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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

#241
You've stated in a previous comment that non-US citizens can be denied entry to the United States if border officers request access to your phone and you decline to do so.

... but what about when non-US citizens leave the US?

For example, as a Canadian, if I'm down in the US and, on my way back up to Canada, a US border officer requests access to my phone and I decline... what happens then?

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

#242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I understand what you are asking.

[flagged]

I would expect someone who apparently feels so strongly about this to be able to do the bare minimum of looking up the publicly available statistics (https://ohss.dhs.gov/topics/immigration/yearbook) on visa and green card allocations.

I do understand that performative victimhood is much easier as it does not require much intellectual honesty.

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

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love how bad that list is.

For what it's worth, the somewhat hilarious reason justpaste.it is on the list is likely that it used to be a favourite of Islamic State terrorists a decade ago. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/08/islamic-stat... Googling 'site:gov "justpaste.it"' also brings endless results of government documents mentioning the site in the context of terrorism. I somewhat doubt US immigration authorities thwarted any w…

It can be an easy charge of “lying to the government on an official form” when they discover you have a user account somewhere that you didn’t disclose, even if they can’t get anything else to stick.

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

#244

Have you handled cases/seen outcomes of self employed founders' H1B applications under the new rule?

Yes. The forms only require disclosure of ownership if it is above 50% so this has made it much easier for international founders (with cofounders) to obtain H-1B status. The challenge comes when ownership exceeds 50%.

What about exactly 50%?

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

#246
Hello Mr. Peter,

A few I registered a company in Delaware as a foreign company for SaaS business.

I have been unable to complete an organization certificate for my website.

Unfortunately I could not get one since my legal phone is not the way to reach me and they tell me that they cannot change that phone to reach me according to my legal representatives in Delaware.

I need some kind of certificate of good standing or being able to have a verifiable phone and/or email to reach me in a "reliable" way from a third party source.

How could I proceed for this, since I am not knowledgeable of the law in Delaware. Probably I need an attorney and I would be happy if I can be recommended one that could emit such verification.

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

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ICE cannot legally arrest people who are citizens for no reason, and yet they have done exactly that 30% of the time by their own admission. Where are you getting that statistic (honest question)?

I overstated, but it's murky. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/12/05/despite-medias-claims-ic... Why would ICE leave the number as low as "70%" if they could be higher? Every illegal alien is a criminal as far as the law is concerned. Every illegal alien arrested is "charged with a crime". Otherwise ICE is openly stating to its supporters that they arrest illegal aliens and then release them, something their supporters…

I think this is a misinterpretation of the document. The claim is:

> 70% of ICE arrests are of criminal illegal aliens charged with or convicted of crimes in the U.S.

I believe the claim here is that 70% of the people ICE arrests have been charged with or convicted of crimes other than being present in the USA illegally. I don't think this is at all meant to imply that 30% of arrests are of people who are present in the USA legally. I think it's just sloppy writing.

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

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was just an article in the NYT where ICE is arresting people at the end of their green card interviews for essentially no reason. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/us/trump-green-card-inter...

That’s misinformation. They’re being arrested because they were in the country illegally, usually overstaying a visa: https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/immigration/green-card... They have a green card interview because they married an American. But you can’t get an adjustment of status if you are in violation of your current visa terms.

I havent been through the US process in a while, but usually that is allowed if your application is processing. You just can’t leave the country.

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

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A country can not deny entry to its own citizens. They can immediately arrest you, however.

But not for not giving them access to your phone.

What the will arrest you for vs can arrest you for are very different things. Really. This isn’t cynicism, is empirical knowledge. If they want to arrest you, you’re getting arrested. They can arrest you because they can arrest you. This is the strict literal sense of can.
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