41–50 of 125 posts
US immigration system is broken & is a joke. H1B "skilled" visas are based on your luck (lottery) and not on your skills (surprise). They change the rules every now and then and its a nightmare to be on H1B worrying whether you are in legal status and the fear of being deported. Now LCA is not enough to change your work location. H1B amendment is needed which is another nightmare. You can go for an investor visa opti…
Regardless of whether you're a YC founder or not, in general unless you're Canadian/Mexican and can qualify for a TN, or Australian and can qualify for an E-3, your only viable real option is an O-1 (Alien of Extraordinary ability). It's not an unachievable visa, and there are many founders who use it, but the requirements to demonstrate extraordinary ability are onerous. From USCIS: * Receipt of nationally or intern…
I received O-1 visa in February 2015 and I did it without lawyer. After I id it, I helped a couple of my friends and they received O-1 as well. Again, without lawyers.
All you need is: 1) learn USCIS docs (law itself and directions on the official site) 2) learn as many examples as possible (in my case I found some "DIY O-1 visa" zip in the internet and bought it – it was smth like $150, and although it didn't contain examples from tech, it helped a lot to get proper understanding) 3) examine all your professional life and recall all possible achievements. It cannot take 1 week or so. It should take at least month – because otherwise there is a chance that you miss something that could improve your application.
I have now a deep belief that lawyers in case of O-1 can be really helpful only to those founders who are too lazy. No lawyer will do the most important work on O-1 application for you: it's you who should recall your achievements (prizes, your articles, articles about your and your project, etc), it's YOU who should ask YOUR connection for reference letters, and so on. In many cases lawyers even can be a reason of failure of application: for example, they can miss something important in writing reference letter for you, or even make some fact errors. Or even worse, they can be reason of delay in delivering RFE response from USCIS to you, what can automatically lead to failed application since you then have no time to prepare a good answer. (All examples I mention here are from the real life...)
So my advice – don't be afraid to DIY, save $3-8k (SF lawyers' prices for O-1), learn the law and examples and DIY! Yes, this process is not really simple but it's definitely doable, and since nobody know your life better than you, nobody can prepare O-1 application better than you.
Of course here I should place disclaimer that I'm now professional lawyer and cannot give professional advice in legal areas:) And don't forget that for O-1 you should have a company that will hire you (actually in terms of law, it's the company who officially files the application for you -- the company is a petitioner in this process) – this may be the most difficult point for those who work for themselves.
A couple of additional comments:
- RFE process ("request for evidence" – when USCIS asks you to provide more information) always occurs, and you should carefully read eveyr USCIS's comment and respond to every comment very clear, this is the key of success.
- Once you file your application, if you're in US on your B1/B2 and don't go outside, you receive "pending" status which means that now you're purpose of stay changed and if it is needed, you are able to stay in the country more than the stamp in your passport indicates – you can stay until USCIS's decision on your application. And when you get RFE answer from USCIS, they give you a couple of months to prepare your response. So technically you can enter on B1/B2 and stay more than 6 months without breaking of any law. I stayed 7 months and it is ok (however, on my next travel to US, I had to wait for additional "clearance" checks in JFK – but it took 15 minutes or so).
- Visa != status. Visa is used only for entrance. You can enter on B1/B2, then get O-1 status and live on it. But once you leave US, you cannot return to the US. Because you need visa (stamp in your passport) which can be made only by US embassies outside the US. So you should go to US embassy in your country and get O1 visa (based on USCIS decision made previously – but be aware that here, once again, additional "clearance" checks can wait you).
Hope it will help somebody.
I wish good luck for those who try to DIY O-1 visa. In case you do it, it's a double-victory!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I (Australian) had never heard of the E3 visa until just now - Interesting that it defines "Speciality work" as anything that requires a degree in the job description. I don't have one, but have been working professionally in this field for 4 years (I'm 22), and thus would not be eligible. To qualify for experience in lieu of a degree you require 3 years of work for each one year of university, so when I've been work…
The E3 has basically the same requirements as the H1B (regular work visa), the main difference is that there is no cap (whereas H1Bs are capped and it's basically a lottery whether you get one or not). IIRC there is some way to avoid the degree requirement if you have a skilled job and an equivalent # of years work experience.
Regardless of whether you're a YC founder or not, in general unless you're Canadian/Mexican and can qualify for a TN, or Australian and can qualify for an E-3, your only viable real option is an O-1 (Alien of Extraordinary ability). It's not an unachievable visa, and there are many founders who use it, but the requirements to demonstrate extraordinary ability are onerous. From USCIS: * Receipt of nationally or intern…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Calls for O-1aaS startup. Setup an organization that will: * Generate awards and prizes in computer science and its sub-fields. * It will have a journal that will be populated by a deep learning nn. Seeded by a few areas of interest a user will put in, it will then auto-generate articles. * Setup a contracting service where you invest in it initially, then it pays it back to you as salary for whatever minimum amount…
I'd advise tempering your sense of humor on this topic, since attempts to do more-or-less what you're talking about above tend to culminate in long prison sentences for both operators and customers of such a service, unless it's based in a jurisdiction that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the US. since 'securing the border' is one of those fundamentally unattainable political goals prosecutors tend to throw t…
It's not a political ploy. If you try to make an end-run around the law, they're going to go after you to defend the rule of law. The law isn't a computer program that you can find a bug in and circumvent (well, most of the time). The law is purposefully broad and fuzzy, and is interpreted by human judges who will see through your little scheme.
It's not the prosecutor's or the judge's role to pass political judgement on the law. Their job is to uphold the laws that the people's representatives have passed.
Regardless of whether you're a YC founder or not, in general unless you're Canadian/Mexican and can qualify for a TN, or Australian and can qualify for an E-3, your only viable real option is an O-1 (Alien of Extraordinary ability). It's not an unachievable visa, and there are many founders who use it, but the requirements to demonstrate extraordinary ability are onerous. From USCIS: * Receipt of nationally or intern…
I (Australian) had never heard of the E3 visa until just now - Interesting that it defines "Speciality work" as anything that requires a degree in the job description. I don't have one, but have been working professionally in this field for 4 years (I'm 22), and thus would not be eligible. To qualify for experience in lieu of a degree you require 3 years of work for each one year of university, so when I've been work…
Somewhere filed away I have a letter from an organization accredited by the US government proclaiming that I have degree-level experience. I value it almost as much as the certificate I obtained in/for Canada confirming I have conversational level English skills.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd advise tempering your sense of humor on this topic, since attempts to do more-or-less what you're talking about above tend to culminate in long prison sentences for both operators and customers of such a service, unless it's based in a jurisdiction that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the US. since 'securing the border' is one of those fundamentally unattainable political goals prosecutors tend to throw t…
> since 'securing the border' is one of those fundamentally unattainable political goals prosecutors tend to throw the book at anyone they find engaged in this kind of activity because it plays well at oversight hearings. It's not a political ploy. If you try to make an end-run around the law, they're going to go after you to defend the rule of law. The law isn't a computer program that you can find a bug in and circ…
They don't have the resources to prosecute more than a minority of violations, and their choices many times are based on politics.