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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

#231

Post by eloisant »

mindcrime wrote: post #83
eloisant wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

(for example with a Ph.D. you qualify for IEEE membership, and they will deliver a good-looking membership certificate) Unless something has changed very recently, you do not have to have a Ph.D. to be an IEEE member. Source: long-time IEEE member without a Ph.D.

You can be member without a Ph.D, but if you have one you qualify.

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

#232

Post by kevindeasis »

FreedomToCreate wrote: post #222
kevindeasis wrote: post #217

Hi Peter, Thank you very much for doing this! I have two questions about Canadian citizens looking for jobs in America. Possibly, looking to immigrate to Americain the future. Also, If possible getting double/triple citizenship. Let's pretend you are a Canadian citizen, recently graduated from computing science, that is currently living in Alberta, Canada. What is the best way to get a job in America? Should I apply…

The easiest way to get a work visa to the US is to first get a job offer from a US tech company. Then all you need to do is get a TN visa from the border and you can work and live in the US. A TN visa has to be renewed every 3 years and does not get you American citizenship nor can you apply for it. To that you must get your employer (once you start working for them on your TN visa) to sponsor you for an H1-B visa. T…

Very helpful!

Most of the companies would ask something along the lines of are you allowed to work in America. For this question, am I allowed to say, "yes I am". Given, I do not have a TN visa yet?

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

#234

Post by FreedomToCreate »

kevindeasis wrote: post #232
FreedomToCreate wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The easiest way to get a work visa to the US is to first get a job offer from a US tech company. Then all you need to do is get a TN visa from the border and you can work and live in the US. A TN visa has to be renewed every 3 years and does not get you American citizenship nor can you apply for it. To that you must get your employer (once you start working for them on your TN visa) to sponsor you for an H1-B visa. T…

Very helpful! Most of the companies would ask something along the lines of are you allowed to work in America. For this question, am I allowed to say, "yes I am". Given, I do not have a TN visa yet?

Yes for the question "Are you authorized to work in the US" you can answer yes.

For the question "Do you require sponsorship" you can answer NO.

This is ok as long as your are TN visa eligible.

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

#236

Post by mahoneyturnbull »

ones_and_zeros wrote: post #133
proberts wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely, yes, that can happen but there's little consistency and weak applications also are often denied (but people tend to talk more about their successes than their failures so there's often little "press" about these failures).

Yes that is what the immigration attorneys do, turn a seemingly weak application into a stronger one with massive amounts of supporting documents with various expert opinions and legalese. From my point of view the goal is to essentially beat the immigration officials over the head with information until they just pull out their stamp and move on to then next application. Not to say it is a loophole (though the folks…

What would be your stance be on prospects then if you can't say that you're going to get a 'high salary' in the proposed job here?

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

#237

Post by mynameisvlad »

FreedomToCreate wrote: post #222
kevindeasis wrote: post #217

Hi Peter, Thank you very much for doing this! I have two questions about Canadian citizens looking for jobs in America. Possibly, looking to immigrate to Americain the future. Also, If possible getting double/triple citizenship. Let's pretend you are a Canadian citizen, recently graduated from computing science, that is currently living in Alberta, Canada. What is the best way to get a job in America? Should I apply…

The easiest way to get a work visa to the US is to first get a job offer from a US tech company. Then all you need to do is get a TN visa from the border and you can work and live in the US. A TN visa has to be renewed every 3 years and does not get you American citizenship nor can you apply for it. To that you must get your employer (once you start working for them on your TN visa) to sponsor you for an H1-B visa. T…

Some of these are wrong.

- You can go from TN to EB3; it just gets hairy for the period of time that your AOS is being evaluated. I was going through the process when my H1-B got approved and switched to that. There's a 60 day wait period after you last enter on TN, and you cannot leave the country when the AOS gets filed until you get your EAD and AP or GC, whichever comes first.

- Green card will not take 8 years unless you were born in India, China, or the Philippines. EB-3 priority date for rest of world is March 2016, and it takes longer than 3 months to get PERM approved, so by the time it gets approved it would be current. After that, it takes about 6-9 months to get the AOS approved (and you usually get your EAD/AP a little earlier).

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

#238

Post by nopinsight »

Hi Peter, Thank you much for doing this. I am a startup founder who plans to obtain E-2 visa and uses it for residency during the first 2 years of business. I hope to transfer to EB-1 or EB-2 with National Interest Waiver (NIW) as soon as possible.

1) What are the possibilities and timeline for applying to EB-2 while holding E-2 with majority interest in the startup? (I have a Masters in CS from a major US research university. It seems to be a challenge to qualify for EB-1 within the next 2 years, but NIW looks quite possible to me.)

A major reason for the plan is that E-2 treaty with my country limits the period of travel out and back into the US to 6 months after the visa approval. After 6 months, it appears that I will need to renew the visa every time I wish to come back to the US, which would be a major time sink.

2) Would EB-2 give its holders complete freedom to travel back to the States without issues and to stay as long as they wish?

3) Are EB-2 holders required to maintain employment with the original employer?

If you have time: I would strongly consider to become a US citizen after receiving an EB-2. What is the typical timeline and conditions to transfer from EB-2 to US citizenship?

Greatly appreciate it.

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

#239

Post by otto_ortega »

Hi Peter,

I live in Central America, I have been working as a remote worker for US-based companies for around 5 years now, the past 1.5 years working for a company on Seattle, I haven't signed any formal work-contract but my current employer is willing to help me to obtain a VISA to inmigrate to the US (I only have a tourist VISA right now).

I'm also in the way to co-found a company with my employer as partner, I will get 16% of ownership over it.

What are my best options to move to the US?

May I still apply to an H1B visa despite not having a formal work-contral? (the payments records, Skype logs and emails are the only proof I have)

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

#240

Post by winter_blue »

eatmyshorts wrote: post #92
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…

I'm not the OP, but as I understand it a founder of a company would be eligible for immigration on an EB-5 visa. From this website ( https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-through-job/gree... ), they would be eligible if they plan to create/preserve 10 jobs and invest $1m (or $500k in a "targeted high employment area". This is pretty similar to most developed nations--provide enough investment money and you can…

jameshush would need to have $1 million or $500k (if he wants to open his startup in a poor/remote area) to get this visa.

I don't know about jameshush, but most people don't have that level of disposable assets lying around that they can just expend on a business venture.

Also, FYI, you cannot get $500k of investment and qualify for the EB-5 visa. The $500k has to be your own money.

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