How a Harvard Policy Expert Secured His O-1A to Join the Asia Society in New York

The offer was real, but until the visa came through it didn't feel real. The week it did, I packed and flew. New York went from a plan to home.

Kevin Li

Researcher @ Asia Society Policy Institute

Overview

Kevin Li had spent his career in the rooms where policy actually gets decided. A Harvard Kennedy School graduate, he has advised governments and leading institutions around the world on how policy gets shaped and made. The record is unusual, and so was the question it raised when a US role came calling.

The Asia Society Policy Institute, one of the most influential organisations working across Asia and the United States, offered him a position in New York. It was exactly the kind of seat his work had been building toward.

There was just one thing standing between the offer and the office. For someone with a record like Kevin's, the O-1A was the visa that fit. His new employer had its own lawyers on it, but the process was moving slowly, and the role in New York was waiting. That is when he reached out to Concord.

Challenge

The Only Visa That Fit

Kevin's career did not look like a textbook case. His evidence was a globe-spanning record of advising governments and institutions, not a stack of patents or product launches. The O-1A was the right path, but it had to be framed so that policy influence read as clearly as extraordinary ability in any other field.

Heightened Scrutiny on Researchers

O-1 petitions for researchers were drawing extra scrutiny at the time. That meant the petition could not afford a single soft spot. Every claim about Kevin's standing and impact had to be evidenced cleanly enough to hold up under a closer-than-usual read.

An RFE Despite Premium Processing

Even with premium processing, the government issued a Request for Evidence, having not read the petition closely enough. It was a frustrating setback. The response had to correct the record precisely and overturn the RFE, without resetting the clock on a role that was already waiting.

Interview Prep and a Tight Window

With consular interview prep and document logistics still to sort, and Kevin busy and travelling, the practical side of getting to the consulate needed an owner. Getting him ready, and getting the paperwork into his hands, had to happen on a tight timeline.

The Turning Point: Finding Concord

When Kevin reached out after accepting the offer, two teams ended up working in parallel: his new employer's lawyers, and Concord. The difference showed up quickly. Concord answered his questions fast, at the pace someone mid-relocation actually needs, and had most of the petition drafted early in the process. By the end, the company's lawyers used Concord's draft, much of it word for word.

Then the RFE landed. The government, under the pressure that premium processing creates, simply had not read the petition properly. Concord reviewed every piece of the RFE materials and reworked the response on top, tightening the parts that mattered. The RFE was overturned, and the O-1A was approved.

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The offer was real, but until the visa came through it didn't feel real. The week it did, I packed and flew. New York went from a plan to home.

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The Outcome

With the petition approved, the last stretch was the consulate. This time the interview prep sat with Concord, which ran two mock interviews: one online, and one in person, since a Concord team member happened to be in the same city. The team also printed his consulate documents and hand-delivered them, rather than leaving a busy, travelling client to sort the paperwork himself.

It worked. Kevin did the interview, got his visa back, and flew to the United States the same weekend. He is now in New York with the Asia Society Policy Institute, doing the work his whole career had been pointing toward, no longer waiting on a visa to make it real.