Do you recommend saas companies founded by non-us citizens to form llc and bank accounts in the us, or outside?
For the rest of the readers- what online service would you recommend for that as agent llc + accounting?
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
#12can a US based company sponsor green card for an international manager has not taken the job yet ?
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#13Hey Peter!
How can a YC startup be founded in the US if none of the co-founders are US citizens? Does it mean after their batch they need to leave the country? Or are they allowed to stay in the US by the "$100k investment rule"?
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#14Can a F1 student start their own company and sponsoring themselves?
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#15Do you have any suggestions for finding firm or attorney that can help with immigration of health care workers, specifically nurses? I have a friend searching for such a firm now and of the ~15 firms contacted none had any experience with health care immigration. They have decades of experience with IT services and the path to H1-B for IT. If no suggestions, can you share thoughts on why healthcare immigration attorn…
My company (healthcare non-profit) filed my H1B on my behalf through Kramer Levin. Had to fill out a questionnaire, a little bit of back and forth, and they handled the rest.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#16What's the easiest way for an H1b holder to work on their own startup and control their company? I've heard of VC like Unshackled, but taking VC seed is already shackling myself. I'm looking more for a solution where I'd pay some fee to a lawyer and turnkey solution for a company structure setup.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#17My impression is that over the past 20 years or so, the visa process has become a lot more bureaucratic, involved, and time consuming.
Is that your impression as well? What has changed, and why? Are any of the changes for the better?
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#18At what point should I make a legal entity for my business? I’m working on a niche tool and have some interesting and I’m just starting to bring on the first users. At what point should I incorporate?
That's not so much an immigration question but be careful about incorporating and creating products while currently employed because your current employer might have a claim over your IP. If the question is when can I/should I incorporate without crossing any immigration line and when should I get a work authorization through this company, then the act of incorporating isn't the issue, the question is whether your activities and the business's activities require work authorization and there are both legal and non-legal lines that shouldn't be crossed. The primary non-legal guideline is when a a gut level, the activities are no longer a sideline but a business, a focus of what you do. The primary legal guideline is when the company is starting to generate revenue. In both instances, you should look to move to a work authorization status.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#19Hi Peter, I've been curious regarding what sort of legal arrangements a certain family of content providers setup in order to display large sections of third party published materials.
Some examples
* Lexis Nexis news archives https://www.lexisnexis.com/en-gb/products/research-insights/...
Google books has restrictions to display a fraction of many texts but they obviously reproduced entire texts to filter upon. I'm curious if there are commentary apps out there that take whole literature and overlay new layers atop it and have published reproductions of their own somewhere in their infrastructure.
I'd like to know how websites like the above are made possible with most published stuff gated with permissions going like """All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher""".
Thank you.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#20My impression is that over the past 20 years or so, the visa process has become a lot more bureaucratic, involved, and time consuming. Is that your impression as well? What has changed, and why? Are any of the changes for the better?
I agree. From an outcome standpoint, the changes are for the worse. But some of them are understandable to the extent that in certain contexts USCIS is paying more attention to the letter of the law and not just accepting representations on face value but requiring evidence. From my standpoint, the biggest negative changes are the delays in the processing of green card applications (partly statutory and partly administrative) and the lack of access to USCIS officers.