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I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

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Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#61

Post by knxclkases »

Hi Peter, Thank you for taking the time to do this AMA.

The company that I currently work for has offered to start processing my GC, but only under an EB3. I have a masters degree in computer science from an American University, (and I have about 4 years of work experience) so I am technically eligible for an EB2 (and since I am from India, EB2 vs EB3 makes a big difference).

My question is, if I go ahead with the processing, Once I have my I-140 and priority date, would it be possible for me to switch jobs keeping the same priority date? If I move to a company with the means (and willingness) to file for a GC under EB2, would they be able to keep the same priority date?

Just trying to understand if this is something worth fighting for? Or if I should just accept the EB3 filing, get my I-140 and eventually move to a company that will re-file it under EB2?

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#62

Post by jedmeyers »

CephalopodMD wrote: post #24
jamisteven wrote: post #11

Hey Robert - My Question: What do you think would happen to tech in America if H1b's were done away with and all foreign workers had to leave?

Related question, would Donald Trump actually be able to do away with the H1B as he suggested he would a couple of months ago?

Can you please point to the source where Trump said he would 'do away with the H1B'?

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#64

Post by aliakhtar »

> the extraordinary ability and national interest waiver routes--are often very good options, and often overlooked because of a misunderstanding about the standards.

Can you please clarify that, especially about the extraordinary ability criteria / standards? Is there a yard stick that one can measure themselves against, to get a realistic assessment of what their chances are?

E.g may be an example persona of someone who qualifies? The examples that are given by the immigration website are olympic atheletes and such. That's probably someone who is way overqualified though. What's an example of a person who just barely qualifies, or who neither under nor over qualifies?

P.S can I hire you to be my attorney for my EB1?

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#65

Post by proberts »

sjtgraham wrote: post #42

I'm a UK citizen that has been looking at EB-1A all week (because of Brexit), I'm now sure I do not want to continue living here if we in fact do withdraw from the EU. My questions: - How many of the 10 criteria must you actually satisfy? Is it a binary decision, i.e. proving 3/10 is the same as is the same as satisfying all 10. Is a positive decision 100% guaranteed is at least 3 criteria are proved satisfactorily?…

All good questions, responded to in order:

- it can be enough if one meets 3 of the criteria but even if one meets 3 criteria there's an additional subjective requirement of extraordinary ability but in my experience, if one clearly meets 3, his or her application will be approved

- the legal standard is a preponderance of the evidence but the actual standard as applied is pretty inconsistent and can seem arbitrary but even with this, in my experience, if the case is strong, it's rare that an application isn't approved.

- sorry but I can't answer tax related questions

- the EB1A category is current for all nationalities and at present the entire process (which can include the spouse) can take as little as 3 months and as long as 8 months (excluding RFEs)

- see response to previous text but the range can be wide, on average $5,000 to $15,000

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#66

Post by piotrkubisa »

proberts wrote: post #48
auggierose wrote: post #7

So what does extraordinary ability mean? Are we talking PhD level ability here, or Turning award level ability, or somewhere in between?

Something lower and different really. For those who have not won major awards, it's really a mix of media coverage, publications, awards, good work, etc. To put it in perspective, we've obtained green cards for those without degrees and under the age of 25 but who've created really cool companies. It's very fact-specific and in the end it's a feeling that someone is very bright and doing interesting work.

That's very encouraging. I'd like to ask, what kind of extraordinary abilities are behind these cool-companies and their owners (employment, investment capability)?

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#67

Post by neom »

jameshush wrote: post #54

Hi Peter, I'm a Canadian citizen with a four year computer science degree. I've gotten a TN work permit twice, with two different companies over the past three years. If I started a company with an American citizen and they opened it up, could they then hire me as a Computer System Analyst? Is there a minimum salary they'd have to pay me (e.g. could I get a TN and still only get paid $10/hour)? Is this a common way f…

Also curious about this.

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#68

Post by proberts »

aliakhtar wrote: post #64

> the extraordinary ability and national interest waiver routes--are often very good options, and often overlooked because of a misunderstanding about the standards. Can you please clarify that, especially about the extraordinary ability criteria / standards? Is there a yard stick that one can measure themselves against, to get a realistic assessment of what their chances are? E.g may be an example persona of someone…

It's impossible to draw a line in the sand for those who haven't won major awards or received major recognitions. It's really fact-specific. That being said, if one has a degree and several years of experience doing good work, it's always worth looking at. There's oftentimes more to an individual's background from an immigration perspective than he or she realizes.

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#69

Post by bduerst »

jedmeyers wrote: post #62
CephalopodMD wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Related question, would Donald Trump actually be able to do away with the H1B as he suggested he would a couple of months ago?

Can you please point to the source where Trump said he would 'do away with the H1B'?

He's flip flopped on in several times now, going from banning to allowing to ending it completely.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/03/...

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#70

Post by proberts »

eloisant wrote: post #57
auggierose wrote: post #7

So what does extraordinary ability mean? Are we talking PhD level ability here, or Turning award level ability, or somewhere in between?

I can answer because I had an O1 visa, and from what I've understood the equivalent green card has roughly the same requirements. If I wanted to apply for a green card while on my O1 visa, I could have went to the same process (I chose to move back to Europe instead). Interestingly going from an O1 visa to the equivalent green cards doesn't require a corporate sponsorship. Basically if you have something like a Nobel…

Thank you, but to clarify: while the criteria look alike, the standard for EB1A is much higher than the standard for O1. So, for example, while a handful of media mentions might be enough for O1 purposes, they might not be enough for EB1A purposes.
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