Expiring OPT, an L-1 winding down, an O-1B tied to a job that ended — the expiring-status cluster is one of the most common situations in our inbox, and the answer is rarely the lottery.
The traditional continuation from OPT is an H-1B — a lottery with one registration window a year (the next opens around March 2027) and odds nobody controls. The O-1 files year-round, runs on the record you built during your studies and work years, and through the agent-based structure does not require any single employer to carry your case. When the clock is the problem, a route without a season is the answer.
Turning your work years into an organized record - the step to do while status is still running.
What the free profile setup actually looks like.
As early as you can - six months is comfortable, and even the grace-period weeks are better used building the record than refreshing the lottery news. The free profile costs nothing to start today.
No - the agent-based O-1 was built for exactly that answer. Your employer’s part shrinks to a one-page interest letter, which is a very different ask from running a sponsorship process.
The routes are not exclusive - many candidates run the O-1 now and keep the lottery as a parallel option when the window opens. Your attorney sequences the specifics.