Overview

• Tanush Sharanarthi said he was approved for an O-1 visa after three consecutive rejections in the H-1B lottery.
• He described meeting multiple O-1 eligibility criteria through published AI research, open-source work, paper reviews and judging hackathons.
• Sharanarthi framed the outcome as recognition of extraordinary ability in artificial intelligence, emphasizing consistent contributions over luck.
• He credited about six years of work spanning an internship and role at Kimberly-Clark, a master's degree and his current position at IBM.
• He thanked his family, mentors, colleagues and IBM for support, and advised applicants to build genuine domain expertise, noting that being in Silicon Valley proved helpful.