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I am Peter Roberts, an immigration lawyer who does work for YC and startups. AMA

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Re: I am Peter Roberts, an immigration lawyer who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#52

Post by n00b101 »

SeoxyS wrote: post #40
disbelief wrote: post #11

How would you rate a senior engineer's odds at qualifying for an O-1 visa? Can they get by on career/work history alone or does it require a level of public notoriety?

3-time O-1 recipient here. Denied for EB-1 once + on appeal. The O-1, I feel, is pretty dependent on our personal situation, and which side of the bed the reviewer woke up on when they look at your application. But, it can be done. Good luck!

Why 3-time? How long is O-1 valid before it expires?

Re: I am Peter Roberts, an immigration lawyer who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#53

Post by proberts »

iktl wrote: post #23

Hi Peter – as H1B / E3 visa holders are only allowed to work for the company sponsoring them, are these holders able to provide contract work (separate to their regular work) to clients either in or out of the US provided the work is conducted and billed via a registered business entity in their home (or another non-US) country?

The short answer is no - although there can be exceptions when the only beneficiary of this work is outside the US.

Re: I am Peter Roberts, an immigration lawyer who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#55

Post by iktl »

proberts wrote: post #53
iktl wrote: post #23

Hi Peter – as H1B / E3 visa holders are only allowed to work for the company sponsoring them, are these holders able to provide contract work (separate to their regular work) to clients either in or out of the US provided the work is conducted and billed via a registered business entity in their home (or another non-US) country?

The short answer is no - although there can be exceptions when the only beneficiary of this work is outside the US.

Thanks for the reply, I (and others, I'm sure) appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions!

Re: I am Peter Roberts, an immigration lawyer who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#56

Post by proberts »

RjCharm wrote: post #31

We're shortly going to be opening an office in a European country and employing several local employees. Once the organization is established, what would the process be for inter-organizational transfers of employees between countries? For example, if someone were to relocate from primarily working in Europe to primarily working in the USA?

There often are lots of options depending on the nationality of the company and transferring employees, the amount and source of any investment, etc. but the options typically are the E-1, E-2, and L-1 visas.

Re: I am Peter Roberts, an immigration lawyer who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#58

Post by n00b101 »

proberts wrote: post #41
disbelief wrote: post #11

How would you rate a senior engineer's odds at qualifying for an O-1 visa? Can they get by on career/work history alone or does it require a level of public notoriety?

This is tough to answer because it's not so much tied to your title or even level within a company but your accomplishments.

Do you mean it depends on one's accomplishments within a company? What would be good examples of eligible corporate accomplishments from an O-1 or EB1 application perspective? And would getting accepted into YC be an eligible accomplishment for these?

Re: I am Peter Roberts, an immigration lawyer who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#59

Post by jason558 »

Hi Peter, thanks for doing this session! My question relates to techniques and probabilities of getting H1B visa for potential hires. We are a 5 year old profitable start-up with more than $1 million in revenue...how hard would it be for us to sponsor a potential new engineering hire for the visa process? I understand that it can cost $4k in the application and X in legal fees ($5k?) which we would be ok with.

My questions are (a) what are the actual chances of success given the lottery system process for sponsoring an employee for the H1B visa, and (b) are we limited in the # of applications?

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