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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

#331

Post by infinite8s »

proberts wrote: post #40
kimjune01 wrote: post #30

I'm a Canadian looking for remote work in America. Is there any downside risk to the employer if I work a W2 remote job from Canada? As long as I pay taxes, is there any risk to the employee?

From an immigration standpoint, no downside and no risk. We have a lot of companies that do this: employ people abroad as W-2 employees without any U.S. work authorization (which isn't required if the employee is working remotely outside the U.S.).

How are these companies able to employ remote people as W2 employees? Aren't the remote employees subject to their local employment law? For example, in Canada the GP would need to be employed as a T4 which requires the company to maintain a Canadian presence (and pay corresponding taxes in Canada).

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

#332

Post by cscurmudgeon »

tubalcain wrote: post #326
lorandia wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder why they don't have h1b's for sports teams? Those players get paid an awful lot. Could easily outsource it to someone passing a certification exam and having a fake degree.

[flagged]

[flagged]

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

#333

Post by Eumenes »

tinco wrote: post #276
Eumenes wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For example, without undocumented immigrants, milk would be a lot more expensive ( https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/15/magazine/milk-industry-un ...). The current election is showing us quite starkly how significant grocery staple prices are in shaping public perception of a nation's economic health. This strikes me as a bit tone deaf. These people are paid slave wages to do this work. They have unsafe housing condi…

Are you saying American voters are tone deaf for prioritizing food availability over ethical sourcing of food? I mean sure, but I don't think that judgement has any consequence unless anyone grabs a soapbox and starts chastising people for wanting cheaper food. I haven't seen any of the candidates do that yet.

This isn't about food availability or ethnical sourcing of food. Apparently the business model of the dairy industry has illegal labor baked into how they do things. They have the gall to threaten Americans with higher prices if their workforce is eliminated. Sounds like extortion to me. This is a problem of crony capitalism.

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

#334

Post by infinite8s »

kimjune01 wrote: post #30

I'm a Canadian looking for remote work in America. Is there any downside risk to the employer if I work a W2 remote job from Canada? As long as I pay taxes, is there any risk to the employee?

Any potential employer would need to have a Canadian presence (usually a ULC, which is a Canadian subsidiary of an American corp) or go through an EOR (Employer of Record), which would handle taxes, insurance, benefits, etc. "Quietly" working remotely from Canada isn’t a good idea as you'll likely fall foul of Canadian tax law (amongst other things) and immigration law (if you aren't a Canadian citizen), and your employer would likely have issues as well. This is a good summary of the issues:

https://www.swanwealthcoaching.com/blog/2024/05/07/working-u...

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

#335

Post by Eumenes »

tombert wrote: post #323
tinco wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying American voters are tone deaf for prioritizing food availability over ethical sourcing of food? I mean sure, but I don't think that judgement has any consequence unless anyone grabs a soapbox and starts chastising people for wanting cheaper food. I haven't seen any of the candidates do that yet.

I think even with a soapbox it wouldn’t be terribly effective. We all know where our laptops and smartphones come from and the questionable-at-best labor practices associated with them, and nearly all of us continue to use them. (To be clear, I’m no better. If a smartphone was released that was controversy-free but cost twice as much, I doubt I would buy it.) I think food prices would be the same. People would compla…

Smartphones/laptops/hardware is slightly different because its manufactured/assembled overseas. The dairy industry is domestically based and acting like its workers are based in the 3rd world. Threatening the population with higher prices if they can't continue to break the law is extortion and it needs to be treated as such. If you can't run a legit business with legal labor, you need to be shut down. Someone else will find a way to do it.

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

#336

Post by preflight »

ondrsh wrote: post #329

Hello, What options are available for an EU national who wants to start a U.S.-based company and relocate there but doesn’t have the capital required for an E-2 visa? Let’s assume they start a U.S. company while staying in the EU, and the company is generating significant revenue. From what I understand, the E-2 visa requires the investment to come from the entrepreneur’s personal funds. While they could pay out divi…

IANAL: The correct approach here would be an O-1 Visa. Assuming your 'significant revenue' has also garnered you some level of public attention.

You also likely need some form of public recognition (awards, press etc).

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

#337

Post by tombert »

Eumenes wrote: post #335
tombert wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think even with a soapbox it wouldn’t be terribly effective. We all know where our laptops and smartphones come from and the questionable-at-best labor practices associated with them, and nearly all of us continue to use them. (To be clear, I’m no better. If a smartphone was released that was controversy-free but cost twice as much, I doubt I would buy it.) I think food prices would be the same. People would compla…

Smartphones/laptops/hardware is slightly different because its manufactured/assembled overseas. The dairy industry is domestically based and acting like its workers are based in the 3rd world. Threatening the population with higher prices if they can't continue to break the law is extortion and it needs to be treated as such. If you can't run a legit business with legal labor, you need to be shut down. Someone else w…

I don't really disagree, I'm against exploitative labor, and I agree that if you can't do things legally you probably shouldn't be in business, especially in an extremely rich country like the US. [1]

I'm arguing that most people are hypocrites on this, and the last two years have proven that they'll blame the current president if their food prices go up. I'm not claiming that this is accurate, I'm claiming that that's what people seem to think.

[1] Exploitive labor is wrong everywhere obviously, but it's much easier to justify a more "relative morality" in a place with much more limited resources.

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

#338

Post by mettamage »

douglee650 wrote: post #205
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…

Major con: infinitely easier to deport

Why is that, could you elaborate?

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

#339

Post by infinite8s »

proberts wrote: post #92
mdawwg wrote: post #70

Good morning, I am a dual US / Canada citizen and currently living & working in the US. I am looking into moving to Canada, and was wondering what kind of issues I could run into if I wanted to continue working for the US company while living in Canada. I am working for a small sized start-up, and I am pretty certain they have no experience in this kind of thing, so I wanted some more info before breaking the ice. Th…

This is a payroll/tax issue. Many employers in these situations use an Employer of Record, such as Deel, to employ U.S. citizens living and working abroad but you also could be employed directly as a W-2 employee.

Working as a W2 employee from Canada would likely cause tax and filing headaches with the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA), although the salary differential between US/Canada might make this worth it (you just have to be careful). You may also have cashflow issues come tax-time as you will have a large tax Canadian tax burden at the end of the year since your employer would have only withheld/remitted to the IRS, so you would need to file a US return to get back all the income tax that was withheld by your employer.

Disclaimer - not a lawyer but also went through this process, in the end my employer decided to switch me to a contractor.

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

#340

Post by dmmartins »

Hello, I'm currently in the US with an H-1B and the company is sponsoring my greencard (the PERM application was recently filed). If I need to leave the US for one year, do I need to do anything? The PERM process should be done by then. One option would be terminate my employment and continue as a contractor. Can/should I do that? Thank you!
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