Are Greencard applications with submitted I-485 prior to COVID being processed right now? Any idea of what the throughput looks like?
I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
131–140 of 273 posts
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#132I am a regular Software Engineer at a FAANG company. I have a Bachelor's degree in CS and no papers or patents. What's a reliable route for me to file a successful EB-1 application? What kind of hackathons I can judge/other industry events can I speak at/be in the press to satisfy the requirements of EB-1? How can I get those opportunities?
On an EB2 people like me have decades of wait time to get my GC.
I think a sustainable way is to have professors and universities collaborate with H1B employees directly, to allow for them to publish papers and get in via the EB1 route. It won't work for every one, but could work for some and improve their situation and free up the Eb2/3 queues.
We already have grants from the industry to universities to do research. Is there something like this out there for immigrants like us?
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#133I am a software engineer at a large American software company on TN status. Previous to the pandemic, I was living and working in the Seattle area, but since March I have been working from Canada. Due to various ties I have been maintaining (even before the pandemic) tax residency in Canada. Are there any issues with my setup that I need to dig deeper about with a tax professional?
IANAL, but I recommend that you keep track of how many days you were in the US each month, and how many of those days were for work. It's likely that an accountant or tax professional will ask you for that information to support your claim of tax residency in Canada.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#134Have you seen any issues lately with H1-B/TN visas being granted to technical employees who don't have a degree in CS or software engineering? Additionally, what questions/documents would you recommend people prepare in advance to make their immigration lawyers' lives easier? (I sent over a lot of documents to the lawyers preparing my application, but they took only a few in my initial TN visa application, and I ende…
Previous work experience also counts towards H1-B education requirements under the degree equivalence provision. The catch is the three-for-one rule, i.e. you need 6 years of relevant work experience to match a 2 year diploma, 12 years of relevant
work experience to match a 4 year degree, and so on.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#135Hi Peter, I'm sponsoring my wife's green card and we're pretty type A and have filled out all the forms and gathered copious evidence of relationship, evidence of financial sufficiency, etc. But we're worried about the current political climate and are considering working with Fragomen just to de-risk. We've heard the current administration is rejecting applications for every little reason (e.g. field that should be…
Greencard for a wife should not be an issue. Tip for the pro: if you don't have a middle name, write N/A and not "none". Source: me. I became Michael N. Familyname
I can do one better. I misspelled my own middle name - Donovan instead of Donavan as it appears on my birth certificate. Delayed my application by a month or two. Could have been way worse if the process wasn’t fairly quick back in 2004. (My wife was born here and I’m from South Africa)
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#136Hey Peter, thanks for doing the AMA.
I have an I-485 portability rule question. I know the official minimum for an I-485 pending application to be portable is 180 days, but I was wondering, if there is a way for people losing their jobs before the 180 days are up, to keep the application, employment authorization (EAD), and Advance Parole pending and and port over to the next employer past the 180 days (not all of them spent with the petitioning employer)?
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#137I am a regular Software Engineer at a FAANG company. I have a Bachelor's degree in CS and no papers or patents. What's a reliable route for me to file a successful EB-1 application? What kind of hackathons I can judge/other industry events can I speak at/be in the press to satisfy the requirements of EB-1? How can I get those opportunities?
The EB1A (extraordinary ability) category has become incredibly tough (and much tougher than the O-1). Before doing anything, I would recommend that the individual get his or her background evaluated because it's a lot more and lot more nuanced than having patents or published papers or judging events. Just to avoid spending time on things that won't really lead to an approval.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#138Are Greencard applications with submitted I-485 prior to COVID being processed right now? Any idea of what the throughput looks like?
We just had an I-485 interview recently for a pre-COVID application. Our first interview was cancelled after they scheduled it as COVID started.
I believe throughput depends on location.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#139I am a software engineer at a large American software company on TN status. Previous to the pandemic, I was living and working in the Seattle area, but since March I have been working from Canada. Due to various ties I have been maintaining (even before the pandemic) tax residency in Canada. Are there any issues with my setup that I need to dig deeper about with a tax professional?
According to my company, this arrangement has - quote - "severe tax implications" not just for you, but also your company, so make sure they are onboard with the arrangement.
In the most basic terms, the problem is that some tax is withheld (i.e. paid to the tax agency by your employer in advance on your behalf), and that must be done in the appropriate country.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#140I have a question about EB-2 NIW. I have a Ph.D. (Elec. Eng.) from a non-U.S. university and have lived in the U.S. on a J-2 (dependent) visa; my spouse was working as a researcher at a U.S. university. During that time, I worked (on an EAD) for a U.S.-based R&D company, serving as a principal investigator on Govt. (DoD) funded research projects. I have publications, have served as reviewer for intl. academic journal…
My friend who was on J2 had to leave the US for two years despite having his EB2-NIW i140 approved. You cannot escape the 2 year home country requirement. You can apply for i140 but you can't get the green card/immigrant visa until you satisfy it.
I was able to get a waiver to the 2 years home residency requirement. Since my position wasn't sponsored by my home country I went with the "NO OBJECTION" route. The US part of it went very smooth, it was my home country part that required to demonstrate, to my home country government, that they hadn't payed me to come to the US (lol). But other than that the process was easy and worked fine.