Hi! Thanks for doing this. How long do you think I should keep my visa-related documents? I used to have an L-1 visa with a bunch of lengthy petitions, but now I have a green card and the visa has expired.
I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
251–260 of 406 posts
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#252I 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…
What is your timeline to stay in the US? If 5 years or less, I would say avoid it, unless have a specific "pro" that you want. Also, if you have a spouse and children, they might be important factors in your decision.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#253One 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…
A salary-based requirement is a lot less easy to game. After all salaries are reported to the IRS on W-2s. Any fraud in the amount of salary can be easily detected without sophisticated investigation.
The only difficulty I see is that salary isn't necessarily proportional to a person's usefulness to the economy or the country. A person can start a company and pay himself a million dollars a year while the person and the company does nothing at all. Sure the IRS gets to collect a bunch, but at that point we might as well create a class of visas that are sold in an auction.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#254Me and my cofounder are non-US residents and live in Germany. If we get into YC, what would a typical / recommended way to proceed be? We haven’t established a company in Germany yet, we want to be strategic and make what’s best to succeed. From what I know we can do the batch with our current tourist visa, so I’d like to know more about the post batch options. Being US based or Germany based is an option for us. Tha…
Are you aware of the US Green Card lottery? There are very few people who apply from Germany, so you can also try that route. You have a surprisingly good chance to win it. Also, you are not forced to accept it if you win the lottery -- you can decide.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#255Employers 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…
> 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 is commonly stated but is not true. US companies are required to pay the "Prevailing Wage" [0] to H-1Bs, so they cannot use foreigners to undercut US citizens. However, foreigners whose presence in the US is dependent on their employment are certainly more likely to be abus…
> US companies are required to pay the "Prevailing Wage" [0] to H-1Bs, so they cannot use foreigners to undercut US citizens.
This is laughable. I do not know how the government calculates those wages, but as someone who got to US on H-1B visa this year I'm making more than 2x the "prevailing wage" listed on my LCA application.
Just to clarify: my job is a Software Architect, in one of East Coast states, and the prevailing wage listed in my application was $84k. So it is not that my salary is especially good, it's this government-mandated one that is a joke.
I'm lucky, because I came here to work for the same company I used to work in my home country so I got offered good terms (somehow H-1B was easier to get than L-1). If some company offered me a job for the "prevailing wage" I would laugh in their face, but I'm sure for some people that would seem like a lucrative offer.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#256Employers 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…
> 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. Why? It's their money and their business. What business do you or I have in forcing upon them what they can do? any more than they would have any business forcing themselves upon us?
> What business do you or I have in forcing upon them what they can do?
It's called regulation and we do it all the time.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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 is commonly stated but is not true. US companies are required to pay the "Prevailing Wage" [0] to H-1Bs, so they cannot use foreigners to undercut US citizens. However, foreigners whose presence in the US is dependent on their employment are certainly more likely to be abus…
> US companies are required to pay the "Prevailing Wage" [0] to H-1Bs, so they cannot use foreigners to undercut US citizens. This is laughable. I do not know how the government calculates those wages, but as someone who got to US on H-1B visa this year I'm making more than 2x the "prevailing wage" listed on my LCA application. Just to clarify: my job is a Software Architect, in one of East Coast states, and the prev…
Could it be that the prevailing wage is a national average, ie not adjusted for a high col city? I feel like tech salaries especially must swing a lot between flyover states and big coastal cities.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#258I 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…
pros: if you leave the US you can still claim your SS on retirement (some countries have a reciprocal agreement, most dont)
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#259Me and my cofounder are non-US residents and live in Germany. If we get into YC, what would a typical / recommended way to proceed be? We haven’t established a company in Germany yet, we want to be strategic and make what’s best to succeed. From what I know we can do the batch with our current tourist visa, so I’d like to know more about the post batch options. Being US based or Germany based is an option for us. Tha…
Are you aware of the US Green Card lottery? There are very few people who apply from Germany, so you can also try that route. You have a surprisingly good chance to win it. Also, you are not forced to accept it if you win the lottery -- you can decide.
I think "surprisingly good chance" is overselling it. The reported odds for Germany are about 1%.
Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
#260Employers 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…
> 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 is commonly stated but is not true. US companies are required to pay the "Prevailing Wage" [0] to H-1Bs, so they cannot use foreigners to undercut US citizens. However, foreigners whose presence in the US is dependent on their employment are certainly more likely to be abus…
The prevailing wages are comically low though for most jobs that I've seen (like half of the real reasonable salary for the job we're offering). And employers have the option of 2 data sources so that they can selectively pick the lower of the 2 depending on the jobs they typically apply for.