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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

#291

Post by cyberax »

nothrowaways wrote: post #194
cyberax wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any other remaining citizenship. If they had to renounce it as a part of becoming a US citizen (e.g. India requires it), they become a stateless person.

Stateless? Sounds new information

Yep. The US is not a signatory to the UN Conventions on Statelessness: the https://www.unhcr.org/us/what-we-do/protect-human-rights/end...

A US citizen can also just renounce their citizenship, and the US won't care if they have another citizenship.

Other countries are more restrictive. For example, Russia (a signatory of that convention) requires people to prove that they have another citizenship ready before they allow the renunciation to proceed.

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

#292

Post by dharmab »

walrus01 wrote: post #179
ggernov wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

You are absolutely incorrect. Show me the law that says only citizens can own NFA items - there is no special regulation in the gun control act of 1934 which specifies permanent residents or citizens. If you can buy a regular 4473 FFL item (any serialized firearm post-1968) and silencers are legal in your state, a permanent resident can buy a silencer, most typically on an eForm4 from a local dealer. Similarly, a per…

I have seen this misconception quite widely, even from gun store employees. Many FFLs are not familiar with transfers to non-citizens.

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

#293

Post by ixtli »

yes_really wrote: post #288
fuzztail wrote: post #3

I've seen recent examples of the government targeting green card holders for their speech. As a naturalized citizen who wants to exercise my free speech rights, how concerned should I be about potentially having my citizenship challenged on technical grounds? Are there realistic scenarios where this could happen despite First Amendment protections?

[flagged]

Zionist and other far right twitter accounts being bandied about as an argument for the detention of someone exercising free speech rights.

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

#294

Post by yes_really »

ixtli wrote: post #293
yes_really wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Zionist and other far right twitter accounts being bandied about as an argument for the detention of someone exercising free speech rights.

LOL, how the hell are these accounts "far right"? And how do the accounts invalidate the video evidence and screenshots published on the posts?

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

#295

Post by ahussain »

redelvis wrote: post #63

Hey Peter, thank you for doing this! Is it possible to build a successful o1 case for a founder, who's been digital nomading for years and can't build his case based on achievements from one specific country? Any tips?

IANAL but I don't think there's a need for O-1 evidence to be from a specific country. The evidence just needs to credibly show that you're extraordinary.

You can try https://o1pathways.com/ to evaluate your profile.

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

#296

Post by jml78 »

walrus01 wrote: post #41
canucktrash669 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She crossed overland. Imagine you do pre-clearance out of a Canadian airport. Can they kidnap you out of country and ship you to a US detention center?

Canadians may be often unprepared and shocked how aggressive and militarized the southern border is, compared to crossing at northern border land entry points.

It is as bad as it has ever been………

But border patrol has always been a bunch of small dick assholes, all the way back to Obama.

My wife and I adopted a child from another country. He was 18 months of age at the time.

We flew into LAX. We were exhausted from a long flight. We got to customs. Agents approached us and said that they had a few questions and said that I (the father) needed to collect our bags and they would escort my wife(us citizen), my oldest son (us citizen), and my youngest son(adopted foreign national) to the waiting area.

I got our bags and tried to rejoin my family. They denied me entry. Said they had questions for “them”. After an hour I started to have to raise hell because I had all the supplies for my family. Diapers. Food, etc. I was told it obviously took us a while to adopt this kid so we can wait longer.

I eventually stated that they were illegally holding two us citizens and I was going to call 911 for them to take me serious.

They acted like they didn’t know my wife and oldest wee US citizens. Bunch of bullshit. Fuck those assholes and every one of them that continues to violate our constitutional rights.

Signed

12 year US Navy Civilian.

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

#297

Post by manishsharan »

hervature wrote: post #123
manishsharan wrote: post #101

As a Canadian Citizen with a extra serving of Melanin, what are the chances of my getting detained by ICE when visiting my family in USA for a week ? https://globalnews.ca/news/11080371/canadian-woman-detained-... Edit : fix typo Also added context.

If you cross into the US at a port-of-entry and are admitted as a visitor then you are good whether or not you took Melatonin supplements. If you enter illegally or associate with people who entered illegally, don't be surprised if you are caught up in a raid. However, even if you get detained, if you have no criminal history, you will get released after arrested because there are no more beds [1]. Seriously though,…

Lighten up dude !

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

#298

Post by riehwvfbk »

jjmarr wrote: post #12

Can a TN classification denial result in immigration detention? If so, how can I mitigate that risk? For context, a Canadian woman recently tried to enter into the USA from Mexico and get TN-1 status. Instead of refusing her entry, officials detained her and she's been stuck for 10 days waiting for deportation. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-canadian-woma... It's unclear to me how big of a risk this a…

Preclearance locations have more traffic and so tend to have more nasty interviewers and more random denials. TN interviews elsewhere are much friendlier. Choose a land crossing if possible.

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

#299

Post by jofer »

blooalien wrote: post #274
tshaddox wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Okay, you can go but you should carry your passport Funny, since half of U.S. citizens don't have a passport.

I thought you only need a passport if you're crossing international borders?

If you're near a port of entry, you actually can be stopped at any time to be asked for proof of citizenship/visa/etc. See also https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/border-zone There are plenty of border patrol stops along highways that never cross a border where you'll be routinely stopped.

In practice, that means "near the border with Mexico" where there are border patrol stations along highways well inside the US that do routine stops, but technically it applies to any port city as well.

_Technically_, if you're a US citizen, you're not required to have proof of citizenship on you. But a drivers license in the US does not show that you are a citizen, and they absolutely can stop you from leaving (at least long enough to mess up your day plans) if you cannot actually prove citizenship in practice. It's just a _lot_ easier to have a passport on you. Passport cards exist mostly for this purpose.

E.g. I lived in Texas for a long time and have a passport card for that specific reason. Driving down to the beach or just going on random trips involves passing through border control stations even though you never leave the US or even get particularly near the border. Your chances of just going to visit a friend in south Texas and winding up needing to pass through a border control checkpoint due to unplanned road closures/etc are pretty high, so it's best to have a card in your wallet at all times that counts. Most remote highways have them as soon as you get back near a town. Most of the time, they'll wave you through pretty quickly, but it's just a lot faster process if you have a passport card and not only a drivers license.

Side note: A friend of mine was a park ranger at Carlsbad Caverns. He picked me up at the El Paso airport and we were driving to Carlsbad. We went through a border control checkpoint. They threatened to arrest him on the spot because he had his park service uniform hanging up in the back, but no employee ID or other proof that he actually was a ranger. They said he was impersonating a federal officer. They made a big deal of it and made us wait while they called the park to verify he was employed (and that didn't work because it was about 8pm). We eventually got let go with a warning after he found random online photos of him giving cave tours and convinced them that he couldn't possibly have staged a ton of random folks on the internet to have him in the background of photos.... But still, it was kinda nuts...

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

#300

Post by abrichr »

proberts wrote: post #204
hervature wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not Peter. IANAL so do your own homework. However, I have been on TN visas for almost a decade. 1. Once you enter the US on a work visa, you are only authorized to work under the restrictions of that visa which are normally tied to a single employer. The "I was working remotely for a Canadian corp" does not fly legally speaking. Wherever your feet are are "where" you are working. That being said, one little known…

Excellent responses. Thank you. I would add that the O-1 and the E-2 are probably the best fits to do consulting work for multiple companies in the U.S. but the O-1 requires a relatively high level of achievement and the E-2 requires a "substantial" investment by (in this case) Canadian citizens (which can include investments by you) or Canadian-owned companies and a business plan that shows the hiring of U.S. worker…

Thank you both!

Follow-up question: do US employers ever provide assistance with O-1 or E-2? What is considered "a relatively high level of achievement"?

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