Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

391–400 of 486 posts

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

#391

Post by rane »

mandeepj wrote: post #113
miotintherain wrote: post #21

Hi Peter, thanks for doing this AMA. I am traveling to the US soon for work from Europe. I have been reading a lot of articles about detentions at US airports and phone checks. My mindset has always been to never give my personal phone for an inspection, but times has changed now and it has been happening a lot more frequently. I am wondering what is the best course of action, prior to travel and if asked to give you…

> My mindset has always been to never give my personal phone for an inspection Get a burner phone! Upload your entire data to the cloud as well. Either you can store your phone in the check-in luggage or restore your data once you've arrived at your US location.

So what happens if you just put your phone in the check-in luggage and say you don't have a phone?

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

#392

Post by maeil »

nashashmi wrote: post #387
joshdavham wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks Peter for your answer. I’ll be sure to apply this advice going forward. With that being said, from seeing the replies to my original question, would you mind expanding on your answer a little more? I’m sure many of the other commenters in this thread would appreciate some more clarity here.

He won’t answer the question from a strategic perspective. He will answer only from a legal standpoint. That’s the only perspective he is an expert in.

GP nowhere indicated to be looking for a strategic perespective answer, they're saying they want to know the legal reasoning.

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

#393

Post by morpheuskafka »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #275
YZF wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TN is not a visa and all you need to get this status is a job offer. There's really no work of any specialized nature but some companies do get legal advice to help streamline the process and get better outcomes like reducing the probability that the person would be denied. (EDIT: it is sometimes referred to a visa and sometimes as a status but at any rate as someone who had TN status with two different US startups t…

The US State Department literally calls it a visa, I'd trust them before I trust random Internet commenters: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/employme...

A TN visa is a visa, but what someone is “on” is a status, not a visa. Visas are only relevant to the moment of entry. You need a visa of type X to ask to enter with status X.

The exception to that is Canadians like OP, they don’t need most visa types (the E investor/trader visa is the exception—but TN, H1B, etc., don’t need).

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

#394

Post by morpheuskafka »

argo_cve wrote: post #225

Hi Peter. I am a Lead Computer Vision Engineer, working remotely at Veryfi (YC 17). I am a citizen of Russia, living in Armenia for last 3 years. We applied to O1 visa, got approval from the USCIS, then got visa stamps and at the day of my flight visas were revoked. Embassy said to reapply - I did and now it's been 11 months of Administrative processing (as they said in the DoS). My employer tried writing to the Cong…

It’s doubtful you’ll get any answers. Lawyers are of little help due to “consular nonreviewability” and your case clearly has hit some sort of national security flag. Since this was pre Trump II, it likely was a real human review not their new approach of automated revocations for poorly designed queries (a student was recently revoked due to fishing license citations).

As I understand, AP generally means Washington and not the consulate is actually the block/decision maker now, but they wouldn’t even officially tell you that. It could be with State or they could be waiting an opinion from someone. Picture some CIA agent who got stuck with a boring desk job and has a stack of thousands of visas to research.

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

#395

Post by jigpaw »

taway20250516 wrote: post #374

A legally-uneducated read of 22 CFR 51.62 suggests that the State Department can revoke a passport that was "illegally, fraudulently, or erroneously obtained." How likely would you consider the idea that the current administration would revoke existing passports for transgender Americans under the pretense that they were "fraudulently or erroneously" obtained under processes put in place by previous administrations?

If a male obtains a passport which states that his sex is female, or vice versa, then that is erroneous, isn't it?

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

#396

Post by morpheuskafka »

__turbobrew__ wrote: post #44
neom wrote: post #10

There has been a bunch of chatter in Canadian founders whatsapp groups about people getting detained for long periods of time coming into the states either at SFO or pre-clear in Canada. Are you advising Canadians travel with any additional documentation these days?

Im a Canadian and go to the US for work fairly regularly. Something I didn’t realize is that the laws are different in preclearance areas. https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/P-19.32/FullText.ht... For example, you are allowed to withdraw your application to enter the US and leave the preclearance area. Additionally you are bound by different laws for search and siezure. At this point I am only going to the US t…

That makes sense. The laws about removal creating an entry ban were written before preclearance was a thing. Withdrawal is a think at normal ports to, but since you’re already they, they can force “expedited removal” instead if they want to generate a ban. But preclearance isn’t US territory so removal isn’t applicable.

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

#397

Post by morpheuskafka »

manbitesdog wrote: post #312

As an Spanish national and resident, can I found my company in the US without having any employee there? Would I be able to hire myself with a method other than Deel/Remote/others?

1) you don’t need any immigration permission to found a company, you can do that remotely via a lawyer or in person on a visa waiver.

2) if you aren’t working in the US, you don’t need to do any US tax paperwork to hire yourself. You need to register your foreign company under Spanish law and follow their procedures.

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

#398

Post by jackweirdy »

jonny_eh wrote: post #375
phire wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ESTA form explicitly includes "withdrawn your application for admission", as part of the refused admission question. So it's basically the same, and you will have to apply for a proper visa.

What's an ESTA form? I've never encountered one as a Canadian.

Canadian citizens are exempt but this is the program that allows non-visa travel to nationals of certain countries https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/

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

#399

Post by frontalier »

gamblor956 wrote: post #379
reposefulcats wrote: post #224

Hi Peter, I am a naturalized US citizen (via employment sponsored H1B to Green Card route). Prior to obtaining my citizenship I held an F1 visa to complete my PhD, and may have overstayed in the US at the end of my studies (I am not sure, this was 15+ years ago). This was never raised as an issue when I applied for my H1B, Green Card or citizenship, but is it something that could become an issue for me now if I trave…

Let's put it this way: if you have a problem, you have the same problem as the First Lady and Elon Musk, both of whom violated/overstayed their initial U.S. visas but are now citizens.

modulo entry to the white house

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

#400

Post by fnordian_slip »

gamblor956 wrote: post #379
reposefulcats wrote: post #224

Hi Peter, I am a naturalized US citizen (via employment sponsored H1B to Green Card route). Prior to obtaining my citizenship I held an F1 visa to complete my PhD, and may have overstayed in the US at the end of my studies (I am not sure, this was 15+ years ago). This was never raised as an issue when I applied for my H1B, Green Card or citizenship, but is it something that could become an issue for me now if I trave…

Let's put it this way: if you have a problem, you have the same problem as the First Lady and Elon Musk, both of whom violated/overstayed their initial U.S. visas but are now citizens.

This line of thinking is based on the assumption that the law applies people close to the current president with the same rigour as it does to the average person.

I would expect that a brief look at the current situation in the US suggests the opposite, does it not?

Post reply on HN