acadco, and Dance Theatre Xaymaca (DTX).
In order to qualify for an O-1 visa which allows individuals of extraordinary ability in the arts, sciences, athletics, education or business to live and work in the United States, a foreign national must provide adequate documentation to demonstrate that he/she has sustained national or international acclaim in their field.
In addition, the individual must provide substantial evidence to prove that he/she meets 3 of the 6 evidence categories defined by statute, as well as a written advisory opinion from a labor union or relevant peer group. The O-1 visa applicant must also show that he/she has an offer of employment in the United States to work in his/her field of expertise (or several offers of employment from multiple sources, along with a third-party Agent to petition on the individual’s behalf and connect him/her to the multiple employers).
For more than fifty six years, the firm of Wildes & Weinberg has concentrated its practice in all aspects of U.S. immigration and nationality law, servicing the immigration requirements of prominent American and International individuals and corporations, banks, industrial, financial and manufacturing concerns, and law firms in connection with the personnel needs of their foreign national employees. In addition, the firm has a distinguished clientele and has done substantial immigration work for investors, scientists, physicians, bankers, performing artists, directors, writers, models, actors, athletes, fine artists, art dealers, curators, musicians, and literary agents.
For more information on the O-1 visa category, which allows individuals of extraordinary ability in the arts, sciences, athletics, education and business to live and work in the United States, please visit our Immigration 101 page or contact Michael Wildes at michael@wildeslaw.com.
