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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

#121
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(not peter) It is absolutely wild that people are posting about the ways that they have broken the letter of immigration law on here using their regular accounts and identifiable IP addresses.

Serious question, does anyone actually care about immigration law at this point? Because on the surface it doesn't seem to matter if you followed the law exactly or you completely ignored it if you're someone targeted by ICE. They seem to find their target and then work backwards on how to deport them. Is anyone who wouldn't normally be in the sights of an ICE agent getting targeted by some HN comment?

So how are Abrego Garcia and Mahmoud Khalil not deported?

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

#122
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(not peter) It is absolutely wild that people are posting about the ways that they have broken the letter of immigration law on here using their regular accounts and identifiable IP addresses.

Serious question, does anyone actually care about immigration law at this point? Because on the surface it doesn't seem to matter if you followed the law exactly or you completely ignored it if you're someone targeted by ICE. They seem to find their target and then work backwards on how to deport them. Is anyone who wouldn't normally be in the sights of an ICE agent getting targeted by some HN comment?

When the cost of failure is high, and the cost of mitigation is low, I think it's reasonable to use throwaways and VPNs whenever you might comment something that might unknowingly increase your risk exposure. Admittedly, this is going to be a pain for forum anti abuse systems.

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

#123

[flagged]

Yikes, you can't post like this here, and you certainly can't attack another user like that. We ban accounts that do these things.

I'm not going to ban you right now because you've also posted good things, but if you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to using this forum as intended (for respectful, curious conversation) we'd certainly appreciate it.

(We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44606990.

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

#124

Hey Peter, I'm still waiting for my family based GC to be approved. It was applied for in March 2023. I've tried contacting my senators to see if it can be expedited but USCIS replied to say that it's still within "normal processing times" and that there is not yet an immigrant number available as my priority date is not earlier than the final action date. I've been keeping a close eye on the USCIS Visa Bulletin fina…

You don't need peter for this one: The action date is indicating the place in the queue of the application they are currently working on. Every month they don't deal with 1 month worth of applications: Sometimes it might take 6 months to go through a single month of applications, other times it can move much faster. Either way, it all depends on what was submitted a long time ago, their maximum speed, and the number of visas allotted: It's possible for USCIS to run out of visas for a country and just process nothing more for the rest of the year.

So its all normal, it's been happening for decades, and there's been no significant action in the legislature to speed things up. As things are right now, there are specific queues where the delay might as well mean 'forever', because it's going to take many decades for the current processing speed to reach July 2025.

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

#125
post #78

Hi Peter, when i went to Hacker news this morning and saw this post i thought, that's a bit unusual, an attorney??, so i think its cool that an immigration attorney visits channels like this. Anyways, me and my soon to be wife (we get married next Friday) have consulted an immigration lawyer regarding my status, i overstayed my tourist visa, so now im out of status, the lawyer mentioned that i have a pretty good chan…

Peter does this every few months on Hackernews.

Yup: https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=proberts

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

#126
Hi Peter, thank you for doing this on a regular basis!

In the event of a company-sponsored EB1A with an approved I140 but with an I485 pending for less than 180 days, is it possible for the company to rescind the approval? Or does the approval belong to me even though it is company-sponsored?

If the approval can be rescinded, could I lose my priority date and my I485 as well?

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

#127

I'm graduating from my PhD and starting a FAANG research role. I'm Australian and about to start in F-1 OPT status. I am interested in an EB-1 or EB-2 (possibly NIW) visa, but am concerned about a long period where I can't travel (aka re-enter). What's the practical difference between E-3 and F-1 OPT (with STEM extension) in my case? Is it easy to switch from F-1 to E-3 at the same role?

Your green card process will have two steps, the I-140 filing and then the green card application, either in the U.S. with USCIS (known as an I-485 application) or outside the U.S. with a U.S. Consulate (known as an Immigrant Visa application). During the I-140 stage, there is some risk traveling on an F-1 or an E-3 visa (with the F-1 riskier), but this risk is relatively low and can be mitigated. One way to reduce this risk to zero is to switch to O-1 status, which as a PhD grad you probably would qualify for but your employer would need to support this. At the second stage, with an I-485 filing, whether you are in E-3, F-1, or O-1 status, you should expect to be unable to travel for at least 6 months unless you have a family emergency. With an IV application, you will be able to travel on an O-1 visa but there will be some risk traveling on an E-3 or F-1 visa (again, with the F-1 riskier).

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

#128

Hi there, I'm working in the UK on a work visa. I previously applied for a US position at Fermilab and NASA ADS. Although, I didn't get the position I was told the H-1B visa process for these positions was much simpler (not through lottery) as they fall under a special category. Can you advise other what other sectors offer these privileges? Also, if I get the H-1B through this process, am I allowed to switch to a di…

Those organizations are "H-1B cap-exempt" organizations that are not subject to the annual H-1B lottery. Cap-exempt organizations include non-profit institutes of higher education, organizations affiliated with these institutes (like hospitals), non-profits primarily engaged in research, and government research organizations, like Fermilab and NASA. If you get a cap-exempt H-1B, you could transfer to another cap-exem…

> although you could get approved for part-time concurrent employment with such an entity.

Can you elaborate on what you mean here?

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

#129

Immigration is actually directly related to how CEOs and VCs intend to change the landscape for all things government related, and democracy as a whole. There is very much a subjective intent to tear down the rule of law, the rights that safeguard Americans as a whole, starting with immigration. IT's an entry point, a target to whittle away basic rights of the average American. Peter Thiel touches on this need for a…

My girlfriend is an immigrant from the UK. I support immigration but only if it respects the rights of US citizens.

Frankly I'm stunned this post hasn't been flagged by one of HN's moderators yet.

Truly sad to see YC clearly play favorites with non-citizens claiming what can be found within the U.S. isn't good enough.

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

#130
post #9

What sort of people get O-1 visas? I assume it is people with multiple degrees and have decades of experience in a specific field? I am good at what I do, have done public speaking at major conferences on what I do but no degree and so assume that i've no chance of ever getting into the USA. Currently a UK citizen living in Ireland.

It's beyond a joke. Recently spent some time at an accelerator and the partners of the VC firm were very open about purchasing "fake" research or presenting investments as if they were from more than one "investor". I still fail to understand how Dwarkesh Patel managed to "self-sponsor" an O-1 with a... tech podcast...

Podcasts are a very significant medium, and Dwarkesh is probably comfortably in the top 1% of podcasts. Isn't that exactly what O-1 is for?
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