Hi Peter, I finished my masters degree and I'm from Germany and might like to work in the US. Which Visa would be beat in thia case and any tips to work with US companies to make it happen? Much appreciated
I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
161–170 of 406 posts
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#162One idea to replace the H1-B lottery that I've seen on HN is to sort the applications by salary and let in the top XX highest paid. Do you have any thoughts on that? Is this one of those "why don't they just..." type of ideas that people with first hand knowledge know is majorly flawed?
US residency and citizenship is in extremely high demand, so whatever immigration system is put in place will ultimately be gamed. Creating a visa category that is solely based on salary would be attractive to some cohort of people who want to live in the US regardless of the costs.
We saw similar things with previous "investor visas" where there was no intention to start a business and the USCIS had to stop issuing them for many years because of the pervasive fraud on both sides of the equation. I can guarantee that some creative lawyer out there was already thinking about how to game the US "startup visa" when that was proposed a few years back.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#163Hi I wonder how valuable patents are for EB/O visas? I have worked 10+ in a global tech company, through which I am named on about 20 US patents. I don't have external visibility except for through those patents. How are patents judged when it comes to these visas? Are they enough to prove what needs to be proven?
Patents are just the starting point of the analysis because patents in and of themselves don't say anything about impact or significance so the next step is to try to understand the impact/significance of the patents through usage and citations, for example.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#164I'm an Australian citizen running a bootstrapped startup (and would prefer to stay bootstrapped, but would raise if there was no other way of immigrating). What is the best way to immigrate to the US? I have a computer science degree from an Australian university.
E3 is absolutely the best way for Australians in my experience. It's more flexible than a H1B and the process is much simpler. The only downside is there is no simple path to a green card like H1B, but I managed to get one anyway. You'd need a US entity to apply on your behalf. In my case they never asked about assets to pay the salary but that may be an issue. https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/tempo…
All correct. The E-3 visa is the easiest, fastest, and cheapest U.S. visa. But it does require a sponsoring employer. The only downside relative to the H-1B is that an E-3 visa is not a dual intent visa like the H-1B so this needs to be managed if and when the E-3 visa holder is in the green card process.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are multiple options to working for your own company in the U.S. The most common paths are the O-1, the L-1, and the E-2 and E-1 visa. Creating a company in Germany first might open up a path to an L-1 visa but that's the only relative advantage to opening a company in Germany first. The E-1 and the E-2 require that the U.S. company be at last 50% German owned and that there be a substantial investment of Germa…
Does this mean that if a German citizen registers a company in US and owns 100% of it and also invests $100k into it, he can get an E-2?
There are other requirements, such as evidence of not only the investment but the expenditure of the funds by the U.S. company on business expenses and a good business plan, but these are not onerous requirements. The challenge sometimes is the expenditure of the funds because a substantial amount needs to have been spent before applying for the E-2 visa and sometimes it can be hard to spend that money.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#166Is it possible, as a Canadian with an engineering degree, to work 3 days in-office from the USA and 2 days remotely from Canada? Ideally, it'd be nice to have a US salary and live mostly in Canada.
The other concern would be tax wise, how do you deal with the CRA regarding the US salary and what not.
Even if it's double taxed, the salary differential would make it worth it.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#167[flagged]
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#168If I fill out a W-7 as a non-American to get an ITIN - Is that then enough to open a credit card with say Navy Federal prior to even getting an address in the USA?
I'd like to have all my ducks in a row prior to even arriving if possible.
Grandfather fought in Vietnam.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#169Hi Peter, Few months ago I've applied for F2A visa for my spouse from Russia. Official sources state processing times in California at 4 years plus. I am 2 years away from obtaining a citizenship in US by which I then can do K1. Would you advice to convert F2A to K1 visa in the future? How do I do that? Is there a way to speed up the process at all?
As Peter says, K1 is not a option for you because you're married. F2A will convert to immediate relative (either CR1 or IR1) once you become a US citizen.
CR1/IR1 is generally superior from the perspective of the immigrant spouse. However, CR1/IR1 does not allow derivatives, unlike F2A. If you have any children or stepchildren that don't have US citizenship or a green card, you will need to file a separate I-130 for them if you become a US citizen.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#170[flagged]
wow, who hurt you ?