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

news.ycombinator.com

101–110 of 253 posts

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

#101
post #13

Do you see a lot of companies starting up operations in other countries to house their international employees, given the uncertainty in US? Would you recommend funded startups to have such backup offsite locations?

Yes, I see some of that but surprisingly I really haven't seen any let up in our practice with companies seeking to establish operations in the U.S. Some companies bifurcate their operations, with development work being done in their home country and marketing and sales and client support work being done in the U.S.

Thank you!

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

#102
post #96

Can you comment on this question - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17175857 ? Basically, how to immigrate to USA being aerospace entrepreneur?

That's tough because of ITAR. Essentially, the company/investors would need to be okay with limiting his access while he applies for a green card but the green card process is very slow now even for EB1s so it could be a couple of years before he has a green card.

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

#103
post #100

Do I need to visit the US border day-of to get a TN-1 visa as a Canadian citizen? My immigration attorney in SF said I did but I've had other people tell me they got it ahead of time. This sounded a bit crazy to me, I'd have to pack all of my stuff in my apartment and hope I get a T1 when I arrive at Pearson airport in Toronto? And if not I'll have to find some place to stay.

Your attorney is mostly right. But we've had a number of clients apply at land-crossings, such as Peace Bridge, and explain that they're just applying now to make sure that they can get a TN before actually moving to the U.S. and the CBP officers consistently have been fine with this. You still would need to enter the U.S., however. I would recommend calling Peace Bridge and asking. You should be able to get an answer.

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

#104
Hi Peter, thank you for doing this.

Have you read about the recent pushback to the reduction from 5 years to 15 months for the duration of E-2 visas delivered to French citizens? (revision of reciprocity schedule: https://fr.usembassy.gov/visas/nonimmigrant-visas/treaty-tra...)

In your opinion, is this reduction going to be confirmed ? If so, will it also impact the duration of E-2 renewals ?

Thank you

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

#105
Hi Peter, thanks for doing this!

Using a throwaway here. I am an Indian citizen about to file for a marriage-based green card with my US citizen wife. I currently live in the US and we are a very vanilla case, in my opinion.

Have you encountered any new challenges over the past two years, owing to the current immigration climate? I see that the overall process is significantly longer than even just a couple of years ago.

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

#106
post #93

Mr. Roberts, I appreciate your time. My wife is a US citizen and I only have a US tourist visa. We want to move stateside. As her earnings for the last 3 years do not qualify her as a single sponsor, we wanted to use cash assets. How do we show proof of cash, and what are the stipulations? Is it a bank statement from my bank in my home country, do we have to deposit it in a bank in the US? Is there a time stipulation…

Your salary can be used to meet the financial support requirement (but definitely consult with an attorney before applying because there are other issues that you need to be aware of as well since you are here in visitor status).

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

#107

Hi Peter, thank you for doing this. Have you read about the recent pushback to the reduction from 5 years to 15 months for the duration of E-2 visas delivered to French citizens? (revision of reciprocity schedule: https://fr.usembassy.gov/visas/nonimmigrant-visas/treaty-tra... ) In your opinion, is this reduction going to be confirmed ? If so, will it also impact the duration of E-2 renewals ? Thank you

It's already done and will impact E-2 renewals as well.

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

#108
post #96

Can you comment on this question - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17175857 ? Basically, how to immigrate to USA being aerospace entrepreneur?

That's tough because of ITAR. Essentially, the company/investors would need to be okay with limiting his access while he applies for a green card but the green card process is very slow now even for EB1s so it could be a couple of years before he has a green card.

Thank you. Now where to find such investors is another story...

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

#109

Hi Peter, thanks for doing this! Using a throwaway here. I am an Indian citizen about to file for a marriage-based green card with my US citizen wife. I currently live in the US and we are a very vanilla case, in my opinion. Have you encountered any new challenges over the past two years, owing to the current immigration climate? I see that the overall process is significantly longer than even just a couple of years…

No. The process is really the same and still pretty easy (when there are no issues like in your case), just slow.
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