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

news.ycombinator.com

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

#21

Post by fabiospampinato »

crankylinuxuser wrote: post #11

This might be orthogonal to your position, but I'll ask it anyways. As an American citizen, what's the best way to protect my career so my job isn't sent overseas or pushed to an H1B (or equivalent) at starter IT salaries?

Not OP. I guess the best way to protect any job is to make yourself irreplaceable. Maybe a junior position could be filled by a foreigner at less cost for the company, but if you're filling a more important position, for which there will be less competition, it will be less likely that you'll be replaced.

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

#23

Post by proberts »

jammygit wrote: post #16

How hard in general is it for recent Canadian grads to get permission to work in the US?

It really depends on the offered job/occupation and the grad's background. But still, with the TN, if the job/occupation falls within one of the NAFTA occupations and the grad's education is in a related field, pretty easy.

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

#24

Post by gist »

Question for the admins (dang and sctb). This seems like an attorney trolling for work a few times per year.

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

Note other AMA's which are typically different:

https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%22AMA%20%22&sort=byPopularity...

Is this allowed because the poster 'does work for YC' meaning if another attorney did the same thing on a regular basis it would get flagged?

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

#25

Post by digianarchist »

azundo wrote: post #17

If Trump pulls out of NAFTA before Congress passes the new USMCA what happens to existing TN1 holders? Will those work authorizations still be valid until their expiry?

"The three countries are expected to implement the labor mobility provisions of the USMCA consistent with existing practices under NAFTA. Until the new agreement takes effect, the NAFTA mobility provisions are expected to remain in place without interruption. Each country maintains the authority to interpret the provisions of the USMCA, and country-specific policies and application procedures cannot be ruled out."

https://legalservicesincorporated.com/new-usmca-and-its-impa...

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

#26

Post by proberts »

bakepath wrote: post #22

What visa did people like, Collison brothers (Irish), who dropped out of college and started Stripe have in the begin years?

I don't know what they got but many talented entrepreneurs without degrees get O-1 extraordinary ability visas and if they're from certain countries E-2 investor visas.

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

#28

Post by nowarninglabel »

proberts wrote: post #10
aerophilic wrote: post #4

For new entrepreneurs that would like to consider hiring fresh non-US grad students out of school, what are the typical costs and process to “get them through the door”. I realize this is broad, but trying to understand at what startup stage does this start to make sense to do. (Ie is it so expensive/time consuming that a seed startup shouldn’t even bother?)

Assuming that they don't fall within exceptional visas for those from certain countries (such as Australian, Canadian, Chilean, Mexican, and Singaporean citizens), the typical options are the H-1B (via the annual cap/lottery) and the O-1. Although initially, F-1 students get 1 year of OPT (optional practical training) and 2 additional years of OPT if they are a STEM graduate and the employer is an "e-verify" company.…

Who is best to work on this? Is there a firm that you'd recommend that specializes in this? We had a great person for a hard to fill position (blockchain skills needed) from a country that should be easy (Australia) but for various reasons this took us over 3 months to complete. Surely, we could do better than this for countries with exceptions such as Australia? Or is that the typical experience?

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

#29

Post by proberts »

digianarchist wrote: post #25
azundo wrote: post #17

If Trump pulls out of NAFTA before Congress passes the new USMCA what happens to existing TN1 holders? Will those work authorizations still be valid until their expiry?

"The three countries are expected to implement the labor mobility provisions of the USMCA consistent with existing practices under NAFTA. Until the new agreement takes effect, the NAFTA mobility provisions are expected to remain in place without interruption. Each country maintains the authority to interpret the provisions of the USMCA, and country-specific policies and application procedures cannot be ruled out." ht…

That's right. My understanding is that those currently in TN status would be unaffected.

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

#30

Post by mfsuo »

proberts wrote: post #20
Balero wrote: post #12

The processing of successful H1B visas seems to be taking much longer this year than in previous years. Could you shed some light on to why this is?

Yes, unbelievably slow. Anecdotally, at least 25% of the cap-subject H-1B petitions that we filed last year are still pending. The why is tough. Many people think that it's the result of general hostility by the current administration toward the H-1B program. But there's no question that the rate of requests for evidence and denials are much higher than ever before that many of these are without legal basis.

You mean, that were submitted this year, April 2018?
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