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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

#311

Post by djs55 »

cgh wrote: post #243
XCabbage wrote: post #138

Preamble: As I understand it, it is permissible for a European who works for a US company to visit the US as a "business visitor" on an ESTA in order to visit the company, as long as the visit is not for "work". Various sources list activities that are deemed to be "business" and not "work", such as attending business meetings or attending a trade show, and entering on an ESTA for these purposes is thus acceptable. Q…

I worked for a large Silicon Valley company as a foreign national (Canadian) and I flew down at least once a quarter. When I said I was going for “unpaid business”, I was questioned enough that it led me to ask my employer to get me the proper visa so I could legally work because it felt like I could get denied entry on the whim of the immigration agent. It felt uncertain and was kind of stressful. My advice is, don’…

I believe even with the visa it’s still up to the immigration agent. I came close to trouble once when asked for my H1B visa petition document (not the visa in the passport). I had a photocopy and was told that wasn’t enough and although they’d let me in this time they expected to see the original in future. I also travelled with a letter from my employer explaining where I worked, job title etc as extra documentation just in case to derisk further.

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

#314

Post by data_maan »

Late to the party, but - is there some visa scheme to enter the US without having to give them all 10 fingerprints?

I consider that to be too much of an invasion of privacy.

I know various kinds of diplomatic passports offer that, but I'm not sure if there are other types of routes for highly qualified and/or wealthy founders?

I know various types ofdiplomatic passports will allow fingerprint-less entry, but I'm not sure if there are other routes

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

#315

Post by data_maan »

throw123123123 wrote: post #310
proberts wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That still would cross the line even if that wasn't your plan when you entered.

Sorry, but this can't be right. Companies fly in people on B2 visas all the time to do onboarding, work on specific projects for a short period, and participate in offsites. I've done this 10+ times in my career, for big and small companies, and it was never an issue even when explicitly saying these things with border patrol/immigration. What gets you in trouble at the border is the risk of permanently staying, and…

Can someone confirm/deny this?

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

#316

Post by usr1106 »

YZF wrote: post #266
Thomashuet wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you expand on this? Where is the line? What's work and what's business?

It's literally anything that doesn't fit the narrow description in the business visa. A random example is if you own a house in the US, and you do any maintenance work on your own house, that is work. From the US web site participating in business activities of a commercial or professional nature in the United States, including, but not limited to: Consulting with business associates Traveling for a scientific, educa…

Interesting. I used to work for a big international corporation and visited the US twice for work. A six week customer support gig and a one week field testing trip. The first trip was still under older visa waiver rules for Europeans, the second one under ESTA.

In none of those cases there weren't any kind of tricky questions asked at the border, I am sure I would have given the wrong answer. But I have been to more aggressive inquiries on conference trips, when giving the right answers was easy.

I have always assumed working means having a contract with an US employer (or of course self-employed).

One would assume a large corporation had processes in place not to expose their employees to such personal risks.

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

#317

Post by usr1106 »

skybrian wrote: post #184
cynicalsecurity wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the most European question I would have ever imagined.

It's US law. Are there similar European laws?

As a European I expect at least some common sense behind a law.

Every time I visited the US I noted a complete absence of common sense.

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

#318

Post by theragra »

throw123123123 wrote: post #310
proberts wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That still would cross the line even if that wasn't your plan when you entered.

Sorry, but this can't be right. Companies fly in people on B2 visas all the time to do onboarding, work on specific projects for a short period, and participate in offsites. I've done this 10+ times in my career, for big and small companies, and it was never an issue even when explicitly saying these things with border patrol/immigration. What gets you in trouble at the border is the risk of permanently staying, and…

You were lucky. I was questioned about this, and officer was considering for whopping 10 minutes. I insisted I am coming only for "meetings", and even then it took a superior to greenlight me. I am pretty sure I would have been denied entry if I said the truth

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

#319

Post by usr1106 »

lokar wrote: post #238
cmpxchg8b wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is 100% not true. The Bill of Rights absolutely applies to non-citizens.

Correct. And it protects everyone from “unreasonable “ searches. The SCOTUS has determined that searching foreigners at airports is not unreasonable.

Which has told me as a European that the US is an unreasonable place I don't want to enter anymore, neither for business nor leisure.

But I have full understanding for people who are in a situation that the US is still the smaller evil.

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

#320

Post by data_maan »

People always talk about visa "in the US", but I'm always wondering, aren't there differences that depend on the state you want to go to?

Isn't it the case that if you go for a H1B visa then the location of the company you plan to work for in the US affects which part of the governmental agency processes your visa?

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