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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

#271

Post by throwaway1840 »

proberts wrote: post #258
throwaway1840 wrote: post #220

Hi Peter, I am starting a company as the CTO, and my likely co-founder is on H-1B visa. I have 2 questions regarding this scenario: 1. What is the current prevailing wage for a SaaS CEO? 2. Will it be a problem if we want to be fully remote, given that USCIS might visit our office for auditing purposes?

1. This will depend on where he will be living/working since the PW is location-specific. 2. He can work remote but the company still needs to have physical commercially zoned office space even if it rarely used.

Thanks! What is the prevailing wage for a SaaS CEO in Bay Area? Is there a website I can check for prevailing wages in general?

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

#272

Post by oceliker »

proberts wrote: post #245
oceliker wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, my petition was approved starting October. But I'm finishing up my F-1 this semester, and will be starting the job in Jan.

It depends on how the H-1B petition was filed. I suspect that it was filed not with a request for change of status but with a request for consular notification which means that after you get the waiver you will need to leave the US and apply for an H-1B visa at a US Consulate abroad.

Thank you so much! Yes, it is consular notification. Will try to get an appointment asap then.

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

#273

Post by ashconnor »

proberts wrote: post #241
ashconnor wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in Canada and will be relocating to the United States on an L1 visa next year. I was worried that PERM cannot be filed for remote employees but that doesn't appear to be an issue. https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=5bddb770-63de...

When you say remote, you mean remote in the US, right, such as working from home? You definitely can be PERM sponsored as a remote employee under these circumstances.

Correct. That's what I meant.

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

#274

Post by umbcorp »

OJFord wrote: post #268
proberts wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really the latter because what's out there is just too general to be really helpful.

IANAL but could you not just base the business and get paid in the home country? Surely even if US taxes on worldwide income it's just that, tax, not any sort of 'unauthorised US work violation'?

No. They check your tax returns every year with some automated process. If you document any income that is not approved youll be in trouble. My college rounded up all the international kids doing business in their own countries and told them to stop immediately.

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

#275

Post by JumpCrisscross »

jefftk wrote: post #252
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What would you do? [EDIT: Ignore old answer!] Long-term visas with work authorisation for college graduates and a tinkerer exemption of some sort for all work visas.

Sounds like you answered "what do you do" and not "what would you do"?

:P. Thanks!

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

#277

Post by wing-_-nuts »

Hi Peter. I believe the regs around the H1B require workers to be paid close to their US counterparts. Based on what you've seen and heard, to what extent does this actually hold true in the real world?

The general consensus in tech is that H1Bs are underpaid vs their US coworkers, but that many companies in the bay area (FAANG, etc) do pay fairly.

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

#278

Post by botverse »

Hi Peter! I work for an American company and we have a distributed team of developers around the world (India, UK, US) and we don’t know if it’s legal for us to come together for a week or two in the states, to plan, bond but also work?

Thank you so much for your contributions.

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

#279

Post by OJFord »

umbcorp wrote: post #274
OJFord wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IANAL but could you not just base the business and get paid in the home country? Surely even if US taxes on worldwide income it's just that, tax, not any sort of 'unauthorised US work violation'?

No. They check your tax returns every year with some automated process. If you document any income that is not approved youll be in trouble. My college rounded up all the international kids doing business in their own countries and told them to stop immediately.

Weird, I just don't see why business-related (or even employment) income in other country X should be any different to investment income, rental income, etc. in other country X.

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

#280

Post by barbazoo »

markdown wrote: post #256
barbazoo wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity, how do you end up with a 53% income tax rate? Federal: 33% of taxable income over $216,511 Provincial: 20.5% on the amount over $222,420 (max, BC) Obviously the average rate will be far less than the marginal rate. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individ...

They don't end up with a 53% rate. Just a tax dodger who's trying to avoid giving back after they've benefited from a system.

That's what I was thinking too.
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