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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

#211

Post by qaq »

danielktdoranie wrote: post #204

Employers should have to prove they were not able to find a U.S. citizen who can do the job before they're allowed to hire someone that needs a work permit. Employers purposefully seek out non-U.S. citizens as they know they're happy to work for a lot less, especially if gets them into the U.S. This whole system encourages economic migrants, puts U.S. citizens out of work. As far as In am concerned you're actively wo…

Most major employers have offices in EU, US, India etc. so the can just allocate racks in those countries.

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

#212

Post by mikeweiss »

Abrecht wrote: post #187

I have a Greencard and would become eligible to apply for citizenship this month. I wonder what the opinions are here on the pros and cons of that. Generally, regarding most practical aspects of daily life, being permanent resident seems pretty much equivalent to that of an US citizen. Pros: - can vote - can get security clearance, potentially more income - even long periods abroad do not bear the risk of loosing pri…

I think your forgetting one of the most important pros: an inalienable right to re-enter the country after going abroad.

Also a pro is that while traveling you have the services of the U.S embassy to you, which could be a life saver depending on what other citizenship you hold and the circumstances.

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

#213

Post by casenmgreen »

junar wrote: post #154
ax0ar wrote: post #142

My U.S. citizen father applied for a green card for me as his over-18-year-old child, and the process was moving forward. However, during the sponsorship documents submission phase, I got married and updated the marital status question accordingly. After that, the process was stopped. What happens now, and what can be done?

While you were unmarried, you were either an immediate relative if under age 21, or family preference F1 if 21 or older. Because you married, you are now in the family preference F3 category, which has a much larger backlog and a much longer wait. You should have considered the immigration consequences before you got married. The only thing that can change your situation is if your marriage ends in death or divorce.…

> You should have considered the immigration consequences before you got married.

I may be wrong, but I think immigration consequences were not something any reasonable, normal person would have had any reason to think of. We are normal people, living normal lives. As I say, I may be wrong, but this feels like blaming the victim.

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

#214

Post by zahllos »

tehlike wrote: post #199
Abrecht wrote: post #187

I have a Greencard and would become eligible to apply for citizenship this month. I wonder what the opinions are here on the pros and cons of that. Generally, regarding most practical aspects of daily life, being permanent resident seems pretty much equivalent to that of an US citizen. Pros: - can vote - can get security clearance, potentially more income - even long periods abroad do not bear the risk of loosing pri…

As long as you keep your greencard, you still need to declare your income worldwide. Depending on your home country, having US passport opens up a lot of other possibilities for travel too.

Furthermore if you have held* a green card for the last 8 (of 15 years) i.e. you hold permanent resident status you also become in-scope for the tax expatriation law that apply to US Citizens, and possible ongoing declaration requirements: https://www.expatriationattorneys.com/green-card-u-s-exit-ta...

I've never been US-resident; the reason I know about this is talking to someone who relinquished theirs when I asked if they could keep it.

*from the U.S. Government's point of view.

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

#215

Post by pnw »

CactusBlue wrote: post #179
proberts wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Can I self-sponsor an E-3, if I'm the founder of the company, with no other shareholders?

There must be an employee-employee relationship. Difficult to pull off if you are completely solo but possible for most startups with more than one founder where you are not CEO.

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

#216

Post by agtech_andy »

danielktdoranie wrote: post #204

Employers should have to prove they were not able to find a U.S. citizen who can do the job before they're allowed to hire someone that needs a work permit. Employers purposefully seek out non-U.S. citizens as they know they're happy to work for a lot less, especially if gets them into the U.S. This whole system encourages economic migrants, puts U.S. citizens out of work. As far as In am concerned you're actively wo…

100% agree.

It is a race to the bottom that Americans will never win.

Americans who want a normal wage and life are never going to be able to compete on price with someone in South America or Eastern Europe.

This is the kind of things that should result in massive tariffs and extremely onerous tax and paperwork for the companies that do it.

Otherwise, all of our expertise will just move outside of the world and to the desperate abroad. And for what benefit?

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

#217

Post by toss1 »

danielktdoranie wrote: post #204

Employers should have to prove they were not able to find a U.S. citizen who can do the job before they're allowed to hire someone that needs a work permit. Employers purposefully seek out non-U.S. citizens as they know they're happy to work for a lot less, especially if gets them into the U.S. This whole system encourages economic migrants, puts U.S. citizens out of work. As far as In am concerned you're actively wo…

There actually IS exactly such a requirement to advertise positions in the US and accept applicants. The issue is that it is gamed or done only perfunctorily. What you are looking for is enforcement, which costs money, and goes against the desires of the companies lobbying for such legislation.

It would also help enormously if the immigration was not tied to a specific company, i.e., the worker could jump to a new company at will without having to convince Company-B to do the whole sponsorship process. As it is, (iirc) if they lose their job, they have only 90?180 days to find a new sponsor or go home. This would make it much less exploitative, and also lower incentives for companies to sponsor H1Bs instead of seeking US workers. Write your congress-reps & Senators.

(Source: tech co founder in some companies that did H1Bs, so not sponsoring but managing the workers brought under the process; also competed under a coach that my school took exceptional efforts to get here from Austria because of his world-class qualifications, they still had to really fine-tune the requirements)

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

#218

Post by Ylpertnodi »

danielktdoranie wrote: post #204

Employers should have to prove they were not able to find a U.S. citizen who can do the job before they're allowed to hire someone that needs a work permit. Employers purposefully seek out non-U.S. citizens as they know they're happy to work for a lot less, especially if gets them into the U.S. This whole system encourages economic migrants, puts U.S. citizens out of work. As far as In am concerned you're actively wo…

>As far as In am concerned you're actively working against your fellow Americans helping foreigners abuse and exploit our immigration laws.

Isnt it the employers exploiting the system?

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

#219

Post by casenmgreen »

proberts wrote: post #54
gangstead wrote: post #49

One 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?

I just don't see how the value - from a benefit to the U.S. economy perspective - is tied to salary so that doesn't make sense to me as a line to draw. If the H-1B program were to be limited in any way (which is not something I necessarily agree with), one option is to list occupations that are in short supply each year and to prioritize those. Many countries do this.

I had two H1-Bs.

The process is completely divorced from reality.

The questions and requirements are meaningless.

To my eye, there is zero rationality in the process.

As far as I can see, the and the only effect of the visa programme is that there is a limited number of visas, and so this acts to prevent businesses from hiring the people they want to hire, and that's not freedom; and in the process of doing so, causing untold disruption to lives and businesses and direct and indirect costs to businesses, individuals and economy as a whole.

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

#220

Post by proberts »

philip1209 wrote: post #149

It's AMA, so here's something under the category of "anything" . . . How has AI affected your work as a lawyer, if at all? Do you expect it to change your work or how you bill?

Although we have a lot of AI clients, I've been slow to take advantage of AI but it's starting to transform our practice, helping with the drafting of letters of recommendation and our overall argument. So we're able to prepare applications much faster.
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