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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

#131

Post by proberts »

gc-pain wrote: post #103

I'm on a L1B and my labor market test just failed for the PERM process. I found my job ad on LinkedIn and it had over 300 applications within a few days of going live. I have a suspicion that due to the ATS we use for our company it showed the job application on many different channels unnecessarily. What do you suggest I do next?

The issue is that it's completely up to the company how it conducts its PERM recruitment and you can't have any say or role in this process. One option, to take control back, is to look at self-petition options, such as the NIW or EB1A. To be clear, however, the EB1A is a very high standard and I would argue getting higher and the NIW, while easier than the EB1A, is much harder now but still worth looking at.

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

#132

Post by roncesvalles »

whoamii wrote: post #69
kwar13 wrote: post #38

Can you convince YC to have programs outside the US by any chance? It's not exactly easy getting into the USA these days and by no means a smooth experience either.

After you convince Europe to make it easier to have such programs.

Good news, Canada exists!

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

#133

Post by proberts »

lazzurs wrote: 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.

The O-1 is a high standard but it's less about overall achievement or standing (like the EB1A green card category) and more about meeting specific criteria, which many talented professionals and founders do. I would recommend reviewing the O-1 criteria (they're listed on USCIS's website, www.uscis.gov) and then having an immigration attorney evaluate your background. People are often surprised that they meet the O-1 criteria or with a bit of work will qualify.

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

#134

Post by mertleee »

crowcroft wrote: post #130
mertleee wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

At the time he barely had 10k subscribers. The merits of the "genius" VISA should be for research and engineering endeavors.

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

#135

Post by amanaplanacanal »

haiku2077 wrote: post #107
unsui wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of things that are "perfectly legal" to do. Doesn't mean that, in practice, law enforcement would necessarily take the most extreme legal action possible. This is a new development (well, new-ish for many communities... I imagine predominatly-black communities have always experience this) whereby LE is explicitly instructed to look for any legal course of action to punitively enforce the law (rather t…

> Only if they are in a paranoid state whereby LE maliciously enforces the law for any minor violation and enforces overwhelming (often illegal) responses to these infractions. ICE operates in every state. e.g. US citizens are being jailed in California ( https://apnews.com/article/us-army-veteran-immigration-raid-... )

It sounds like the current administration is specifically targeting democratic stronghold states, but I don't know if that means you would be any safer in Republican majority states.

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

#137

Post by proberts »

turtle_samurai wrote: post #55

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…

Assuming that your wife is a U.S. citizen, you should be fine; the law forgives overstays and unauthorized employment for those pursuing green cards based on marriage to a U.S. citizen. Of course, I haven't reviewed your background but on the face of it, I don't see any reason for you to wait to file but I would recommend that you defer to your lawyer since he or she will have all the facts.

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

#139

Post by wallyrabbitbun »

hibikir wrote: post #124
wallyrabbitbun wrote: post #108

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…

So just SOL here, and nothing that can be done but wait? :(

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

#140

Post by taesu »

Hi Peter, thanks for doing this. Wife and I are both Canadians. Wife is on a H1B and I'm on TN - separate employers. My 9089 is being reviewed, while she is on labor market test. What is the best path forward to getting GC for the both of us while working? Should we keep going forward with this setup and whoever can file for I-485, add the spouse to beneficiary?
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