I’m Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA • Hacker News Board

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

#301

Post by tempestn » Sat, Jul 07, 2018, 2:21 AM UTC

gsvclass wrote: post #194

emk133 wrote: post #55

Peter - are you seeing a shift or a trend where individuals with immigration need are possibly heading to other countries (e.g Canada) given the toughening stance on immigration here in USA recently? Also what would be your 2 cents for citizens from oversubscribed countries such as China/India who practically have to wait for ever now to get work based GC? Head over to Canada?

I moved from SF to Toronto last year with a Canadian PR. Absolutely love Toronto and miss Cali. My motivation was to get out of a work visa and explore some startup ideas. I have a blog https://movnorth.com to help others who are considering Canada. From traffic to the site and the forums I can tell that a lots of people are going this route.

Unfortunately with the new provincial government (elected to a majority with a strong 37% of the vote...) Ontario is starting to look a lot more like the US in its attitude toward immigrants, among other things. I would suggest Vancouver instead, if not for the astronomical cost of living (although I guess not compared to San Francisco).

Edit: Fortunately the provincial government doesn't really have any say over immigration, but I am disappointed to see these attitudes spreading.

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

#302

Post by fredophile » Sat, Jul 07, 2018, 2:22 AM UTC

jonhohle wrote: post #300

deanmoriarty wrote: post #111

Hi, first of all thank you for your time. I have been a green card holder for a bit more than 5 years now, and would like to move forward with the naturalization process. For better growth opportunities, I changed employer soon after my green card was obtained (about 2 months after). I have stayed with my former employer (big enterprise which sponsored my H1B and then GC petition) for 3+ years, and with my current on…

> ... especially considering the new administration? Not to be rude, but it sounds like you are a lawful permanent resident. Do you have any evidence that suggests that lawful permanent residents are being treated any differently by the government now or in the future by the government? There’s a lot of FUD trying to conflate what’s happening to people entering the country by bypassing official immigration processes…

There have been plenty of news articles in the last two days about the current administration forming a task force to remove citizenship from naturalized citizens that they believe lied on their applications. That's citizens, not just permanent residents. The immigration process is long and complicated. It would be easy to make small mistakes here and there. Technically, some of those mistakes could get you deported.

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

#303

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jul 07, 2018, 2:31 AM UTC

jonhohle wrote: post #300

deanmoriarty wrote: post #111

Hi, first of all thank you for your time. I have been a green card holder for a bit more than 5 years now, and would like to move forward with the naturalization process. For better growth opportunities, I changed employer soon after my green card was obtained (about 2 months after). I have stayed with my former employer (big enterprise which sponsored my H1B and then GC petition) for 3+ years, and with my current on…

> ... especially considering the new administration? Not to be rude, but it sounds like you are a lawful permanent resident. Do you have any evidence that suggests that lawful permanent residents are being treated any differently by the government now or in the future by the government? There’s a lot of FUD trying to conflate what’s happening to people entering the country by bypassing official immigration processes…

[deleted]

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

#304

Post by EduardoBautista » Sat, Jul 07, 2018, 2:32 AM UTC

fredophile wrote: post #302

jonhohle wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... especially considering the new administration? Not to be rude, but it sounds like you are a lawful permanent resident. Do you have any evidence that suggests that lawful permanent residents are being treated any differently by the government now or in the future by the government? There’s a lot of FUD trying to conflate what’s happening to people entering the country by bypassing official immigration processes…

There have been plenty of news articles in the last two days about the current administration forming a task force to remove citizenship from naturalized citizens that they believe lied on their applications. That's citizens, not just permanent residents. The immigration process is long and complicated. It would be easy to make small mistakes here and there. Technically, some of those mistakes could get you deported.

That has always been a possibility. Nothing new with this administration.

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

#305

Post by dragonwriter » Sat, Jul 07, 2018, 2:35 AM UTC

jonhohle wrote: post #300

deanmoriarty wrote: post #111

Hi, first of all thank you for your time. I have been a green card holder for a bit more than 5 years now, and would like to move forward with the naturalization process. For better growth opportunities, I changed employer soon after my green card was obtained (about 2 months after). I have stayed with my former employer (big enterprise which sponsored my H1B and then GC petition) for 3+ years, and with my current on…

> ... especially considering the new administration? Not to be rude, but it sounds like you are a lawful permanent resident. Do you have any evidence that suggests that lawful permanent residents are being treated any differently by the government now or in the future by the government? There’s a lot of FUD trying to conflate what’s happening to people entering the country by bypassing official immigration processes…

Both LPRs and even naturalized citizens are being targeted; notably, for the first time since this was done during the second Red Scare, the Administration is actively seeking out naturalized citizens to denaturalize.

https://www.npr.org/2018/07/04/625980910/white-house-launche...

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

#306

Post by sumedh » Sat, Jul 07, 2018, 3:12 AM UTC

ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #293

neil_s wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much every other country. In the UK for example, if you want to work, you just need to get a job offer. To keep numbers under control, they simply put a wage minimum that's high enough. Not fair for positions like nurses and teachers that are valuable to society, but generally ensure skilled migration. If you want to start a startup, a UK university can endorse your startup idea for a 2 year visa, and then rai…

> Not fair for positions like nurses and teachers In Australia and even in Canada teachers earn as much as IT professionals

> In Australia and even in Canada teachers earn as much as IT professionals

That is not true in Australia, IT wages are higher.

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

#307

Post by sumedh » Sat, Jul 07, 2018, 3:14 AM UTC

Townley wrote: post #29

In your opinion, are there other countries that have a significantly better process for handling skilled immigration applications. And, if so, what lessons from them would you like to see brought over to the US?

Australia has points based immigration which looks at your age, education, work ex etc. If you have the points you get the resident visa even if you are outside Australia, you dont even need a job offer.

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

#308

Post by dariusm5 » Sat, Jul 07, 2018, 3:56 AM UTC

tempestn wrote: post #301

gsvclass wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved from SF to Toronto last year with a Canadian PR. Absolutely love Toronto and miss Cali. My motivation was to get out of a work visa and explore some startup ideas. I have a blog https://movnorth.com to help others who are considering Canada. From traffic to the site and the forums I can tell that a lots of people are going this route.

Unfortunately with the new provincial government (elected to a majority with a strong 37% of the vote...) Ontario is starting to look a lot more like the US in its attitude toward immigrants, among other things. I would suggest Vancouver instead, if not for the astronomical cost of living (although I guess not compared to San Francisco). Edit: Fortunately the provincial government doesn't really have any say over imm…

You're making a very broad assumption and making a very specific suggestion based on it. Even though you corrected yourself later saying that immigration is not controlled provincially, this type of thinking is pretty backwards.

I think it's caused by people reading too much into sensationalist news articles and headlines which exaggerate or hyper-focus on useless details to get attention and views. While in reality, nothing has really changed (or will likely change) that would cause someone to move to another city.

It reminds me of the people who talked about moving to Canada after the last American election. I'm curious to know if the people that moved were actually impacted directly by the election or whether they were just trying to make a political statement.

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

#309

Post by jexah » Sat, Jul 07, 2018, 4:31 AM UTC

fredophile wrote: post #302

jonhohle wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... especially considering the new administration? Not to be rude, but it sounds like you are a lawful permanent resident. Do you have any evidence that suggests that lawful permanent residents are being treated any differently by the government now or in the future by the government? There’s a lot of FUD trying to conflate what’s happening to people entering the country by bypassing official immigration processes…

There have been plenty of news articles in the last two days about the current administration forming a task force to remove citizenship from naturalized citizens that they believe lied on their applications. That's citizens, not just permanent residents. The immigration process is long and complicated. It would be easy to make small mistakes here and there. Technically, some of those mistakes could get you deported.

> remove citizenship from naturalized citizens that they believe lied on their applications

If the individual was given citizenship on the basis of those lies, then it makes total sense to revoke citizenship.

That would be like hiring a developer who says he is an amazing programmer who can solve any problem. Turns out after he got the job, not only is he terrible at programming, but he's also a liar. So you fire him.

If you lie on an application for something, and you are awarded, generally speaking it makes sense to revoke the award if it is discovered that you lied.

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

#310

Post by bmelton » Sat, Jul 07, 2018, 4:36 AM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #305

jonhohle wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... especially considering the new administration? Not to be rude, but it sounds like you are a lawful permanent resident. Do you have any evidence that suggests that lawful permanent residents are being treated any differently by the government now or in the future by the government? There’s a lot of FUD trying to conflate what’s happening to people entering the country by bypassing official immigration processes…

Both LPRs and even naturalized citizens are being targeted; notably, for the first time since this was done during the second Red Scare, the Administration is actively seeking out naturalized citizens to denaturalize. https://www.npr.org/2018/07/04/625980910/white-house-launche...

> for the first time since this was done during the second Red Scare

The Obama administration also sought out citizens for potential denaturalization when it was revealed that some of the fingerprint records they were naturalized under may have been faulty, or incorrectly held.

https://www.cnn.com/2016/09/19/politics/us-citizens-deported...